MILWAUKEE — A residential block in Bay View transformed into a three-property wizarding world this week, pushing community fundraising past the six-figure mark.
Creators Andy Reid and Jamie Beauchamp unveiled their sprawling 2026 Harry Potter-inspired installation at 2943 S. Clement Ave., expanding the seasonal attraction across three adjoining front yards to construct full-scale replicas of Gringotts, Hagrid’s hut, and an interactive Hogwarts Express train car. The effort pushed cumulative fundraising beyond $102,000 for Pathfinders, an 11-year charitable partnership funding housing aid and emergency shelter for Milwaukee’s runaway and homeless youth. Donations climbed swiftly. Reid and Beauchamp entered the season holding $84,000 in lifetime contributions, needing $16,000 to reach their six-figure target before surging past the threshold as crowds packed the Clement Avenue corridor.
Every dime went straight to the shelter. Reid and Beauchamp personally fund all construction materials, storing sets in garages and later donating scrap lumber and set pieces to local schools.
The installation relies on kinetic staging and digital illusion rather than store-bought decor. Visitors climbing inside the timber-framed Hogwarts Express cabin watch customized video displays that mimic the Milwaukee skyline rushing past frosted passenger windows while Dementors hover against the clouds. Nearby, mechanical frames animate moving portraits of Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, and Minerva McGonagall alongside an unexpected cameo by Dolly Parton. Gabled rooftops support full-scale sculptures of dragons, trolls, a giant spider, and jack-o’-lantern-headed Gringotts goblins flanking the sidewalk.
Building at this scale required months of structural framing. "It took a crazy amount of engineering, design, and building," Reid said, detailing how two decades of staging increasingly complex sets—from a two-story haunted mansion in 2025 to Egyptian pyramids in 2024—prepared the duo to seize an entire block.
The spectacle masks an intensifying crisis on the city's streets.
Pathfinders, founded in 1970 by local church members and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee faculty, runs the city's sole dedicated youth street outreach team and aids roughly 5,000 young people each year. Wisconsin Policy Forum data documented 20,195 homeless K-12 students across the state during the 2023–2024 academic cycle, with Milwaukee absorbing more than 25 percent of all displaced students and 40.7 percent of the state's unaccompanied homeless youth. Multiple collection points positioned along the Clement Avenue sidewalk will remain active through Halloween night as organizers direct late-season crowds toward the shelter's winter intake reserves.