“(This event) promises to be a spooky evening with a scavenger hunt element where visitors will be tasked with finding some rather spooky things throughout the galleries,” said Natalie Fritz, archivist and outreach director. “Visitors will be able to experience some oddities from our collection, meet some interesting characters, and have a spooky good time, with refreshments that will include cookies that come from historic recipes.”
Jane Fischer, executive director, and Donna Lewis, education and volunteer director, came up with the idea to hold a fall season Night at the Museum style event in place of the Heritage School of Wizardry event.
This new event will be structured like Night at the Museum, in which history comes to life in the spring, but it was not held this year because heritage center officials “discussed revamping the event and possibly holding it at another time of year.”
Last year, the center held the wizardry event in September, which included wizarding themed activities for families and adults in the daytime and evening. Officials originally planned to hold this event again this month, but at the beginning of the year discussed turning it into a week-long summer day camp for kids instead of a fall event. The center plans to hold the wizard-themed week-long day camp in summer 2025.
After brainstorming, officials decided to name this event Night at the Scare-itage Center to focus on different weird, spooky and dramatic stories from Springfield and Clark County’s history, Fritz said.
“As we are testing out this new event with a slightly smaller scope, a slightly darker/scary theme, we reached out to staff friends, family, regular volunteers, and local theater contacts that we had worked with through our Heritage School of Wizardry event to ask them to help bring the stories to life,” Fritz said.
The event is not recommended for children under age 8 due to some of the planned spooky elements. Fritz said: “We ask that people use discretion when determining the suitability for their group.”
Guests can book a time between 6 and 8 p.m. for a one-house tour through the Heritage Center galleries to meet characters and learn about unusual stories from each.
The cost is $10 for Clark County Historical Society members, $15 for non-members and $5 for youth ages eight to 18.
Tickets are available at https://form.jotform.com/242285860578165.
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