TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Castle Is Fit For A Scream

Scott Iskowitz/ The Tampa Tribune

Lisa,left and Robin Leonard tour inside of the haunted house they built in front of the house in south Tampa.

ADVERTISEMENT

By JAMIE PILARCZYK, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 27, 2007

Updated: 10/25/2007 07:12 pm

Additional Photos

FAIR OAKS - Halloween comes early for Robin Leonard. The storage boxes he has been unloading since September offer surprises in the form of trinkets he forgot he accrued throughout the year.

Plywood, decrepit appliances, latticework and decapitated heads.

Leonard can barely wait until September when his wife, Lisa, gives him the green light to build his annual haunted castle in the front yard.

'I was building props in the back yard in August,' he said. 'Somebody else's trash is my treasure.'

His house, 4110 Coachman Ave., isn't hard to find.

'Look for the only guy with a theme park in his front yard,' he said. 'It will be killer.'

Leonard, a carpenter by trade who dreams of helping stage events such as Busch Gardens' Howl-O-Scream, likes the creative freedom in building the castle.

'This relaxes him,' Lisa Leonard said. 'It's his therapy.'

'It's sick but true,' said her husband, who designed the castle with kitchen, bath, living room and garage. His favorite piece: the toilet a friend gave him. It's covered in fake blood and tucked nicely inside the equally bloody bathroom.

'This will make the perfect queen's chair,' he said of a rattan chair he brought home as a gift for his wife in mid-October.

She dresses as a Morticia Addams-like ghoul and stands at the entrance to the haunted castle, regulating the entrance of the close to 200 people who line up for the chance to be scared. With a seat cover, she said the chair will be a nice spot to rest during the hectic night.

Their sons, Robbie, 15, and Nathan, 13, work inside the castle with their friends and Nathan's teammates from the South Tampa Raiders football team, frightening those who dare enter.

Leonard started his haunted obsession when Robbie requested he make tombstones for the holiday. That snowballed into three versions of a haunted house that have grown into this year's seventh annual Halloween Night Bash Haunted Castle and Graveyard Tours.

'I can't stop,' he said. 'When I get something in my head, I have to get it out. I'm just sick with it.'

He also hosts a block party for neighbors Halloween night.

'Everyone looks forward to it,' said Jacquie Crowell, who lives across the street. Leonard stands in Crowell's yard during the construction process to get a good perspective of his castle.

'The adults look forward to it, the kids do, everyone does,' Crowell said. 'It's fun-creepy.'

The castle serves up more than screams. It helps serve up meals to the hungry.

For nine years, the Leonards have cooked dinner on Christmas Eve and distributed it, along with bags of toiletries, socks and candy, to the homeless in downtown. It started as a project with their sons' Cub Scout troop and remains a family tradition they call Helping Hands Christmas Eve Homeless Feeding Project.

Last year, the Leonards starting charging admission to the spook house: canned and dry good donations that cooked up more than 350 plates, double the number from the year before.

'We were tenfold in getting everything we needed last year,' Robin Leonard said. 'We can't thank the community enough.'

He was so inspired by last year's success that he has distributed meals to the hungry every weekend since. Neighbors randomly drop off donations, and leftovers from the Raiders' concession stand, where he and his wife volunteer, go toward the effort. Their church, Peninsular Christian, offered the use of its kitchen this year and will continue the project.

Leonard said this will be the last year he hosts the haunted castle on his front lawn. He's taking a year off to come up with ideas, look into hosting a haunted house at his church's fall festival and 'make a better legacy than my front yard.'

'I'm just trying to help our community,' he said. 'We take the scariest day of the year and turn it into something good.'

BOO!

WHAT: Halloween Night Bash Haunted Castle and Graveyard Tours (scary and nonscary versions available)

WHERE: 4110 Coachman Ave.

WHEN: Today, Sunday and Wednesday from dusk until the candy runs out

COST: Donation of one canned or dry good to help feed the homeless

Reporter Jamie Pilarczyk can be reached at (813) 835-2114 or jpilarczyk@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT