Drivers passing 1374 Smith St. in North Providence this month are met with a sprawling graveyard scene spilling across the lawn, over a rock wall and onto the sidewalk. Homeowners Matt Cook and Domenica Barsoian built the display for the first time this year, filling their yard with dozens of skeletons, ghouls, pumpkins and homemade structures.
According to The Valley Breeze, the graveyard-themed setup includes skeletons depicted crawling, climbing, sitting and hovering around the property, with figures of varied shapes and sizes mixed among the ghouls and pumpkins. Cook said the couple bought the property about a year before the display went up and wanted to bring some holiday spirit to the neighborhood, the outlet reports. He said Domenica did most of the decorating herself.
The full installation took roughly two weeks to put together, the report notes. Domenica Barsoian visited five Michael's stores, a Walmart and Halloween specialty shops to gather pieces for the scene, while Sandra Barsoian helped build PVC-pipe columns, archways and fencing that give the display its structure. The yard also features a homemade grim reaper among its handmade additions.
A Family Business Lends a Hand
Getting the lights up high enough required some outside help. Cook, who owns North Eastern Tree Service, had the company provide a bucket truck to hang many of the display's lights, the same report states.
Domenica Barsoian said making the display was especially enjoyable, adding that she liked watching neighbors react as they passed by, the station's report notes. She's invited people to stop and take pictures of the scene. Matt Cook said the couple simply likes to decorate, and Domenica said they plan to put up a Christmas display once Halloween wraps up.
A House With Some History
The property carries its own backstory beyond this year's decorations. The North Providence Preservation Commission has identified the house with a plaque as Maplehurst, also known as the Herbert B. Farnum House, per the same account. The Valley Breeze reports the home was built in 1904, while a Lila Delman real estate listing for the address puts the construction date at 1905. The listing describes the five-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom home as sitting on a 10,000-square-foot lot.
The Smith Street display joins a broader wave of elaborate home haunts popping up this season. WPRI recently rounded up some of the best local haunts, light shows and tableaus across Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts. For now, the graveyard on Smith Street stands as one more stop for anyone looking to get into the spirit of the season before the skeletons come down and the Christmas lights go up.
