Halloween always brings with it a bunch of temporary "haunted houses" designed to be creepy and scary.
That's all well and good, but there's no need to pay good money to be creeped out. Houston offers several locations that can send a chill down your spine, especially on a lonely night. And they're free!!
6. Tranquility Park parking garage Designed to be used by visitors to City Hall or the theater district, this place seems perpetually empty and designed to disorient you. You're never sure exactly where the dark, no-security-mirrored stairwells will take you, if you survive your trip up from the depths.
Going to or from your car, your footsteps echo forlornly, and you wonder if your dying scream will even be heard. Not to mention trying to figure out which exit is actually open and allowing cars to leave.
The long-abandoned Falstaff brewery in Galveston has always attracted adventurers or amateur moviemakers eager to use the ominous setting as a backdrop for a zombie film. It comes through every time.
4. Elysian Street Viaduct The mile-long Elysian Street Viaduct was built in 1955, and as it helped accelerate the decay of the neighborhood around it, it made the place creepier and creepier. There are several spots along the way that try to outdo each other for scariness. Take your pick -- if you dare.
3. Aldine-Bender Litttle League Field of the Doomed Our urban explorer John Nova Lomax found this ghoulish piece of buried memories on an exploration of Aldine-Bender. On moonlit nights, the zombie corpses of long-dead Little Leaguers come out to play 23-walk 17-15 three-hour marathons that bore spectators...to death.
2. Abandoned Pearland mansion We explored this mystery house a couple of years ago. If the phone rings while you're there, don't bother having it traced -- we already know it's coming from the inside.
Photo by Katharine Shilcutt
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1. Park Memorial condos Sitting plum in a plush area of town, these abandoned condos have only gotten creepier since this picture was taken. The few remaining owners were forced to vacate in a hurry, and the result is a lot of detritus that hints at onetime civilization there. Until they were suddenly wiped out by something. Or somebody.
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