At Haunted Hillbrow House––

Monster Spider Scoots Down Web At Trick-Or-Treaters

By Dottie Evans

Halloween 2003 now barely a week gone by, was the third year in a row that the now-notorious Hillbrow House spider has hung out at 74 Main Street. Richard and Dorethy Mulligan have owned and lived in the historic 1760 home for the past 31 years, raising children and then grandchildren there.

Ever since its introduction in 2000, the Hillbrow House spider has gotten a little scarier, and every year it seems more children visit its lair –– though some lose their nerve when they see how big it really is.

“One little girl was so frightened, she stayed at the bottom of the walk and made her parents come up to the door for the candy,” said Mr Mulligan.

He and his family were sitting on their front steps Monday afternoon, reminiscing about this most recent Newtown Halloween. By then, the spider, which Mr Mulligan and his good friend George Moser painstakingly created out of Styrofoam, glue, packing foam, wires, and paint, had once more been wrapped up in its cocoon of plastic wrap and hidden away in a dark corner of the garage.

Each year when they bring the spider out, they try to think of something new. Some way to increase the spider’s scare factor.

“Last year we included a motorized butterfly caught in the web. Its motorized wing moved back and forth. This year, we were determined to make the spider itself move,” said Mr Mulligan.

The two men rigged up a complicated system of pulleys to move the spider up and down a track over its web. The idea was that while trick-or-treaters approached the door, the monster spider would lunge at them, but the maneuver was not an easily managed since the spider kept tipping over on its way down.

“Of course, it wasn’t all that easy to pull him up again, either. And with more than 1,600 children counted [by another neighbor who had a clicker], the stream of visitors was pretty much continuous, from 4:15 to 9 pm.

“We must have given out 3,000 pieces of candy and we were so grateful to everyone who dropped off donations of candy to help meet the demand,” he added.

One more new wrinkle for Halloween 2003 was the spider’s name, Elton.“He’s named after Elton John, of course, because of the outrageous pink and purple colors.”

Now, we are all wondering what new and frightful things Mr Mulligan and Mr Moser will spin into Elton’s web next year.