13 frightful facts about Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion

The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland celebrates its 50th anniversary on Aug. 9, 2019.

The mansion overlooking the Rivers of America is home to the most “spirited” attraction in New Orleans Square. A steady stream of “Doom Buggies” carries guests on a tour of the Haunted Mansion, which is inhabited by a lively collection of 999 happy haunts and filled with special effects, haunting show sets and ethereal music.

To celebrate we thought we would share 13 fun facts about the mansion. (You can also check out our spotters guide to the ghosts and characters here.

But for now, “Kindly step all the way in please, and make room for everyone. There’s no turning back now. Our tour begins here. . .”

1. The idea for a haunted house at Disneyland was included in an early concept design sketch by Harper Goff dating back to 1952, when Disneyland was being conceptualized.

2. The designers of the attraction originally wanted to make the outside of the mansion look scary. Walt Disney, however, wanted to keep the outside looking like a stately mansion, while letting the ghosts take care of the inside.

3. Originally, the Haunted Mansion was going to be a walk-through attraction where guests were led in small groups by a cast member who would describe scenes that lasted two to three minutes each.

4. One of the original ideas included having a restaurant next to the ride called a “Museum of the Weird,” similar to the Blue Bayou at Pirates of the Caribbean.

5. The exterior of the attraction was built in 1962-63. It was unoccupied until 1969 while Walt Disney participated in the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair and his Imagineers were re-tasked to work on those timely projects. The World’s Fair experience made way for some of the technology that’s used in the Haunted Mansion.

6. The final exterior concept for the house is heavily influenced by the Victorian-era Shipley-Lydecker House in Baltimore, Maryland.

7. Within a week of the Haunted Mansion’s August 9, 1969 opening, Disneyland celebrated what was then its highest single-day attendance.

8. The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland was the first major Disney attraction created without the direct supervision by Walt Disney. Although Walt reviewed many of the early vignettes, he never saw the completed show concepts.

9. The pipe organ seen in the ballroom sequence was featured as Captain Nemo’s pipe organ in the Disney film classic, “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”.

10. The title of the spell that appears in the book in Séance Circle is taken from the Disney film, “Blackbeard’s Ghost”. The large book of incantations is entitled Necronomicon—Book of the Dead and is opened to pages 1312 and 1313.

11. There are 20 tombstone tributes that exist both inside and around the exterior of the attraction. The epitaphs on the tombstones are written in honor of Disney Legends and Walt Disney Imagineers who created and maintain the attraction.

12. The pet cemetery that features humorous epitaphs was added in front of the Haunted Mansion in the mid-1990s.

13. There are 13 candles sitting on top of the birthday cake in the Grand Hall in the Haunted Mansion.

“Now I will raise the safety bar, and a ghost will follow you home! “