Scrolling through social media can be mind-numbing, but once in awhile it throws you a gem of information that can lead to a great experience. One such moment was finding an Instagram reel about the VAMPA museum in Doylestown, PA. I filed this video away in my bucket list folder and knew that I’d get there one day but didn’t expect one day to come so soon.
This summer, during a road trip through my home state of Pennsylvania, I made a point to stop at VAMPA one morning. Below are my impressions of this horror-themed museum and my experiences there.
About VAMPA
VAMPA is a vampire-themed museum/antique mall located on US-202 in Doylestown, PA. Doylestown is located in Bucks County. If you’ve ever seen M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs, that’s Bucks County, picturesque rural towns surrounded by cornfields, as is much of the state. You don’t even have to go too far outside of my hometown of Pittsburgh to find similar surroundings.
Having spent the day in Hershey the day prior and intending to head to Jim Thorpe that afternoon, I wasn’t exactly near Doylestown, but I was close enough that it felt like the perfect time to take the scenic route and drive the two hours from Hershey to Doylestown in order to spend the morning at VAMPA while still leaving time to get to Jim Thorpe before their tourist attractions wrapped up for the day.
The VAMPA website gives the gist of the museum, but it doesn’t show you much. However, I have seen a few YouTube videos that feature VAMPA, who was very good about giving the vloggers full access to film the museum and its contents.
It might feel like a giant spoiler to watch a walk-through video of a place before you visit it, but it really is true that what you see on a screen does not match the feeling of actually being in a location. And the photos you take yourself are really just there to jog your memory rather than provide a full representation of what you see. Still, I do like to take a lot of pictures when permitted.
One of the videos I watched, though, talked about the paranormal experiences that the vloggers had at the museum. While I’m usually up for a good haunted place, the fact that some of the artifacts in the museum were used for exorcisms or were said to be associated with negative energy did unnerve me a bit.
You have to take stories with a grain of salt, but I personally didn’t want to leave that place with any weird feelings. I’m drawn to dark things, not evil things, and there’s a big difference between the two. So, I was a little apprehensive at that point. But that didn’t stop me from carrying out this side quest.
Arrival
VAMPA is open from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm Thursday through Sunday. We set out in time to get there just as the museum was opening.
It was an unusually cold and dreary day for late August in Pennsylvania. I was essentially dressed for fall, which really created an appropriate atmosphere.
Despite being pretty unassuming and somewhat obscured from the road, the museum was easy to find with a GPS. There was also a lot of parking in the gravel driveway that surrounds the property. We weren’t the first people there, but having gotten there as soon as it opened made it very easy to maneuver around.
The grounds of VAMPA
The website mentions that the museum is located on a five-acre property complete with a dinosaur park, Zen Garden, and peacocks, but that list really didn’t sink in until I got there. The grounds were covered in dinosaur statues, garden decorations, and fountains. Everything had a price tag, and signs were posted in the yard to text “Ed” with any sales inquiries.
We followed a couple from our parking space to the nearest building only to find it roped off. A groundskeeper asked if we were headed to the museum, and he pointed left. We continued down the path past more buildings to a set of stairs leading up to a one-story building lined with small, white columns in the front and the skeleton-shaped thrones leading the way to the stairs.
At the top of the stairs to the left of the front doors was a stone bust of Max Schreck’s Nosferatu who was turned at an angle, allowing him to glare at all of the patrons as they walked inside. In direct contrast to this statue, just inside the door was a man seated at a small but ornate wooden table who greeted us, chatted with us about our trip, and took our $20 entrance fee. He granted us permission to take as many photos and encouraged us to stay as long as we wanted.
It really is true that horror fans/enthusiasts are the nicest people. There’s an ironic comfort to being around them, and just showing up to a place or event like this really makes you feel like part of a community.
The inside
The first room inside of VAMPA is the largest and encompasses nearly the entire width of the building. It, like many rooms on the property, is lit by these intricate chandeliers which provide atmosphere without darkening the room for dramatic effect.
This first room is lined with glass cases, most of which contain vampire hunting kits, crucifixes, and wooden stakes. But these aren’t just your standard religious relics. They are decorative, ornate, and, in most cases, deadly stabbing weapons. They’re made of wood and metal with intricate carvings and very intentional shapes.
Right away, these pieces get you thinking. Were they constructed to be of any practical use, or were they just a fun way to try to bring fantasy to life? They feel a little like both.
There’s a definite art form at play with these pieces, but they also feel oddly comforting, the same way a rifle hangs above fireplaces in log cabins. They create a sense of preparedness for something that you’re unlikely to cross paths with but at the same time want to be able to stand a chance against if you do. Seeing so many together too and seeing how many have been preserved gives them a sense of authenticity as much as playfulness.
