October walking tours through Indianapolis's Irvington neighborhood
Johnson Avenue at the east side of Irving Theater, 5505 East Washington Street, Indianapolis, IN 46219
Age
All ages; mature historical content
Cost
$$
$20 per person, cash only at the door. Advance tickets available at Magick Candle (6125 East Washington Street).
Access
Limited Access
Approximately 1.5 miles of walking on neighborhood sidewalks
Equipment
Photos OK
Irvington was platted in 1870 as a planned suburb modeled on the curving-street romantic style favored by landscape architects of the era. Butler University was located in Irvington from 1875 until its move to its current Fairview campus in 1928, anchoring the neighborhood as a literary and academic enclave. Many of the original Italianate, Queen Anne, and Craftsman houses survive; the Irvington Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
Irvington is also the site of one of the late-19th-century's most-publicized crimes. In October 1894, Henry Howard Holmes — already wanted for the disappearances connected to his Chicago Castle — rented a small cottage on North Julian Avenue in Irvington, where he killed eight-year-old Howard Pitezel, the son of his accomplice Benjamin Pitezel. Police investigator Frank Geyer's discovery of the child's remains in the cottage's stove was a key piece of evidence in Holmes's conviction and 1896 hanging.
The modern tour was founded by local historian Alan E. Hunter and has run annually since the 1990s. It departs from Johnson Avenue along the east side of the Irving Theater at 5505 East Washington Street. Tickets are $20, cash only at the door, with advance tickets sold at Magick Candle at 6125 East Washington. Tours leave promptly at 7 pm every Friday and Saturday in October and run rain or shine.
Sources
The H.H. Holmes cottage on North Julian Avenue is the tour's anchor. The original structure was demolished in 1962, but the lot is included in the route, and guides quote from Detective Frank Geyer's 1894 investigation reports describing the discovery of Howard Pitezel's remains. The tour treats the case as documented true crime rather than as supernatural lore.
Additional stops cover homes where current and former residents have reported recurring activity. The Bona Thompson Memorial Center, the surviving 1903 library building of the original Butler University campus on University Avenue, has been the subject of staff reports of footsteps and disembodied voices on the upper floor; guides cite the building's 20th-century use as a Methodist seminary annex. Several private Queen Anne and Italianate houses on Audubon Road and Downey Avenue are referenced for documented activity reports collected by the tour over the years.
Guide Alan E. Hunter has emphasized in interviews that the tour's content is built from primary-source research — police records, newspaper archives, and homeowner interviews — rather than from third-party paranormal databases. The two-hour, 1.5-mile route is structured chronologically by the dates of the events being discussed.
Notable Entities
A two-hour, 1.5-mile guided walk through the Irvington Historic District led by local historians, covering the 1894 H.H. Holmes child-murder site and other neighborhood crime and ghost lore. Tours run rain or shine every Friday and Saturday in October at 7 pm sharp; cash only at the door.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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