For John Douglas from Parma, Ohio, Halloween is the most exciting and fun time of the year. His passion for the scary and spooky period has mesmerized thousands of people in the city because John always has some amazing Halloween decorations in store for everyone to view.
In fact, his haunted house even became so popular at one point, that visitors from all of the country arrived just to see the spectacle, and there are always huge events and parades at the Douglas home.
“I moved into the city of Parma in 2002, into this house. I started decorating and I always loved Halloween,” the man told FOX8.
‘The Douglas Manor’ has regularly made the news because of its amazing attention for detail and huge spooky parade.
John tries to decorate his entire home and tries to use every single inch of the back yard for the scary festivities. This year, he even built a huge maze in the backyard for everyone to try out.
“I use about every inch of my entire back yard to do this. It is a small Parma lot, but you wouldn’t know it when you start walking through the maze. It usually takes most people about 10 minutes to go through the entire experience,” he said to WKYC.
Sometimes, even live actors are brought in to scare things up even more. John says that they average around 100 visitors per night, but The Douglas Manor has the most success on Halloween night itself: they counted no less than 950 people last year.
However, this year, the Halloween festivities for the Douglas family and all of the visitors seemed to be in peril.
A 16-year-long tradition seemed in jeopardy because the man was cited by the city. According to officials, John had a bunch of junk and debris in his front yard. Of course, those were just Halloween decorations – but the city, unfortunately, seemed to disagree. The notice mentioned that wooden pallets were debris, but those were used for the haunted maze. John and his wife couldn’t believe it when they got the letter.
“I came home the 24th and I had a notice from the city; my wife got one as well. It was a summons to appear in court for a city ordinance violation for junk and debris in my yard,” he recalls.
“Monday, I went personally into the building department and tried to speak to the inspector. He showed me the violation and the copies of the pictures he took. It was my Halloween decorations that I had brought from storage. And I was laying stuff out and going back and forth from storage bringing out my Halloween decorations so I could start building my Halloween Douglas Manor.”
The Douglas family doesn’t earn a cent with their Halloween festivities.
Donations are always welcomed, but admission is completely free. One hundred percent of the donated money goes to charity, every single year.
“Last year, I did something for the Cleveland Food Bank. We took donations and had several totes of non-perishable items. We did have some monetary donations and I gave them the cash. It’s something I enjoy doing; I’ve always liked Halloween ever since I was a kid.”
Luckily, after the news reached FOX8, the city decided to drop the citations.
Apparently, they weren’t aware that all of the large items in the front and back yard were being used for the Halloween decorations, even though this is something that John has been doing for years.
“Now that we have reviewed all the facts, we have recommended the citation be dismissed,” the city’s statement said.
The construction and decoration of the haunted house did have quite the setback, but John says that he’ll promise to have it all done by Halloween. This family tradition certainly isn’t going anywhere, much to the delight of the neighborhood and thousands of visitors.
“In the 16 years I’ve lived here, I’ve never had a single neighbor say this offends me, bothers me, please don’t do it. I’ve had nothing but positive reaction from everybody in the city, at least in this neighborhood that come and enjoy it,” he concluded.
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