Trimper's Haunted House

Home > Quick Facts

As of 2002, the Haunted House costs $3 per person to ride.

The ride originally cost 25 cents to ride when opened in 1964.

The Haunted House was built in the spring and summer of 1964.

Legendary Dark ride builder Bill Tracy was commissioned by Granville Trimper to build the ride after Granville was impressed by other attractions he designed.

The first full operating season of Trimper’s Haunted House was the summer of 1965.

When the Haunted House was first built, Bill Tracy of O.D.D. offered a limited warranty of 3 months on all units installed.

The façade front is about 50’ long, and 30’ high.

During the installation of the Haunted House in 1964, Bill Tracy offered his workers to assist at a cost of $80 per day, per man, plus trip costs.

During the 1960s, the horns and buzzers commonly heard in Trimper’s Haunted House were referred to as razzberry sound effects using klaxton horns.

When the Haunted House was being designed, plans called for an additional 23’ to be added to the rear of the building.

Granville Trimper and Bill Tracy first met to discuss the Haunted House on January 21, 1964.

Originally, the porch or balcony was elevated 9’ above the ground.

The Haunted House was expanded to two stories in 1988 with the remnants of Ghost Ship, which was a Tracy-built ride located at the defunct Ocean Playland on 65th St.

Granville Trimper developed the new floor plan, track layout and stunt placement himself in 1988.

When the second story was added, crews constructed a concrete beam center support and poured a concrete floor on top. All of the addition was done in concrete.

Most of the sound effects are on digital sound repeaters in the shop. Some sound effects or localized and play from units near the corresponding stunts.

Haunted House management removes the giant façade Bat and stores it in the Haunted House (near the former Head Slinger) during the winter to prevent weathering.

If you look closely in the HH near the Electric Chair, there is part of the former roof from before the ride was converted to two stories.

Giant backdrops for the former Ghost Ship can be seen on the second level.

The compressors for the ride are located in the graveyard behind the gravestone. Originally, there was no wall dividing this small room from the rest of the ride, but because the compressor was so loud, they built a wall in the mid-90s to drown out some of the sound.

There are trap doors throughout the ride for quick access from one side of the ride to the other.

There are several locations where workers tend to sit to watch over customers. If you look closely, you may see them!

There are six cameras located in the Haunted House and monitored by the park secretary to make sure no one ruins stunts or gets out of the cars. (Sawmill, Graveyard, Beam Hill, Head Slinger, Downhill, and the lobby)

The breaking system for the cars consists of steel crescent-shaped molds going down the ‘downhill’—When the car starts declining, the tire will be forced into this contraption to slow it down. On rainy days when the tires are wet, they make an incredible screeching sound as they are squeezed going down the hill to help you stop!

The lobby entrance, balcony exit, and balcony entrance doors include two sets of doors spaced roughly 6 feet apart from one another. This is so light does not penetrate into the ride and possibly affect another rider’s experience. The lobby exit only has one set of doors, however.

There are four main areas where workers will tend to station themselves to watch cars with troublesome riders. These areas are: the Knit Wit hill, Crooked Mine Shaft, to the right of the Last Drop, and at the banister near the downhill. The Head Slinger was a popular hideout before it was removed, but there are currently no ideal places to scope out the ride upstairs, except for near the entrance to the train tunnel.

There is actually a set of doors leading into the train tunnel, but starting in the late 90s, they were propped back for a reason unknown.

The ride’s air conditioner is located above the Torture Chamber. During the summer, a puddle of water can be seen gathering beneath the Stretcher as a result of the condensation from the unit.

The balcony entrance and exit doors are locked every night using a bar that is mounted horizontally inside the ride and door locks mounted on the top of the doors.

In the late 90s, the ride was vandalized during the night because of a drunken vandal who decided it would be funny to hop onto the balcony from the building beside it and ransack the upstairs. The person managed to break through the locked doors.

Although invisible to the common rider, there is a very large piece of fish netting hanging on the wall in the first room behind the skull banister.

On average, it takes a little over five minutes to ride through the attraction.

In 2005, lightning struck an antenna located near the roof of the haunted house causing many sound repeaters and electronics to short out. For a short time, the ride operated without house sound and with many black lights and effects not working.

The stunts original from the 1964 installation or primarily made of papier-mâché, fiberglass, celastic and marine plastic and have a wire and stick-built frame.

Originally, the Knit Wit and Witch stunts were reversed; the witch would leap out at the rider immediately after the Old Mill, followed by the Knit Wit. The order was changed during the 1988 expansion.

The RIP grave in the graveyard was purchased in the late 90s from Morris Costumes along with the cauldron next to the witch.

The Lady In The Cellar was removed in the late 90s and replaced with the Corpse in a coffin.

In 1998, the management replaced the hands on several of the stunts such as the Old Mill and Torture Chamber members.

In the late 90s, several stunts from Ghost Ship were overhauled including the Crab, Seasick Pirate, Birthday Party and Mad Scientist. This included painting, fiberglass work, and replacement of motors and pneumatic cylinders.

