Garfield Street in Exeter boasts a Halloween decoration extravaganza.
     Photo by Jay Reiter

A ghastly time will be had by all in haunted yard

By Johanna Maranto

October 29, 2004

EXETER - What do you get when you mix 200 glowering jack-o’lanterns, 80 bales of hay, three truckloads of quivering corn stalks and a gallon of blood-red paint? The creeps!

These are just a few of the props Eric Lowther crowds onto his Exeter property each October as he prepares to unleash an array of horrors in his hideously haunted yard.

Hordes of people have visited his yard since he began his grisly endeavor 10 years ago and this Halloween will likely be no exception. Guests coming on Oct. 30 and 31 will also once again be invited to scare up a donation to the New Hampshire SPCA.

A Halloween-o-phile since childhood, Lowther, 38, began his frightful hobby in junior high school. Lowther is an artist and his attention to detail is striking in some cases, subtle in others.

His mother, Pat Lowther, says one of her jobs this year was to pick up red paint for bloodying. Knowing how particular her son can be, she stopped by the hardware store first for color charts, rather than select a less-than-authentic shade herself.

Less obvious is the temporary stand of trees Lowther planted as the backdrop for a daunting 26-foot pumpkin-head monster.

"It took me an entire day to dig the holes for the trees," he said. "You don’t really notice them, but if they weren’t there, you would notice it didn’t look right."

Lowther is particularly fond this year of a new creation, a "man" bloodied and impaled by a gigantic and gruesome ghoul.

"I like him because he looks really real," Lowther said, "although the new displays always seem to be my favorites."

Lowther said the guillotine, complete with a basket for heads, tends to be a perennial crowd-pleaser.

The scale of Lowther’s project grows each year and he couldn’t manage without the generous support of family, friends and the local business community. As it is, he took a week of vacation to set up this year, and has scheduled another vacation week to break it all down.

He works on the exhibits year round, and storage is getting to be a problem. Lowther spends a month setting up the displays. He is lucky if his yard is back to normal again by Thanksgiving. His lawn has to be reseeded every year.

This year it took 13 people half a day to carve the 200 pumpkins, and three more people another half a day to form foil sleeves to protect the candle flames from the wind.

A coffin has been donated by Casket Royale in Hampton Falls. (will it be empty on Halloween night?); JRC Construction in Raymond contributed the telephone pole that secures the giant pumpkin monster (can it escape?). Scamman’s Home and Garden Center of Stratham donated the pumpkins for the jack-o-lanterns (don’t some of them seem almost alive?).

There is no admission charge to walk through Lowther’s yard, but donations to the SPCA are welcomed. Lowther said, "I’ve always loved animals. When I read the SPCA newsletter, I just can’t stand some of the animal cruelty cases."

Samantha Reed, annual fund coordinator for the SPCA, called the event "absolutely phenomenal. Eric is extremely talented and we are lucky to be the beneficiaries."

Last year’s contributions totaled $2,100.

Lowther has been married for eight years. He said that although wife Janice Page "could not have envisioned this," the fact that his wedding ring has a skull on it may have somewhat prepared her. Lowther said he and his wife agree that "the fun of Halloween night overshadows any inconvenience."

The haunted yard is at 28 Garfield St. in Exeter. It will be lit on both Friday and Saturday nights, Oct. 30 and 31. Be there, and be scared.

Seacoast Online is owned and operated by Seacoast Media Group.
Copyright © 2004 Seacoast Online. All rights reserved. Please read our
Copyright Notice and Terms of Use. Seacoast Media Group is a subsidiary of
Ottaway Newspapers, Inc., a Dow Jones Company.