Funland's Haunted Mansion gave its last rides on Sunday, Sept. 13, but the ride isn't quite done yet. Over the next three weeks its props, its hanging cars and one car in particular will move through Rehoboth's October calendar on a schedule set to the day. The last stop is a raffle drawing on Monday, Oct. 26. That's also the last day to claim sidewalk chairs the city collects after the Sea Witch parade.
So if you've ridden the Mansion every summer since you were small, or your kids have, October is when you can take a piece of it home.
The calendar, start to finish
- Sunday, Sept. 13. The current Haunted Mansion closed for good.
- Early October. Demolition of the current attraction was expected to begin.
- Noon Monday, Oct. 5, through Wednesday, Oct. 7. The online auction of Mansion pieces.
- Friday, Oct. 16, through Monday, Oct. 19. In-person pickup of auction items at Funland, 6 Delaware Avenue.
- Sea Witch weekend, Oct. 23–25. Haunted Mansion Car #4 is on display for selfies, and the Chamber sells raffle tickets for it.
- Monday, Oct. 26. The raffle drawing. The winner has to pick up the car by the end of that same day.
- Summer 2027. No Haunted Mansion. Arcade machines take over the space.
- Summer 2028. The rebuilt Mansion is expected to open.
Funland announced back in March that 2026 would be the ride's last season. Most of what's interesting about this month comes from how the family decided to take the ride apart.
What's being auctioned, and what isn't
The online auction opens tomorrow at noon. Lauren Golaszewski, a member of the Funland family who is helping run it, told the Cape Gazette that the family went through the ride to see what could be saved "rather than having everything go in the dumpster." They settled on an auction as the most organized way to handle it. The Gazette's photos show what kind of items are up for bid, including a lounging lady skeleton and a gravestone prop.
Golaszewski expects the hanging cars to get the most attention. "I could totally see that going in someone's basement as kind of funky seating and a fun way to display some Rehoboth Beach history," she said.
Some of the best-known pieces are staying with the family:
- Jim Melonic, who created the original Mansion, asked to keep many items for his studio to use while building the new version.
- Funland family members were invited to take pieces that meant something to them.
- The family is keeping two hanging cars, the red vaulted faux doors, the devil and the bat. Several of these will show up in the new Mansion in some form.
Part of the auction money will go toward the renovation, and part will go to local charities. To bid, go to funlandrehoboth.com, click the shop link in the upper right corner, then click the auction button at the top of the store page. Pickup is in person only, at the park.
The pickup window runs Oct. 16–19, the same days as most of the 37th Rehoboth Beach Jazz Festival, which runs Oct. 15–18 at venues in Rehoboth Beach, Lewes and Dewey Beach. If your winning bid is something heavy, like a gravestone, plan your trip to Delaware Avenue with festival traffic in mind.
Car #4 goes to Sea Witch
This is where the Mansion's goodbye meets the town's Halloween tradition. The Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce is raffling Car #4 during the 36th Sea Witch Festival, Oct. 23–25. The raffle shows up in the 2026 festival program's table of contents. It isn't in the 2025 program.
Here's how it works, according to the program:
- Tickets: $5 for one or $10 for three.
- Where to buy: the Visitors Center and the festival info tables at the Convention Center and the Bandstand, during the festival.
- Drawing: Monday, Oct. 26. The winner is notified by phone and has to pick up the car by the end of that day.
If you just want a photo, Car #4 will be on the main floor of the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., next to Hilda the Sea Witch balloon. It's free, donations are welcome, and it happens rain or shine.
The same-day pickup rule matters. You need a vehicle and a place to put a ride car before the drawing happens, not after.
The rest of that Sea Witch weekend
The Mansion car is one stop on a busy weekend downtown, and the town's other changes this year affect how you get to it.
Friday, Oct. 23: Sea Witch adds its first Community Fair this year, at the Rehoboth Beach Bandstand from noon to 5 p.m. Nonprofits, community groups and service providers will have booths there. No overnight parking is allowed in the Rehoboth Avenue spaces from 1 to 6 a.m. that Friday.
Saturday, Oct. 24: The costume parade starts at 11 a.m. Walkers begin at Fourth Street, head west on Rehoboth Avenue to State Road, come back east along the Avenue, turn at the Bandstand and finish back at Fourth Street. Judges give trophies to the top 25 costumed walkers, the top 10 motorized entries and their favorite band. Median parking is banned from 1 a.m. until the parade ends. There are also temporary no-parking zones on Fourth Street and parts of Fifth, Sussex and Kent streets.
The City of Rehoboth Streets Department removes any unattended chairs, coolers and blankets left on the Rehoboth Avenue sidewalks or median right after the parade. It holds them at its office at 20476 Lincoln Street until 4 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26. So the last day to pick up a confiscated beach chair is also the day someone in town brings home a Haunted Mansion car.
Sunday, Oct. 25: Car #4 and Hilda at the Convention Center, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The Chamber's Scarecrow Show & Trail is also running that weekend. Voting is open online or on paper ballots at the Chamber office, 306 Rehoboth Avenue, through Friday, Oct. 30. The program says details can change, so check the Chamber's Sea Witch page before you head out.
Why the ride is coming apart now
Chris Darr is a fourth-generation member of the family that runs Funland. He rode the Mansion as a kid and worked at the park as a summer employee. He told CoastTV the decision came down to the ride's age.
"It's had 45 great years, but think about a car or anything. You're a person at 45. Their knees start hurting. Their back starts bothering them."
The work goes well beyond new scenes. Darr said it involves builders, fire suppression systems and upgrades to meet current life safety codes. The family originally hoped to finish in one offseason, but the size of the job pushed the timeline out to two years. "This is going to be a new version that will allow us to do this for another 45 years," Darr said.
Jim Melonic and JMM Studios, who did the original theming, are back to design the new version. Funland's March announcement said the Mansion will still be recognizable, just with a "different voice." Darr said the outside will look much the same, and the organ, the bat and the Frankenstein figure are expected to come back in updated forms. The ride will stick to family-friendly scares, with no blood, gore or more intense horror.
Nobody has said whether the coffin scare is coming back. That's the moment a figure pops up out of a coffin, and it was the favorite part for a visitor who was first in line on a late-season visit.
Golaszewski said October won't be the last chance to own something from the ride. Once the auction ends, Funland turns to demolition and building, and there will be a few more chances to get Mansion pieces later on. Summer 2027 will be the first summer in more than 45 years without a Haunted Mansion at Funland. The space will have arcade machines while construction continues, and the new ride is expected to open in summer 2028.
The Allwein Team follows Coastal Delaware closely, from Boardwalk landmarks like this one to the dates that matter to people who live here all year. If you have a place near Rehoboth Avenue and want to talk about it, or you're thinking about a home of your own close enough to walk to the next Sea Witch, book your free consultation.
