Every Halloween, more than 5,000 people flood five blocks of Raleigh's Historic Oakwood neighborhood to see a 19th-century house transformed into a haunted spectacle, complete with life-sized zombies, a 20-foot skeleton, a tyrannosaurus rex, and a deejay spinning tunes for the crowd. The man behind it, defense attorney and former North Carolina State Wolfpack football player Jesse Jones, handed out 6,000 pieces of candy last year alone. Now he and his neighbors are staring down a city permitting system that could cost them thousands of dollars just to keep the streets safe for trick-or-treaters.
Jones began decorating his home at 504 Oakwood Avenue, at the corner of Oakwood Avenue and East Street, back in 2012, according to his Wikipedia entry. He has said he did not get to have a big Halloween growing up. What started as yard decorations has grown into more than 50 full-sized monsters and, as reported by the Raleigh News & Observer, what Jones calls the largest concentration of children trick-or-treating in Raleigh at any given time on Halloween.
A Decade-Old Block Party Outgrows Its Permit
The Oakwood Halloween gathering has been permitted as a neighborhood block party since 2014, according to the same News & Observer report. Under official city policy, those block party permits carry just a $50 non-refundable fee and 30 days' notice, per the City of Raleigh. Resident Julia Milstead told the News & Observer the event is advertised through leaflets distributed in other neighborhoods and regularly draws more than 5,000 people while closing five blocks.
Because the gathering is public and citywide in draw, it now falls under Raleigh's Special Event Permit requirements, which carry a $100 application fee, up to a $250 permit fee, and 30 to 90 days of advance notice, according to city regulations. The city also requires an insurance policy covering up to $1 million, per Jones, along with off-duty police officers, off-duty EMTs, designated weather-spotters, and a formalized trash plan. Altogether, the permit-related expenses will cost thousands of dollars, the paper reports — all for an event that Jones says generates no profit for him or anyone in the neighborhood.
Paying Out of Pocket to Keep Kids Safe
“I'm just decorating my yard,” Jones said, per the News & Observer's account. He has said the event is hosted entirely out of pocket to provide a safe, memorable trick-or-treat experience for Raleigh children, and he fears children's safety will be at risk if the streets remain open to traffic amid the Halloween crowds. Last year he paid $1,900 for two off-duty police officers, he said, but those officers left when their shift ended at 9 p.m. — well before the crowds dispersed.
“We were forced to call 911 multiple times just to get regular shift officers out to help manage the overwhelming crowd,” Jones wrote in a letter to Mayor Janet Cowell, according to the same report. Cowell, a former North Carolina State Treasurer who took office as mayor in December 2024, faces re-election in the city's general election on November 3. Under Raleigh Police Department guidelines, hiring off-duty officers for secondary event work costs a minimum of $45 per hour per officer, with a mandatory three-hour minimum shift, according to the city's police department.
Neighbors Weigh In Before City Council
Fellow Oakwood resident Matthew Brown put the stakes plainly: “We need to keep them safe. We can't just keep the streets open with 5,000 kids around,” he told the News & Observer. Brown said the Society for the Preservation of Historic Oakwood will write a letter to the city, and residents plan to address the Raleigh City Council on Tuesday during a public comment session beginning at 7 p.m. at City Hall.
Historic Oakwood has deep roots in organized neighborhood advocacy. It became Raleigh's first local historic district in 1974 after residents united to thwart a planned major thoroughfare, and it remains Raleigh's only intact 19th-century neighborhood, according to the Society for the Preservation of Historic Oakwood. That history of residents mobilizing to protect their streets is now colliding with a modern municipal rulebook never designed for a free, volunteer-run haunted house that draws citywide crowds.
Special-event organizers must carry liability insurance.
City officials say Raleigh continues to work with Jones, according to Milstead's comments to the News & Observer. Whether that cooperation translates into a fee waiver or a new policy carve-out may become clearer after Tuesday's council meeting, as Oakwood residents press their case directly to the mayor and council members weeks before the city's own election.
