Capital Region Scrapbook: Fright at the Museum

PHOTOGRAPHER: Jeff Wilkin

Talk about weird science — giant chickens, living fly traps, leering vampires and sneering witches used to be common sights inside the Schenectady Museum.

But only during October. During the 1970s, Friends of the Schenectady Museum were on the grounds for frightening fundraisers. There was usually something for everyone; adults could chuckle at a poor soul simmering in a soup pot, while small children could visit a pumpkin patch that featured friendlier characters.

Patricia Binzer was chairwoman of the haunts in 1978. Part of the job, she told Schenectady Gazette reporter Peg Churchill, was making sure overzealous witches, warlocks and other costumers didn’t seriously scare some of the customers.

And while people who toured Dracula’s house, a torture chamber and scenes from Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories apparently had good times — they kept coming back every year — sometimes it looked like the part-time ghouls and goblins had the most fun of all.