Cowper Street spook yard grows out of a family tradition
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ALPENA - The figures on Cowper Street do not wait for Halloween night. They have been set up for weeks, and Gary Blaski says the collection behind them has grown, piece by piece, to about $20,000.
Blaski, who lives at 706 Cowper St., calls the yard the greatest Halloween spook display around.
Visitors are welcome to walk on the grass, step into the trees and go up to the house. Most of the large figures are animated. The smaller ones come to life only if someone walks close enough to trip the sensor. The display is open day and night through Nov. 1. The lights shut off automatically at about 10:30 p.m., Blaski said.
The habit of decorating for Halloween is older than he is, Blaski said.
"Two years before I was born, my parents, Jim and Diane Blaski, started doing a spook house at 308 W. Miller St. They did that until 1989, so it's something I always grew up with," Blaski said. "In 2004 I purchased my first home on River Street and started decorating there throughout the years."
He said the collection thickened in 2016 after he moved to Cowper Street he began with smaller pieces, then purchased larger ones.
"Every year I purchase more things and add them to the display," he said.
He added that he also decorates for Christmas, though not on the same scale.
The work falls to three people. Blaski and his sons, Blaike, 15, and Jonathan, 17, who put the yard up each fall. This year it took about 20 hours.
"I let them decide where everything goes," he said.
If he has to name a favorite, it is a 20-foot inflatable his son bought him for Christmas.
Neighbors walk the yard often, he said. The house sits on a private drive, so most visitors park on Hobbs Drive and walk in. "It's best to walk through the yard and set off all the animatronics. That way you get the full effect," Blaski said. On a typical night he counts five to 10 people. On weekends the number has reached about 30.
His sister, Judy Blaski Stemkowski, has posted directions for anyone trying to find the house. Cowper Street runs off Hobbs Drive, about a little over a mile from the traffic light near the Alpena High School and Thunder Bay Junior High, in the opposite direction from Walmart. She wrote that all ages are welcome, and that Halloween night will add creatures in the trees and candy for anyone who wants it.
The invoice is only part of the cost. Running the display adds about $150 to the electric bill per month.
"But it's worth it to see people smile and for them to be able for them to enjoy themselves with their children as they look at the display," Blaski said.
Storage is the other bill that does not show up on a receipt. He used to keep the pieces in a trailer until he ran out of room, then bought a shed. The largest figures never go inside. They stay beside the house all year.
He asks visitors to watch their step. The yard is lit after dark, but the ground is still a yard, and the point of the walk is to get close enough for the figures to move.
The display is the latest version of a Miller Street spook house that closed in 1989. Blaski said he does not plan to stop adding to it.