Castle Halloween Museum — Attraction in Altoona

I was in Altoona for work and I saw this online as a local attraction.

You need to make a reservation and tell them how many people are in your party. Bring cash. As of January 2022, it's $15 per person. I made my reservation days before my actual tour.

Parking is not a great situation. The owner told me on the phone that I may park directly in front of the museum / mansion/ house. She also gave me detailed instructions over the phone about how to get there and how it's a very busy street and even though the speed limit is 25 mph, people fly down it much much faster. Please note that this street is one way only. There was a spot directly in front of the museum just as she told me and I parked there. Free parking. People were flying by in their cars and you need to be careful when you're getting out of your vehicle. I went in January and there was snow and ice all around. The steps going up to the museum where icy, slippery, and dangerous.

$15 cash per person gets put into the dish of a sppoky talking animatronic butler.

Then the tour begins. Each person in your reservation party is only permitted to take one photo. So make that photo count. This was disappointing to me because I wanted to take pictures of everything. Something had happened recently where a man was taking a picture and he wasn't watching where his feet were going. He tripped and knocked over one of a kind items that were worth thousands of dollars. Understandingly, this was very upsetting to the owners. But now everyone suffers because you may only take one picture per person.

The very first room in the tour had some of the most impressive items. There were incredible original one of a kind works of art with moving parts. The spooky roller coaster was one of my favorite items to look at. I would absolutely love if it were a real life-size roller coaster that I could go on. Among other artists renderings, there was also a spooky carousel. At the end of my tour I was able to take the one picture that I was permitted to take. I decided to take it of that roller coaster.

The entire tour was about an hour and a half. She talked a lot about the history of the items. Some of it was interesting to me and other stuff was not. I would like to go back and explore the museum on my own without her talking about everything. There is really so so so much to look at that an hour and a half is just not enough time to see everything.

She did say that some people decide to book the museum for themselves for the entire day. I would consider that if you have a group of people willing to spend that amount of money.

The owner is incredibly passionate about Halloween and her giant collection. Her enthusiasm is contagious. I definitely learned some things from her.

I didn't see any postings about whether children are permitted in the museum but I would not recommend this for children. There are too many fragile, expensive, and one of a kind items for small children to be around. They would also probably be bored out of their minds.

Another reviewer mentioned that this place is cramped and I agree. Many many things are squished into this mansion. That's not so much a complaint but more of an observation.

There are stairs that you would need to go up and down and I did not see any accommodations for people in wheelchairs or walkers.

If you are into Halloween then I recommend visiting this place. People do come from far and wide to check out this museum. I wouldn't drive more than a couple hours to check it out but that's just me and I really don't like driving.

If you are already in the area in Altoona then you might want to check out the Boyer Candy factory outlet. They have mallocups, peanut butter chocolate cups, Clark bars, etc for lower prices than you would see in grocery stores. These two attractions are within minutes...

Read notes below before visiting.

My wife and I decided to road trip and come out from MI to visit. If you're into Halloween and the history of Halloween, this is a great visit. So much to see in each room it's hard to look around and pay attention to the "curator". This is not necessarily a museum as it is a large Victorian house with every room filled to the brim with Halloween art, History and different offshoots of Halloween. Important things to note before visiting: you must verbally book an appointment, there are no hours of normal operation that you can just walk in. There are stairs and some areas are tight. Not good for kids, the owner does not want you to touch anything. You can only take one picture. The house address is kind of hidden, it's a little bit of a jungle outside of it. Map to the citizens Bank on broad ave and it's just about across the street. New/current "donation" is $20/person. Cash only. Email address in the owner description is not valid, phone number is accurate. Seems like she does the first tour at 10, and the next at 1pm. Keep that in mind, she will not answer...

This lady is an antique dealer and has written many books for Schiffer has been collecting for 50 years. She has a Victorian house loaded with Halloween and other spooky things, about 70% is Halloween related (she has a room or two to the Day of the Dead collectables). The tour lasted 2 hours and she gave a lot of information on the history of Halloween and other items of the house. She only asked for $15 per person and for the two hour tour I thought that was excellent. You get to see lots and lots of Halloween collectibles first-hand, including a costume room, blow mold room, the house is just full of collectibles. We saw that and then headed to the Flight 93 memorial for a full day, If you have an interest in Halloween collectibles it's definitely worth seeing. My only slight negative is that she includes a little 'activism' into the tour which doesn't have much to do with the collectibles which are...