Downtown has a few good ghost stories to tell, and lucky for locals, there’s a group brave enough to tell them.
AdLib Luxury Tours, the group behind the popular Downtown “Top to Bottom” Walking Tour, has added another adventure to their tour offerings, one that will leave you an expert on some of Downtown’s spookiest historic tales.
Kicking off tonight at 8 p.m. at The Jacksonville Landing escalators, the new “River City Haunts” tour sends you on a rendezvous with several Downtown “ghosts.” Your tour guide is none other than Lewis Zachariah Hogans, the first settler of Jacksonville. By lantern light, Hogans walks you through the shadows of Downtown, where you’ll meet the likes of Joseph Hilton, one of the first projectionists of The Florida Theatre, and Mrs. Hart, the wife of Jacksonville founder Isaiah D. Hart.
With all ghosts tales historically based, you’ll find yourself enraptured in stories that provide entertainment as well as interesting history lessons. For example, you’ll learn The Carling was once the Roosevelt Hotel, which caught fire in 1963, killing 22 people whose ghosts are said to haunt the structure today. Tour guide ghost Hogans cautions, “The [Carling] elevator will take you for a ride – ask the locals.”
This 12-block “River City Haunts” tour runs approximately one hour, and the cost is only $15 per person. Reservations are recommended – call 904-827-1845 or email gary@adlibtours.com. Private tours of up to 25 are also available upon request. For more information, visit the AdLib Luxury Tours website.