The house at 108 Ocean Ave in Amityville, New York has become an infamous icon in both fictional horror circles and with those with an interest in true-life stories of paranormal phenomena.
Over the years it has also become an unofficial tourist attraction as well, with people stopping to gape at the house and pose for photographs with the house as a backdrop.
Many times it has even been suggested that the dutch colonial home should be converted into a tourist attraction such as a bed and breakfast style lodging accommodation or a paranormal museum.
Add those ideas to others including the intense desire by paranormal investigation teams to have access to the house and conduct the first known investigation of the property since the Warrens in 1976 and you have a lot of people who would like to see such a plan come to fruition.
One individual took this idea and ran with it straight to the crowdfunding website ‘Go Fund Me‘ in June of this year.
Although the idea of being able to actually walk into the Amityville Horror House and see the locations where not only a brutal multiple murder occurred but also the site of one of the most famous haunting cases in recorded history seems like a dream come true, don’t pack your bags just yet.
There are many factors that scream ‘get out’ at any potential investor in such a scheme.
Go Fund Me user Carl Whiteley started the campaign on June 9th and the description of his goals for the potential crowdfunding income and the property itself are as follows:
“The Amityville house is the most famous haunted house in the world and the focus of many movies and books…and it’s up for sale!
We want to buy the house and make it into an attraction. During most of the year, the house will be open to the public for visits and as a B&B so people can spend this night in this haunted house.
During the Halloween period, the house and the grounds will become home to the best Halloween attraction around.
This house is culturally important and rather that it be a residential home we want to make it something for fans and those with interest in the paranormal.”
Despite these intentions, there are a few issues that do not add up that make such a venture seem a near impossibility.
An old saying goes that location is everything and in the case of the Amityville Horror House becoming your favorite B & B that may be the case as well.
The property is very close to the houses on either side of its property line, meaning that having a large crowd of people milling about and coming and going from the house a very unfeasible event, to say nothing about facilities and parking such an undertaking would require.
Unless someone was to buy a lot of the area around the home, a lot of which is residential, this makes the idea of a public venue at the location hard to imagine becoming a reality.
Before I mentioned how many people already treat the house as a tourist hot spot, with people coming to take a look at the house and maybe even capturing video or photographs as well on or near the property.
Sadly, as much fun as these people are having on trips to go to visit the infamous location, many of the neighbors and multiple prior owners of the house itself dislike this activity and the disruption it causes their daily lives.
Finally, the biggest hurdle we can see in this venture is the fact that despite over two hundred Facebook shares at the time of writing the campaign has yet to raise one single red cent for its cause.
Perhaps they should ask the resident ghosts for a loan?
–Thomas Spychalski
(Via Go Fund me)
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