By Alana Gibbs
Mason Winfield’s Ghost Walks are winding down at the end of October. The Ghost Walks run from June through October, and cover a variety of places in Western New York.
For the past 11 years Winfield has guided ghost walk tours in Western New York.
There are 13 different tours, four are in Buffalo:
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Allentown tour
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Buffalo Landmark
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Buffalo Theatre District
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Olmsted
Fredonia, East Aurora, Lewiston, and Saratoga are some of the other Ghost Walks are offered in the area.
How a Ghost Walk is born
Winfield commits many hours of research to create the scripts for each Ghost Walk. These scripts are the stories Winfield and his guides tell throughout the Ghost Walks. Some ghost stories are contributed by customers on the Ghost Walks.
Winfield’s favorite walks are the older Ghost Walks, the East Aurora Ghost walk, which premiered in 1996, is the oldest walk. Buffalo’s Theatre District began in 1997, and the Allentown Ghost Walk started its run in 1998.
The older walks have older scripts that have been reworked each year; Winfield believes this is what makes the scripts rich with history and a variety of ghost stories.
Before he begins his research, Winfield has to choose an area to tour. Winfield admits that he runs a business, so he picks areas he believes will attract customers.
“Places with interesting architecture and places people would like to walk around,” Winfield said.
Once Winfield picks a place to research he visits local libraries and searches through archives, does interviews, and finds the history of well-known buildings in the area. Winfield does about 90 percent of the architectural and ghost-encounter research. The other Ghost Walk guides do the remaining research.
Other Ghost Walk guide
This year’s Ghost Walk has 15 part-time guides; most guides specialize on two or three walks.
John Koerner is one of the guides for Winfield’s Ghost Walks. He has guided Ghost Walks for three years. Koerner mainly guides the Allentown walk, the Theatre District and the Olmsted walk, but is knowledgeable in most of the other walks.
The Allentown Ghost Walk
Koerner begins the Allentown walk at Nietzsche’s, a bar and concert venue on Allen Street. A brief history is told, along with the ghost encounters in the building.
Nietzsche’s is said to have two ghosts, one in each apartment above the bar. On two occasions a tenant has felt pressure on his back, strong enough that it pushed him down a flight of stairs. The other ghost is believed to be a harmless bouncer who used to work at Nietzsche’s.
Private houses, bars, restaurants, theatres, apartment buildings and a school are on the Allentown Ghost Walk list.
“The Allentown walk is unique because it’s always growing, new stories are told almost every walk,” Koerner said.
Both Winfield and Koerner believe Allentown is filled with paranormal happenings.
“Allentown’s spooks per square mile are frequent,” Koerner said.
Winfield believes the Ghost Walks not only tell ghost stories, they educate people about the history and culture of Buffalo and Western New York.
“We really are doing something to keep culture,” Winfield said.
Contact information: gibbaf28@buffalostate.edu
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