CRESTVIEW — Ghosts of the city’s past will lurk on Main Street Oct. 14, but not to fear. They’re benevolent ghosts, portrayed by local actors.
Planners from the Crestview Centennial Committee are finalizing plans for “The Spirits of Crestview” ghost walk, the first of several centennial-themed events planned for October.
Committee secretary Rae Schwartz and publicist Viola Owens met View From the Stage producer and director Berit Faust in Casbah Coffee Co. July 28 to iron out details for what will be an approximately 90-minute theatrical experience.
But unlike most stage productions, during “The Spirits of Crestview,” the audience will move from scene to scene rather than sitting sedentary.
CHARACTERS FROM HISTORY
Beginning at the Fox Theatre, participants will stroll in groups down Main Street, encountering along the way characters from Crestview’s past as interpreted by actors from Faust’s troupe.
Among the city’s historic luminaries participants will meet are:
●Purl Adams, a 1920s mayor who was instrumental in bringing power, municipal water, paved streets and the Alatex sewing factory to the town
●Corrine Cox, beloved piano teacher who was legendary for crocheted potholders—including some in the White House’s collection—during her students’ lessons
●Evelyn Kelley, a leader in the black community praised by U.S. Rep. Bob Sikes for projects including an annual seniors picnic and “helping hands” committee
●Hamner “Doc” Powell, Crestview’s first citizen and builder of its first home and first hotel
●Romulus Thompson, 1938 founder of the Okaloosa School Band, the predecessor of today’s Crestview High School Band
●Mable Edge, whose cheery “what fer ya?” greeted patrons at Coney Island Hotdogs for years
●Lance Richbourg, a former professional baseball player who got elected to superintendent of schools and turned around a district in shambles, and
●Bertha Henry, who founded the Crestview Public Library in the Pine Street home she shared with her blind mother, Miss Lucy.
Audiences will meet about 12 to 14 characters in all before the walk culminates at the Hub City Smokehouse. Tickets will be $5 a person and are expected to go on sale within the next few weeks, Schwartz said.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview centennial 'ghost walk' planned