The View From Here: Halloween Window Painting

A tradition that stretches as far back as I can remember is the annual painting of store front windows along Main Street. This happens each year prior to Halloween by Bloomsburg High School students. When I was a BHS student back in the late 1980’s I remember being allowed to walk up town to find the assigned window that my team and I were to paint. The rules were fairly simple, paint only your assigned window with a Halloween theme and try not to offend anyone. If I recall correctly, Mr. Bonham, the Art Teacher at BHS, told us to, “not paint anything you wouldn’t want your Grandmother to see.” Simple and effective. We thought it would be a great thing to ask The Bloomsburg Daily Photographer, Bob Rush to capture and share a selection of the paintings along Main Street as we approach Halloween. Enjoy and get ready for this weekend’s Remember When piece that will take us back to Bloomsburg Halloweens of the past!

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8 thoughts on “The View From Here: Halloween Window Painting

  1. Ah yes, Halloween. A time for witches, hot dogs and…taco cats!

    And somebody is a fan of Donnie Darko, I see. Nice!

    Didn’t the paintings use to take up much more window space when we were kids though?

  2. I remember we did this in middle school as part of Mr. Ryan’s art class… we got to go down during the school day in 8th grade. My brother Josh and I painted the window of Serruci’s pizza, if you remember where that was. By the end of the day, we were pretty pleased with the results. I think we painted a night scene with a pumpkin and black cat under a scary tree. It was spooky for sure!

  3. I agree with Jen, always thought the paintings were larger and took up the whole window. Still fun to look at, I was amazed when I went downtown and they were out painting windows. I thought that it no longer happened. Congrats to the team that did the Brennan’s window for winning the contest.

  4. I agree, I believe we covered most of the window. Does anyone know exactly when this tradition started? Was it possibly the late 60’s?

  5. Well then that settles it – the paintings were downsized immediately between Class of ’89 and Class of ’90.

    I would love to know the answer to Joan’s question too. Anyone?

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