Community turns out for trick-or-treat at Felt

The hocus pocus at the Felt Mansion on Halloween was not about toil and trouble but the double, double candy and treats for the scores of costumed kids and their parents at the second annual trick-or-treating at the mansion, 6597 138^th Ave. in Laketown Township.

The free event on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025, capped a spooky season as the historic site gets prepped for a Roaring 1920s fundraiser and the popular Christmas tours.

Halloween fun

About 30 volunteers staffed rooms and guided visitors through the 25-room mansion for treats and a scavenger hunt. Kids and parents collected stamps for finding bite-sized historical nuggets about Dorr and Agnes Felt, the Comptometer –- the first calculating machine that could do all four math functions (add, subtract, multiply and divide) — that made Felt a wealthy man able to build the mansion starting in 1925, the architecture, the cloistered nuns who later occupied the building. Some older visitors remembered when the mansion was a Michigan State Police post for the now-demolished prison that once stood across the driveway, and that the site was earlier a school that was attended by now Pope Leo XIV.

In Agnes Felt’s rooms overlooking the Carriage House, fountain and Chapel at Shore Acres, volunteer witches Jean, Kim Doele, Jenn Galdes and Susan Ooms helped trick-or-treaters find portraits of Agnes while volunteer Adriane Koehne dressed as Mrs. Potato Head stamped the scavenger hunt score sheets.

Down the hallway crowded with zombies, fairies, football players, angels and butterflies, Sophus Myers, a high school senior from Grandville, dressed in classic clown makeup and operatic attire, pointed out unique architecture around her as princesses and spacemen collected candy. In the third-floor ballroom, volunteers handed out treat bags to Gomez, Morticia and Wednesday Addams as modern families with dinosaur-dressed infants snapped selfies in front of the giant candelabra.

What’s ahead

At the main door at the end of the trick-or-treating trail, Elizabeth McEwen, executive director of the Felt Estate, dressed in 1920s-era clothing, thanked community members and reminded them of upcoming events.

The Felt Estate is marking its centennial with a fundraising gala linked to the 1925 release of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.” The anniversary will be celebrated at the “Holiday Unveiling: Glitz. Glamour. Gatsby!” from 7-10 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 29.

Participants will don 1920s-inspired attire and step back into the glamour of the Jazz Age to celebrate the season with live entertainment, period-themed experiences, and festive holiday décor. Jeanette Watts will teach fabulous flapping moves of the Foxtrot and Charleston.

Tickets are $115 and include appetizers, two drink tickets, and a commemorative ornament. There will also be a silent auction and raffle for a weekend stay at the mansion. All proceeds will support the mansion’s restoration.

For more information or tickets, visit https://www.feltmansion.org/unveiling

December will see the holiday tours through lavishly decorated rooms and the community celebration of Winterfest from 1-4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6.

For more information, visit www.feltmansion.org