Our perennially popular Halloween program is SOLD OUT for the 2026 season. Tickets will not be available at the door. Our special flashlight tours will take you all the way up to the dark, shadowy attic to hear long-standing and new Homestead ghost stories from staff members and spooky encounters reported by guests, as featured on the Syfy channel’s Ghost Hunters.
In October 1816, the Year Without a Summer has left Hartford cold, dark, and uneasy. An elegant masquerade brings together Lord Byron, Mary Godwin, Percy Shelley, John Polidori, and their Hartford hosts for an evening of poetry, philosophy, storytelling, and revelry. But as the night unfolds, strange behavior, missing memories, and inexplicable occurrences begin to suggest that something has followed the guests into the house.
Something is missing at the Manse … and the spirits know where it is! Join this a one-of-a-kind house tour where history, mystery, and a few friendly ghosts come together! As you make your way through the Manse, you will encounter some familiar—and not-so-familiar—spirits, each with a clue to help solve the mystery of the missing artifact. You will follow the clues, uncover the secrets, and see if you can figure out where the artifact has gone!
Explore the burial customs, traditions, and superstitions around death in New England from colonial times through the 19th century with Dean Massey, an urban planning researcher from Northeastern University. Following the talk, a short walk to the Warner Cemetery will offer provide an opportunity to examine epitaphs and iconography up close, and engage in a discussion about the rich diversity of New England’s remembrance practices.
Experience the city’s oldest house at twilight as you meet the ghosts of New Londoners who have ghoulish stories to tell. Talk with them—if you dare! Participants are welcome to come in costume, though we ask that they refrain from extreme gore, masks that cover the whole face or head, tripping hazards, weapons, or using cultural identities as costumes.
Join Traci Boiselle, a paranormal investigator with 18 years of experience with The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS), for a discussion of theories, tools, and methods used in paranormal research. Explore the history of the Hempsted Houses, including her family connection to the property, and see paranormal evidence from New London County investigations. VIP ticket-holders will then join a 45-minute guided paranormal investigation of one of New England’s oldest dwellings: the 1678 Joshua Hempsted House.