WALKING TOURS OF CAPITAL CITY DIVE INTO THE HALLOWEEN SPIRIT
Step into holiday with true crime, supernatural sites
The Historic Albany Foundation, along with Discover Albany and Mcgeary’s Irish Pub, are offering “Eerie Albany Ghost Tours” and “The Dark Side of Downtown Albany,” a series of tours about the city’s spooky side.
According to Matt Malette, Historic Albany Foundation board president, the region has an appetite for true crime and the supernatural.
“We found that people always like ghost stories,” he said. “Last year we found that when we were discussing a serial killer that used to walk aroundcenter Square that kind of hit a little bit harder for people. So we kind of wanted to go that route this year as well.”
Krysta Dennis, a professor at Siena College and Capital Region native, agrees with Malette. Dennis, who spent years working and studying in England and France and watching the way European history was preserved and discussed, was inspired on her return to the region to do something similar here.
She will be one of the guides on the tours, combining her work in theater with her love for history. Dennis believes that at the heart of these excursions is a well-told story that listeners can lose themselves in. What makes a story isn’t just the beginning, middle and end, but also the setting, she says, and unlike traditional theater, it provides room for the audience to be a part of it. Her own little joy comes from using her skills to transport her audience to a bygone era.
“You have to paint a picture of Albany in these different time periods,” she said. “What makes it a lot of fun is that you get to meet other people that are interested in hearing about the city's history and engage with them. It's not like traditional theater where you have the fourth wall and the actors don't interact with the audience. It's much more fun than that.”
The “Eerie Albany Ghost Tours” will explore the region’s history at specific locales, including the state Capitol building, the Olde English Pub, and the Ten Broeck Triangle with a focus on haunted pasts and old legends of Albany.
After last year’s successful tour in and around Center Square, this year’s “The Dark Side of Downtown Albany” tour will cover a specific area of the city, this time downtown. It discusses horrific events in the city’s past like an elevator accident, a murder at the Ten Eyck Hotel and what used to be a curiosity museum, among others. These tours also include a stop at the Parish Public House.
“There's been a lot of hours that went into research to make sure that this stuff is accurate,” said Malette. “We would go off of me saying ‘There was a building collapse there.’ We started doing more research into that, looking up the newspapers of the day and books. Obviously, there wasn't really anyone to interview. That would be creepy.”
Each tour has a maximum of 15 spots and advance booking is advised. There are special rates for groups of 10 or more. All “The Dark Side of Downtown” tours involve a stop at the Parish Public House, with the exception of the tours that start at 5:30 p.m.