Frightville: Village of Horror
It was the height of the Victorian era, and for as long as anyone could remember, in the small New York state hamlet of Phryteville, the Phryte family owned everything in town. If you lived in Phryteville it was in housing owned by the family, banked at the Savings and Loan owned by the Phryte family, and bought your food at the Phryte family’s Grocery Store. Your children were born in the Sunnydale Hospital in the Grievance Phryte wing, they went to the Phryteville Schoolhouse, and worked for low wages in the Phryte Doll Company. Eventually, you where embalmed in the Phryte Funeral home and buried in the Phryteville Cemetery. Even visitors to Phryteville stayed in the Phryte Hotel.
The local government and judges were all Phryte family members, and nothing in the town happened without the consent of the Phryte family elders. While the Phryte family was successful in finance and real estate, innovation and forward thinking was not their strength. Held back by lack of foresight and resistance to new ideas, Phryteville struggled to compete with nearby Rochester, the home of great flour mills, the Genesee River and more progressive thinking. Poor water rights and lack of agricultural land, kept Phryteville from growing, and then in 1892 a devastating disease ravaged the population.
As people fled for fear of contracting the disease, the city quickly turned into a ghost town. Businesses closed, buildings were boarded up, and the few who did remain could be heard screaming in agony from the houses now dilapidated and crumbling under lack of attention and repair. The once beautiful village became known across the state as “Frightville!” Even the Phryte family was not immune to this “Village of Horror.” The numbers of family members contracted the disease and the youngest child and family heir Grievance Phryte died from the illness. No amount of Phryte holdings or money could save her.
Now incorporated into the city of Avon, few Phryteville structures and even fewer survivors remain as a testament of what was a community of over 1,000 souls. For the curious however, behind the scenes tours are now available of the newly reopened Phryte Doll Company, as well as historic tours of the Phryte Mansion Bed and Breacfast, and paranormal tours of the most haunted building in New York State, the Phryte Wing of the Sunnydale Hospital. Your host is the oldest surviving member of the Phryte family. Augustus Phryte, now approaching 100 years of age and he more than willing to share with you his plans to rebuild Phryteville, back to its previous days of glory!
