This is the page where everyone can share their memories of the great & terrifying Morbid Manor, a haunted house for the ages in Ocean City. The original Manor is no more–it opened in the mid-1970s and burned down in 1995–but it has not disappeared from the memories of folks in the region.
I have posted about it on Facebook, and the photo I used generated a flood of fun reminiscences in the comments. Here is a collection of some of those memories. Please feel free to add your memories in the comments at the end!
Chuck Reeser
My aunt punched the chainsaw guy!
Deborah Figgs
Got a first degree burn there in 7th grade. Chain saw guy at end put the motor right on my leg. I had shorts on. Great place other than that!
Gail Ruark Mills
I was scared to death of this place!!! Could never go in there!!!
Tommy Ashton
That’s back in the days when Ocean City was a nice place to go.
Larry Ringgold
I built the gallows for it. It was a huge fire trap filled with spray foam all over the walls.
Tina Potter Doak
Remember the floor dropping in the beginning?
Justin Mutchler
First attraction I worked at the pier!
George Wetherill
The chainsaw guy scared the crap out of me!
Patsy Fleming-Phillips
I remembered how they chased you with a chainsaw!
Karen Heath
I remember. I was terrified!
Eric Fleishman
Wow, I forgot all about this!
Karen Mills Webster
Never went in … Too scary for me!!!
Tommy Pluff
Back when OC was fun!
Mark Patrick Jones
One of my favs!
Elyce Dodd
Went once, tripped down the stairs trying to get out … never again! Lol! 😳
Christine Corkell
I remember. Was pretty spooky
Robin Schneider Love
That place scared the crap out of me … The weird guy in the seance room groped me in the dark in the spinning chairs. And the chainsaw guy made me cry. Part of the fond OC memories!
Morbid Manor burned down in the mid-1990s.
Sharon Bromham
Omg I remember!
Laura DiDio Parker
Loved it!
Peg Fetsch
It was such a great haunted house!
Lee Kelly
Best Haunted House EVER!
Jennifer Clagett
Loved that place!! Laughed so hard I peed my pants!
Beth Ring Kimmey
Terrifying!
Matt Banks
Loved that place, so much fun …
Veronica Faye
Loved this haunted house!
Danielle Strohl-Redman
I was just talking about this place!! Loved it!
Joe Whiter
That was my favorite haunted house ever! Still have nightmares!!
Jenna Abbott Hoch
Christi A Kunkel, do you remember this?!?! When my Dad had the man holding the chainsaw chase us down the boardwalk?!?!!
Debbie Carlin
The chainsaw at the end was terrifying.
This is NOT the actual chainsaw guy from The Morbid Manor–it was just the best I could do …
Teresa Derrickson
Went there on a group date. Craziest thing ever! The guy wielding the chainsaw at the end freaked me out!
Patricia A Ward
I remember it well!
Holly Ann Garigliano
Miss that place!!! Had a blast getting scared to death with my friends.
Stacey Evans
I remember this. I was too scared to go in there, but it was so fun to watch other people go in and out. Always a crowd! I wish it could have been there when I was older 😱
Linda Purdham Floer
Yep. Loved that place!
Gary Guzzi Guiou
Yeah, my son was 8 years old and wanted to go in with a kid a little older. They gave me my money back and sent him out.
Janet Altvater Dutton
OMG I was just talking about this place! It scared the you know what out of me when I was younger.
Teri Kegel-Mihalik
Miss the place!
Diane Breidenstein Bean-Korpa
LOVED Morbid Manor … wish someone would resurrect it!
Click on the cover to learn more about this Secrets of the Eastern Shore Guidebook.
Gayle King Harding
Too bad it’s not open anymore!
Squirr Lee
My grandmother and I were in Morbid Manor during a storm and the electric went out. It was hilarious, and people were freaking out.
Judi Exline-Porch
I loved that haunted house! That chainsaw was scary!!!!! 😱😱
Craig Warrington
The chainsaw man…..
Catherine Christensen
It was awesome, nothing will ever beat it. That was the best haunted house!! Very scary!!
Jenny Reid
We loved this haunted house!
Claire Desautels
Best haunted house ever when it first opened!
Sally Irwin
Creepy. Way too hands on. But an icon on the Pier.
Mary Elizabeth Bock
I remember it was at the end of the pier and the scary people from it used to walk the boardwalk to lure people to go in it. I was a little girl, but they left an impression!
Cynthia Schaaf
That chainsaw guy chased after you at the end.
Vicki Ferguson
This place scared the crap out of me. I told my kids about this place many times!
Donna Hall
I remember this. Got so scared, I peed my pants!!
Tammy Holliday Brown
Awesome!
Dawn Millard
THAT DAMN CHAINSAW!!!!! 😱😱😱😱
Amy Brennan
Didn’t somebody … was it Cindy Shannahan … cut her foot in there???? Whoever it was that did it for me. No way was I walking through that thing.
