Ghost Walk 2016

The Albemarle’s premier living history event, The Historic Elizabeth City Ghost Walk, will take place October 14 and 15, from 5:30 to 9:30 each night. Ghost Walk is celebrating its 20th anniversary with the Best of 20 Years of Ghost Walk. Eight sites will host characters from Elizabeth City’s past, including a Vaudeville musical reminiscent of the James Adams Floating Theatre at Arts of the Albemarle.
Here’s a run-down of this year’s ghosts:

Nell Cropsey, the beautiful 19-year-old whose 1901 murder has never been solved. She’ll appear at the Episcopal Cemetery, near the Pool family vault, where her
body spent one night—the night of her autopsy.

Tamsen Donner taught school in Elizabeth City in the 1830s and married a man from Camden. After his death she moved to the Midwest and met George Donner.
Together they perished in the Donner party tragedy, trying to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains during an early blizzard. Tamsen’s body was cannibalized by other members of the party. She’ll appear at 1207 Riverside Avenue.

Orville and Wilbut Wright traveled here by train many times between 1900 and 1909, on their way to Kitty Hawk. They’ll appear in the former Fowler Store on Water Street, where the Wrights actually purchased supplies to set up camp in Kitty Hawk.

Captain Israel Perry took Wilbur Wright to Kitty Hawk on his fishing boat Curlicue, on Wilbur’s first trip there in 1900. Captain Perry will give a droll account of his experience with his soon-to-be famous passenger and the storm that almost capsized them. He will appear at 905 Riverside Avenue.

The famous American poet Robert Frost visited Elizabeth City in 1894, when he was a young man. In a fit of pique over a failed romance, Frost traveled to the Great Dismal Swamp with the intention of ending his life. There he met up with a group of duck hunters who brought him to Elizabeth City. Frost wrote of the experience many years later in his poem “Kitty Hawk.” Frost’s ghost will haunt 1210 Riverside Avenue.

Luther “Wimpy” Lassiter was an international billiards phenomenon who was a native and life-long resident of Elizabeth City. The six-time Nine Ball Champion will appear at Coaster’s Bar and Grill on Poindexter Street.

Moses Grandy was a maritime slave from Camden County in the early 1800s. A skilled river pilot, Grandy worked to buy his freedom three times—having been cheated of it twice by his master. He published his life story in London in 1843. Moses Grandy will appear at the Coast Guard Park on Riverside Avenue.

Ghost Walk tickets are $12; $10 for military and early responders. Tickets may be purchased at Muddy Water Coffee House, Page After page Book Store, Bryon’s
Hot Dogs, and Arts of the Albemarle. A preview of the Vaudeville show at Arts of the Albemarle’s Maguire Theatre will be held on Thursday, Oct. 13, at 7:00.
The preview will be $5 at the door.