Morristown NJ Fall Historical Walking Tours: Featuring Ghosts, Graveyards and The Seeing Eye

“Colonial Ghosts and Graveyard Tour”
Morristown: Saturday, October 15 & 22  
 
The celebration of Halloween began with Colonial mourning customs, graveyard art and eerie tales of death and dying.  Morristown has played an important role in folklore tales that go thump in the night.  Ted Edgar, local Revolutionary War historian will bring these stories back to life.
 
Starting at the Morristown Green, we will share the purpose of the Revolutionary era Green for courthouse, jail, and criminal executions. The walking tour crosses to the Presbyterian Church’s graveyard where death shows its final role.  See graves by lantern light that highlight victims of three small pox epidemics brought to Morristown by Washington’s army in 1777.  There are graves of murdered residents, nameless infants, and others that lived for many decades.  While not a ghost tour, sometimes reality can be much spookier.
 
The twilight tours, led by lantern light, begin at 5 p.m. and end in the graveyard of the Presbyterian Church at 6:30 p.m.
 
“The Seeing Eye’s Training Ground” 
Continued by popular demand!
Morristown:  Saturday October 29
                                                                                 
North America’s first guide dog training school, The Seeing Eye was founded in 1929 by Morris Frank.  You’ve noticed the statue of Morris and his dog Buddy just off the Morristown Green, maybe even toured The Seeing Eye’s campus in Morristown.   During this tour you’ll learn about the history of the organization, walk the neighborhood where the dogs train, and see how Seeing Eye® dogs respond to their owners.   As you leave the in-town training center you’ll pass sites important to the history of the organization.
 
Tour will begin at 14 Maple Avenue, Morristown at 11:00 and last 90 minutes.

“Bones, Stones and the Undertaker”
Morristown: Sunday October 30            
                        
Join us for this special tour that explores the historic bones and decorative stones of St. Peter’s Graveyard in Morristown.  Additionally, understanding the undertakers’ role in the preparation of the bodies for burial will be discussed on the eve of Halloween. Local historians Leslie Bensley and Carol Barkin will lead visitors to both sides of the graveyard; other people from the 19th century will join the group.
Buried at the church are Alfred Vail, inventor of the telegraph and George Macculloch and his wife Louisa. Macculloch created the Morris Canal connecting the Delaware and Hudson Rivers across New Jersey.

The tour will begin at St. Peter’s Church on the Miller Road side at 5pm. Directly after the tour visit the 2nd annual Pumpkin Illumination at the Vail Mansion and the Mayo Center for the Performing Arts will have Halloween programs and refreshments.

Make your reservations now by calling 973-631-5151. Tours are $10.00 per person.

Funding for this project was provided in part through the cooperative Marketing Grant Program of the New Jersey Department of State, Division of Travel and Tourism
 

Contact Information

Deidre Schunk

Information Manager

Morris County Tourism Bureau

(1) 973-631-5151

dschunk@morristourism.org