THE HISTORY OF THE OLDE TOWNE GHOSTWALK

2006 marks the 26th annual GhostWalk in Olde Towne Portsmouth. For the benefit of new Civic League members, and individuals looking at this website to find out information about the GhostWalk, we thought it might be interesting to include a history of the Walk. In 1998, Doris Leitner, a member of the League, longtime resident of Olde Towne, and the author of the Ghost Book, wrote the following for a September 1998 issue of the Olde Towne Lantern:

The Olde Towne Civic League was organized to promote the interests, safety, community spirit, and well being of the citizens of the Olde Towne area. Its purpose was to identify, protect, acquire, and preserve the areas, vistas, streetscapes, sites, buildings, monuments, structures and objects associated with the history and culture of Portsmouth. To achieve these goals, the new League needed funds. For several years, League members sold cookies at parades, sponsored craft fairs, manned BBQ stands at Seawall events, etc., to raise funds. These projects provided much camaraderie but not much money!

Amy Castleberry and Cathy Bunn hit upon the idea of a GhostWalk, similar to the Jack the Ripper Walks in London. Because of the store of wonderful legends regarding unexplained events that had occurred in Olde Towne over several centuries, there was ample material for such a Walk.

The first year, l981, Cathy and Gene Bunn co-chaired the Walk, and continued to do so until 1986. They hired actors from the Virginia Stage Company to enact the roles of long-gone characters, publicized the Walk, bought a roll of tickets, and waited. The crowd of 800 exceeded their wildest dreams! The Annual Ghost Walk was on its way! Initially, ten legends were highlighted. This highly successful event has continued to draw large crowds each year, necessitating division of the Walk into the East and West Walks, with inclusion of additional stories. In 2005, the25th Annual GhostWalk drew nearly 1800 participants!

The League has raised a great deal of money through the Walk, and has shared their profits with the Portsmouth Public Library, downtown churches, Olde Towne Business Association, Crime Line, the Mounted Patrol, Children’s Museum, Red Cross, H.E.R Shelter, and other worthy organizations. This year, OASIS will be the recipient of a portion of GhostWalk profits.

GhostWalk has become a Fall tradition in Portsmouth, and people attend from many parts of the State as well as from Hampton Roads. It is a very labor intensive event, and calls for the support and participation of a great number of volunteers who do everything from setting up and handling the tour line, serving as tour guides, preparing and serving hot cider at the Middle Street Park, selling Ghost Books and T-shirts, and a myriad of other jobs. The League has enjoyed the continued support of City departments – Police, Parks and Recreation, news media and merchants.