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The St. Marys armory basement will be haunted and open to those who dare this Halloween.
ST. MARYS - With Halloween just a few weeks away, an area service committee is dusting off their bony decorative skeletons, fake blood and spine-tingling spooky music to create a haunted house attraction at the former armory.
"This Halloween, venture deep into the chilling basement of the historic Armory - a place where shadows come alive and dark secrets lurk," according to the event's overview.
The St. Marys Area Resource Team (SMART) and the St. Marys Community Armory will host "SCREAM! The Haunted Armory" from 7-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday and Oct. 25-26.
Although the spectacle is loosely based around a real Union soldier in the Civil War, almost all of the rooms and scares are completely fictional.
Avery Brown was the youngest enlisted Union soldier at 8 years old as a drummer boy.
A chilling and spooky hallway in the basement of the St. Marys armory. The armory will host a haunted attraction in its basement this Halloween.
SMART member Jim Christman said he hopes the attraction will depict some of the very tangible horrors veterans can experience while blending traditional haunted house elements, such as jump scares, live actors and common creatures like zombies, ghosts and evil scientists.
"This year, the theme is based primarily around an 8 1/2-year-old boy back in a Civil War era named Avery Brown, who was the youngest serving soldier in the Union army," Christman said. "This is an actual person but the rest is made up. He's actually from Delphos, but he was processed and mustered through St. Marys. The armory didn't exist in 1862 … but he was still processed in St. Marys. I'm not going to give too much away, but the whole thing is going to be surrounding this little drummer boy."
One of several rooms in the basement of the St. Marys armory. The armory will host a haunted attraction in its basement this Halloween.
The 13-15 rooms within the former armory's basement are based on fictionalized life events or "things that military people could go through if they were in a bad situation," Christman said.
"We're going to embellish things, ghostly things," member Amy Frilling added.
The attraction includes "live actors bringing soldiers' ghostly tales to life, echoes of the past in every corner and some things that should've stayed buried, terrifying Effects and unexpected jump scares and darkened passageways filled with things you wish you hadn't seen," according to the Facebook overview.
Christman is among the seven core members of the attraction's committee, and there are about 15 people involved in the construction and idea planning.
This is the third year the group has hosted such an event, but it's the first time doing it in indoors, let alone at the former armory, he said.
A gruesome Halloween decoration will haunt the basement of the St. Marys armory. The armory will host a haunted attraction in its basement this Halloween.
Christman said he loved haunted houses growing up and missed their presence during the fall in St. Marys.
"I grew up here," he said. "I remember as a young kid that there were always haunted houses here. There used to be one downtown, which was fantastic, but the building I think was torn down. There were always haunted houses and lately, I hadn't seen anything. I (said), 'Come on, we got to get this going.'"
Since then, the construction process has been relatively quick. Christman said the team didn't start moving until mid-August.
Choosing the former armory as its venue was fitting as the team didn't have to bring many props, instead letting the vast structure act as a prop and a character with its original stone flooring, exposed brick and cages that store equipment and ammunition.
"Fortunately, the themes that we have chosen … work very well with the way the layout already is," Christman said as he gave the newspaper a tour of the layout. "It's kind of institutional in certain areas, and that fits right with the theme that we have for that area."
"Basically, the place itself, you don't need to put anything down there," Frilling said. "People would be scared to walk through it in the dark."
Frilling joked that as they have been cleaning and building the sets, she and several others think the former armory is haunted, swearing that they have heard a heavy metal door slam shut.
A Halloween skeleton decoration hangs on a fence in the basement of the St. Marys armory. The armory will host a haunted attraction in its basement this Halloween.
In recent years, the city has sold the former Ohio Army National Guard Armory building to Kateland Gutierrez and her husband as they renovate the historic building to serve as a community center and a wedding venue.
The National Guard left the armory in 2020 and relocated to Lima. The building has since sat empty. The city acquired ownership of the building and then sold it to Gutierrez.
She said she and her husband purchased the building for $210,000 and have invested $50,000 so far. They are also applying for nonprofit status.
She said the venture is special to her because her mom served in the National Guard and was stationed in St. Marys.
They hope to renovate the venue to serve as a rental space and a community gathering location.
Meantime, Christman and other members are waiting to take customers down a ghastly path … if they dare.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit thestmaryscommunityarmory.com.
