HUDSON — What better place to stage a Halloween haunted house than in a real haunted building?
For the last nine years, a former historic brothel has been converted into a free haunted house that creeps out visitors and volunteers. But many believe it’s really haunted and has been terrifying people for far longer.
The brothel was named Gracie's for the madam who ran it during the 1920s and was known for bootlegging liquor during Prohibition.
Upstairs, nine small rooms remain that were advertised publicly for “rooming.” However, former Mayor Mike Anderson said that the ladies would display their true wares on top of the flat roof so passing motorists could see what the rooms were really used for.
Gracie's was closed in the 1960s through the efforts of then-Fremont County Attorney Gerry Spence, and locals say the occupants have never completely left.
“I find the building to be highly creepy, and I will not walk through it by myself, even during the daytime,” Owner Jessica Fritz admitted.
She has had several spooky encounters herself ranging from dimming lights to talking dolls.
Fritz recommends that visitors use the restroom before going through the maze of horror. Last year, at least five adults should have heeded that advice.
Visitors were greeted by the grim reaper and a skeleton horse at the Haunted House in Hudson. They are posed by the old Hudson bank that was almost next door to Gracies, a brothel, that has been converted into a haunted house for the past nine years. Over 2,000 people visited it this past weekend. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
Entering the haunted brothel. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
Over 2,000 people visited the haunted brothel in Hudson that was converted into a free haunted house hosted by the Fritz family. People report that not only the haunted house scared them but real spirits would appear. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
Visitors were greeted by the grim reaper and a skeleton horse at the Haunted House in Hudson. They are posed by the old Hudson bank that was almost next door to Gracies, a brothel, that has been converted into a haunted house for the past nine years. Over 2,000 people visited it this past weekend. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily)
The Creepy Doll
Fritz said that there have been many unexplained incidents with their animatronics, such as when a zombie doll on a rocking horse that starts rocking on its own.
“It was singing a weird little children's rhyme and my husband thought it was creepy and dumb,” Fritz said.
Daniel Fritz told Cowboy State Daily that it was 2 a.m. and he was working alone fixing the floor in a section of the haunted house that was full of old dolls when this particular doll started singing the rhyme.
“I figured they hadn’t turned it off,” Daniel said. “But when I flipped it over to pull out the batteries, there was not a single battery in the thing.”
He assumed he was hearing things because it was so late and he had been wearing his headphones, so Daniel just went back to work.
He was right next to the doll when it started singing and rocking again.
“I was like, ‘It's time to go home,'” Daniel said. “I thought I was going crazy.”
The Jester Changed Her Mind
Jessica Fritz admitted she was a skeptic — until a jester changed her mind.
Fritz said that they had disconnected everything on the electronic jester for storage, but that didn’t stop him from moving, talking and lighting up.
And the jester was designed to move, but never to light up.
“He is not supposed to glow,” Fritz said. “So we don't even know what was causing him to light up because he has no light bulbs in him.”
She said that since he keeps misbehaving, the jester has now been completely retired.
“That one was creepy,” Fritz said. “We have a whole bunch of new animatronics that will hopefully be less creepy because it's just too creepy for our scarers to be in the haunted house when one of them acts up.”
After Gracies, the brothel in Hudson, was closed down in the 1960s, it was abandoned and allowed to fall into ruin. Despite the poor shape of the rooms, some ghostly occupants are believed to have remained. (Jessica Fritz) 
It takes an army of volunteers, like Titus Shenk, to put together the scary haunted house in Hudson. It helps when the haunted house is in a former brothel that is rumored to be haunted by former occupants. (Jessica Fritz) 
At the Haunted Festival in Hudson, Jessica Fritz, one of the owners of the former brothel and haunted house, sold zombie brains to visitors too scared to enter the haunted building. The Halloween festival was well-attended by those too scared to go into the old brothel than many believe is really haunted by spirits of those who refuse to leave. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily) 
At the annual haunted house in Hudson, the scares can be too scary for some so fun props and a Halloween Festival are being hosted outside to give some Halloween fun to visitors too scared to visit the haunted house hosted in a brothel that is rumored to still be haunted by its previous occupants. (Jessica Fritz)
Too Scary For Some Volunteers
Fritz explained that every year, the haunted house loses at least one volunteer scarer because of the unplanned happenings in the old brothel.
Volunteer Titus Shenk, Fritz’s oldest son, has stayed on as a scarer over the years despite his own paranormal experiences. He firmly believes the former brothel and saloon is haunted.
“I have had my clothes tugged on and a large animatronic was thrown at me,” Shenk said. “It was a large plague doctor, and when I was walking past it, it just lunged forward.”
He also reported that when alone in the basement where illegal poker games used to be held, you can hear people walking upstairs — when there is no one there.
“It's just an old haunted building,” Shenk said. “The place is just creepy.”
