Huguenot Street's Historical Halloween Event
New Paltz Historic Neighborhood Haunts from History and Folklore
Oct 23, 2009
The Hudson Valley village of New Paltz was settled by Huguenots in the 1600s, and for Halloween the Huguenot Street Historic District becomes Haunted Huguenot Street, a creepy look back into the darker side of New Paltz history. Starting in 2003 the Huguenot Historical Society (HHS) has researched long-forgotten scandals, discovered strange and mysterious folk tales, and displayed the creepiest of its historic artifacts to blend its educational mission with the scariness that Hudson Valley residents love at Halloween.
Haunted Tours of an Historic Neighborhood
Tours of the seven stone houses on Huguenot Street take a different tone for the Halloween festivities. The entire district is lighted with ball jars to give it a sinister feel in the dark autumn night. As Society member Shari Osborn remarked, “It's eerie to be in these houses in October.” Visitors start at the Dubois Fort, where they are given a funeral card, and are led by a guide in groups of ten to fifteen to different locations in the neighborhood. Staff members playing the roles of historic characters flesh out the tales told by the guide. The funeral card, for example, is used later on in the tour to gain admission to a mourning session – reenacting how early resident Jenny LeFevre addressed her brother's death.
For the first several years the script for Haunted Huguenot did not vary, but new twists and tales were added to encourage people to return year after year. Visitors have been regaled with stories of murderous mothers, buried bodies, and unspeakable scandals that all have been meticulously researched by Osborn, Society board member Joan Kelly, and others. The stories are picked from among the most disturbing and gruesome tales in New Paltz history.
Dutch and Native American Folk Tales
What board members unearth from the historical record is supplemented by folk tales of the Dutch and Native Americans who inhabited the banks of the Wallkill River. The tales themselves required significant shortening, according to Richard Heyl de Ortiz, Director of Public Programs. “Some of the Dutch tales are ten or more pages long,” he explained, “but we needed to pare them down so that our guides could tell them during the tour.” The tales are timed to be relevant to the nearby buildings, so the Dutch tale of the Baker's Dozen unfolds near the house of the Society's director, which was one of the original bakeries on the street.
Haunted Hunt for Younger Visitors
The graphic nature of Haunted Huguenot Street leads HHS to avoid recommending it for small children, “but people still bring them,” Heyl de Ortiz points out. As an alternative the Society has developed the Haunted Hunt for the two- to eleven-year-old crowd. Youngsters, whose parents get to participate for free, are given a series of riddles that can only be solved by seeking out the costumed characters that lurk in and near the stone houses of Huguenot Street. The actors will ignore modern references and answer appropriately for their character's time period. After discovering the answers to the seven riddles, the kids are treated to cider and home-baked goodies – no modern candy allowed.
Where History and Halloween Meet
Haunted Huguenot Street is both educational and spooky, a combination that is well-received by this college town. Among the many Halloween events in New Paltz, this attraction has the oldest scares of all.
Source:
Interview with Richard Heyl de Ortiz and Shari Osborn at Historic Huguenot Street on October 22, 2009.
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