photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World photo

The former Masonic Temple building, 10th and Massachusetts streets, will be home to a haunted house from Sept. 30 through Halloween.

On any given night, the former Masonic Temple building at 10th and Massachusetts streets already is the downtown spot that produces the most fear of a pending mummy attack. (If you say otherwise, I would be interested to know what the drink specials were on that night.) Now, the eerie old building is set to become a haunted house.

If you have driven by the big Egyptian Revival-style building and its huge stone pillars lately, you’ve already noticed something is up. That something is the Stull Haunted House, which plans to host thousands of people looking for a fright between Sept. 30 and Halloween.

The project is put together by the same fellow who was the lead designer for the Christmas-themed pop-up bar and restaurant — Snow Globe — that featured more than a mile’s worth of Christmas lights in a couple of downtown buildings last holiday season. So, picture that, but now with a Halloween theme and a building that is one of the more mysterious in town.

“This is at the same kind of level because I don’t really have an off switch,” said Ryan Robinson, whose Lawrence-based production company is running the haunted house. “And I’ve also never had this much lead time to put something like this together.”

Robinson, who for years traveled the country putting on the Color Run 5K events, has had a crew of eight people working inside the former Masonic Temple building since June. That was just a few months after the idea for a haunted house struck him.

“It is hard to walk by that building and not let your mind wander,” Robinson said. “Last year I looked at it and thought this would be a really great place for a haunted house. I had never been in it, and then when I did go in it, I thought it really was perfect.”

photo by: Courtesy: Stull Haunted House

A scene from inside the former Masonic Temple building is pictured in August 2021 as crews work to temporarily convert the four-floor building into a haunted house.

Built in 1911, the building indeed is one of the odder ones in downtown. In addition to the pillars, the massive amount of brick and its stone adornments already give the building a bit of a tomb-like look. Once you get inside, you are greeted by a 275-seat auditorium with an old-style balcony and a big pipe organ. (No telling how that may play into this.) In total, there are four floors, including the basement level, which is unique because it extends beneath one of the downtown sidewalks. (That has created what is presumably an urban myth that there is some sort of tunnel that leads out from the building.)

Then, given its former life as a home for the Freemasons — the group left the building about 15 years ago — there are all types of stories fueled by novelists (anybody remember “The Da Vinci Code”?) internet conspiracy theories and a bunch of other stuff that’s not true but creates compelling story lines nonetheless.

“Once I got in the building, I felt like I had to raise my game because it really is the perfect canvas for this,” Robinson said. “Let me tell you, we are all in.”

And there is one more local element the haunted house is tying itself to. Its name, the Stull Haunted House, is a reference to the unincorporated community of Stull and its cemetery in rural Douglas County. You don’t have to look long on the internet to see all types of urban myths about the Stull cemetery and the occult. There will be several people disappointed that the haunted house is using that element in its name, as residents of the area get upset by the publicity and the vandalism to the cemetery that has been known to result as people trespass on the property. Robinson said the haunted house would work to discourage people from going to the Stull area.

But the haunted house will encourage people to get sufficiently scared in downtown Lawrence. I’ve been to haunted houses that should be required to have diaper stations, and I don’t mean for the infants. Robinson said the haunted house — which will employ about 20 actors on any given night — won’t be dangerously scary or aggressive. The website lists themes such as Zombie Land, Devils Last Supper, Alien Autopsy and more.

“I would say we are going to be medium on the scare level and really high on the visual effects,” Robinson said.

In addition to the normal type of haunted-house actors who jump out while you are walking through, this venture also will feature a more formal theatrical element. Longtime Lawrence actor and director Ric Averill is putting together a troupe of actors to do a small presentation at the beginning of the haunted house, Robinson said.

That’s in part designed to control the flow of traffic into the haunted house. The venue will operate with COVID precautions in place. Those include a requirement that tickets be bought in advance on the venue’s website stullfk.com. There also won’t be any long lines allowed outside while people wait. Instead, visitors will be encouraged to go to a bar or a restaurant downtown and wait for a text telling them that their entry time has arrived.

Robinson said that’s a good COVID practice, but he also thinks it is just a better way to run an event, especially since it should produce some economic benefits for surrounding businesses. He expects both good crowds from Lawrence, but also thinks the downtown setting will make it stand out from some of the haunted houses in the Kansas City area, which often take root in old warehouse districts.

“We’re hopefully going to be attracting people from Kansas City here,” Robinson said.

He said the event, which will be open Thursdays through Sundays from Sept. 30 to Halloween, already has sold about 3,000 tickets.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World photo

Temporary decorations have begun to show up on the former Masonic Temple building in downtown Lawrence, as it prepares to become a haunted house during the Halloween season.

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The haunted house is the latest but not the last big production Robinson has planned for Lawrence. He briefly told me about his company’s plans for an event called Cornhole King.

That will be a massive, free-to-enter cornhole competition — the horseshoe-like game featuring beanbags — in downtown. The hook on this one: The winner will receive $10,000.

The event is scheduled to take place in May, and preliminary plans call for the 600 block of Vermont Street to be blocked off, although that will need some city approvals. The event is partnering with Dempsey’s, a bar and restaurant on the block, to host the event.

I’m sure we’ll report more on that as the event gets closer, but Robinson said he thought Lawrence had great potential for such event-oriented tourism.

“Not to sound harsh against Lawrence, but I think Lawrence has grown a little bit stale over the last few years,” he said. “Not just from a COVID standpoint, but just from a creativity standpoint … It is all just about getting people doing fun things again in Lawrence.”