Still Life with Robin: Cleveland Park Does Halloween Right!

 by Peggy Robin

Hope you had fun on Halloween night! 🎃👻🦇🕸️🧛😈

Some scary scenes captured in digital images might get you in the right spirit for a thrills 'n' chills election night on Tuesday, November 5.

First up is the photo below, shown in a tweet by the DC Tourism site, Visit Washington, DC @washingtondc, because the decorated house they picked to represent this city was one of the Sears "kit" houses in Cleveland Park (3000 block of Macomb St, south side). It's got that classic "gingerbread house" look, and the Halloween decorations are creatively but tastefully displayed -- nothing over-the-top. No 12-ft skeleton, no blow-up Frankensteins....but  maybe a little more fun than you would expect in a neighborhood with a reputation for stodginess.

Here it is:

https://x.com/washingtondc/status/1851334473012441214

Ghouls just wanna have fun. Need Halloween plans this week? Check out our recs: http://washington.org/visit-dc/halloween-dia-de-los-muertos-events-in-around-washington-dc… : dccitygirl / Instagram #Only1DC

Visit Washington, DC @washingtondc

This particular Sears kit house style is called "The Barrington" -- and yes, you ordered it from the Sears & Roebuck catalog (it was the Amazon of its day). Read all about it here: https://accidentallywesanderson.com/places/the-barrington/

Here's the most mind-blowing statistic of the article:

When first listed by Sears, the home sold for $2,458. In 2016, the Leggett family listed the home for $1.19 million. [Skeletons not included]

All the other photos are available in an album I've put together in the PHOTOs section of the Listserv at: https://groups.io/g/clevelandpark/album?id=298464

Full disclosure: They're not all Cleveland Park houses. There's an amazing house on Utah Avenue and another on 49th Street. And the Kamala pumpkin was carved by my daughter Karen in Queens!

Anyone can add photos to the album - so if you took some Halloween-appropriate shots, feel free to upload them.

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p.s. You may need a Groups.io password to view the album, If you don't have one or if you once had one but no longer remember what it is, go to the "sign in/sign up" link in the upper right-hand corner of the home page at  https://groups.io/g/clevelandpark, enter your subscribed email address in the box, and if you need a password, click on "Forgot your password or need to create one?." Then check your inbox for an email from Groups.io with a link that allows you to create a new password. More about signing in and registering with Groups.io on our FAQ page at:  http://www.cleveland-park.com/faq.html

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Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.