Eloise Asylum and Mortuary Manor draw visitors seeking authentic Halloween chills

Two former institutions in Michigan and Ohio have transformed into destinations for Halloween visitors seeking genuine paranormal activity rather than staged scares. The Eloise Asylum attraction in Westland, Michigan, and Mortuary Manor in Toledo, Ohio, provide guided investigations and equipment rentals for guests who want to explore the history and reported hauntings of these buildings.

Justin Cox, founder of Michighost Paranormal, leads tours through the upper floors of the Eloise Asylum, a site that began as a 19th-century poorhouse before becoming one of the nation's largest public health facilities in the late 1920s. Cox reports that guests frequently report physical sensations during these tours. "Guests that come here on our paranormal tours, they get touched, they get grabbed, handprints on clothing, whistled at," Cox said. He added that the team believes trauma leaves energy that creates hauntings, citing the site's history of tragedy.

The Eloise Asylum complex originally comprised dozens of buildings, but most were razed in the 1980s. The remaining five-story red-brick Kay Beard Building now houses the attraction. Tours include rooms such as one containing a bathtub used for hydrotherapy sessions, where guests are invited to sit inside. Cox also offers overnight stays for those confident they can handle the night. Lexi Carter, the attraction's lead makeup artist and scare actor, participated in a paranormal investigation tour and described the upper floors as feeling alive. She noted that watching spirit boxes and EMF readers react to radio frequency changes was a striking experience.

Fifty miles south in Toledo, Ohio, the former Urbanski Funeral Home has been repurposed as Mortuary Manor. The 60,000-square-foot building operated from 1926 until its sale last year. It now serves as a funeral home museum and a site for paranormal investigation. Visitors can explore embalming and autopsy rooms, as well as a morgue where guests often photograph themselves on a slab that projects from the basement wall. The facility also hosts events, including its first wedding scheduled for Friday the 13th in November.

Cory Leibenguth, operations manager at Mortuary Manor, lives in an upstairs apartment adjacent to the main attraction. He highlights that the building includes modern amenities such as indoor plumbing, heating, air conditioning, and Wi-Fi. Leibenguth stated that these features distinguish the site from other abandoned locations. "And then there’s not a lot of funeral homes you can go investigate, either," he said. Guests who pay $200 can rent a five-room suite for an overnight stay, while others can watch horror movies projected onto walls in the main sitting room surrounded by caskets. Family members of former patients have expressed concerns about offering for-profit amusement at a site where vulnerable people suffered.

Cox described the appeal of these venues as a way for people to relax and enjoy time with friends and family while experiencing fear. "In today’s world where everybody is so stressed out … Halloween is a time that everybody can just relax and just enjoy the time with their friends and their family, maybe get scared along the way," Cox said. Both locations offer a blend of historical context and interactive paranormal tools, including handheld electromagnetic field meters and spirit boxes, for visitors eager to test the boundaries of the real.