Victorian Ghost Stories

What: Victorian Ghost Stories

When: Sunday and Oct. 30

Where: James J. Hill House, 240 Summit Ave., St. Paul

Cost: $10

The Minnesota Historical Society really knows how to celebrate Halloween. They’ll be sponsoring dramatic readings of 19th-century Victorian ghost stories at the James J. Hill house in St. Paul, the quintessential ghost story setting.

“This is where you want to tell a ghost story,” actor and director Craig Johnson said. “When you’re in a historic place you can also capture the atmosphere and an emotional feeling and that really lends itself well to fiction of that time period.”

James J. Hill, the illustrious builder of the Great Northern Railway, constructed the grand estate in 1891, the prime of the gilded age. Amid the lavish décor and intricate woodworking are all the necessary trappings to give the old mansion its distinctive, spooky aura including a secret door in the wall of the dining room that led to a safe in which silver and other valuables were kept.

“It’s just the perfect setting for Victorian ghost stories,” actress Laura Salveson said. “This amazing house is used to great effect during the course of the readings.”

The dramatic readings will hearken back to a long-lost age in which literature was an immensely popular and somewhat singular form of entertainment. The Hill family members were big readers, as exemplified by the copious shelves in the library and in Hill’s personal office.

It’s quite possible that the Hill’s read similar stories in a similar fashion in the very parlor that the performances will take place in. This context serves to enhance the aesthetic effect of the performances.

“It’s emulating some kind of salon-style entertainment. People at that time would actually read stories to one another,” Johnson said.

The Victorian era was a time of grand architectural excitement as well as great literary proliferation. Most of the best ghost stories ever written came from the 19th century.

Stories included in the performance are “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, “The Lady’s Maid’s Bell” by Edith Wharton and “The Old Witch” by the Brothers Grimm. The performances also include supposedly “true” ghost stories from American folklore of that time period.

Once the performances wrap up, guests will be invited to tour the mansion and really get a feel for the mysteries it holds.

“You get to come into a house like this at night, when we’re normally not open, sit down, hear stories that stir your imagination, and sort of think about what it would be like living in a house like this,” Johnson said. “We’re trying to give people that experience.”