Arlington, WA haunted house shuts down over strict codes, sends monsters to Stanwood
Arlington Community Haunted House shuts down after denied permit
A haunted hot spot in Arlington had to close its doors this year after its permits were denied due to changing building and fire codes.
Arlington, wash. - A haunted hot spot in Arlington had to close its doors this year to the disappointment of many ghosts and goblins.
The Arlington Community Haunted House was run by the Murray family and an army of volunteers every Halloween.
A growing neighborhood tradition
Local perspective:
Jackie Murray and her dad Brian Murray have been serving up scares in their yard since 2015.
If this year's Arlington Community Haunted House had opened on Oct. 1 as planned, visitors would have been on the run from a troop of radioactive clowns.
"The story was, the circus set up too close to a nuclear reactor that melted down," said Brian Murray, Arlington Community Haunted House.
"It’s a family thing originally," said Jackie Murray. "We paused during COVID in 2022 and then it became a monster from there. It just continued to grow."
Jackie is pictured below at the site of the former haunted house.
With the help of volunteers, the build of this year's haunted maze was nearly complete.
"We were about 85% done," said Jackie.
Then, she says, local code enforcement sent a chilling message by email.
"It was a notice that we were denied our permit," said Jackie.
Permit denied near completion
The backstory:
Jackie met with officials in person and realized that building and fire codes had changed.
"If you are an amusement structure, you have to now adhere to building codes," said Jackie.
Unable to afford the updates, she and the family made a heart-wrenching decision. It was time to bury the longstanding tradition.
"It was really tough, I tried to be strong," said Jackie. "I walked to my car and went on a drive, and I cried because I knew I had to tell all my volunteers."
Props donated to nearby haunted attraction
Dig deeper:
However, Jackie didn't want to let the spirit of the place completely die out. She called the folks at "Terror for a Cause: Stanwood's Haunted Experience" to donate all the scary stuff that makes a haunted house a home.
"A lot of our props got adopted by them," said Jackie.
While the monsters of Arlington may have moved on to another community, Jackie and Brian say the memories will live on.
"We ended up meeting a lot of people we never knew before, so in that sense it was great. Have a lot of great memories, so we have that," said Brian.
"It wasn’t ever about a haunted house," said Jackie. "It was about bringing people together."
What you can do:
If you’d like to see some of the former props from the Arlington Community Haunted House, you can head over to Terror for a Cause, Stanwood's Haunted Experience at the fairgrounds. The website says the haunted experience is open on Fridays and Saturdays.
A clown at the Arlington Community Haunted House.
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The Source: Information in this story came from original FOX 13 Seattle reporting and interviews.