TRAVERSE CITY -- A musical time capsule is dressing up for Halloween.
The Music House Museum in Acme debuts a one-day spooktastic event Saturday, holding four sessions of a Haunted Halloween Family Fun featuring a little something for everyone.
The usual seasonal events of pumpkin decorating, hayrides, refreshments and games will be filled out with a showing of the Buster Keaton silent film "Haunted House," accompanied by the museum's Wurlitzer theater organ.
The mission for the day: fun for the whole family.
"It's one day only and we're really aiming it at families but adults and other children are welcome to come, they will have as much fun, too," said Sally Lewis, president of the Music House Museum's board. "We're encouraging people to wear costumes."
Last weekend, Matt Kolbe and other volunteers dressed up the renovated former dairy barn that houses the museum's collection of antique musical instruments. They turned the Lyric Theater into a haunted funeral parlor and injected horror into the Hurry Back Saloon. The Traverse City Halloween aficionado also created a chilling cemetery near the museum's entrance.
The event is a fundraiser geared to boost the nonprofit's general operating fund, a venture always welcome for the facility completing its 26th season.
The Music House Museum offers daily tours of the 12,000-square-foot barn from May through October and on weekends in November and December. In addition to this Saturday's Haunted Halloween event, other programs during the season include a silent film series, a chamber concert series on the lawn during the summer and special events such as an antique car show.
The museum also hosts an annual School Days, which traces the history of musical instruments "From Edison to iPod." Local musician and educator Tom Kaufmann and other volunteers present the program to area school children.
New manager Phil Pelky has noticed that first time visitors encountering the 1922 Mortimer dance organ and hundreds of rare antique musical instruments and music-making machines have a similar reaction.
"It's a lot of jaw dropping and eye popping," he said. "In the two months I've been here there have been a lot of repeat customers, too that's kind of the best praise you can get."
Another avenue of outreach is that the facility is available for hosting parties and wedding receptions.
"The last wedding we had here used the big organ as their dance music," Pelky said.
Veteran board member Bob Jackson said the Music House Museum is one of the area's best kept secrets. While a guest book shows that the museum draws visitors from around the nation and world, it is less well-known regionally. Still, attendance rates hold steady over the years, showing a slight growth curve from 10,533 in 2005 to 11,703 in 2007, the last year figures were available.
Jackson believes the unique collection in a unique setting is a jewel for the area. The Music House Museum keeps alive the vision and determination of late founder Dave Stiffler, who was determined to preserve for future generations an era of mechanical music making.
"It's very unusual and the fact that nothing that you hear in a normal tour is electronic," Jackson said. "We do not use any artificial means of creating sound; every sound you hear is a gasp of air passing through something or a note being struck, so it's extremely authentic."
For more information on the Music House Museum or the Haunted Halloween Family Fun event, call 938-9300 or visit www.musichouse.org. Shows will be held at 1, 3, 5 and 7 p.m. that day and reservations are recommended. Tickets are $40 for a family, $15 for adults and $10 for ages 15 and under. The event will be held rain or shine.
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