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Decrepit House’s Creepiness Pays Off For Lions Club Annual Halloween Events Help Support Charities

By Susan Drumheller susand@spokesman.com

The gray, decrepit house on the corner of Fourth and Post streets in Post Falls has earned its status as a professional haunted house.

The turn-of-the-century structure was uprooted from its original site when First Interstate Bank bought the corner at Spokane and Seltice about 30 years ago.

Idaho Veneer Co. purchased the house, moved it and used it as a rental until a fire made it uninhabitable 15 years ago. A firefighter injured himself on the stairway while battling the blaze.

Since then, various ghouls, spooks, and mass murderers have taken up residence in the house each year to help raise money for the Post Falls Lions Club.

The club bought the house for a small amount from Idaho Veneer. The doors are opened each October for the club’s big, yearly fund-raiser - after it’s OK’d by the Post Falls Fire Department.

The dust and cobwebs it gathers over time only enhance the creepiness of its inky, black corridors, which are lined with carpet and punctuated with frightening surprises and disorienting illusions.

“We try to stagger events,” explained Tim Roth, Lions Club Haunted House manager. “If you keep somebody on an emotional scare like that they get burned out.”

The more calming features are sights such as glowing, disembodied heads.

The roller coaster rush of adrenaline is provided by Post Falls High School band members like Kelly Moore. Moore plays drums for the school band - and the chain saw-wielding Jason from the movie “Friday the 13th” for the Lions Club.

“Last year I had this lady sit down and wet her pants,” Moore said as he described how he chases people with his gas-powered chain saw (teeth removed).

So many people have had similar problems in the spook house that the Lions now rent portable potties. They stand watch in the front yard like tall green tombstones.

The school band gets a portion of the proceeds for playing the spooks.

They also get the pleasure of seeing their friends scared silly.

“People talk about it at school,” Moore said.

“You get people who come up and hit you because you scared them last night.”

The Lions usually bring in enough revenue to cover their yearly expenses, including charity work.

After tonight, the Lions will lock up the haunted house again until next year.

Tours are from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. and cost $3 for students and $5 for adults.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Halloween treats Other Halloween events today include: Kootenai County Substance Abuse Council’s haunted house under the grandstands at the North Idaho Fair. It’s open from 6 to 9 p.m. and costs $4, with discounts for students showing IDFY or DARE cards; A dance for area high school and middle school students at Lake City High School from 7 to 9 p.m. Cost is $3; Coeur d’Alene High School’s Haunted House of Hoops, put on by the basketball teams, from 7 to 9 p.m. in the gym foyer. Cost is $3 per person or $10 per family; A party sponsored by Phi Theta Kappa of North Idaho College geared for children 10 and under at the Bonner Room in the Student Union building. The party is from 5 to 9 p.m. and costs $2 for children and $5 for adults. Trick-or-treating from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Silver Lake Mall and from 4 to 6 p.m. in downtown Coeur d’Alene. From 4 to 5 p.m. in the Coeur d’Alene Plaza, children can register for a costume contest to be judged at 5 p.m. Another little kids party at the Veterans of Foreign Wars from 5 to 7 p.m., 406 N. Fourth St.

This sidebar appeared with the story: Halloween treats Other Halloween events today include: Kootenai County Substance Abuse Council’s haunted house under the grandstands at the North Idaho Fair. It’s open from 6 to 9 p.m. and costs $4, with discounts for students showing IDFY or DARE cards; A dance for area high school and middle school students at Lake City High School from 7 to 9 p.m. Cost is $3; Coeur d’Alene High School’s Haunted House of Hoops, put on by the basketball teams, from 7 to 9 p.m. in the gym foyer. Cost is $3 per person or $10 per family; A party sponsored by Phi Theta Kappa of North Idaho College geared for children 10 and under at the Bonner Room in the Student Union building. The party is from 5 to 9 p.m. and costs $2 for children and $5 for adults. Trick-or-treating from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Silver Lake Mall and from 4 to 6 p.m. in downtown Coeur d’Alene. From 4 to 5 p.m. in the Coeur d’Alene Plaza, children can register for a costume contest to be judged at 5 p.m. Another little kids party at the Veterans of Foreign Wars from 5 to 7 p.m., 406 N. Fourth St.