Giggling, Moving Doors, And A Little Boy
Fritz maintains that not all the incidents are so easily explained away.
“We've heard kids giggling,” Fritz said. “Doors have just creaked open slowly, like in slow-mo, when you're just standing there and then it will slam itself shut.”
One haunting that seems to have stopped is a little boy who used to run around the building and play with neighborhood kids.
“Old timers in the neighborhood said that they used to play with a kid that wasn't really there and they would play hide-and-go-seek,” Fritz said. “They would just play different games with this curly-haired little kid who was probably around 8 or 9 years old.”
Fritz said that when she had a bakery in Hudson, people would ask about a kid who was running around but there wouldn’t be anyone there.
“Everyone would be super weirded out,” Fritz said. “So the only logical thing to do, of course, was put a haunted house inside of the haunted area.”
The little boy hasn’t been seen in years, but now visitors are eager to visit intending to be scared.
The haunted house in Hudson has the typical props to create scares to their visitors — but they also have an added bonus. The haunted house used to be a brothel that is rumored to still be haunted by the former occupants. (Jessica Fritz) 
The haunted house in Hudson has the typical props to create scares to their visitors — but they also have an added bonus. The haunted house used to be a brothel that is rumored to still be haunted by the former occupants. (Jessica Fritz) 
The haunted house in Hudson has the typical props to create scares to their visitors — but they also have an added bonus. The haunted house used to be a brothel that is rumored to still be haunted by the former occupants. (Jessica Fritz) 
The haunted house in Hudson has the typical props to create scares to their visitors — but they also have an added bonus. The haunted house used to be a brothel that is rumored to still be haunted by the former occupants. (Jessica Fritz)
Lights Out
One of Fritz’s most skeptical volunteers, who refuses to be named, walked upstairs into the brothel where the rooms were once used for the girls.
He needed to get a stapler to complete a project for the haunted house and since it was nighttime, he grabbed a giant luminescent flashlight.
“It’s a very bright light that can literally light up the entire parking lot,” Fritz said. “He said he got a really chilly feeling like he was being watched.”
His flashlight suddenly went from lighting up the full staircase to being swallowed by the darkness.
The air felt thick and it was so dark that he was startled. He knew where the stapler was and kept going despite the fact that his flashlight was only casting a glow.
He could hardly see the ground and went into the first of the nine small rooms. He grabbed the stapler and hurried down the stairs. Behind him, the old hotel door slammed shut.
“There was no wind or any reason the door should slam shut,” Fritz said. “And he has never gone up there in the dark alone since.”
Fritz said that she has also had her light swallowed by the dark so believes the story.
“I was in the maze of our haunted house when my light grew really dim and I got out of there fast,” she said.
Sometimes Visitors Psych Themselves Out
More than 2,000 people converge on the small town of 400 to get jump-scared and spooked for the haunted house each year.
Jessica Fritz said that most of the visitors had psyched themselves out before entering the old building because of the haunted stories connected to it.
“We have had people jumping this year before they even entered the building and others who turned around and refused to go in,” Fritz said.
Fritz and her family began hosting haunted houses for free 12 years ago and it has become a family tradition that they continued when they bought the brothel in Hudson.
However, their previous haunted house was not haunted like their current one.
An army of volunteers have worked long hours creating a maze full of “scarers” and animatronics, all designed to frighten people for the Halloween season.
Although, sometimes it is the volunteers who end up getting jump scared quite by accident.
A volunteer once ventured up these stairs and his flashlight mysteriously dimmed. As he was leaving, according to owner Jessica Fritz, the door slammed behind him. (Jessica Fritz) 
A small army of volunteers such as Jared Dorothy created a maze and other planned scares in their annual haunted house in Hudson. The scares are in an old brothel which is rumored to be haunted. (Jessica Fritz) 
The former brothel in Hudson, Gracies, has been transformed into a free haunted house that doesn’t jump scare just the visitors, but the scarers have also been known to get spooked. The brothel is believed to be haunted and not all the occupants have left. (Jessica Fritz) 
Over 2,000 people visited the haunted brothel in Hudson that was converted into a free haunted house hosted by the Fritz family. People report that not only the haunted house scared them but real spirits would appear. (Jackie Dorothy, Cowboy State Daily)
Festival For The Too Scared
Since their haunted house can get so scary, the Fritz family organized a festival in their parking lot at the old El Toro for younger visitors in partnership with local community members.
She estimated that about 200 people who didn’t tour the haunted house visited the booths and enjoyed themselves away from the haunted brothel while the rest of their family members were getting spooked.
“The whole point of it is for the people to have a place to hang out that are too scared to go into the haunted house,” Fritz said.
Although all visitors are warned, you never know if one of the little kids running around is the one who used to play hide and seek who wasn’t really there.
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
