Santa's Evil Workshop, an exhibit in Mark Williams' and Heidi Loutzenhiser's Doll Asylum, includes a skeleton climbing out of a doll's body.

Most of the year, Mark Williams’ and Heidi Loutzenhiser’s 1906 John Wicks-designed Victorian looks like any other historic home.

But around Halloween, the couple’s home on Harrison Avenue transforms into a macabre refuge known as the Doll Asylum.

Throughout the first floor of the house, the backyard and a detached garage, the couple intricately arrange a collection of around 1,200 children’s toys into various scenes both horrific and humorous. Their inspiration comes from the dolls themselves, pop culture and other vestiges from their love of Halloween.

“I’m into vintage, 1930s, creepy, original Bela Lugosi Dracula movies,” Loutzenhiser said. “That’s my love of Halloween, is all very vintage stuff. Mark was very much the full-on gore, zombies, skeletons, that kind of stuff. We have creepy, vintage, gory stuff, so I think it all kind of goes together.”

Williams grew up in a very religious family that he said frowned upon Halloween. When he did get to trick or treat, Williams would see the people who went all out on their decorations and said he grew up wanting to do the same.

The couple, who both work from home in electronic medical records, had bought a new house in north Portland about a decade ago and were thinking of a theme for their Halloween decorations. Williams was leaving to take a friend to the airport when he was frightened by a doll in his rearview mirror leaned up against a tree.

“It scared the crap out of him, and it was super creepy,” Loutzenhiser said. “And we just went, ‘that’s it.’”

The couple started amassing a collection of dolls from local thrift stores and decorated the stairwell inside their house for a party, which soon attracted trick-or-treaters passing by. The next year, they held an open house and hosted droves of people coming to see their ever-expanding collection.

Over a seven-year run, the Doll Asylum became a staple of Portland, featured in multiple newspapers and on television stations, gathering international attention. People started dropping off dolls at the house, both original and adulterated, to add to the collection. Some come regularly to see how their donations have been incorporated.

The couple moved to Astoria two years ago to care for Loutzenhiser’s father, who, along with her late mother, was raised in Seaside.

The move also helped the couple escape a growing Portland, where their Doll Asylum could attract several thousand people. The final straw came one night when a large group of Burning Man attendees showed up on a bus, blocking the street and setting up a mariachi band inside their house unannounced, Williams said.

After spending their first year in town fixing up the house, the couple hope to become more involved in the community, volunteering with the Astoria Riverfront Trolley and the Liberty Theatre. Some of their displays have taken on a local theme, such as a Blind Pirate concert scene in their backyard paying homage to locally connected band Blind Pilot. In the coming years, the couple plan to unveil more North Coast-themed exhibits like the trolley, cannibalistic sea lions, shipwrecks and a Finnish sauna.

Aside from Halloween and Thanksgiving dinner, the couple go all out for Christmas with a private display of ornaments, German smokers and music boxes inherited from prior generations. They do nothing for the other holidays, Loutzenhiser said.

“Before the first open house, both of us are like, ‘Oh, my God, we’re never doing this again,’” she said. “But then after an hour of being open, we’re like, ‘Oh, that’s right; this is why we do it.’ Because everybody that comes is so nice. It’s a great way to meet our neighbors.”

The final night of the Doll Asylum is from 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at 1188 Harrison Ave.