By day, Old City Park is a quiet, peaceful place where visitors can step back in time and explore life in the 19th century. But on weekend nights this October, the historic grounds will transform into a chilling haunted destination filled with frights around every corner.

Ricardo Hernandez is the creator and owner of Junkyard Haunted House. He got into the scare business when he turned his junkyard into a haunted house and from there it grew in popularity. He now owns two haunted houses, located at 2700 Sylvan Ave., Dallas, and 2423 Chester St., Fort Worth. Last year, Hernandez presented his idea to turn Old City Park into a haunted house to the city of Dallas. 

“I want to bring the park back to life,” Hernandez said. “I see the park dormant and having a haunted house here in a park that already looks scary  and that has that historical terror already, I don’t think I’m going to have to do much.”

Hernandez says that this will be the first time the park will be transformed like this. Unlike his other haunted houses that use broken appliances, refrigerators and couches to create artificial mazes, the Old City Park location will use seven of the historic buildings. These buildings include the Worth Hotel, the Train Depot, Pilot Grove Church, the blacksmith area, Renner Schoolhouse, the Sullivan House and the Millermore Mansion. 

Each haunted house will have its own unique haunts and will be inspired by the stories of the actual buildings. Hernandez and his team of 50 people will set up the houses after the park closes and take them down after the last guest leaves. There will be no animatronics or two-sided mirrors, but there will be scare actors, jump scares, fog, sounds and lighting. 

For example, the train depot will be a one-way terminal of no return, the Sullivan house will have a fortune teller, the Renner Schoolhouse will be a twisted classroom of lethal lessons, and the Pilot Grove Church will be a malicious gothic nightmare. The scariest house will be the Millermore Mansion, which is actually haunted. 

Visitors will also get to enjoy a selfie station, vendors, food trucks and free parking.

Open Friday through Sunday from 8 p.m. to midnight in October at Old City Park, 1515 S. Harwood St., Dallas. Tickets are $40. sites.google.com.