The following is an adapted excerpt from Paranormal Texas, my best-selling travel guide to haunted places and paranormal hot spots near Dallas and Fort Worth. Check it out if you enjoy learning historic haunted lore, or are looking for unusual road trip ideas in north Texas.
This Texas Thrill House May Actually Be Haunted!
While businesses often downplay or deny on-site paranormal activity, Moxley Manor has every reason to flaunt its strange occurrences. Why? Because it is a commercial haunted house attraction.
Texans celebrate Halloween with gusto, and the last I counted, there were at least 24 commercial haunted house attractions in the Dallas – Fort Worth area. These places exist to dish out hair-raising thrills, but no one expects anything “real.”
It’s an adrenaline rush, pure and simple.
What sets Moxley Manor apart from other haunted attractions is that it appears to be in a truly haunted space.
Appearances are deceiving
From the outside, Moxley Manor looks rather mundane. It’s not a house at all, in fact, but a retail space in an unassuming strip mall in Bedford. Despite its benign exterior, Moxley Manor’s rooms, corridors, and cubbyholes span over 6000 square feet. (Believe me, it feels even bigger when you grope through that labyrinthian interior in semi-darkness, trying desperately to find the exit.)
The mastermind behind Moxley’s madness, is Mr. Richard Alvarado. Out of costume, Richard is friendly, light-hearted, and decidedly un-scary. He’s a horror fan who has been involved in the haunted attraction industry for many years.
Moxley Manor: A Labor of Love
There’s a story behind every piece of furniture and knicknack at Moxley Manor. Decorating the haunted house is an ongoing project for Richard and his girlfriend, Rachel, who work on it throughout the year, fixing things up, adding creepy-yet-homey touches, putting up new features and generally maintaining it the way you would a regular house.
In fact, when it came to the kitchen, Richard says, “I was like a new bride. I just had to have the 1950 Roper oven and that International Harvester refrigerator.” Although those chosen appliances are now spattered with “blood,” I got the distinct impression that Moxley Manor is a labor of love.
Paranormal Activity at Moxley Manor
Rumor has it, however, that Moxley Manor may actually be haunted. According to Alvarado, “I don’t really believe in that, but some of the stuff that’s been happening around here is starting to make me wonder.”
What kind of stuff? According to Richard, even though he and Rachel are the only ones with keys, and are conscientious about turning the lights off when they leave, “A lot of times when we get back here, the lights are on.”
Another time, said Rachel, “When we came in, we flipped on the lights and there was a 2×6 piece of wood standing straight up – all by itself.”
Other oddities include strange scratches in a concrete wall, loud banging sounds, and the alarm going off for no reason. While paranormal teams have collected EVP’s and photographic anomalies at Moxley Manor, more questions remain than have been answered.
Since the activity started after the haunted house was created, and Alvarado has created an elaborate back story for Moxley Manor, could this be an example of thought forms being created after the fact rather than a traditional haunting? It’s certainly worth checking out for yourself.
Plan your trip to Moxley Manor
Address:
Moxley Manor Haunted House
510 Harwood Rd
Bedford, TX 76021
Moxley Manor’s official website:
http://moxleymanor.com/
Want to read more like this?
To read about more weird, offbeat, and overlooked places, check out my best-selling travel guide:
UNEXPECTED TEXAS: Your Guide to Offbeat & Overlooked History, Day Trips & Fun Things to do near Dallas & Fort Worth
.
For ghost hunting hot spots, check out my best-selling travel guide to haunted places:
PARANORMAL TEXAS: Your Travel Guide to Haunted Places near Dallas & Fort Worth
.
For a strange-but-true tale of Texas history, check out this bizarre piece of West Texas history:
The Lynching of the Santa Claus Bank Robber
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