In the mysterious land of…Rhode Island…is a house with dark secrets. Well, the basement has some dark secrets. Unless you’re shopping for Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent. In that case, you’re totally in the right place!
Welcome to the home of the Adams family, where Art major Corinne and her building contractor husband have recreated a fully functional Knockturn Alley. Here, witches and wizards can shop to their heart’s delight.
A huge Potter fan, the idea for Knockturn Alley was sparked by a trip to Universal Orlando. Corinne and her husband were already doing elaborate Halloween displays, but the trip inspired the creation of Borgin and Burkes. When the set got too large to haul outdoors in October, the couple cleaned out their basement and the construction continued in earnest. Currently up to five shops (2 for browsing, 3 for display), magically-minded shoppers can see self-stirring cauldrons, Kreacher the house elf, Cornish Pixies, books, bones, potions, and cursed objects, all whilst shrouded in fog.
When is Knockturn Alley open to visitors?
Since Knockturn Alley is in my house, my basement, it is only open to the neighborhood on Halloween night. If you know me or are writing a story about the alley then I can have a private tour arranged.
What proved the biggest challenge to recreate so far?
The biggest challenge, believe it or not, was the stacked cauldrons. They are plastic Halloween cauldrons and we had to hunt for the right sizes, paint them to look rusty and then sand them to look like old iron. When it came time to stack and glue them it took a bit of engineering until we got it right. My son also designed and made the self-stirring cauldron and he had a few setbacks. But now it works perfectly…well, it’s a magical cauldron after all!
What is one of the most surprising things on your set?
The biggest surprise, if someone notices it, is the sub-basement in the bottom windows of Borgin and Burkes. (A “reflection” makes you think you’re looking down into the below ground level cellar window well-bottles, books, rats, candles etc. are all actually upside down-you’re looking into a mirror image–shhh, don’t tell!)
How many hours of construction and fabrication do you estimate you’ve put in?
The work time is 3 years of every spare minute we had and my husband and I both worked full time. Now it is an on-going project and we come up with little magical ways to tweak things and add new things for each Halloween.
Tell us about your favorite object and why!
I have been asked before “what is my favorite thing” but I love everything! However my favorite shop is Borgin and Burkes (in the movie it just looks so creepy and fascinating!) and that was the first shop constructed for our Halloween display 7 years ago. Then the project just took off until we now have an alley of 5 buildings.
What are you building next?
The next thing to be built is a surprise because we like to surprise the neighborhood kids when they visit Halloween night! Last year’s new item was the Sirius Black “moving” poster that my son came up with and my husband built the rustic sign post to hold it!
What’s one of the best visitor reactions to your set?
I had a man from London visit one Halloween and the cool night air came into our open garage doors so the alley had a brisk feel and we have antique street lights with candle light flickering and fog and the whole atmosphere was right out of an 18th century London city street. He was so excited, he couldn’t believe he was in a basement! He was “dazzled” to use his words! My husband loved that because he built the buildings to look exactly like Universals.
My own personal favorite reaction was a young girl who was an avid Potter fan. After taking the tour she said that this must be like reaching the top with a hobby one loves and she wished that someday she could have a display of a Potter destination in her home. She was quite right. I never thought I’d have this alley in my house. I love going down into this magical world and hanging out with friends or having a coffee with my husband and brainstorming about what we’ll do next! It’s really a Potter fans dream and I love sharing it with other fans.
What house would the Sorting Hat put you in?
I think you must know what Hogwarts house I would be sorted into! I love spooky stuff and I love the nefarious Knockturn Alley! Hogwarts students are not permitted to go there let alone buy anything. Dodgy place…”You don’t want to get caught down there-they might think you’re up to no good!” So–Slytherin of course!
If you’d like to see video, please follow this link to a WPRI 12 News story!
Images courtesy of Corinne Adams. Questions about anything you see here? Corinne is happy to answer them! Please email her at: thevampirechronicles13@gmail.com
Katie is once again off on wild adventures. Remember that time she spent a year in 
The Franklin Institute is one of the oldest museums in the United States dedicated to science education and research, and it is absolutely one of my favorite places to take my son when we have a free day. Named after Benjamin Franklin, the Franklin Institute has four floors of amazing science exhibitions, a planetarium, IMAX theatre, and even a telescope observatory on the roof.
In the Giant Heart exhibit, I tested to see if I was a pure blood by pouring a glass of clear liquid into a second glass of clear liquid. If the mixture turned red, you were a pure blood. If it didn’t, you were a Muggle. The magic is a pH indicator, phenolphthalein, being mixed with water and reacting to sodium carbonate, which is present in the second glass. The sodium carbonate and phenolphthalein react and turn the liquid red. If one glass didn’t have the chemical, the liquid remained clear. My glass turned red – I’m a pure blood witch!
I made my way past a very long line of people waiting to make a magical amulet so I could watch part of the Raptores Maximus show. Mike Dupuy, a local falconer and educator, introduced several of his birds of prey. Including Mr. Big Owl, a Eurasian owl who had the most stunning orange eyes.
Next, I journeyed on to Pepper Hall, where I was greeted by 2 very long lines: 1) Make your own wand; and 2) Visit the Slimy Serpent, Critter, and Creature Magic Supply Shoppe. The Supply Shoppe was a tremendous display of potions ingredients and various critters you may discover as a student at Hogwarts, including snakes, spiders, frogs and even a jar of leeches. But I opted for wand making because I was curious to see how the Franklin Institute would handle a wand craft for well over a thousand people after our experience with our much smaller 
I tried to attend a presentation called The Absolutely True Fake Story of the Philosopher’s Stone. I should have used an Apparition spell to get me to the theater faster because the seats were full by the time I arrived. Not deterred, I walked through Platform 3.14 to see the Hogwarts Express (cleverly disguised as a Baldwin 60000 locomotive engine, which is on permanent display in the Train Factory exhibit).
Many of the demonstration tables had student volunteers from nearby colleges, including Drexel University, Temple University, and the University of Pennsylvania. The students were enthusiastically full of scientific information – such as the possibility of real-life invisibility cloaks (i.e. lasers and thermal imaging cameras). They were ready to be peppered with questions from everyone. Including Voldemort.
The OwlCapella group from Temple University was serenading those in the ticketing atrium who had paused to rest their feet or have a snack, and I got a good laugh when I noticed Harry Potter conducting, unbeknownst to the choir. Total Potterbomb.
The grand finale was held in the Franklin Memorial Hall, in front of a giant statue of Benjamin Franklin. Everyone was asked to raise their newly made wands and chant the Incendio spell. The result was a mighty green fireball explosion, courtesy of about a dozen large balloons filled with hydrogen. Very cool.
The red cabbage indicator demo is simple, inexpensive, but impactful. The experiment involves adding red cabbage juice to various household acid and bases, and then observing how the acids and bases change color according to their pH level. Katie used 
Wearing gloves, wielding protective eye gear, and armed with her knowledge of nitrogen-infused particles, Katie froze balloons, carnation flowers, and made clouds. It was AWESOME.
The grand finale was mixing your very own bottle of “Love-Never-Lies” potion to take home. Katie purchased some 5″ vintage replica bottles with corks from Amazon (10 bottles cost $20). These are the same bottles we used with much success for our Sherlock Holmes 
Katie filled the bottles with water, and then kids came forward to choose the color and amount of food dye for Katie to drip into the bottle. As the colors mixed, the kids predicted the final color of the potion.
Cressida Cowell is also the author of the How to Train Your Dragon series. If you’d like to see what we did with that book, you’ll find the post