{"id":24071,"date":"2023-11-01T08:22:43","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T12:22:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=24071"},"modified":"2023-11-01T08:23:50","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T12:23:50","slug":"troll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2023\/11\/01\/troll\/","title":{"rendered":"Giant Troll Takes Over Thomas Saltsman’s Marblehead Driveway"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Architect Thomas Saltsman, of the Boston firm SaltsmanBrenzel, has become a sensation for the giant installations that have taken over his Marblehead driveway each Halloween for the past several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years pasts have seen a spaceship, a giant dragon, a ghost ship, King Kong, a giant walking skeleton ghost, and a cobra-headed Egyptian goddess appear. They’re built over months with help from his wife Brooke Trivas Saltsman, friends Katie and Tim Sullivan, and other volunteers, “primarily from discarded job site materials, found objects, and custom parts and assemblies,” according to his firm’s website<\/a> (where you can see photos and behind the scenes images of the sculptures over the years). The installations can rise 25 feet high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Thomas
Thomas Saltsman’s Halloween forest troll on Pleasant Street, Marblehead, Oct. 31, 2023. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This Halloween, a giant sleeping forest troll occupies the property at 32 Pleasant St., Marblehead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In the dark recesses of Norway’s forests, mythical trolls lurk,” read signs stapled to fence posts. “Large, humanoid beings with grotesque, rugged features: forest trolls are part of the spirit and folklore of the wilderness. If touched by the first rays of sunlight, their rugged features turn to stone. The forest troll is a testament to the enduring connection between folklore and the untamed realms of nature.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to being open for exploration on Halloween night, visitors can tour the troll on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 3 and 4, 2023, from 4 to 8 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The inspiration behind the viral sensations dates back nearly two decades, when Saltsman was tasked with transforming a hallway at his daughters’ school into a themed display for a Halloween fund-raiser,” The Boston Globe reported<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by\u00a0contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And\u00a0sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a>\u00a0so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2022 or the respective creators.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Thomas
Thomas Saltsman’s Halloween forest troll on Pleasant Street, Marblehead, Oct. 31, 2023. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Architect Thomas Saltsman, of the Boston firm SaltsmanBrenzel, has become a sensation for the giant installations that have taken over his Marblehead driveway each Halloween for the past several years. Years pasts have seen a spaceship, a giant dragon, a ghost ship, King Kong, a giant walking skeleton ghost, and a cobra-headed Egyptian goddess appear. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24084,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,582],"tags":[55,1199,1198],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24071"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24071"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24095,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24071\/revisions\/24095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}