Every Halloween, go back to the late 1800s and early 1900s through Main Street Fort Pierce’s Ghosts of Fort Pierce Past Historic Walking Tours
Check out the Ghosts of Fort Pierce Past historic walking tours
Main Street Fort Pierce’s Ghosts of Fort Pierce Past historic walking tour features local figures who tell stories about the area’s early settlers.
TCPalm entertainment reporter Laurie K. Blandford has attended a lifetime of local festivals and events as a Treasure Coast native. Of all of them, there’s one annual event she never misses, especially because it holds a special place in her heart.
What is your favorite local event or festival?
I love Main Street Fort Pierce’s Ghosts of Fort Pierce Past Historic Walking Tours. I’ve taken a lot of different kinds of ghost tours in my travels across the United States. Through the local event, I get to go back in time in my own hometown to the late 1800s and early 1900s.
My sister-in-law, Joanne Blandford, and Main Street Fort Pierce Executive Director Doris Tillman started the tours in 2004 to get people downtown after business hours. They got the idea from downtown walking tours they used to do with fourth-graders who were learning about Florida history.
In 2018, Main Street started a committee of four local amateur local historians, including my sister-in-law, to update the tours. The committee added more than a dozen new characters, many of whom are played by actual descendants.
It also reviewed scripts for accuracy and authentic history and made it more about the historical significance of the figures rather than continuing to tell false ghost stories. However, the tours still include stories of paranormal activity.
The event was even more special because one of the ghosts, Fort Pierce News Tribune Editor Charles S. Miley, was played by my former colleague and mentor, the legendary Anthony Westbury. I even joined him in 2023 as the ghost of one of his reporters.
When and where are the next ghost tours?
The ghost walks are always in October, during the week before Halloween, and they are always in downtown Fort Pierce and the surrounding area.
It all began with just one tour and about 10 characters playing local historic figures. The number of characters began to grow, making the tour too long, so Main Street split it into north and south tours in 2009.
Main Street added the Edgartown tour in 2013 after the historic neighborhood was revitalized. It then added a west tour in 2016 to take the ghost walks to the other side of U.S. 1 to the historic Arcade building.
The tours still are changing and getting better every year thanks to about 100 volunteers who pull the annual event together.
Here are this year’s ghost tours:
- Wednesday, Oct. 22: South, central and north tours on Second Street
- Thursday, Oct. 23: Edgartown and waterfront tours
- Saturday, Oct. 25: Peacock Arts Tour
Who should attend the ghost tours?
The ghost tours are history tours geared toward an adult audience, but all ages are welcome. The tours aren’t scary like ghost tours can be in big cities. It’s an interesting lesson for families and friends or a fun and different kind of date night.
What is the cost of the ghost tours?
The cost is $15 per person. It’s an annual fundraiser for Main Street Fort Pierce. Registration is required. For more information, go to mainstreetfortpierce.org.
Laurie K. Blandford is TCPalm’s entertainment reporter dedicated to finding the best things to do on the Treasure Coast. Email her at [email protected]. Sign up for her What To Do in 772 weekly newsletter at profile.tcpalm.com/newsletters/manage.
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