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Story and photo courtesy of A & L Entertainment
DAYTON, OH — What started as an unusual idea in a Dayton warehouse — an entire Halloween world built around the fun of the season without the scares — drew approximately 1,750 guests in its first season. Now, its creators are making that world much bigger.
Blackwood Manor returns October 9–November 1, 2026, as a substantially expanded scare-free Halloween world where families, couples and groups can step inside Halloween and become part of the story.
The concept is built around one idea: Live Your Halloween Story.
Guests enter a fictional Victorian manor where mysteries, strange events, experiments and discoveries unfold throughout the house. The 2026 experience features seven themed rooms and 14 interactive experiences, including a Victorian library filled with secrets, a mysterious wine cellar, an unusual séance and an 1800s botanical laboratory.
Guests choose how they explore, moving through the Manor at their own pace and deciding which experiences they want to try.
A HALLOWEEN WORLD WITHOUT THE SCARES
Blackwood Manor was created for people who love Halloween — even if they don't love being scared.
It takes the atmosphere, mystery, ghosts, strange stories and imagination of the season and turns them into a Halloween world guests can actually enter and explore.
There are no actors jumping out at guests and no traditional haunted-house scares. Instead, guests investigate mysteries, interact with the Manor and its inhabitants, make discoveries and experience the story together.
“Last year proved to us that people wanted another way to experience Halloween,” said Brett Rothstein, Creative Director of Blackwood Manor. “This year, we stopped thinking about Blackwood Manor as simply an attraction and started thinking about it as its own Halloween world. We want people to walk through those doors and feel like they’ve actually stepped inside Halloween.”
FROM AN ORDINARY WAREHOUSE TO A HALLOWEEN WORLD
Rather than simply reopening the same attraction after its first season, the Blackwood Manor team spent the past year expanding the world with redesigned rooms, new stories, mysteries and interactive experiences.
Behind the doors of an ordinary commercial building at 5679 Webster Street is a Victorian Halloween world filled with books, bottles, artifacts, interactive objects, custom audio and video, lighting effects and hidden technology — all created specifically for Blackwood Manor.
Helping introduce the expanded Blackwood Manor to more people across the Miami Valley this season is local personality Zac Pitts, who is working with the attraction to help spread the word about its return.
BLACKWOOD MANOR 2026 - A Scare-Free Halloween World
Dates: October 9–November 1, 2026
Location: 5679 Webster Street, Dayton, Ohio
Experience: Seven themed rooms and 14 interactive experiences
Tickets: $24.95 per person | Family Pack: Four tickets for $99
Information & Tickets: blackwoodmanorhalloween.com
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