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Get Away

Take a walk on the weird side

Whether you glimpse a ghost or just enjoy the night air, these haunted hikes mix the historic with the horrible.

By LORRIE LYKINS
Published October 13, 2005

[Times photos: William Dunkley]

Spooky shadows and scary stories accompany you on the Dark Side of the Sunshine City tour presented by Tampa Bay Ghost Tours.

	Bob Lehr of Largo tells a tale about the Pier Hotel, at Second Avenue N near BayWalk in St. Petersburg, during a Tampa Bay Ghost Tours walk.

Who is the vaporous "Lady in White" some claim to have spotted floating through the fifth floor corridor of the Renaissance Vinoy hotel?

Is she the ghost of Elsie Elliott, who was allegedly pushed down a flight of stairs by her husband, land developer Eugene Elliott? Or is the apparition the ghost of the Elliotts' maid, who witnessed the fatal fall but disappeared before she could testify about what she had seen?

Does a long-departed young man come home for the holidays each year and drift through the front door of his former Old Northeast home at midnight? Do the ghosts of St. Petersburg's founding fathers hover about, keeping watch on the doings downtown?

The operators of Tampa Bay Ghost Tours don't claim to have the answers, but they do a pretty good job of presenting the questions.

Some may be quick to pooh-pooh, but at the very least, these walking tours are a fun and family-friendly stroll through local history, illuminating much of its charm along with some of its darker moments.

Tampa Bay Ghost Tours, which operates out of Hubbard's Marina, offers four guided tours through Pinellas locales rumored to be bay area haunts. The tours run the gamut from the mariner lore and pirate tale tour of John's Pass to the Guys and Ghouls tour of Gulfport, featuring the Gulfport Casino. The St. Pete Beach and Pass-a-Grille tour features an optional "tales and treats" package at the Don CeSar, which includes appetizers and refreshments along with stories about the many ghosts alleged to inhabit the grand old hotel.

In Tampa, Ghost Walk Tours looks at the history and mystery of Ybor City.

None of these ghost tours should be confused with Halloween fright festival experiences. No one jumps out of bushes with chain saws, and the pace of the tour is best described as leisurely. Groups are escorted by costumed guides who have boned up on history and approach the portrayal of their characters very seriously.

On the downtown St. Petersburg tour recently, Deborah Frethem, clad in a turn-of-the-century gown, portrayed Sarah Craven Judge Williams Armistead, whose second husband, John C. Williams, as in Williams Park, was one of St. Petersburg's co-founders. "John and I came here in 1889, when this was known as Paul's Landing," Frethem told the group that gathered at dusk in front of the St. Petersburg Museum of History.

Frethem warned the group before they set out that spirits do not usually make appearances if they sense they are being sought, so casual strolling is the best approach. A good pair of walking shoes is also smart, since the St. Petersburg tour is about 11/2 miles.

"The downtown tour is the longest walking tour we do," said Frethem, as the group approached the boyhood home of Albert Whitted, whose ghost allegedly inhabits the front porch from time to time. Other stops along the way include the Vinoy and several houses in the Old Northeast neighborhood that have interesting histories and perhaps eternal inhabitants.

One sobering tale Frethem recounted was of an incident that occurred in 1914, when a man accused of robbing and murdering a man and assaulting his wife was dragged from the city jail by a mob and lynched from a telephone pole; some people have claimed that they have witnessed odd things in the area on the anniversary of the lynching, Nov. 11.

Frethem is reluctant to weigh in on the existence of ghosts. "I can't say for sure if a house is haunted, but you never know. We have had some very eerie experiences on some of the tours," Frethem said.

Ghosts and ghouls aside, the tour makes for an enjoyable evening outdoors and an opportunity to pick up a little local history.

No videotaping is permitted, but still photos are allowed. At the end of the tour, one member of the group scrolled through the digital shots she had taken and gasped when she noticed what looked like three floating lights in the frame of a photo she had taken of a house alleged to be haunted for the past 40 years.

"Like I said, you just never know," Frethem said.

Tampa Bay Ghost Tours offers the Dark Side of the Sunshine City downtown St. Petersburg; Maritime Mysteries & Pirates of the Pass (John's Pass Village, Madeira Beach); Haunted Halls and Horrifying Hermits (St. Pete Beach and Pass-a-Grille); and Gulfport Guys and Ghouls. Tickets are $14 adults, $10 for children. Additional fee for refreshments on the St. Pete Beach tour. Call for schedule. Reservations required. Information: (727) 398-5200; www.allthebesthaunts.com

Ghost Walk Tours offers Secret Ybor: Scandals, Crimes and Shady Ladies Ybor City. Tours operate Sunday evenings and by appointment. Reservations required. Information: (813) 831-5214 or www.historicguides.com

[Last modified October 12, 2005, 10:19:03]