Haunted Trolley Tour on Oct. 20 visits 17 spooky places in Framingham

Oct 16, 2024

FRAMINGHAM — Framingham has been known as a "Halloween town," and on Sunday the Framingham History Center will demonstrate why.

The History Center is hosting a Haunted Trolley Tour in which guests visit some of the city's most historic spots and learn about the legends that made them, according to Anna Tucker, the History Center's executive director.

Nine tours, each totaling about 45 minutes and leaving from Village Hall on the Common at 2 Oak St., are scheduled for between 2 and 6 p.m.

"The Haunted Trolley Tour is definitely a Framingham History Center beloved program," Tucker said. "We brought it back in 2022, but this year we have many new stops. There are so many places with direct ties to Halloween. When I started this job, I found out that, in a lot of ways, Framingham is a Halloween town."

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Tucker said Dennison Manufacturing, a paper manufacturing company that was headquartered at the intersection of Howard and Bishop streets, helped commercialize Halloween in the early 1900s. Dennison, which merged with Avery International in 1990 and left Framingham in 2013, created what were called "Bogie Books," which advertised and sold Halloween decorations and costumes through the early part of the 20th century.

"Halloween in America had a lot of ties to these Bogie Books made right here in Framingham," Tucker said.

One of Sunday's 17 stops is Callahan State Park, where trolley riders may run into witches from the Bogie Books. Witches will actually be live actors who will recreate scenes from the books. There will be live actors at several other stops on the tour as well, Tucker said.

Other stops include the Framingham History Center's Village Hall, where tour goers will hear about the haunted history of the Edgell Memorial Library; and the Perkins-Bowditch Home, which was built on Edmands Road in the 1890s. Buffalo Bill Cody is said to have been a guest there several times.

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The trolley will also venture down Salem End Road to visit the Sarah Clayes House, named for a woman who was accused to be a witch during the 1690s Salem witch trials. The trolley will also stop at Framingham State University, where tour goers will learn about supposed haunted dorms; and on Main Street, where Union soldier Lothrop Wright is buried.

Wright survived after getting shot during the Civil War because a penny deflected the bullet.

"We'll be visiting some well known spots, as well as some not so well known spots," Tucker said.

There will be games and other activities on the Centre Common before and after each tour.

Tickets are $35 and can be purchased in advance at framinghamhistory.org/events/2024-haunted-trolley-tour/. Pre-purchase is recommended, Tucker said.

Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or [email protected]. For up-to-date public safety news, follow him on X @Norman_MillerMW or on Facebook at facebook.com/NormanMillerCrime.