After kids and families left Meadow Brook Hall’s trick-or-treating event, adults put on their spookiest costumes to attend the Bewitching Hour at the estate. Cocktails and a ghostly atmosphere took over the mansion for the first time to invite adults to enjoy Halloween at Oakland University.
With a $50 admission cost, attendees entered Meadow Brook Hall to enjoy live music and spooky drinks not before crossing a lighted woodland path over the bridge field with skeletons and music.
“This is our first year of doing Meadow Brook bewitching hour,” Meredith Parks, senior visitor services coordinator, said. “During the day, we did a family-oriented event, trick-or-treating and then we decided, if it worked well for families, we could put a little spin on it and let the adults have some fun for Halloween too.”
Candlelit corridors welcomed attendees in funny and frightening costumes alike while refreshments waited for them in a dining room full of skeletons and pumpkins. For many, attending themed events at Matilda’s estate has become a tradition.
“I’m an OU grad, so I started working here as a student, and I was like, ‘hey, I fell in love with this place because I was a student, so we should get more Oakland students to do the same,’” Parks said. “I have a friend who comes to Meadow Brook annually with her boyfriend. It was their first date when they were students, and they still come every year.”
While funny group costumes like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or milk and cookies were the most popular at the gathering, creativity was also evident. Hand-crafted costumes and cosplay-level makeup attested to the passion for Halloween in the community.
“I’ve seen it online quite a bit, and I’ve always wanted to do it, so this year, I decided to go ahead and create a papier-mache pumpkin head,” Michelle Willing, attendee, said. “It took me about a month.”
The mansion was open for attendees to tour and explore, with bars and trick-or-treating stations to enjoy the night. While no ghost sights were reported yet, Steven Lindsey, docent and tour guide, offered fun facts for curious crowds.
“The house probably isn’t haunted, but there are always tales,” Lindsey said. “I was giving out candy on Halloween 20-some years ago, and I was standing outside the front door and there were just bats flying around. It was the coolest atmosphere.”
Far from a haunted house, the Meadow Brook Hall team has been doing restoration work to elevate the mansion’s splendor for the vampires and witches taking over it during the fall season.
“We’ve actually started restoration work,” Lindsey said. “We’ve been a museum for a little over 50 years now, and it’s really only in the last 15-ish years that we’ve been massively undertaking a restoration effort, trying to put it back to the way the family would recognize it.”
With attendance rising during the holidays, visitors have grown more curious about the “behind-the-scenes” at the mansion, something the Meadow Brook team has been recently exploring.
“It is the behind-the-scenes and kind of more of the spooky and mysterious side of Meadow Brook that kind of engages people a little bit more,” Amy Schrodt, marketing and communications assistant, said. “We just recently posted a reel that had a lot of engagement, and it was all behind the scenes of the secret staircase, so we got to show from the bottom up what that looked like.”
Scarecrows, princesses and zombies turned off the lights at the mansion around 8:30 p.m., marking the end of the first Bewitching Hour at Meadow Brook Hall. With a tradition of themed events and light tours, the team reflected on the value of trying new events during the holidays.
“A lot of our visitors love themed events, and we love putting them on for them, and we have great volunteers who help explain the history of the hall,” Schrodt said. “It’s a perfect setting for a spooky night out.”
