Know of a Wichita Halloween display as creepy-cool as this one? If so, please share
Traditionally, Christmas is the time when homeowners go all out to decorate their houses, hang all their blinking lights and fill their yards with inflatables and holiday scenes.
But in Wichita, Halloween is creeping up on Christmas.
Every year, more and more homeowners are turning their houses into tributes to the spookiest of holidays and creating elaborate skeleton displays, creepy graveyard scenes and little front-yard haunted houses.
Halloween is likely to look a bit different during COVID-19, and not in a good way. So we thought we’d put together a list of Wichita’s must-see Halloween yard displays that people can enjoy from the socially distanced safety of their own cars.
Everyone knows Broadview Street in College Hill is going to do it up, but we’re hoping people will nominate other houses worth seeking out.
We’re looking for displays like the one created by Bill and Betty Cynova, who live at 1522 N. Garland in Wichita’s North Riverside neighborhood.
The couple, who moved into their brick house eight years ago, have for the past four years been building a more and more elaborate Halloween display — one that’s become the toast of the neighborhood.
This year, it features four life-sized horse skeletons hitched to a funeral coach that Bill made himself. The coach has two skeletal drivers, and inside — under a creepy blue spotlight — is a skeleton bride in her coffin, which Bill also made.
And that’s not all. A skeleton party has broken out all over the property, and eight skeletons appear to be crawling up the Cynovas’ house. One is even perched at the top of their tall brick chimney, looking for a way inside.
Two more are collapsed against a tree, and one clutches a can of Miller Lite in his drunken, bony hand. And in addition to a few life-sized ghouls positioned near the entrance, a skeletal “crazy cat lady” can be seen slowly rocking in a rocking chair just inside the front door.
Betty said she loves Halloween and has always decorated the inside of her house.
The inspiration to do up the outside has been a bit more recent. The couple started their display four years ago with just one skeletal horse, but they’ve acquired another one every year since.
“We do it a little different every year to make it more interesting,” she said. “The more they enjoy, the more we do.”
The couple has added more pieces to the display this week, and even more will appear on Halloween night, including an undead butler holding a tray. They’ll also be adding a fog machine.
The Cynovas have become well known in the area for the display, and their neighbors always come out to watch them assemble it.
They’re fine with people walking through their yard to check it all out, Betty said, though they should be warned that several of the pieces in the yard make startling ghoulish noises.
“They can take movies and pictures, whatever they want to do,” she said. “It’s fun for everybody.”
Know of a house as creepy or almost as creepy as the Cynova house? Let us know where it is.
Email the exact address to dneil@wichitaeagle.com, and also include a brief description of what makes the display worth seeing.
We’ll start compiling a list that we’ll publish in the coming weeks.
This story was originally published October 8, 2020 at 5:01 AM.
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