Spirits Alive! A Walking Tour Through Time Saturday, October 15, 2011 3:00 PM
The Friends of Maple Grove presented a self guided walking tour through time. Spirits Alive! 2011 had a cast of over twenty volunteer actors dressed in period costumes who portrayed some of Maple Grove's most illustrious and historical figures from the past. Spirits Alive! 2011 is the highlight event at Maple Grove during the Open House NY Weekend. This year we introduced a number of recently discovered figures, including:
William Nelson a World War I soldier who fought at the Battle of the Argonne Forest in France
Elma Stebbins the wife of famed hymnist composer George Stebbins
Francis Marsh a young telegraph operator who survived the Great Blizzard of 1888 and the following year the Great Johnstown Flood
Madame Helen Bakhmeteff, the wife of the Russian Ambassador to the U.S. in 1917 who was witness to the fall of Czar Nicholas and his wife Alexandra
Jane Heath who was a direct descendant of the founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams
Elizabeth Japp whose husband was the engineer who built the subway tunnels under the East River in the early 1900's
a nurse from Ellis Island Hospital who will tell the story of a woman in search of the resting place of her uncle who had died at the Ellis Island hospital at the age of four in 1921 and was missing for decades
John McKenney a Civil War soldier who fought with the Massachusetts Heavy Artillery
LaVergne Bronk whose ancestors where the first European settlers of the Bronx which still bares their family name
Alonzo Adams a sea captain who became king of an island in the Caribbean
and many more!
The most sensational discovery this year was the African American Burial Ground of the historic Shiloh First Presbyterian Church whose interred members were removed from the vaults of their church and brought to Maple Grove Cemetery in 1877. This vibrant church was on the Underground Railroad and had a huge impact on the anti slavery moment for decades. Many of the most influential figures during the Civil War period spoke at the church including Frederick Douglass. Actors will appear as members of the congregation and tell you the entire story of this historic church and will be a highlight of Spirits Alive!
Photos: Actors portraying illustrious and historical people from Maple Grove's "Spirits Alive!" Walking Tour.
