Sep 30, 2005 3 min read

FLATWOODS – Flatwoods productions will present a haunted attraction during the month of October. It will run every Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening during the month with additional showings on the final Wednesday, Thursday and Halloween night. The box office will be open from 7 p.m. until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays and 7 until 10 p.m. on Sundays, the final Wednesday, Thursday and Halloween.

There will be a cost for the haunted Victorian mansion and a cemetery. For more information, call 724-785-6896 or visit us on the Web at FPtheater.com for additional information, coupons and directions.

The events concern the legend of a man who lived in the Flatwoods area approximately 200 years ago. Dr. john Malcolm Curfew built the house for his wife and child after relocating his family from England in 1801. A philanthropist and scholar, he was known all over the old continent for his uncanny healing abilities and generous nature. The town was more than proud to welcome the newcomers.

The “good doctor,” as he had become known, proved to be a true family man as he could never be separated from his wife Charlotte and their daughter Bridgette. As his reputation grew so did his practice and eventually he erected an asylum adjacent to his home.

In 1804, one of the patients, a madman, escaped and murdered his daughter of nine years driving the doctor to insanity. Determined to avenge her death and bring her back to life, he began bizarre experiments attempting to find the secret to reanimation.

He started with rats and other vermin. But as time went by and failure became more evident, he progressed first to the locals’ livestock and finally to the locals themselves.

Soon word of his experiments, as they were called, spread and the remaining townspeople, realizing what was happening, revolted. The angry mob descended on the “good doctor” and his home. As the rabble stormed the house, his estranged wife, begging him to repent and cease his madness, was struck a deadly blow. The doctor, realizing his fate, secured himself somewhere in the house. The mob finally gained entry and was baffled. After several searches they could not find Dr. John Malcolm Curfew or his remains. Many years passed and the property changed hands several times. None, however, could reside in the home for more than a few weeks at best. Many strange occurrences deferred any long-term residents.

Finally, in 1954, a document was discovered. Apparently, always the philanthropist, the doctor dictated in his will that, after his demise, a community park was to be built on the grounds surrounding his home. Strangely, no one could say why the will wasn’t found earlier.

Now nearly two hundred years after the incident, the question still remains: “What happened to the doctor?” And recently strange events have been occurring after dark on the grounds of the park.

Come experience the fun and games of the doctor’s house and cemetery nearby where rests his wife and daughter from so long ago. Some say ghosts haunt the building and graveyard, but visitors must experience it for themselves and then make up their own mind.