Origin Story

House of Grehl was born in October of 2015. Creators Erika and Daniel were working at a small architecture firm in Manhattan, and the office was having its Friday happy hour.

E & D were trying to get a group together to attend a Halloween escape-the-room upstate the following night. Unfortunately, tickets had sold out faster than anyone could commit. Feeling the happy hour buzz, they toyed with the idea of crafting their own experience, but they only had 24 hours to execute and no idea where to start.

Daniel suggested they walk a few blocks to Party City and set a timer for 10 minutes. If the timer went off and the excitement was still brewing, then it was full steam ahead. A blow-up doll in the back of a center aisle sealed the deal. And so it all began.

Year one’s plot line was a Halloween-party-gone-wrong. The blow-up doll played the role of disappeared party guest. It was an experience full of puzzles and lock boxes leading to a climactic rescue in the woods. The finale included a pellet gun aimed at the tin-can heart of a life-sized cardboard assailant, found earlier that day in the basement. The night was scrappy and silly, and loads of fun.

The next year and each year after that, the event was back by popular demand. Friends started bringing costumes and contributing ideas. Bit by bit, characters and a storyline were born. Each year, E & D would drive up to Daniel’s childhood home in Cornwall, New York, just a few days early. They’d stay up until the wee hours, writing, building, cutting, draping, setting up lights.

All the while, they were attending immersive experiences in NYC and falling in love with the art. House of Grehl evolved to be less escape-the-room and more immersive experience, with opportunities for guests to play roles and help bring the story to life.

The tradition has continued every year since, with the exception of 2019, the year E & D got married, on the very same Saturday before Halloween.

House of Grehl is now a 3-part series, and has taken on a second location in Easton, Maryland. The House of Grehl Academy of Enlightenment and its founder, Professor Foggybottom, are at the center of the action. The production is a tad more polished, but still embodies the playful, imaginative spirit that first brought it to life.