Texas Lou

A few months ago, I received an email from Living Social about a deal for a Murder/Ghost/History tour in Charlottesville.  I’ve been wanting to take this tour for a long time since I’ve heard alot of good things about it from friends and I’m interested in history and mystery so I decided to take advantage of the deal.

Fast forward to this week and I received an email that my living social deal I had purchased months ago was about to expire so I had to act fast!  Sarah and I made plans to take the tour which is given every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 8 to 10 PM in downtown Charlottesville.  I wasn’t sure what to expect since Cville is such a small town (at least in my eyes).  I was curious about how many people would attend the tour and how much history and ghost stories there could actually be.

A flyer for the ghost tour I took last night

The tour, given by Rob Craighurst of Tell Me About It Tours, was pretty awesome!  Rob walked us through the streets of downtown Charlottesville telling us the story of a former mayor of Charlottesville, Sam McCue, and his wife Fannie who was murdered in 1904.  His elaborate and historically accurate anecdote was sprinkled with rumors of ghosts sightings at certain area residences and businesses as well as interesting facts about the landscape and history of Charlottesville in the early 1900s.  He also pointed out several buildings throughout downtown Charlottesville that I had no idea existed like the original Charlottesville jail where people were hanged as punishment for their crimes.  Rob was a wonderful tour guide who mastered  the use of humor, suspense, and imagery in his story and held our attentions very well!  I would recommend this tour to both tourists and long-time residents of Charlottesville.  I will probably even take the tour again since I found it so interesting.

A map of the house where the wife of former mayor of Charlottesville, Sam McCue, was murdered in 1904. The house still stands and serves as an apartment building which we passed on the tour.

If you’re ever in Charlottesville (or live here) and are looking for 2 hours of entertainment (and exercise as it was a walking tour), I highly recommend this!  The price wasn’t bad either…only $15 per person!

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