BUCHANAN — Residents searching for a new adventure on their Friday and Saturday nights will soon be able to test out their spy skills in an attempt to solve a Cold War scandal at the newest escape room in Michiana.

At the site of the historic Ross-Sanders House in Buchanan, Matt Herm, owner and founder of Out Smart Escape Rooms, has been working on a “Find the Spy” escape room. The attraction will be the company’s fourth escape room. Herm anticipates “Find the Spy” to open before the end of the year.

For those who have never tried an escape room before, the premise is similar to that of a live game of clue. To play, participants follow a set storyline and use clues to find the key out of a room and the mystery at hand.   

In the Buchanan attraction’s case, players are hired FBI agents, who are on a special mission to unveil a mole who has been divulging classified information to the Soviet Union. The FBI has narrowed the suspects down to eight people, and it is up to players to find the culprit before another U.S. mission is compromised.

The game starts in a police debriefing room and will end at the home of the suspected spy, where more clues lie hidden. To stop the mole, players will have to wiretap a phone, interpret polygraph test results and sift through other top-secret information, just to name a few.

When looking for an ideal location for his latest escape room, Herm said he had originally considered a spot in Niles, but, when he toured the Ross-Sanders building at 105 W. Front St. in Buchanan, the history and appearance of the building seemed to fit with the storyline he wanted to bring to life.

Built in 1856, the Ross-Sander building, city-owned, once served as the city hall and the Buchanan Police Station. Both institutions have since relocated.

In late May, Herm signed a one-year lease for part of the building. Prior to Herm becoming a tenant, the Greek style revival building, with stately white columns, had been sitting vacant. While not everyone would see potential for entertainment in the building’s three remaining jail cells, which used to serve the police, Herm glimpsed the old cells and began drawing up a storyline.

The jail portion of the building is expected to open at a later date, though Herm anticipates it will also open before the end of the year. He was not able to reveal the storyline yet, but promises a story as intriguing as tracking down a Soviet spy.

“I was like ‘I can’t turn down jail,’” Herm said. “Buchanan is a different market than we are used to. My goal is that we will pull people down from South Bend and Elkhart.”

Initially, Herm said he was a little worried about what the market would be like in Buchanan, but, since Herm started work on the building after the lease was finalized in late May, the community has been asking him when the attraction will debut.

“People in Buchanan keep reaching out to us and saying ‘hey, when are you going to open up?’” Herm said. “I was not expecting that. I don’t think they have much entertainment down here.”

Herm is also a co-owner of the Niles Scream Park, which is open for 21-days throughout the year, featuring a host of haunted attractions that raise money for charity through volunteer’s work at the park. But Herm said he wanted something that would attract people year-round.

Last summer, Herm founded his first escape room, in the Studebaker Mansion in South Bend. Since then, Herm has opened several other escape room attractions, including two rooms in the Studebaker Mansion, where players embark on a quest for the Holy Grail, and search to find top secret blueprints that could be the death of the Studebaker fortune. Herm also opened an escape room in Elkhart, where players search for the lost emerald scarab inside a mummie’s tomb. Those who visit the Niles Scream Park can also find a number of miniature escape rooms, created by Herm’s organization, one of which features live bugs, including a hissing cockroach.

Teams of up to eight players are given one hour to complete the challenge. If they get stuck solving a clue, game masters, who watch from another room, will give players a chance to earn a hint.

For the Buchanan location, Herm said he hopes to hire six employees to work as game masters and help run the attraction. Herm said he hopes that some local youth will be interested in the jobs.

“It really helps them not only customer service, but it is a small operation can so they can see how a business operates,” Herm said.

While there are plenty of ways to spend a Friday and Saturday night in Michiana, Herm said he hopes that the attraction will offer residents a more adventurous way to spend their time.

“It’s fun. It gets people out of the house. The coolest thing is it gives people something to do together,” Herm said. “It’s not the same boring stuff.”

For companies looking for a team building exercise, Herm said the attraction is an ideal way to build communication in a fun setting.

While there is still quite a bit of work to do, Herm commended the city of Buchanan for helping to welcome his business. He said the Buchanan Preservation Society helped paint the lobby for him.

“It’s been a lot of work, the city has helped a lot,” Herm said.