Get ready to be spooked with a guided tour featuring Huntington's haunted history

Executed by the British in 1776, tarred and feathered in 1872 and expelled from the town for turbulent behavior. Those are just three of the stories visitors will hear during a guided tour of the Town of Huntington’s archives this month.

"All Hallow’s Month at the Town Clerk’s Archives" has kicked off with officials opening the Town of Huntington Jo-Ann Raia Archives for the tour exploring Huntington’s haunted history with its "Hauntington" event.

"We have a very rich history in Huntington and part of that history, honestly, is some darkness and creepiness," Town Clerk Andrew Raia said. "When you look at Colonial times and places that have a long history there’s always a little bit of mystery and intrigue, so this is an interesting way to share these interesting stories of well-known people and some who are not."

The town board ceremoniously renamed the town the Town of Hauntington for Halloween in 2018, 2019 and 2020, after then-7-year-old Huntington resident Angelica Dee Cunningham wrote a letter suggesting the new tradition in 2018.

A similar resolution will be introduced at Wednesday night’s town board meeting.

This month the town clerk’s office will offer, by appointment, tours with live interpretations featuring stories pulled from its manuscript collection, Raia said.

"These are true stories of Huntington’s history that people don’t know about," Antonia Mattheou, the town’s archivist said.

She said the stories are all intriguing and some ghoulish with long-term impact such as the story of Charles Kelsey, who was tarred and feathered in 1872 for falling in love with a much younger woman.

"That was a gruesome thing to do for being in love with a young lady," Mattheou said. "Because of that, for the longest time back in the 1870s, the town of Huntington was known as the tar town, we had a very bad reputation because of that."

On their tour, visitors also will see the outside of the archives vault transformed to resemble the interior of the Peace and Plenty Inn’s main gathering room.

The Peace and Plenty Inn was a 17th-century inn where town meetings were held. It was owned by the Chichester family who, to this day, has a road named for them.

The inside of the vault will be transformed into a mausoleum, ornate with gravestones and flameless candle lights, Raia said. Town employees will take turns in portraying the characters described in the records and the manuscripts associated with the stories will be on display.

"This is another way of exposing people to Huntington’s history," Town Historian Robert Hughes said. "Some people’s eyes glaze over when they hear history but if they hear ghost stories they’re a little bit more interested, and the stories we’re telling here are true."

The tours will be offered on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 1:30 to 4 p.m. by appointment.

The town is also celebrating Archives Month in October. The aim is to have events that are educational, informative and entertaining. Raia said it’s a way to help the public realize that historical records have value not only for an understanding of the past but for contributing to today’s society.