Fairlawn Mansion Decorated As House In Mourning For Halloween

SUPERIOR, Wis. — Over in Superior kids explored all things spooky at the Fairlawn Mansion Tuesday.

Fairlawn was originally built as the family home for lumber and mining baron, Martin Pattison, along with his wife and 6 kids.

The executive director says Victorian’s were very ritualistic when it came to mourning the passing of a loved one. So, the mansion is decorated as if it were mourning Pattison and recreated what they believe his funeral would have been like.

“So, the reason why they covered the mirrors is they didn’t want the soul to get trapped in the mirror, then they’d have to break the mirror to let the soul escape. So, that’s why you’ll see those covered. They also covered the pictures of the deceased, so, we haven’t fully covered Martin’s pictures but gave the illusion that they did that. They have a lot of flowers to help cover the smell that would occur. The females would wear black mourning gowns for at least a year. It depended how long they would mourn based on who had passed away. They had funeral cookies that the widow would actually pass out during the funeral. They would have little cards that they would hand out as well,” said Megan Meyer, executive director.

Along with being able to explore the first floor of the mansion, there were also games and trick or treating for kids to enjoy.