Lawrenceville Tutors Come To You

A favorite attraction in Lawrenceville, Georgia, is also its spookiest. Offered by the Aurora Theater, ninety-minute ghost tours take place in Lawrenceville’s historic downtown and are led by professional storytellers who are dressed in period costumes and go by the names like Madame Macabre and Madame Fortuna Papanikogiatopoulos.

The creepy tour guides say that Lawrenceville used to be a sleepy little southern town—that is, until the historic downtown was renovated at the turn of the century. Like opening a can of worms, the construction activity disrupted ghoulish spirits that would not be subdued. Downtown merchants reported (and still report!) paranormal activity, like books suddenly flying through the air, items mysteriously stolen from the countertop, and mournful singing coming from the old jail. The singing is said to be from the ghost of a black slave named Elleck, who was wrongfully accused of killing his master, chained down in one of the jail cells, and later hung. The tour also stops at the spot where Larry Flint, Hustler magazine publisher, and his attorney were shot in 1978 during a trial related to obscenity charges (they survived, although Flynt was badly injured).

In October, Aurora Theater gets even spookier by offering haunted cemetery tours. While at the cemetery, guests hear creepy tales of the town’s founders and early settlers who are buried there and experience for themselves paranormal activity such as extreme and sudden drops in temperature and strange orbs of light that show up later in photos and video.

The ghost tours are offered every weekend May through September and are geared toward all ages, as they focus more on unusual history rather than things that jump out in the dark. The cemetery tours are offered weekends in October to brave people age thirteen and up. Both are great for history buffs and anyone who enjoys amazing storytelling.

The Aurora Theater got its start in nearby Duluth, Georgia, in 1996 in a converted hardware store. But Lawrenceville, ten miles away, thought the theater would be an awfully good part of its own revitalization plans, and wooed the theater away from Duluth. Lawrenceville had a home in mind for the theater: a 100-year-old church. In a unique partnership with private development and a non-profit organization, the city turned the church into a $7.5 million theater, and the new Aurora Theater opened in May 2007.

The move was a good one for little Aurora, which is not so little anymore. Between the two performance spaces, the complex produces 600+ events each year. Close to 5,000 people are season ticket holders, and 70,000 people attend an event each year. The Aurora claims to be the fastest-growing professional theater in the state and has won too many awards to count. Besides the ghost tours, it offers a wide variety of shows, including Broadway plays and musicals, contemporary theater, children’s programs, concerts, and stand-up comedy.