Ghost Walks return and highlight local history
Photos by Tom Rivers: Albion High School students will bring back the Ghost Walk at Mount Albion Cemetery on Saturday. The school took a year off from the Ghost Walk last year, although many were part of one at the Cobblestone Museum. This photo from oct. 2, 2016 shows Sophia Zambito, left, as Mildred Skinner and Cole London as Herschel Harding. They were two of four children killed in a trolley accident on March 7, 1915.
Ghost Walks that highlight local history and prominent residents, as well as some who are relatively unknown, will return.
The Albion High School Arts Department will have its 10th Ghost Walk on Saturday at Mount Albion Cemetery. There are 66 students involved in the event, serving as ghosts, tour guides, singers and the tech crew.
Erica Wanecski of Medina played a suffragette who pushed for women’s right to vote. She is shown during the Ghost Walk on Oct. 8, 2017 at the Cobblestone Museum. The museum will have another Ghost Walk on Oct. 7.
Students will highlight the lives of Rufus Brown Bullock, Elizabeth Harriet Denio, Noah Davis, David Hardie, Hannah Avery, Starr Chester, Dr. Elizabeth Vaile, Emily Pullman (George Pullman’s mother), Alexis Ward’s wife Laura Goodrich Ward, Hiram Curtis, Jenny Curtis and Arad Thomas.
An Albion student will perform the song, “Top of the Tower,” written by former Mayor Donna Rodden. The student will sing from the tower, which is a Civil War Memorial.
The Mount Albion Ghost Walk is from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. with a $5 donation. For tickets and to reserve a time, call 589-2087. There are tours every 15 minutes.
The Cobblestone Museum also is having a Ghost Walk on Oct. 7. This follows last year’s debut of the event. The Ghost Walk includes community volunteers, from children to senior citizens.
The “ghosts” are connected to the Cobblestone Museum’s past. The walking tour includes about a dozen different locations on the museum’s campus, including the cobblestone schoolhouse, the oldest cobblestone church in North America, and a cobblestone parsonage, all National Historic Landmarks.
Some of the apparitions include newspaper editor Horace Greeley, who once owned the Cobblestone Parsonage; William Babbitt, who supervised the construction of District #5 Cobblestone Schoolhouse and served as Town Supervisor and a State Assemblyman; and Rev. Stephen Smith, who gave the dedicatory address at the opening of the Cobblestone Universalist Church in 1834.
Tours begin every 20 minutes beginning at 1 p.m. and will last about 90 minutes. The final tour will set out from the lower level of the Cobblestone Church at 4 p.m. The cost for the Ghost Walk is $10 for adults and $7 for Cobblestone Society Members. Kids 12 and under are $5 and those under 2 are free. Pre-registration guarantees a spot on one of 10 tours.
Registration can be made in person, by phone at 589-9013, or online at cobblestonemuseum.org. Walk-ins on October 7 will be accommodated in any open slots remaining.
