House of Mystery

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The House of Mystery, which was located on US 17/92 three miles north of Haines City, was another one of those funhouses, similar to St. Augustine's Mystery House, where an optical illusion built into the tilted structure of the building seems to distort the laws of gravity right before your very eyes. That location may seem like a strange place to put a tourist attraction today, but in the 1950's when the House of Mystery was in operation this road, as part of The Orange Blossom Trail, was one of the main routes from Orlando and Kissimmee to Cypress Gardens and points south. Today, tourist traffic past the site is minimal, with most thru traffic diverted down the Turnpike, I-4, or US 27. The House of Mystery is long gone (and area gravitation seems to have returned to normal), but it did manage to leave one mystery behind: why, the new visitor to the area might wonder with no House of Mystery now visible to provide the answer, was this street named "Mystery House Road"?

Note: the attractions profiled on this site are no longer in business. Return To Florida's Lost Tourist Attractions Postcard image from the author's collection. Sign photograph taken by the author in and Copyright 2011. This site Copyright (c) 1997-2011 by Robert H. Brown