Ready to meet the ghosts of Newtown? A new walking tour is taking visitors straight into the borough’s haunted past.
Spirits on State begins Sept. 29, taking visitors past historic buildings, former hotels, secret societies and sites connected to reported paranormal encounters and true crime.
The approximately 90-minute walking tour, produced in partnership with Valerius Productions and the Lower Bucks Paranormal Society, begins at the Newtown Theatre and ends at the Temperance House.
Along the route, the tour discusses the Brick Hotel, Countryside Frames, Newtown Library, Half Moon Inn, Court Inn, Newtown Friends Meeting House, Bird N Hand, Newtown Hardware House and Tubby Olive. Some locations are visited directly, while others are discussed as part of the walking route.
The tour is designed to combine historical research with stories collected from people who live and work in the borough.
Emma Girandola, co-producer of Spirits on State and director of Valerius Productions, said the production team spends months researching an area before launching a new tour. Organizers interview local business owners, employees and residents.
“We love interviewing the staff at these locations because their personal encounters are not what you will find written down,” she said. “They are stories we have shared across the bar and they have given us permission to share on these tours.”
One of the stops, the Tubby Olive, was recently investigated by the Lower Bucks Paranormal Society. Investigators used equipment including cameras, EMF detectors and REM pods to document their findings.
Girandola said the equipment was especially active in the basement at Tubby Olive, where investigators recorded activity during their overnight investigation.
“Their equipment was going crazy there, especially down in the basement,” Girandola said. “A lot of these basements in these local towns are connected to what were once underground tunnels.”
Those on the tour can learn more about the Lower Bucks Paranormal Society’s discoveries during their investigation at the Tubby Olive.
The Temperance House serves as the final stop of this tour and has its own history of reported paranormal activity, including sightings of a child ghost.
One story involves a woman who cleaned rooms at the establishment and reportedly tried to get a ghost to leave her alone by rolling a small ball into a room for it to play with. When the Temperance House reopened, people reportedly searched for the ball but could not find it.
The building itself provides another connection to the past. Girandola described its stone wall, hundreds of years old, that once served as an exterior wall. Horse hair can still be seen and felt in the cement, a reminder of how building materials were made centuries ago.
“To sit inside the Temperance House is such a gift,” Girandola said. “You are sitting in a piece of history.”
Newtown's history is a major component of the tour, including stories connected to prominent local figures.
One of those figures is Edward Hicks. Girandola said Hicks' daughter, Eliza, tragically drowned in a local lake while trying to save her son. A 1970s newspaper account included a claim that Eliza continued to be seen in the building where she once lived, across from the Newtown Theatre.
Other stories involve Newtown's well-preserved historic architecture and establishments with long histories.
“Newtown, more than any other tours we have, has several establishments that are the first and oldest of its kind, like the Newtown Theatre, the oldest continuously operating movie theater in the country, having first shown a film in 1906,” Girandola said.
For Girandola, some of the stories on the tour also have a personal connection to her time in Newtown.
Her first job was at the Brick Hotel, where she said she experienced paranormal encounters. She also remembers an unexplained experience at the Newtown Theatre as a child.
“I was tapped on the shoulder while watching a movie with nobody behind me,” she said. “At the time there was a second balcony, so we were sitting up there and nobody was sitting behind us. To this day, I don't know what it was.”
That experience is among the stories she plans to share during Spirits on State.
Girandola said she is particularly excited to bring the tour to Newtown because of the borough's history.
“I’m really excited about this new tour,” she said. “If you’re a big history nerd like me, it’s awesome to go and explore Newtown.”
The Newtown tour is the newest addition to a series that began in Bristol and expanded to Yardley.
The company is entering its third fall season in Bristol, where it offers both a Mill Street Tour and a cemetery tour. Yardley is entering its second season of Spirits on Main after attracting more than 300 ticket buyers during its first year.
In Yardley, organizers added new paranormal research this year after conducting overnight investigations at The Vault and Continental Tavern. Those investigations produced stories that were incorporated into the second-season tour.
Girandola said the research has revealed interesting similarities among the towns. Each has underground tunnels with connections to later uses, including Prohibition-era smuggling, and each has stories involving George Washington.
But the differences are just as important.
“As we've done the research in each town, it's been incredible to learn about the overlap between the historical stories and the similarities,” Girandola said. “But then it's also been such a treat to learn about the unique differences between each town's history and how extraordinary each one is.”
The tours are also intended to support the towns where they operate.
Organizers partner with bars and small businesses along several of their routes, with some offering themed cocktails or discounts to tour participants. The Temperance House, for example, is inviting guests to come in afterward for food, drinks and spooky-themed cocktails.
The weekday schedule is intentional, Girandola said, because it can bring customers to local businesses on nights that are typically slower.
“We purposely run our tours on weekday nights versus weekends so that we can bring in more business to the local bars and businesses on slower nights,” she said.
Although the subject matter involves ghosts and paranormal encounters, Spirits on State is designed for families rather than fright seekers looking for jump scares.
“We want to bridge the gap between the paranormal and history in a family-friendly way,” Girandola said. “We do talk about scary stories, but we do it in a very lighthearted way.”
Guests may hear about unexplained encounters, but they also learn about the people, businesses and events that shaped Newtown.
For Girandola, that combination is ultimately the point.
“One of the most important parts of the tour for me is this idea of connection,” she said. “It opens up this possibility that you can connect to your local history a little deeper.”
Spirits on State tours run Tuesdays and Wednesdays through Oct. 28. Tours begin at 6:30 and 8 p.m. at the Newtown Theatre, 120 N. State St.
The route is approximately a half-mile at a slow, relaxed pace and is family-friendly. Guests are encouraged to bring a flashlight and wear comfortable shoes because some walkways are uneven. Everyone is welcome to dress in their favorite Halloween costumes, creating a fun vibe for all.
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit events.ticketleap.com/tickets/spiritsonmill/newtown2026.
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