City officials and business owners celebrated the grand opening of Escape Rooms Jamestown on Wednesday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The new venture is located at 20 W. Third St. on the building’s second floor. P-J photo by Gavin Paterniti

A new kind of interactive entertainment is coming to Chautauqua County with the grand opening of Escape Rooms Jamestown.

The new venture held its official opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday in front of its new location at 20 W. Third St. It occupies a suite of rooms on the second floor of the building, wherein the titular “escape rooms” are housed.

A growing trend in a number of larger metropolitan areas, Escape Rooms are live-action, team-based games where players discover clues, solve puzzles and perform tasks in order to “escape a room” within an hour. Escape Rooms Jamestown features three such rooms, each offering a unique set of clues, puzzles and tasks to go with a different storyline.

The process of bringing an Escape Room to Jamestown began with Catherine Johnner, a local resident who first learned of the concept during a five-year stint in St. Louis. Johnner worked as a certified public accountant in the area and in St. Louis before returning to Jamestown at the conclusion of her business out-of-state. Now she is the owner and proprietor of Escape Rooms Jamestown.

Johnner said she and her family got hooked on the Escape Room in St. Louis during family visits. When she moved back to Jamestown in August, she accompanied some friends to the nearby Escape Room Erie when the idea occurred to her that she could do the same thing on a local level.

“I’ve always done creative, puzzle-oriented activities for friends and family, but I never realized you could make a business out of it until I saw those Escape Rooms in St. Louis,” Johnner said. “Now that I’m back in Jamestown, I decided it was time to try something new and embrace this different side of myself that’s been hiding for a while.”

The three themed Escape Rooms in Jamestown are entitled “The Boardroom,” “The Lady Atocha” and “Consequences.”

“The Boardroom” invites guests to complete tasks related to classic boardgames. Their reward is the key or combination that will provide them with a piece of the big puzzle that must be solved, all within a 60-minute time span.

“The Lady Atocha” draws from the true story of a Spanish galleon that sank in a storm off the Florida Keys in 1622 while carrying precious coins, gems and jewels from Central America to Spain. Guests have 60 minutes to find the most valuable collection of coins and emeralds that were stored in the Captain’s cabin, which was separated from the rest of the ship when it sank, for safe keeping.

In order to escape “Consequences,” guests must solve ancient puzzles, complete curious tasks and interpret cryptic cyphers reminiscent of Di Vinci and Indiana Jones.

“I think this just is a different type of activity that gives people an opportunity to get together with friends and do something that’s not electronic. It’s whimsical, a little bit intellectual and it’s just flat out fun,” Johnner said.

Escape Rooms Jamestown is open Wednesday and Friday from 3-11 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from noon-11 p.m. Interested parties must book the rooms in advance, and can do so by calling 217-9039, emailing info@escaperoomsjamestown.com or visiting escaperoomsjamestown.com.

For more information, visit escaperoomsjamestown.com or find Escape Rooms Jamestown on Facebook.