A story from the Charleston City Paper about Bulldog Tours hosting virtual tours of the Holy City during coronavirus caught my eye over the weekend. Like many other cities across the U.S. (and world), Charleston found itself placed under stay-at-home lockdown orders on March 24, which closed all non-essential businesses.
If you’re living in a city under one of these orders, you know exactly what that means. Everything’s closed down except groceries, pharmacies, medical and a couple of other places (veterinarians and big boxes such as Targets, Home Depots and Lowe’s to name a few).
Definitely tours aren’t happening. They might’ve been some of the first businesses affected by social distancing orders. At least ones that cracked down on groups of 10 or more. (It started out 50 or more here in Nashville, but quickly dropped to bans on gatherings of 10 or more before going to the “just stay the F at home” model.)
Anyway, back to Bulldog Tours. COVID-19 can’t squash their passion for their city and its history. They’ve decided to follow the same route that Winchester Mystery House took: offering free tours to help distract, educate and entertain us all during this time of coronavirus craziness.
The Tours
During normal operations, Bulldog Tours offers ghost, food and history tours.
During coronavirus operations, they’ll be using social media, namely their Facebook page and its Facebook Live feature, to jaunt to a different historic Charleston location each day.
The tour options include:
- Family-friendly tours daily at 2 p.m. ET
- Ghost story tours on Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. ET
How to Join the Tour
Watch live at 2 p.m. ET by heading over to Bulldog Tours’ Facebook page. You can get interactive and ask questions or make comments.
Can’t make it at 2 p.m.? You can enjoy past videos. You won’t be able to interact, but you can leave comments.
You’ll find most videos under the Showcase Charleston Video Series Spring 2020. But also just check their videos page because it appears some haven’t been grouped in that Showcase list yet.
The Guides
Just as with a normal tour, the guides vary.
Which is fun. You get a different flavor with each location!
History Tour Locations
So far tour locations have included:
- The Old City Jail
- Fort Lamar
- Charleston’s Hampton Park
- Washington Park
- Charleston Magnolia Cemetery
- Middleton Place
- Joseph Manigault House
Ghost Tour Locations
So far the ghost story tours have included:
- The USS Yorktown – The Phantoms of Patriots Point
- Old City Jail – Lavinia Fisher
- Ghost stories at the Old City Jail in Charleston, SC
Sleepover at the Jail
Over the weekend one of their guides spent the night in the Old City Jail and periodically shared ghost stories during the evening, which was really fun.
However if you missed it, like the other videos, they’re still up and ready to be enjoyed after the fact.
Here are a few of them:
- Sleepover at the Jail and more paranormal stories
- Live stories from Lavinia’s room at the old Jail
- More live stories from the jail and I’ll introduce you to my friend Animal
Check-In
Have you ever been to Charleston?
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
Loading ...
That’s a brilliant idea from Bulldog Tours.