In one case, we saw a vampire hunting kit that once belonged to Michael Jackson. He paid $5,000 for it with the intention of giving it to a friend until he was directed by his Jehovah’s Witness faith that that’s not the sort of gift that he should be giving out.
It was interesting to see how at odds he was with his curiosity versus his faith. It reminded me of the disclaimer that he put at the beginning of his music video for “Thriller” to let the public know that he was just playing make believe, not delving hardcore into the occult. But you could see the interest was there, and I hope he did get to explore it on his own terms.
The wall of crosses
The other rooms were much smaller, and each one had its own distinct personality. A transitional space between the main room and the others was a hallway with a staircase that was off limits. However, the wall along the staircase was lined with wooden stakes and crosses, most with pointed tips to double as wooden stakes. I imagine that, for a vampire, it would be like getting stabbed with a knife dipped in acid.
This wall felt like an arsenal where you could conveniently pluck a weapon off the wall and plunge it into the heart of your enemy – if you’re fast enough, which, I don’t think I’d be. At the same time, though, it also served as a forcefield around this staircase to keep any vampires, who wouldn’t be persuaded from the roped off bottom step, from proceeding upstairs. At the same time, it would trap you up there with no other means of escape. I wondered if this is what other people thought about when they passed by that wall.
Notable memorabilia
The stakes and crosses are a large part of the collection at VAMPA. The photos and videos you see online really do make a point of showcasing these artifacts, but there’s a lot more to it than that.
The vampire hunting kits were especially intriguing to me. I like having this small box of tools at my disposal, almost like a doctor’s bag of tricks. It really feeds into my need to overpack and always be prepared.
I saw my first vampire hunting kit at the Ripley’s Believe it Or Not Museum in New Jersey years ago. Lately, I’ve been working on my own vampire hunting kit and have been stumped as to what to stock it with and how everything should look and be stocked.
These kits typically just look like a strange collection of household items. Actually, though, they all have very specific uses which makes it feel like a storytelling box as much as a toolbox for those who know the folklore.
I also loved the fortune telling pieces that were scattered on various tables and behind locked cabinets throughout the museum. I like to think of fortune telling tools as more of a psychology tool. They help you break into your innermost thoughts and self-fulfilling prophecies by getting you to associate cards and energy and feelings to your current frame of mind and have you interpret those feelings into messages.
I was also delighted to see the death mast of Boris Karloff in a frame hanging on one narrow wall. He’s my favorite of the Universal horror actors, and his face is so distinct and familiar that it was like seeing an old friend.
Deeper into the museum, the rooms seemed to open up, creating room for larger pieces of furniture, statues, and, in one room, a hearse carriage. A sign posted in front of the carriage explained that it was used by vampire slayers in Santorini. Its glass windows were full of artifacts from the 18th and 19th centuries, and it stood parked at an angle as if prepared to be hitched up and take off at any moment, horses or not.
The atmosphere
So, did I have a paranormal experience in VAMPA? The most simple and direct answer is no.
That being said, there are a lot of unsettling objects within the rooms, and there were certain pieces that I did not stop to look at for long, if at all. Honestly, even if the devil faces were used to ward off evil, that didn’t mean that they weren’t unsettling in their own way.
One room contains chairs that were reportedly used in exorcisms, and yes, they were definitely made to look the part with their boney frames and scary straps. One such chair was said to be owned by Vincent Price which just goes to show how seriously he took his day job.
In actuality, I just envisioned people suffering from serious mental breakdowns literally losing their minds in these chairs. The idea of being strapped down and forced to writhe around in physical and emotional pain sounds just as bad as having a demon tearing away at your mind, body, and soul.
The “no thanks” artifacts
Behind one glass window was a statue of Pazuzu, the demon featured in The Exorcist. This is a relic that I really had no interest in seeing with my own two eyes or photographing.
The museum had warning signs posted that you were able to encounter it and to view it at your own risk. Whether this was a way to play up the lore behind this cinematic character or an actual warning, it’s not something I was looking for an answer to. So, I opted out of a meeting with that guy.
The cleansing room
The final room of the museum is a white, brightly-lit room full of Christian statues and more traditional crucifixes that look like they were plucked right from a church. Signs in the area indicate that the space is made to feel intentionally comforting to balance out any of the negativity or even just the dark themes of the other rooms.
The museum also uses this room to show that this place isn’t meant to be shocking or overly dramatic. It’s supposed to show the balance of good and evil and to just lay the information out and let each patron draw their own conclusions. They really drive this point home in both their signage and layouts.