Cindy Shannahan
It was me, Amy Brennan. Had to get stitches. Never went back!
Sandy Price Walton
It was very scary. Lost a flip flop in that house. Then that darn chainsaw guy scared the crap out of me. Hate chainsaw people ever since.
Glenn R Cropper
I worked there the first summer it opened. Frankenstein. Damn, it was hot in that costume …
Susan Meintzer Anders
One of my favorite memories of OC. The guys that worked there in the mid to late 80s…
Tim Hill, Bobby with the chain saw, those were the best of times!
Beth Ray
Good lord I punched someone for scaring the shit out of me.
Sandy Davis Shipe
It was out on the pier downtown. Opened in 1975 but burned down in 95
Jeff Baumgardner
I totally forgot about this. When I was little the building itself scared me so I wouldn’t go in it.
Michael Lawrence Jones
I always thought the plane in the side of the haunted house was a little random.
Candace Holman Reese
I went through this as a kid! Was scared to death! Ha!
Gus Smith
Nothing compares to Morbid Manor! I can’t believe it’s been more than 20 years since it burned down.
Darleen Crist Bedard
Always had such a great time going to Morbid Manor. Lots of memories!
Robynn Franks
My friend punched the chain saw guy. We were banned for that year.
Stacy Layfield
I loved Morbid Manor!
Jennifer Hartless Stacey
I remember me kicking a guy between the legs to get away from him. 😂
Nancy Feldmiller Nicoll
I remember a woman in front of me collapsed on the ground after she got out of there. She thought she was having a heart attack.
Tammy Bentz Holmes
Went when I was about 12. I got so scared I ran into a wall and came out with a bloody nose 😳
Ann Ports
They would chase you with the chainsaw!
Henry Robinson
I have 2 props from Morbid Manor that were salvaged after the fire.
David AndAnna Brohawn
Loved loved loved Morbid Manor!
Tricia Kunes Dashiell
Scariest place on earth. Maybe because I was 12. Loved Morbid Manor!
Kristin Murray Peterson
That place is a legend! Always had the best creepiest dressed people waiting on the boardwalk trying to lure you in. Scared the crap out of me as a child but will never forget them.
Sandy Davis Shipe
I think we need to give props to some of the first ones that worked there and made it what it was!! The only ones that I remember are Bob Taylor, Jay Koch, Basil ( not sure of the last name? ) if anyone remembers these guys or any of the others…give them a virtual pat on the back….thanks ⚰☇🎃🕷😈😱
Eileen C Hagerhorst
OMG! Yeah, I remember! Last minute day trip to OC with hubby Rick Hagerhorst, his younger brother Charlie(rip), and our then 2 1/2 yr old Dan Hagerhorst. I was pregnant with William Lloyd. Rick and Charlie in the ocean so I decide to pass some time walking through MM. Ha! It was creepy from the start as not too many folks around and the attendant was telling me it prob wasn’t a good idea to take Danny through. I said he’d be fine! So off we went. Well it wasn’t long before Danny was crying and I couldn’t maneuver very well. Not a good experience. LOL. Next thing I know the lights come on and attendant is leading us out! I was sooo grateful. I’ll never forget it!
Lisa Dennis
Loved it 👻
Jim Adair
That was my first haunted house!
Find your way to the comments below to share your memories and see some more of what others have to say …
–Compiled and posted by Jim Duffy on Oct. 27, 2017
Omg, that place was scary. They locked you in the front room in the dark and then going up the dark stairs, really creepy, heads and bodies came out of nowhere. The guy with the chainsaw was so scary, he chased us all the way out to the boardwalk, such fun and scary memories, went in there so many times. The Pier was great back then!!
I worked there/ ran it for 5 years. Had so much fun standing on the second floor balcony with the microphone and harassing people. Used to have a crowd all the way over to the ferris wheel.
Hey Tery,
I’m working on a film about Morbid Manor and I would love to talk to you more about it. Feel free to send me an email at Brendan270@gmail.com
Besides who do you think hung the air plane in the window? lol
HaHa! Thank you so much for weighing in here, Tery Tucker–good lord but people have some memories of your old place!
I worked with a Terry on occasion while on leave from the Army…greatest job ever!
(Late 70’s, 6-9 years old) the shadow of the little girl with the ax painted on the wall. The big picture frame with the picture that was actually real people. The mad scientist/surgeon in the room with the strobe lights – my little brother got smashed against the wall and cried the rest of the time. The “moonies” that used to give you 45’s, candy and flowers for money and my grandmother chasing them away from not only us but everyone else’s they tried to engage – scariest part of all.
Larry!!!! I have a pic of him in front from the late 80’s I could dig up. Scary, crazy good times!
I worked a bit with Terry while I was in the Army…greatest job ever! The girls were crazy!
