13th Door Haunted House – Tigard
“The hauntings are nothing but a big plus for me!” asserts Ray Latocki, owner and operator of The 13th Door, a seasonal haunted house attraction. “Doing a haunted house in a facility that is already haunted brings me a lot more customers. It’s been great for business!”
Ray Latocki has a lot to be excited about. Not only does his chilling haunted house pull in hundreds of people every year, his walk-through attraction also appears to be pleasing to his handful of ghostly roommates. “I think they stay for the entertainment,” he says. “They seem to enjoy interacting with me, the props, my employees, and especially my customers.”
Once a Regal Cinema built in the late 1970s, the grayish hulk of a building has four cavernous theatres and an elongated room upstairs where the projector rooms used to be located. Prior employees of the movie theater insist they have experienced a plethora of unexplained phenomena, including the faint sounds of a music box, doors opening and slamming on their own, being pushed down the stairs, children’s muddy handprints on the film screens, and film reels flying off their projectors and being flung toward employees.
There are approximately five ghosts that have been documented and encountered here. There is an older, grumpy man in black that is nicknamed “Lurch,” a little girl aged 8 to 10 in a pioneer dress, a woman in her 30s, a young man in his late 20s, and a “ghost cat.” There is a legend of a young man committing suicide in the brightly painted blue storage room located upstairs. Although the police claim to have no recollection of this, prior theater employees say it is indeed true.
Latocki admits that some of the ghosts he rubs elbows with can be a trite rambunctious. “I don’t mind the cold refrigerated breezes, the tapping, touching, footsteps, voices, dark shadows, or when they steal or bring me my building materials,” he says with a laugh. “But I have had employees refuse to work in Theatre One and have threatened to quit after one night in there. Plus, I’ve heard quite a few of my customers describe to me in awe about the wisps of white that were running after them through the haunt. They think it’s some amazing sort of special effect or illusion, but, believe me, I could not create something like that on my own!”
While The 13th Door may serve up scares to the living for a living, Ray admits that there are times that the ghosts have the upper hand. “When I’m alone at night, and I am followed or watched constantly by their dark shadows, that is just the most overbearing feeling I’ve ever had. Even though I know they won’t hurt me, it’s still just a creepy feeling.”
Written by — Todd and Martina Baker Pacific Paranormal Research Society
13TH DOOR HAUNTED HOUSE OLD REGAL CINEMA AT WASHINGTON
SQUARE MALL
10125 SW WASHINGTON SQUARE ROAD
TIGARD, OREGON 97223
TEL: 1 (503) 730-4579
WEBSITE: www.hauntingproductions.com
SEE ALSO:
SOURCE:
Encyclopedia of Haunted Places -Ghostly Locales from around the World – Compiled & Edited by Jeff Belanger – Copyright 2005 by Jeff Belanger