NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — On St. Charles Avenue and State Street, there’s a house that takes the center of attention every Halloween season, The Skeleton House NOLA.
Dozens of cleverly designed satirical skeletons fill up a “graveyard” and bring funny bone-tickling thrills to locals and visitors alike.
For 20 years, Louellen Berger has designed a satirical masterpiece of bonafide funny skeletons for everyone to enjoy and take “skelfies” with.
“I am running out of space on my property. A lot of us all have difficult times in our lives and if they can come here and spend ten minutes laughing. If I can bring a little happiness to some lives, I want to be uplifting. I’ll hear giggles from streetcar, and it really warms my heart,” Berger said.
Berger first started designing these skeletons to entertain her parents, and now she does it to entertain her 11 grandchildren and all of New Orleans.
She comes up with 90% of the ideas but likes taking suggestions.
“This year two ideas came from two separate 9-year-old children. One of the ideas is “RIPunzel,” and it is on my tree. The other is based on a popular book with middle schoolers and pre-teens, Percy Jackson, so it is HEARSE-y Jackson,” she said.
This Halloween, there are about 15 new skeletons.
“This one’s “Jennifer Ghoulidge” instead of Jennifer Coolidge,” she said.
Be on the lookout for other “skullebrities” like Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani, Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran, Tony Bennett and Jimmy Buffett.
Local celebrities like Sidney Torres, The Neville Brothers, Irma Thomas, Terrance Osborne and many others are featured skeletons.
Many people wonder what Berger does with all the skeletons during the year when they aren’t in her yard.
“I have a very patient husband and we don’t park our cars in our garage for eleven months of the year. Finally for one month out of the year we park in our garage,” Berger said.
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