When one thinks of Rotary, blood-curdling screams and zombies don’t usually come to mind. But the Rotary Club of Greenville has been bringing the scares at their “Haunted Landmark” for eight years while helping preserve a historical landmark and funding scholarships for area youth at the same time.
Almost 12 years ago, a small group of Rotarians from Club 1832, aka “The Noon Club,” helped rescue the town’s historic 1910 post office –the Landmark on Lee. At the time, they had no idea the site where Audie Murphy signed up for the Army would become of one of the most thrilling attractions in Northeast Texas.
“The building was ripe to be haunted house location,” said past-president Bob Arrington, who spear-headed the project in its beginning years. “A creepy staircase with 13 steps to the basement that is dark and cool from concrete and stone walls? It’s like they knew we were going to use it for this.”
The three-story Victorian-styled post office practically oozes a sense of foreboding with its oversized windows and straight-out-of-a-horror-movie vibe. Descending the stairs to the basement, thrill seekers enter through a wrought-iron gate guarded by a grim reaper who guides them to the first of four dark mazes intended to disorient them and set the tone for the attraction.
 
“We are locked into the set space for the basement, but we created two mazes the first year and two more later to give it the feel of early, scarier haunted houses,” Arrington said. “Sometimes the basic approaches work best.”
 
As guests make their way through the house, they also experience a disorienting psychedelic neon bridge, a ghastly dinner with gruesome chef, a nursery with a nanny wanting more children for her menagerie, a hospital of horrors, two crypts, a mortuary, and a jail with an electrifying inmate.
All this excitement doesn’t happen overnight. To ensure the attraction runs smoothly, a team of Rotarians begins planning in late June, lining out marketing, deciding what updates to make to the house, cleaning, and repairing the house for its fall debut.
 
“We have a few new gags this year, and we are going to be making a stronger push to get people here earlier in October since we are almost at capacity the last two weekends before Halloween with hour-long waits to get in,” said Troy Brakefield, who took over as project lead for the Haunted Landmark in 2019. “It’s a good problem to be popular. Luckily, we have our greatest asset – our volunteer actors.”
 
The Rotary Club of Greenville has strong ties with its area schools, having had former and current local school board superintendents among its members over its 94-year history.
 
“We reach out to our past volunteers and the local schools in early September. Many of the students need volunteer hours as part of their graduation plan and this is one of the most fun ways they can give back to their community,” Brakefield said. “Many keep volunteering year after year and some even come back after they go to college.”
 
The volunteering also comes back to the students. While the Club does split the proceeds with the Post Office Foundation to use for the upkeep of the historic building, the remaining profits are put towards scholarships for local students through their Four-Way Speech Contest and their Rotary Scholarships every year that benefit students going on to college. Students who give their time to support the Haunted Landmark can get extra consideration for the scholarships. Since the start of the Haunted Landmark, the scholarships have helped more than 40 students. The volunteer actors also include Rotarians and others, but the youth often steal the show with their commitment to the production.
 
“We have a few of our younger actors that really go all out by bringing their own costumes and creating their own make-up effects,” Brakefield said. “Last year, we had a young lady that used papier-mâché to create a large fanged mouth that went from just under her nose to the base of her neck. The fangs were as large as fingers and it looked like a giant Venus flytrap. The effect was far beyond anything we expected, and people talked about it for months.”
While the attraction opens at 7:30 p.m. on weekend nights in October and Halloween evening, volunteers start their nights at 5 p.m. by getting their assignment in the house before sitting for their make-up. In a house that can accommodate up to about 30 actors, the dedicated make-up artists focus on the harder to create looks and teach some actors to assist their fellow ghouls and zombies in getting into the look for the act.
 
After that, the crew members eat a meal provided by one of the Rotarians and then gather on the front steps of the Landmark. They wave at passersby to draw interest and then have a short meeting to cover safety for cast and guests, how to stay in character (no cell phones!) and get the best scare (sometimes a soft, whispering voice is creepier that a scream), and teach Rotary’s mission of “Service Above Self.”
 
“People enjoy a good scare, whether they are the one scaring or getting scared. And we get to do it while serving our community,” Arrington said. “That’s the kind of spirit and excitement that keeps everyone – volunteers and paying customers coming back year after year.”
 
The Haunted Landmark at 2920 Lee Street in Greenville, Texas, takes place 7:30 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights in October and Halloween evening. Tickets cost $15 each and can be purchased at the event or online at www.thehauntedlandmark.com. To sign up to be a volunteer and get your scare on, please visit the website.