Halloween lights in Lambertville, New Jersey bring people out even before it’s time to trick-or-treat. The tradition of going over the top decorating for the holiday is well established in this riverside town.
One particularly well known spot is known as “Halloween House” on North Union Street. Each year Dolores Dragan, a retired school art teacher, creates an elaborate display featuring spooky, life-sized paper mache figures.
Dragan has lived in Lambertville for the past 20 years and began the Halloween House tradition back in 1998.
In a short film by New Hope videographer, Bob Krist, Dragan explains how many of her ideas come from the people that she knows. The figures are not exact replicas, but rather reflect some aspect of the person’s essence in caricature form.
She uses blacklights to give the white figures a spectral glow. Dragan says that at the school where she taught they had a blacklight theatre for children who had slight learning disabilities and this was where she got the idea.
Maria Tsardrulas, a student in Dragan’s art class in elementary school, says, “We used to do paper mache when we were in her art class.”
Maria McGrath, a local resident who also decorates her house, says of Dragan that she “makes it very competitive for the blocks around here.”
