Looking for a Halloween scare this weekend?
Try a Ghost Walk, a Halloween tradition that has been sponsored by the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion in Philadelphia's Germantown neighborhood for the past 10 years.
These tours consist of visiting the mansion and then five other houses, most of which are decorated lavishly for Halloween.
"We have guides that walk the visitors from house to house, and at each house a ghost story is told," said 1986 Wharton alumna Noelle Bjornson, who directs the mansion.
All of the guides are volunteers, either friends of the mansion or associated with the mansion in some way.
"We have just wonderful neighbors and friends who help," Bjornson said. "I know one in the past actually had a coffin with a corpse coming to life at the end of the story."
The stories are generally related to the house being visited, and the storytellers actually come up with their own tales.
In terms of decor, the mansion, built in Victorian style, is spooky in its own right.
"Victorian houses lend themselves with their furnishing, and their architecture is really Gothic," Bjornson said.
"They didn't have a whole lot of lighting [in the 1800s], so it tends to be a bit dark."
The stories are told in the parlor, which is furnished with collections from the mansion's past.
Each tour is about two hours long and ends with refreshments.
While it may seem like an attraction targeted toward teens, the mansion actually hosts just as many adults, if not more.
"It's turned out to be a very adult event," Bjornson said.
The prices range from $12 for adults to $5 for children under 12, and there is a special discount for members.
There is no student rate.
The Ghost Walks are a key fundraising event for the mansion, and all of the proceeds go directly toward maintaining the property.
There are five tours a day, leaving every 30 minutes from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tours will be given today, tomorrow and Sunday.
The mansion will play host to about 200 people over the three days, so make sure to reserve your tickets fast; the Ghost Walks tend to sell out.
