You’ve possibly known a haunted house to be held in a school or an armory. But how about one inside a 15,000-square-foot Gilded Age brick mansion built for a sewing machine millionaire’s wife and eventually owned by a Masonic sisterhood called the Order of the Eastern Star?

Well, that’s the opportunity presenting itself at the Revival Wheeler Mansion from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Oct. 29. Building owner Cynthia Butler has worked with her fellow Orange Merchants Group members and with the North Quabbin Chamber of Commerce to coordinate the first Orange Pumpkin Festival at 75 East Main St., complete with a haunted house, a carved pumpkin contest, outdoor games, and food and craft vendors. There is an Oct. 30 rain date.

“I think it’s going to be great,” Butler said, acknowledging attendance might be low because the festival has never been held before. “But it also might surprise me and be a very big turnout. I don’t know.”

Butler said the haunted house will be on the mansion’s first floor, with people portraying witches, vampires, a creepy grandmother, a fortuneteller and crazy clowns. She also said there will be 12 children’s games outside the mansion as well as food and craft vendors. Attendance is free, though it will cost money to enter the haunted house, play the games and purchase items from the vendors.

Butler reached out to the North Quabbin Chamber of Commerce to sponsor the carved pumpkin contest. President and CEO Missi Eaton explained people will bring their own carved, painted and decorated pumpkins to the event and register them. She said there will be first-, second- and third-place finishers and new categories might be formed to accommodate different age groups. Winners will be announced at the event.

The names of the judges, Eaton said, are being kept a secret and will be revealed at the festival.

Butler mentioned she had wanted to hold this event last year but it was too much to coordinate. She instead focused on an event held the day after Thanksgiving, when the mansion was turned into a Christmas wonderland and was visited by Santa Claus.

Parking will be available behind Wheeler Memorial Library, the nearby Athol Credit Union parking lot, and at the Orange Armory.

Butler purchased the mansion, rumored to be genuinely haunted, in a competitive property auction on June 17, 2020, and started mass construction that September. She hopes to open up the mansion in 2023 for events and retreats, with a boutique bar and a hedge maze.

The property is the North Quabbin region’s only Gilded Age mansion. It was built in 1902 and 1903 by John W. Wheeler, who made his fortune manufacturing and selling sewing machines, becoming the president of the New Home Sewing Machine Co. He built the mansion for his wife, Almira.

According to the mansion’s website, Wheeler died in the building in 1910 and he deeded his home to the Order of the Eastern Star. Young reported the building was owned by the Order for much of the 20th century, serving as a home for its elderly members. The Eastern Star closed the building in the 1980s, and Karen and Robert Anderson bought it from the Star Realty Trust for $240,000 in 1996. The new owners had intended to open a bed-and-breakfast called Anderson Manor, but those plans fell through.

More information about the mansion is available at revivalwheelermansion.com​​​​​​.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.

]]>