For whatever reason, between the years of 1964 and 1966, there were two television shows that featured comical Gothic horror-movie-type families living in old scary-looking mansions who were trying to adapt with their mainstream suburban communities: The Munsters and The Addams Family. But the two shows were quite different in tone and characterization. The Addams Family characters were actually human, but just with macabre interests and supernatural abilities. They preferred to stay at home. While the Munsters were a blue-collar, outgoing family of monsters; the father Herman was based on Frankenstein’s monster. The family lived at 1313 Mockingbird Lane in the city of Mockingbird Heights, a fictional suburb in California. But you can say the house is no longer part of the fictional world because Charles and Sandra McKee of Waxahachie, Texas have spent the last nine or so years turning their house into a nearly perfect replica of the Munster family home.
Unfortunately, blueprints didn’t exist for the television show (or probably for any tv show for that matter) so the McKees watched all 70 episodes of the Munsters in order to create a floor plan. Everything you see on the show is featured in its Texas counterpart, including the large oak staircase, which actually lifts up to reveal son Eddie’s pet dragon Spot, as well as the coffin shaped phone booth. The ultimate goal is to achieve the decayed look of the original house by making the exterior darker, aged, and more distressed. If you’re interested in visiting the house, it is available for FREE tours during the month of October (which is NOW, people). There is also their annual Halloween charity fund raising event, where cast members of the original show have attended in the past, like Al Lewis (Grandpa), Butch Patrick (Eddie), and Pat Priest (Marilyn).