Of course, after you get to this room, you have to cross back through all of the others to exit the museum. So, the brightness and calmness of the room is only effective for so long. You can’t help but stop and look into corners that you may have missed on your first pass through, and there, you drink up more of the dark and sometimes sinister atmosphere.
I really liked being reminded that nature balances out good and evil, and human beings have carried on that tradition over the years. It’s comforting to know that there are items and practices that the good can use to vanquish evil.
Growing up Catholic, these statues and stained glass windows were really just something interesting to look at during the boring masses when I did go to church. I didn’t grow up learning about exorcisms, demons, or the actual cool parts of Catholicism in my CCD classes. I always found it funny that the same organization that denounces witchcraft does believe that their spells, potions, and imagery can be used in the same ways to bring good energy and expel the bad. This room reminded me of how much the Catholic religion could benefit from framing the faith as something liberating and welcoming the way the museum sets it up in this room.
The garden
The museum took about an hour to walk through. From there, we decided to explore the grounds a little more.
The front yard was full of actual garden areas complete with trellises, lily ponds, and fountains. There were signs posted out front explaining that they loved having kids there to play among the gardens but for parents to keep them from doing anything destructive or dangerous, which I felt was a good way to encourage families to come there while still explaining that it’s up to the parents to make sure that the kids behave appropriately.
There were a lot of kids checking out the gardens and the dinosaurs. And they were running and playing throughout without being too crazy. The statues were so big and spread out that there really wasn’t anything to break, just admire. A lot of care was taken into setting up these grounds. Each section had its own personality and tranquilness about it.
Bird cages
Positioned up along the right side of the building were some cages full of birds. It reminded me of the game preserve near my house with the animals that both run loose and in cages, but I was surprised to find that the loose animals were the peacocks that straddled the stone wall along the cage. They just kind of hung out and patrolled the area like foot soldiers.
Behind the cages was a small building where a tarot reader was setting up a table. It’s my biggest regret that I didn’t go over and get a reading done. Again, I’m not a big believer in them, especially when they’re done by strangers who tend to give me readings that don’t make sense, but I love the practice of it and the way you can basically take any reading and use it as advice or direction to steer you into making your next life decisions, sort of like flipping a coin more to help you decide what decision you really want to make rather than the one that the coin makes.
The antique shop
In a large, two-story barn on the property is an antique store that is full of old furniture and artwork. I spent my time inside that shop basically decorating my old Victorian mansion that I don’t own inside my head. The glass cabinets, ornate tables, and the chandeliers that hung from the barn roof felt like a mix and match of classic décor that I would have loved to fill large rooms with.
While perusing, I got a visit from one of the peacocks who peered into the shop from one of the windows. It was a wonderfully strange mixture of people, objects, and animals all sharing a collective space. I would have loved to have taken something home, but I had a long way to travel and couldn’t take anything too big or too heavy, and everything there fell into that category.
One small area sold gift shop merch. There, I bought a VAMPA t-shirt which I wore at the Oddities and Curiosities Expo back at home that weekend. The tag on my shirt didn’t match its actual size. So, I got one that was smaller than I would have liked. So, if you’re planning to buy one, make sure to verify its actual size.
Final thoughts on VAMPA
I left VAMPA feeling oddly educated without feeling like I’ve been lectured to, which, to me means that they pulled off their intentions with the place. Whether all of the items in the museum are authentic or none of them are, it’s not really the point.
Horror fans look to these worlds for escapism and to make sense of the dark and light that we see in our day-to-day lives. The VAMPA museum is transportive and brings both history and fiction to life by prominently displaying these odd artifacts that you just aren’t going to see many other places, and you’re certainly not going to see them all weaved together surrounded by peacocks, dinosaurs, and mermaid statues anywhere else.
Clearly, you’re going to go here if you’re a fan of vampire lore, but you’d be surprised by how much of your own personal beliefs or feelings are going to be drawn to or repelled by simple images and how you will interpret the ideas that are being presented within its walls. It’s serious fun and is an excellent way to keep these interesting concepts alive in such an organic and non-commercial way.
Have you been to VAMPA? If so, share your experiences. If not, tell me what you would most like to see there in the comment below!
Also, check out my post, 9 Great Vampire Tropes, here!
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Thank you for writing this! I have shared similar trepidation with some of the artifacts here and it was nice to see someone else feel that way. Would like to go this year sounds like fun!
Thanks for reading! Yes, whether it’s because of supernatural forces or just your imagination, the feeling that an object can give you is reason enough to stay away from it if you’re uncomfortable.