I loved you guys a lot. Greatest people to work with EVER!
I remember my friend and I going there. Laughed so hard!! Best haunted house ever!!!
Oh my, I remember Morbid Manor — and during that same time frame (mid 80s) BOZO THE WATER CLOWN, in the dunk tank!!!
Passageway inside MM with holes in the walls where the actors would reach arms through to grab you as you passed by. The place terrified me as a child and I loved it.
O how I miss that place lost of memories i was there where it burned down
I sure do remember and it was the best scary place ever. Disney is the only place that has had me even more scared. Probably mild by today’s scary places.
This was the scariest place ever. lol. Im pretty sure I cried the entire time I was inside… and maybe I might have peed a little…. haha. This is back when OC was the best. Miss those days.
Hi folks! I worked there the first year it opened. Jay Koch (R.I.P.), Basil Truit, Jesse (Frankenstein), and I can’t exactly remember who was Wolfy (Wolfman), but all were nice and we had a blast!! It was SO hot working in there! We had a few friends who would come in every now and then and they would pinch people walking through or jump out at them! I won’t mention Sandy’s or Wendy’s names, lol.
I thought a guy named Fred was the one who built the place and designed everything? Whoever it was, he hired me after a unique” interview”! In my whole long life, THAT was the best job I ever had, with the best people (Joanne, Potsy, Dickie Marchant, and ALL of the “Pier Rats”!), and the BEST of times in OC when it was THE place… AND the WAY coolest friends!! A list too long because we met the WORLD in Morbid Manor!!
BTW, does anyone remember the Hooka pipe next to the seance table at the beginning when the room would lift and spin? I’m pretty sure I know where the remains of it are. At least I know who stole it. Basil Truitt, the last I knew, is still in Ocean City. Boy how that place has changed!!
To the person who started this place for remembering Morbid Manor… THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!!! YOU BROUGHT BACK LONG LOST MEMORIES! I’VE SEEN NAMES I’D FORGOTTEN AND HEARD STORIES I COULDN’T FORGET! Like that prego lady and little fella cryin his little heart out! We turned on the emergency lights to help get them out safely!! Poor little guy! Mom too!! LOL. Things I couldn’t remember… Things I couldn’t forget!! Oh, Dawn and Sue! Yup I remember some things now…
Yes, it was Fred Mahana from Wildwood, NJ who also built Castle Dracula in 1977 and Morey’s Haunted House in 1972 in Wildwood as well. Haunted House vanished after 1984 and Castle Dracula burned down Jan 16, 2002. Fred passed away in 1999. Here is a website about him and the attractions he built. http://www.fredmahana.com/ Bill Tracy built the Haunted House (1964) and Pirate’s Cove (1971) at Trimper’s though. He was also from Wildwood, NJ but had shops in Bergen County and Cape May County. He passed away Aug 1974 and his company continued for a few more years and then Jim Melonic took it over and today it is JMM Studios. Bill Tracy also did the Whacky Shack and a bunch of other attractions on Hunt’s Pier in Wildwood and Crazy House fun house on Fun Pier as well. None of those exist today.
Thank you monitors for cleaning up my post. I hope it’s ok that I’ve sent this site out to about 50 people that I knew would absolutely love this! I can’t thank you enough for this and everything you’ve done to make such an incredible and wonderful place. Not just for the Morbid Manor fans, but for anyone interested in almost anything to do with the Eastern Shore or Ocean City! So many people and things I’d forgotten you brought back. I still have family that live in OC and surrounding area. You don’t have to post this, but I would very much like to communicate with you about OC’s amazing history! From the storms in March 1962 to the mid 80’s I was involved in a lot of OC’s development and knowing a lot of the people that made OC what it was and what it is. Again, I thank you for the very hard work put into making this site as great as it is. It’s obvious a lot of love has gone into making this such an interesting and fun place to visit and get lost in time for just a little while. I hope you will contact me when you have time. Thank you so much! I’m boB and I love what you’ve done!
I work there in early 1981 for a short but very fun time. I remember that once in a while the hydraulics on the spinning room would act up and the guys had to push it around to get it started. I use to do the spill in the room and would always remark as people headed up the stairs, see you all at dinner your the main course. what fun it was.
I was too scared to go in there…I wasnt real keen on haunted houses back then
Best haunted house ever! Met my boyfriend in OC and he took me there. Loved the high-backed chairs and the floor dropping out. I remember when that part was over the guy pointing around the circle, stopping at me and saying, “NOW GO”. I never moved so fast! Great memories that I’ve tried to keep alive by telling my nieces and nephew about it. Too bad it’s just memories. I went every year for a while back in the mid-70’s – back when you could actually walk around and have fun in OC.
