The Myers House is a significant location in the Halloween franchise.
About[]
Located at 45 Lampkin Lane in the northwest section of Haddonfield, Illinois, the house renowned as the childhood home of mass murderer Michael Myers and quintessential "October Mass Murders" survivor Laurie Strode. The white-washed Victorian residence was last owned by Donald and Edith Myers. The Myers couple had three children;
- (1) Judith Margaret Myers (born Saturday November 10, 1945),
- (2) Michael Audrey Myers (born Saturday October 19, 1957),
- (3) Susanna Jane Myers [Laurie Anne Strode] (born Saturday March 25, 1961).
The Myers family was Christian and all the children were given Biblical first names.
After Donald and Edith graduated from Northwestern University in the early 1940's. They settled in Donald's hometown of Haddonfield and purchased an imposing yet stately Gothic-style mansion located in Haddonfield's eastern residential district at 1007 First Avenue. They lived there for nearly nineteen years. During Michael's kindergarten year, he insisted that the house was haunted, claiming to her voices, and suffered from horrific nightmares. Michael's parents took this behavior seriously, although maintained their belief that the house was perfectly safe for a growing family. After Michael finished kindergarten, the Myers family moved across town into a smaller residence, a rather plain four-bedroom two-storey Victorian house.
The house was inhabited by the Myers family from the Spring of 1963 until the Summer of 1965. Donald and Edith died in an automobile accident on the then-newly built Interstate 55 just as they were descending onto the Pontiac exit ramp. Ownership of the house was willed to the Myers' family friends Morgan and Pamela Strode, Susanna's "godparents," [Laurie's adoptive parents]. Morgan and his brother John transferred ownership to their real estate agency business Strode Realty one year after Donald and Edith had passed away. John and his wife Debra moved into the house in late Summer 1995. When now-serial killer Michael Myers appeared on Halloween of that year, all the Strode family members, save Laurie's paternal adoptive cousin Kara, were murdered. Since the house never sold, Pamela Strode, after Morgan passed away in May 2001, took over the operations of Strode Realty and allowed the Dangertainment live-video Internet company full use of the property. After the Dangertainment murders of Thursday October 31, 2002, Pamela had the residence torn completely down and the land completely leveled within weeks. The lot sold in the Spring of 2003, including newly available neighboring lots, and the property was rebuilt with large condominiums. Pamela Strode still maintains the blueprints for the original house that was built in the late 1880's.
The Myers House is most famous for being the location of one of the most horrific acts of parricide and sororicide in Illinois and American history. Seventeen-year-old Judith Margaret Myers was brutally stabbed with a kitchen knife in the stomach and above her breasts. The murderer was her own brother, six-year-old Michael Aubrey Myers. The case is remembered for being the most shocking, gruesome, unconscionable, unusual, and unnatural murder even despite the fact it was a familial killing. One additional fact is that the murder happened on Halloween night. Haddonfield and deaths on Halloween have transformed public perception of Haddonfield as the Halloween Capital of the World even more so than the Celtic Islands; the origin of the celebration of Samhain - the precursor to All Hallow's Eve or Halloween. Because of the now overwhelming widespread knowledge about the infamous serial killer Michael Myers, Haddonfield and Halloween have become synonymous.
In the years following its vacancy, the house had become run-down until 1995 when John and Debra Strode attempted to renovate whilst still in the moving process. After the deaths of the Strode family, Morgan and Pamela cleaned up the property, renovated and enlarged the interior, and constructed a modest one-car garage to compliment the residence. In 1998, with the property still not purchased, Morgan and Pamela permanently removed it from the real estate market. In 2002, with the property rundown and overgrown with vines and tall grass, the municipal government passed a resolution outlawing all vacant real properties within city limits from being unkept. The exception was in late October 2002 when Frederick Harris and Nora Winston sent a letter to Strode Realty and the Haddonfield City Council requesting the use of the property "as is" for their live-Internet Dangertainment show. Pamela Strode and the Council came to an agreement only if Mr. Harris and Miss Winston agreed to be responsible for any significant damages made to the property on their watch. After an agreement was made, Pamela allowed full access to the property because she believed in Mr. Harris' intentions about bringing media attention with the World Wide Web about the former Myers residence.
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