Spencer Caton’s Halloween project started the way a lot of good ideas do in Old Northeast: on a walk.
Caton and his three young sons kept spotting elaborate Halloween displays as they strolled the neighborhood’s brick streets, and the boys wanted to see more. So Caton, a tech product manager, built a way to find them.
The result is Fright This Way, a no-cost, ad-free online map at frightthisway.com that lets families browse decorated homes by neighborhood, check each display’s scare level and find Halloween events across Pinellas County. Anyone can add a house the map has missed.
“I’d been wanting to find ways to take the skills from that decade-plus of work and have an impact a little closer to home,” said Caton, 35, who lives near 11th Avenue North and First Street North.
The map launched Oct. 13 with a handful of Old Northeast houses. A week later, Caton said, it held about 190 homes, and the site had drawn 1,600 active users through Oct. 20.
“I’ve been blown away by the response so far,” he said.
From walks to a map
Caton grew up in New Jersey and met his wife, a St. Pete Beach native, in San Francisco. The couple moved to Jacksonville during the pandemic. After their first son was born, they came to St. Petersburg three years ago to be closer to family. Their boys are now 4, 2 and 9 months old.
Caton works for Vanta, a cybersecurity software company. As a product manager, he works with customers to figure out what features they need and translates that into something engineers can build.
He said the scale of tech work is what he likes about it, but it has a downside.
“The flip side of that is that the work can feel impersonal,” he said.
Fright This Way is far more personal, and it was built in an unusual way. The footer of the site says it was “artisanally vibe coded by your neighbor.” That means Caton built it largely by giving instructions to ChatGPT rather than writing the code line by line.
The first, simple version of the Old Northeast map took a few hours. Since then, he has spent about an hour a day adding features, often by sending messages to ChatGPT from his phone and checking back later to see how it did.
The total cost is his $20-a-month ChatGPT subscription and $10 a year for the web address. Caton said the map will never carry ads or fees.
“The site’s meant to be a free, community resource and will stay that way as long as I run it,” he said.
How it works
Visitors tap a house on the map to see its theme and scare level: Friendly, Eerie or Spooky. Tags flag decorations such as skeletons, witches, zombies, spiders, dinosaurs and aliens. A “locate me” button shows users where they are, and Caton said it will work on Halloween night.
Caton added about 30 houses himself, mostly in Old Northeast and Crescent Lake. Neighbors submitted the rest. He reviews any submission that includes photos. Houses submitted without photos go on the map automatically. He said he hasn’t rejected any submissions.
Homeowners aren’t asked for permission before their house is added. Each listing has a report button homeowners can use to ask to be removed or to fix bad information. Caton said no one has asked yet. Any house that is removed will be blocked from being added again.
A “Scareboard” ranks neighborhoods by display count. As of Oct. 21, Old Northeast led with 60 houses, followed by Crescent Heights with 43, Crescent Lake with 17 and Shore Acres with 14.
Caton credits Crescent Heights’ strong showing to neighbors who shared the map on the neighborhood’s Facebook page.
“I think a lot of it comes down to awareness and having a few folks in the neighborhood who’ve got the Halloween spirit and want to get their neighborhood on the map,” he said.
Room to grow
Nearly all of the 36 neighborhoods on the map are in St. Petersburg. Gulfport and a few unincorporated neighborhoods near Seminole each have one house. North County and the beaches have none so far.
Caton said that reflects where he lives and where his network is. He has contacted neighborhood associations and newsletters around the county and hopes the map spreads.
“Ultimately, I’d like to include all the neighborhoods in Pinellas,” he said. “It’s been a little by the seat of my pants this first time around.”
He has also worked with the Historic Old Northeast Neighborhood Association to plan the route for its Halloween trolley showcase, so riders can see as many houses as possible.
His own favorites are on 17th Avenue NE, where the Circus at Old St. Pete, Monster Mash and Jurassic Park houses are hits with his boys. He also likes some newcomers: a Grateful Dead house in Woodlawn, Mazoochi Manor Graveyard in Disston Heights and a Haunted Farm in the Northwest neighborhood.
Caton plans to bring the map back next year with a better plan for reaching more neighborhoods. He has thought about a Christmas lights version and is open to expanding beyond Pinellas, but not yet.
“We’ve got to fill the neighborhoods here before we go add more,” he said.
The map is at frightthisway.com. Families can add a house by tapping “Add a fright.”
More Halloween fun
Haunted North Kenwood: Decorating contest. Touring and People’s Choice voting Oct. 23-29, winners announced Oct. 30. Visit nkna.org.
Old Northeast Halloween Showcase: Trolley tour of displays, Oct. 27-28, departures at 6:30 and 6:45 p.m. Tickets advertised at $25.
Share and Scare Ride: Decorated-vehicle caravan through Old Northeast, Oct. 29. Gather at 6:30 p.m., caravan at 7:30 p.m.
Fall-O-Ween: Coachman Park, 300 Cleveland St., Clearwater, Oct. 30, 6-10 p.m. Free.
Palm Harbor Halloween Carnival: Harbor Hall, 1190 Georgia Ave., Oct. 30, 6-9 p.m. Free trick-or-treating, $10 activity wristband.
Boo Bash: BayCare Ballpark, 601 N. Old Coachman Road, Clearwater, Oct. 31, 5-8 p.m. Free.