Finding the Path Forward
Every year, our tours are visited by college hopefuls touring local campuses. Their parents usher them through the city, eager to fall in love with the place they will soon call home. September arrives and the students move in. While on tour, I love asking what they hope to study and why. Their answers are full of aspiration and inspiration: cure a disease, improve quality of life by inventing mobility devices, create cross-cultural communication tools, become a teacher, make art, understand the world. Every student arrives with dreams.
This weekend, I was leading our Christmas Tour on Benefit Street when violence struck the Brown University community. Like so many, we weren’t sure what was going on. As our tour progressed, we checked social media and news and learned what was unfolding. It felt unreal, impossible. It still feels that way.
As the magnitude and danger of the situation became apparent, I ended the tour immediately and ushered my group back to their cars. We were all able to leave, some to hotels, the rest of us to our homes.
We returned home. Bright, joyful, energetic students seeking their way in the world did not.
I have spent the past two days at a loss. I put together furniture for my office that I’d ordered. I made food for my family. I walked my dog. But as I’ve completed normal, everyday tasks, nothing has felt normal.
Our flagship ghost tour traverses Brown University’s campus. It is a haven in the city. The quad is quiet and peaceful (or buzzing and brilliant with energy on some days and evenings). The buildings are hallowed and stately. It is one of my favorite parts of our walk.
The ghost tour will not return to Brown’s main campus for some time. Students, faculty, and staff need time to be close together without intrusion. Telling ghost stories on their grounds would be perverse. I cannot stomach that idea. The grounds of Brown are to be respected and the Brown community needs our absolute support.
At this time, tours are currently limited to our Benefit Street offerings as we take this pause. Parasols and Christmas tour will continue as planned, and all other ghost tours will return in mid-January with Haunted Benefit Street.
Thank you all for your grace as we try to find the path forward. May our hearts be with the Brown University community and those impacted by this violence. I am with you in spirit.
The best way to experience these haunted locations? A lantern-lit stroll with the Providence Ghost Tour, where professional guides lead you through the city’s haunted streets and share the legends that linger there.
