PORT TOWNSEND — Organizers of this weekend’s Victorian Festival hope people will come to town to visit the many historic homes open for the Parlor Tea, Candlelight Tour and Historic Homes and Buildings Tour.
Steve Ricketts hopes they will also take time to visit the homes’ original owners.
And he promises it won’t be a hair-raising experience.
“It’s not about ghosts and it’s not about spooks,” Ricketts said.
“It’s more like going to your grandparents’ house to hear some stories. It’s about listening to the stories of your ancestors.”
Ricketts is in charge of the first living history tour of Laurel Grove Cemetery, where costumed people will stand on the graves of prominent figures and briefly tell their stories.
Like Ricketts, all the players are re-enactors from Fort Nisqually Living History Museum and have experience in bringing the past to life.
“We tried to match people with historic characters based on physical resemblance,” Ricketts said.
“Everybody is looking at photographs and thinking, ‘How can I approximate this person?”‘
To portray judge
A retired Quilcene forester, Ricketts already has the beard to play James G. Swan, a probate judge, author and naturalist who died in 1900.
He also has the build — Swan was also 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighed about 150 pounds, Ricketts said.
To sound convincing, he’s tried to learn as much as he can about the judge, whose epitaph declares him a pioneer and historian.
“I’ve read two books about him and two books by him to try to understand what he was saying,” Ricketts said.
THE HISTORIC CEMETERY TOUR will be held Friday from 4 to 6 p.m. as part of the Port Townsend Victorian Festival
Reservations must be made at the time of ticket purchase for the 4 p.m., 4:20 p.m., 4:40 p.m. or 5 p.m. departure.
Each 45-minute tour is limited to 13 people and will leave from the Jefferson County Historical Museum, second floor of the Kuhn Building, 210 Polk St. (above the Public House Restaurant).
Tickets are $7.50 for adults and $5 for children, and includes shuttle bus. No video cameras or flash photography are allowed.
For more information, call the Victorian Festival committee, 360-379-0668.