The Crab, Seasick Pirate, Mad Scientist, and Frankenstein were removed in 2006 to make room for newer modernized stunts.

The Head Slinger was removed in early 2000s and replaced with The Leaper.

The large shark portrait on the second floor before the Shivering Mummy was originally a photo display for Ghost Ship at Ocean Playland. Visitors could put their heads through the hole in the shark’s mouth for a great souvenir picture.

The counter from the Mad Scientist was retained and is now part of the stunt which includes a large skull and a severed head. A prop shelf and rat were also kept from the Scientist and can be seen throughout the attraction.

Original ride blueprints called for bodies to be draped over the rotating barrel on the outside, so visitors would potentially see them as they passed by the Knit Wit hill. This stunt would have been called “bodies on the barrel.”

Originally, the Spider Staircase sat on the floor and was not elevated with a frame. It was elevated in 1988 when the building was overhauled and the ceilings were raised.

The Head Slinger is still in existence behind one of the Trimper warehouses.

The Birthday Party was moved to above the decline around 1998 and animated. Five years later, it was moved once again to the first floor. The Rat in the first room has been in the same location since 1964 and has been the Haunted House greeter since the ride was built.

Originally, the attraction had three stunts with water features; the Lady in the Cellar, Last Drop, and Waterfall. In 1988, a Ghost Ship stunt entitled the Wine Cellar was added that also had a water feature. Today, only the Waterfall and Last Drop still exist in the ride, both of which still use running water in the summer.

The most frequently-vandalized stunt is the Flying Bat in the diminishing hallway immediately after the graveyard. Riders love to reach up and grab it!

There are upwards of 40 backlights in the Haunted House to make Tracy’s stunts glow.

In 2005, magnetic trips for the stunts were replaced by laser-motion censing devises. There are no longer any stunts activated by magnets on the bottom of cars.

There are four cutoff switches at the waterfall near the ride’s exit. Sometimes, cars can catch up with one another and travel through the ride at close proximity. The four switches, which are actually levers, are constantly tripped as the car travels by in the event that a car behind was too close. If it weren’t for the redundant switches, the customers behind may be at risk of getting soaked.

The cars are called Hush-Puppy cars, because that is the ride system that was originally used. The term Hush-Puppy referred to the quiet and smooth operation of the ride system itself.

Cars travel at an average pace of 3’ per second.

Car bodies were developed by Bill Tracy of Outdoor Dimensional Display Co., Inc.

Cars originally had a 1/2 horsepower motor, but was replaced with 1 horsepower motor in the 1980s.

Cars operate on 110 volts, stepped up from 24 volts running through track.

Cars are built with 3/4” solid core mahogany with pine wood overlays and carvings.

Each car is approximately 5' long

Cars weigh 250 lbs without any riders.

Originally, cars ran with an average of 20’ spaced between each vessel. Now, cars run at intervals of 20 to 30 seconds.

The decorative ornaments on the car bodies were originally a crimson color, not the purple that they are today.

Beginning in 2007, the cars have been restored three at a time during the winter. Restoration includes replacing wood, restaining, repainting, and new hinges on the car lids. By 2011, all eleven cars in the fleet will be overhauled.

The cars can potentially be maintenance nightmares, particularly because the cars were never designed to go up and down steep hills. The ride was originally one story, and the cars operated as they should back then. The new ride layout of 1988 called for the vessels to trek up enormous inclines and declines which puts incredible strain on the mechanisms.

A total of three cars can be stored in the first room when they are broken; two on the left, one on the right.

Granville used three of the cars from Ghost Ship and incorporated them into his current Haunted House ride by recreating the coffin-cars.

The lobby was originally only half as deep as it is today, and riders would exit the ride and walk immediately onto the boardwalk.

The exit door of the attraction was originally on the far right side of the lobby. It was relocated in 1988 when the ride was expanded.

The chandeliers were added in 1988 to add a little gloom to the lobby.

Before 1988, the ride did not have its own ticket booth.

Count Wolf Von-Vinderstein was added in 1995, and the talking Gargoyle was added in 2005.

The lobby and balcony floor gets repainted an average of every two years because of wear.

The scary portraits were added to the lobby and the rest of the ride around 2004.

The façade began a massive restoration in 2007.

The majority of the façade looks the same as it did in 1964, with the exception of the singled roof area which was made larger to hide the concrete wall when the addition was put on in 1988.

EFFECTS REMOVED FROM THE RIDE

Lady in the Cellar
Mermaid (moved, changed from original state)
Frankenstein
Crab
Drunken Pirate
Bartender
Birthday Party (moved, changed from original state)
Head Slinger
Wine Cellar (Water flowing up)

EFFECTS ADDED SINCE 1995

Set of Trolls
Head Wall Plaques (between Knit-Wit and Witch)
Coffin w/ Corpse
Vampiress
Reaching Reaper
Shaking Mummy
Reapers with Moving Coffin
Giant Skull w/ Hands
Jumping Goul
Electric Man
Hanging Man (kicking)
Scary Butler
Alien Bust
Toxic Man (built by me!)
Giant Spider Web (end)
Man from Aladin's Lamp