With its fascinating history dating back hundreds of years, a centrally located cemetery, and notable spooky spirits, the outer Cape’s haunted side is a thrill to discover on ghost tours – just a few mystery-laden steps away from our Provincetown bed and breakfast.
Guided and Self-Guided Provincetown Ghost Tours
With its motto of exploring “pilgrims, pirates, and people of the past,” the Provincetown Original Ghost Tour is an entertaining way to discover Provincetown’s more spine-tingling chronicles. Their 90-minute tour brings these supernatural tales to life as you take a guided one-mile stroll, which is affordable at only $20 per person. Walk-ins are accepted when space allows but make a reservation online to ensure your spot on their nightly tour, which starts promptly at 9 pm. Tours continue into Sept and Oct, but check their website for updates about potential changes in departure time.
Experienced and well-versed guides, who have been giving tours since 2006, pull from a wealth of knowledge covering Provincetown’s past, brought to life as you pass by historic landmarks and age-old houses with uncanny backstories, plus a visit to the fabled cemetery. Although you’ll learn of ghostly tales, the tour topics aren’t gruesome or terrifying, making it appropriate for all ages, and their outings are pet-friendly (ideal if you plan to bring your dog to Provincetown).
For a self-guided option, ghost tour guide Perry Normal (alter ego of Al Parker) offers a downloadable 3-mile tour called “Ghosts, Legends, and Lore of Provincetown.” After downloading the tour from the Apple or Google store on your phone, Perry will provide audio as you walk to the 21 stops on his route covering the haunted hotspots from end to end of Provincetown. In a unique twist, he includes some more lighthearted spirits in his tour, such as Preston Babbit, the longtime Provincetown resident, AIDS activist, and Rose and Crown Guest House owner before his untimely passing in 1990. Babbit, known for the elaborate costumes he handcrafted for Provincetown Carnival weekend and Halloween parties, is said to appear in festive garb occasionally on the Rose and Crown property, his vibrant personality still shining even in the afterlife.
Ghosts Near Gabriel’s – Other Spots With Haunted Backstories
As you stroll the blocks surrounding our property, you’ll never be far from a haunted location – a merging of past and present, real and surreal. Right next door, ride the 85-foot-long outdoor inclined elevator to reach the base of the Pilgrim Monument, towering over 250 feet above and commanding the Provincetown skyline. During the years-long construction of the tower in the early 1900s, workers transported massive slabs of granite up this same elevator pathway using rail cars. On a stormy night in 1908, lightning hit one of the rail cars, sending it down the hill where it struck and killed 85-year-old Rosilla Bangs. On rainy nights, people have claimed to see Bangs’ ghostly figure sitting peacefully on a bench at the top of the hill near the tower’s base.
Two other supposedly haunted buildings are just a couple blocks away on Commercial St. At the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House, classically stunning with its stark white-painted exterior and Greek Revival architecture dating back to 1847, congregants speak of seeing ghosts of Portuguese fishing families who were some of the church’s earliest members, and longtime Provincetown Chamber of Commerce volunteer Char Priolo talks of hearing a gorgeous and haunting “ghost choir” amongst its pews. The historic Lancy Mansion property is around the corner, constructed in 1874 by prosperous Provincetown ship merchant Benjamin Lancy. Lancy’s mother died in the house during the harsh winter of 1896, and her spirit supposedly still visits the stately home, which became a museum from the 1920s-60s and is now the Front Street Restaurant. A favorite eatery of legendary filmmaker John Waters and voted the best fine dining restaurant by Cape Cod Life Magazine, it’s worth having a meal between ghost tours at Front Street, where the upscale Italian menu includes delicious plates like Tuscan arugula salad with lemon feta and sundried cranberries, mussels with garlic and white wine, gnocchi topped with white truffles, and veal piccata.
Wellfleet – A Famous Witch, More Ghost Tours, and Halloween at the Drive-In
Continue your ghostly adventures 20 miles down the Cape, where knowledgeable Historical Society volunteers lead 1-mile walking Wellfleet ghost tours at 8 pm on Monday and Thursday evenings through the week of Halloween. Although smaller than Provincetown, Wellfleet has enthralling haunted tales to rival any other town on Cape Cod. You’ll learn about the legend of Mary “Goodie” Hallet, a resident of Wellfleet in the early 1700s who watched her long-lost lover, famed pirate “Black Sam” Bellamy, perish in a shipwreck just off the sands of modern-day Marconi Beach, part of the pristine Cape Cod National Seashore. Lore has it that her forlorn and heartbroken voice still haunts the forests and dunes surrounding Wellfleet, often called the “Witch of Wellfleet.”
If you’re visiting over Halloween, join the spooky festivities at the 16th annual Wellfleet Trunk or Treat Festival. At the free, family-friendly event held at the classic Wellfleet Drive-In (the only drive-in still functioning on the Cape and a nostalgic trip back in time) from 3:30-6:30 pm, locals decorate dozens of cars and line up for kids to stroll from trunk to trunk and grab candy. Adding to the fun-filled ambiance, festival organizers award prizes to the best-decorated trunks, including themed cars like the Ghostbusters wagon, making it an extra memorable trick-or-treat outing for the whole family.
Plan your Cape Cod getaway and discover the eerie and ghostly tales of Provincetown!