How the former Budweiser Clydesdale stable became the Howl-0-Scream Stranglewood Estates haunted house.

If you know the history of Busch Gardens you they used to be owned by Anheuser-Busch, maker of Budweiser. The parks were a promotional tool built on the grounds on some of their breweries. The parks were later sold, but remnants (including the name) still remain. One thing Budweiser is known for is their Clydesdale horses which are seen on Christmas ads, Super Bowl ads and special events. They also used to be housed at the parks, in fact you can still find them at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. They are no longer in Tampa, but their stable still exists and is now the Stranglewood Estates haunted house!

Howl-O-Scream is big business for the park with attraction quality ever increasing and the parks looking to make the haunted houses more permanent fixtures that they can work on year round. This no longer used building is a great candidate to be repurposed as such. Opened just last year in 2022 the house is described as follows:

“Ms. Stranglewood is back for more haunts and has something sinister waiting behind every corner. Once a lively home filled with laughter and lavish parties is now filled with darkness and the spirit of evil. Welcome back to the Stranglewood Estate.”

https://buschgardens.com/tampa/events/howl-o-scream/attractions/

The parks do tend to reuse old areas for houses and Busch Gardens has also in the past used their old panda area (yep they had those too), old ride queues and parts of the now essentially defunct Jungala ride area. This event it a great way to see parts of the park you probably wouldn’t see otherwise. Hope you’ve had a chance to enjoy Howl-O-Scream and if you go through this house look around for the markings (and maybe the smells) that it used to be a horse stable!