MILWAUKEE — Let me tell you something. You won't find many Halloween displays quite like the one in Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood. The wizarding world of Harry Potter has come to life at A&J's Halloween House.
The display, located at 2943 S. Clement Ave in the Bay View neighborhood, is absolutely huge. It spans across three different homes. It features Hagrid's Hut, the Sorting Hat, Gringotts, Jack-o'-lantern-themed Gringotts goblins, the Great Hall, Dobby the Elf, the dragon, a giant spider, a troll, and, of course, Harry Potter and his rival, Lord Voldemort.
The longer you stay at the display, the more you see. You can climb into the Hogwarts Express train car, and a video monitor shows the city of Milwaukee pass by with dementors in the sky. There are even moving portraits featuring Snape, Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, and a special cameo by Dolly Parton.
I've been covering this display for about seven years. Every single time I come by, the display gets bigger and better.
“There was a lot of building that went into this year. It was a crazy amount of engineering, a crazy amount of just design and everything that went into this," Andy Reid, the co-creator of A&J's Halloween House, said.
He has been doing this for more than two decades with his husband Jamie Beauchamp. Along with the help of some friends, they made this the largest display yet.
“So we are going to make sure that going forward that people don’t expect us to go bigger than this, but we might go better than this," Reid said.
I’ve covered displays like Scooby Doo, Wheel of Misfortune, Ancient Aliens, Ghostbusters, Beetlejuice, and a scary circus.
“It’s so great for the community, for us. I love doing it because it’s so much fun," Reid said.
This is the 11th official year A&J’s Halloween House has partnered with the nonprofit Pathfinders. It offers housing support, shelter for runaway and homeless youth, anti-sexual violence services, and more. There are multiple places to donate around the display.
“Last year was a milestone where it was our 10-year anniversary, and we raised $102,000 in 10 years.”
For those wishing to visit the wizarding world, it will be up through October, but they take it down immediately after Halloween.
Since A&J's Halloween House has been going on for two decades, they've gotten a lot of the same questions. Let's answer some of the most common ones. This was taken from the story I did back in 2024.
- How much did it cost? "Never ever going to reveal that. That is our donation to do this so that the money that is raised goes towards the charity," Reid said.
- Where do you store it all? In the garage. They also donate the materials to schools. Sometimes people have bought features from them.
- What do they do for Christmas? Nothing. They just do Halloween.
- Why do they do it? Reid was inspired by his mom who always put up incredible Halloween decorations.
Watch the story below to see more of what the Harry Potter display looks like...
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