When I was a little boy the reaper had leaned over the railing, I had my mom’s hand so very tightly and he said to me you I want you come to me, I had broken my grip from my mom’s hand and I ran so far and so fast that my mom had lost me ,ever since then I have been obsessed with haunted attractions and even working at one ,I am obsessed with Halloween now and I’m obsessed now by the old morbid manor, I want to confront that reaper now and tell him how I feel where are you, now I want you and you will come to me,
Scared to death as a little girl seeing that iconic house looming out there on the pier and the chainsaw man walking around! Then as a college student, I tried to brave it in 1992. Got so scared I got lipstick all over my sister’s shirt from hiding my face, peed my pants, and knocked my mom up against the wall trying to run out the way we came in!! The people working loved it! Some nice guy outside felt sorry for me and gave me his sweatshirt to wrap around my shorts since I peed myself! Good times!
Remember crawling thru that hard white foam maze and the floor dropping out in the beginning. Was the best Haunted House ever!!
Morbid Manor! OMG! Yes! Best haunted house EVER! I took my little brother there and we screamed our way through the place as people jumped out at us, grabbed at our feet as we went down some stairs, and I think there was a mirror room I got stuck in and some spooky thing finally pointed the way out to me. God bless it! I loved it so much, I wanted to go through it again – minus the chainsaw guy
Worked there summer of 89! Good times, great people! Scared a guy so bad he punched me in the face. He felt bad couldn’t believe he hit a girl!!✌️
I remember the first time going thru Morbid Manor, August 1977. It scared the living daylights out of me. My sentimental favorite of course is the boardwalk haunted house. After 53 years of coming to OC, the boardwalk ride is still a favorite.
My friends and I were there for senior week in 1978. We decided to go to Morbid Manor. OMG Scariest place ever. When the seats were raised some guy was running around with underwear on his head and grabbed one of my friends leg! I seriously don’t think he worked there. On the way out the chainsaw goon put the saw on the back of my legs and I completely came unraveled. I grabbed a friend in front of me and was dragged out! It was a great time!!
I have so many fond memories of this place! Can someone provide a description/walkthrough of the experience going through, scene by scene? I’m surprised photos and video from inside the Manor are so hard to come by. I would love to see the design plans, if such a thing exists.
I live nearby and still miss that place. Bunch of cool hippies dressed like the Munsters worked there and I can still see them hanging out at the Manor. Scary stuff started right when you went insiide hanging off those spinning chairs as far as you could to avoid getting groped to throw end when you thought you might wet your pants trying to escape serial killer looking hippie dude before he burnt your leg with that chainsaw. Fun times!
Scared the living crap out of me! A guy jumped out from a wall and I punched him, ran like hell.
Matilda…… if you know you know
Was this the haunted house at the one end of the boardwalk? There was some grim reaper guy standing statue still out front every night. I feel like maybe it would beckon to me sometimes but my memories from the late 70s and early 80s are blurry. I was probably 6-12 yrs old when we used to go. As a young child, I was terrified of this place from a distance. Every year we would spend a week at our place in Ocean City and go to the beach and walk the boardwalk, and my little sister and I would get our sparkly unicorn or pegasus decal shirts and my dad would take us close and stop, asking if we wanted to go in there. Always NO.
Slowly more curiosity as I got older, but still it represented the most realistic horror I could imagine. One year I finally said ok let’s go in. I was maybe 11 or 12. I remember it was scary but.. not that bad? but maybe we didn’t get very far and left? I remember the stairs and my dad holding my hand super tight. Maybe HE got scared and ran us outta there?! Anyway, now at 50 it’s somehow a wonderful memory for me. Good times :)
This was the best haunted house I’ve ever been in! I remember my friend and I got her sister to go in with us by telling her it wasn’t scary. Then as soon as the doors closed, we’d say Oh my God, this is sooooo scary! She never forgave us and that was decades ago!! No other haunted house can compare. That pitch black section where you walked on spongy stuff and hands came out grabbing your hair…so creepy!
Lived above the Kitchen on Wicomico and worked at Mobid Manor the summer of 81. I was the guy who ran the seance room introducing myself as “By-tor”. When I got bored of that, I reveled in chasing everyone out with the chainsaw. So much fun! Met sooo many fun people. What a blast that was!
We travelled to OC every Sunday for day trips in the summer of 1980. I was 11. Morbid Manor freaked me out but I loved it. There was a guy who worked there named Brad – he reminded me of Gene Simmons. My mom took my picture with him pretending to strangle me. Wish I still had that. I loved there intro when you walked in…”Welcome to morbid manor, I’m your host, Marchand.. For years ‘something something’ under ground…so join us” (Something like that…it was 45 years ago :-) Wonderful, wonderful memories. Thank you for this site.
This place became my hell….I was 14 a worker snatched me through a door and raped me on what felt like a pool table that was in a side room My screams didn’t matter because everyone was screaming I’m now 57 and it still haunts me