A new double art exhibition opening next Saturday at Sugarmynt Gallery in South Pasadena will pair tributes to two very different cult classics: John Carpenter’s 1978 slasher film Halloween and Cartoon Network’s animated miniseries Over the Garden Wall. Called Pottsfield Meets Haddonfield, the show features work from more than 40 artists and runs from September 12 through November 29.
The gallery sits directly behind the real house used as the childhood home of Michael Myers in Halloween, a detail that has shaped its identity since it opened, according to NBC Los Angeles. Founded in June 2015 by owner SaraRose Orlandini, Sugarmynt Gallery has built a reputation as a horror-centric art space and event venue, operating under a motto that every day is Halloween, per the gallery’s own site, Sugarmynt Gallery. Since opening, it has hosted an annual autumn exhibition called Welcome to Haddonfield, featuring behind-the-scenes photography from the first two Halloween movies alongside film memorabilia and fan artwork, a tradition the new show builds on.
Two Fictional Towns, One Halloween Aesthetic
Haddonfield, Illinois, is the fictional town where the original Halloween takes place, and its name has become shorthand for the franchise among fans. Pottsfield, meanwhile, comes from Over the Garden Wall, an eerie harvest-festival town introduced in the 2014 episode Hard Times at the Huskin’ Bee, populated by living skeletons in pumpkin costumes led by a giant pumpkin-headed figure named Enoch, according to the outlet TV Tropes. The pumpkin-heavy harvest imagery of Pottsfield mirrors the autumn themes running through Halloween, which is part of what makes the pairing work as a single exhibit.
Created by Patrick McHale, Over the Garden Wall debuted on Cartoon Network in November 2014 as the network’s first animated miniseries and went on to win the 2015 Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program, according to the Television Academy. The 10-episode dark fantasy series starred Elijah Wood and Collin Dean as a pair of lost half-brothers navigating a strange, autumnal world. Its cult following has only grown; to mark its 10th anniversary in late 2024, Cartoon Network worked with stop-motion studio Aardman Animations on a new three-minute short titled An Elephant Never Forgets, reuniting members of the original creative team, per Animation Magazine.
The Real House Behind the Myth
Just south of the gallery sits the Century House, a Victorian-style structure built in 1888 as one of South Pasadena’s earliest frame residences and its first duplex. It served as the childhood home of Michael Myers in the original Halloween and is known among fans simply as the Myers residence, according to the report from NBC Los Angeles. The house originally stood farther up Meridian Avenue before it was relocated down the street, per Atlas Obscura.
The building nearly didn’t survive. In 1987, former South Pasadena City Council member David Margrave stepped in to buy the Century House for a symbolic silver dollar just as it was slated for demolition to make way for new development, partnering with the South Pasadena Preservation Foundation to move it to 1000 Mission Street on a triangular lot across from the South Pasadena train station, according to the Los Angeles Explorers Guild. The city later designated it South Pasadena Cultural Landmark No. 34, preserving it as both a municipal heritage site and a pop-culture pilgrimage spot; visitors regularly gather on the nearby sidewalk to take photos, and on Halloween night, the photo line reportedly stretches down the sidewalk near the house, per NBC Los Angeles.
Screening Nights and Exhibit Details
John Carpenter filmed much of the original Halloween on location around South Pasadena, turning the San Gabriel Valley city’s suburban streets into fictional Haddonfield, according to the Los Angeles Times. Other nearby filming locations include Laurie Strode’s movie home on Oxley Street. Sugarmynt Gallery has leaned into that legacy beyond its exhibits, routinely hosting outdoor Backyard Movie Nights behind the Myers house, where pre-ticketed audiences bring lawn chairs and blankets to watch Halloween franchise films and other spooky titles in an intimate backyard setting, according to the gallery’s event listings.
Pottsfield Meets Haddonfield opens next Saturday with an opening-night event from 7 to 10 p.m. that requires tickets and RSVP through the Sugarmynt Gallery site. General admission to the exhibit costs $15 per person, per NBC Los Angeles. During its run, the gallery is open Friday and Saturday from noon to 8 p.m. and Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday from noon to 5 p.m., while staying closed Tuesdays and Thursdays; hours are expected to extend around mid-October as Halloween approaches.
