Walking between Student Village II and West Campus, students might be spooked by the subtle smirk of the jack-o-lantern in the pathway. Although this creepy carving is quite harmless, Boston and its surrounding areas have their own history of spooks and scares.
Spooky Salem
For those students eager to experience the horrors of Halloween, no spot perhaps is more apt than Salem. An historical place, infamous for its tragic witch trials, the town hosts a range of Halloween activities year after year.
Cory Morano, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, visited the town on Saturday and said its atmosphere helped get her into the Halloween spirit.
“It was the most crowded place I’ve ever been to,” she said. “Everyone was in costume on the commuter train ride there, and when we got off we saw that there was a street fair that day too, so it attracted a ton of people.”
While exploring Salem, Cory said she was surprised to see that it was as much of a normal town as it is an historical center.
“It’s really cool because it’s a very modern small town, but then there are bits and pieces of the old stuff, like the cemeteries and churches and courthouses,” she said. “So it’s really cool that that stuff is integrated amongst places like Ben and Jerry’s and Dunkin’ Donuts.”
Morano said Salem offers lively, spooky activities in the autumn. Tourists can wander through a witch village, explore haunted houses, enjoy a candle-lit boat or go on a trolley tour. There is also a carnival, crafts and food carts in the street.
Morano said her favorite attraction, however, was the Salem Wax Museum.
“I thought [the Wax Museum] was better than the Salem Witch Museum would have been because it was quicker to walk through and gave you information you wanted to know,” she said. “It told us about the history before, during and after the witch trials — it was like a story.”
She also said to check out the The Burying Point, a cemetery, after visiting the museum.
“The cemetery was where some of people that were talked about in wax museum were buried, so that was really cool,” she said.
But Salem is not just all about its history of witch-hunting. Morano said that there was also a “free museum of the history of Salem in general, all about it’s trade and role in civil war.”
Morano said that Boston University students should definitely take a trip to Salem, whether this Halloween or next, and offered tips for students planning a trip there.
“It would definitely be cool to go in a costume and stay all day and just embrace the Halloween spirit,” she said. “The people in costume looked like they were having the best time — that’s the point of it. If you’re going to go, really get into it.”
BOO! In Back Bay
For students who are convinced of the presence of the spirits this Halloween, there are local destinations where they can explore the other realm as well.
“The First Spiritualist Temple on the corner of Newbury and Exeter Streets in Back Bay is a good spooky building right here in our own backyard,” said CAS Professor William Moore.
Moore, who specializes in American religious groups and how architecture expresses religion, said the temple has a spooky history.
“Built in the 1880s, the temple was intended as a place where people could go to talk to ghosts,” he said. “Though it was a thriving religion at the time, I feel like it’s something most people don’t know about now. But for years this was a place where ghosts manifested themselves in séances.”
The temple, built in a Richardsonian Romanesque style, was meant to serve as a “center of psychic phenomena,” according to Keith Morgans’s bookBuildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston.
Haunted Harvard
Cambridge Historical Tours offer a “Haunted Harvard” Ghost Tour which walks people through the haunted spots in Cambridge.
“It blended fun ghost stories with an interesting walking tour experience,” said CAS senior, Chelsea Bray.
The destinations include Winthrop Square, Harvard Yard, the Widener Library and the Harvard Bell Tower, where the tour guide tell tales about travelers to Boston, Titanic victims, Harvard students and researchers who encounter spooky occurrences and untimely deaths.
People on the tour learn that beneath Pete’s Coffee Shop, 15 bodies had been buried as a result of “witchcraft.”
“A great Halloween activity!” Bray said.
Student’s Scary Stories
Just as all over Boston, spooky stories circulate right on BU’s campus as well.
Many BU students said they are aware of Eugene O’Neill, the Shelton Hall’s resident ghost.
“My iHome used to turn on and off in Shelton,” said Erin Jansen, a sophomore in CAS. “It definitely does not happen in my new apartment.”
Other hauntings have scared away residents into different dorms, said students.
“I lived in Shelton for a month freshman year,” said Becky Joiner, a junior in CAS. “I lived on the fifth floor and whenever I would take the stairs I noticed the fourth floor is significantly darker and creepier than the rest of the building. Supposedly that’s the floor where Eugene O’Neil died … creepy!”
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