Remembering The Terror on Gaines Street
The old Terror building had a lot of character. It looked haunted naturally, without any special effort at all. People instictively crossed the road to walk down the other side of the street when passing it. And it seemed to take up the entire block.
Rumors that The City planned to condemn it, or that developers were going to buy it and turn it into something else threatened it for years. Since 2008 or so, the management routinely believed each year would be its last. (And most the actors performed like it was their last performance.) It was finally sold in December of 2013 for $2.4 million and the haunt was given sixty days to find a new place and move everything.
Here's a 2012 photo from an upstairs apartment that was built a few years before The Terror's demise. T.o.T. was too big to fit in this photo. (The front lobby section is cut off, as well as most of the backyard "Hallucination Hangar" and "Sunland Asylum" along side it.)
In late 2014, the once proud haunt was torn down and replaced with a boring parking lot. (It doesn't seem like a good trade, does it?)
This shot was taken from Woodward Avenue in 2015, facing East (toward the Capital).
Same location as above, but looking North toward Urban Outfitters and Madison Social Nightclub/ College Town.
By October 2019, they replaced the parking lot with yet another high-rise hotel.
Although given just 2 months to find a new location, secure it, and move everything to it, the Terror Team succeeded in doing so and reopened for 2014 just half a mile away. Everything, including all the walls, the giant fire system plumbing, the custom Helevator, all the Hallucination Hangar and transformation illusions, the Sunland relics, the lobby rockwork, the elaborate lab, and even all the old screws that held the (seemingly) miles of maze tunnels together were recycled and reused at the new location. All that stuff had already heard 15 years of screams-- it was well seasoned and ready for more!
But although much of the original Terror was reused, the new Terror has evolved and undergone extensive changes. If you were one of the thousands who got to experience the old building, consider yourself a lucky participate in haunted history. It was a very special place that can never (and should never) be duplicated. It was perfect for that place in time in which it existed.
The Gaines Street haunt was destroyed, but its spirit still lives on.
It continues to terrorize Tallahassee at its new location, 1408 Lake Bradford Road.
rev 8.15.21
