Every Halloween season for the last two decades, Louellen Berger has adorned the front lawn of her St. Charles Avenue home with dozens of skeletons. The display is known for its skeleton-themed puns, including “Fibula on the Roof,” “ET Bone Home” and “Peter Pan-creas.”
“To us, it is just a home,” Berger said. To the public, Berger’s home is the Skeleton House, where every set of bones creates a spooky skeletal display of life and death.
Berger’s home lies on the corner of St. Charles Avenue and State Street, where a St. Charles Streetcar stop is located. “My husband and I had been blessed to be on this very visible corner,” Berger said.
Berger’s husband, Darryl, is a Tulane University School of Law alumnus and recipient of the Tulane Distinguished Alumnus Award for his involved history with the university. Darryl Berger was influential as the former chairman of the Board of Tulane, the university’s main governing body. The Lavin-Bernick Center for University Life quad was named the Berger Family Lawn as a tribute to his legacy.
“I have a very patient husband … He supports this crazy project,” Berger said.
When Louellen Berger first started decorating decades ago, it was just a small display to entertain her elderly parents. But when a branch from a tree in her front yard fell, she saw it as an opportunity to expand.
“I said, ‘I’m going to put a skeleton there,’” Berger said. “But … the yard looks a little sad with just one skeleton, so I added three more.”
Thus, the skeletal tradition began.
“I never dreamed that when I started that it would evolve into this many skeletons and this kind of attention and … affection,” Berger said.
Every year in early September, Berger sifts through the Halloween storage in her garage and starts designing her skeletons and the display’s layout, but not every skeleton makes it out of storage. “When I retire them … I change their clothing and I change their persona,” Berger said. “They take on a new character.”
She starts setting up in early October. To decide on the skeletons’ “personas,” Berger said her family comes up with most of them, collecting ideas all August and September.
For the other personas, neighbors can leave anonymous suggestions in a box outside of the property’s fence. In the past, neighbors inspired skeletons such as “Saturday Night Femur” and “To-marrow To-marrow,” an Annie reference.
Berger has also been approached outside of her home by children eager to share their ossified puns. Once at Mardi Gras, Berger said a 9-year-old boy and girl pitched “RIP-unzel” and “Hearse-y Jackson” skeletons, which she now includes on her lawn.
Berger’s display is a holiday attraction for people of all ages and backgrounds, some of whom fly in from as far as France. The house is popular on social media, New Orleans tourism websites and was even featured on Good Morning America, attracting regular visitors from across the country.
With all the extra attention to the neighborhood, the 30-day display attracts businesses that take up residence along St. Charles, not interfering with the free street view of the home, as per Berger’s request.
The Roman Candy Company parks near the home on Saturdays and Sundays, along with ice cream vendors and youth-entrepreneurial groups hosting lemonade stands and bake sales, intermittently.
Originally, a few neighbors believed the display was “chipping away at the significance and integrity of this house,” Berger said. “I just thought, ‘oh, this sad person.’”
However, for many neighbors, like Uptown resident Shannon Cavell, “Every year, it is the highlight of our season.”
Berger does not follow the typical tradition of handing out candy on Halloween night. Instead, she distributes custom-made light-up necklaces with a Skeleton House caricature as a pendant.
“That was my biggest concern … kids dashing across St. Charles Ave. with not only cars, but bicycles and streetcars,” Berger said. “Hopefully, that little lighted necklace will be seen by passersby.”
Berger’s home is also registered with the Teal Pumpkin Project, which maps out allergen-free homes because Berger’s grandson is allergic to nuts. The initiative promotes safety for trick-or-treaters with allergies to common Halloween candy.
“It just humbles me that I’m a temporary steward of this home, but that we can give back to our city pleasure, laughs and humor for 30 days a year,” Berger said.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article inaccurately stated the the Skeleton House is located in the Garden District.