Sorrowful Soirée
Halloween-Themed Historical Tours
Hollywood Gothique Says:
The Homestead Museum’s Sorrowful Soirée (formerly Beyond the Grave Tour) offers an entertaining Halloween variation on their year-round historical tours, including a visit to a cemetery and a recreation of a Victorian seance. You will not be scared, but you will see a few spooks, while learning some interesting historical facts.
Sorrowful Soirée (formerly Beyond the Grave Tours)
Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum
15415 East Don Julian Road, City of Industry, California 91745
www.homesteadmuseum.org
Status: In Limbo. As of September 2022, the Workman Temple Homestead Museum had no plans to present The Sorrowful Soirée or the Beyond the Grave Tour.
Homestead Museum’s Sorrowful Soirée History & Information
For many years, the Workman Temple Homestead Museum’s annual Beyond the Grave Tours explored America’s changing attitudes toward death from the 1840s, when the Workman family built their home, through the 1920s, when the Temples built La Casa Nueva next door. The tour illustrated these changes with a slideshow; historical minutia (memento mori photographs, funeral bills); a walk through the two homes, decorated for the Halloween season; and a visit to El Campo Santo, the private cemetery established by the Workman family in the 1850s. The highlight was a recreation of a Victorian-era seance, performed with the lights on, in order to reveal the fakery involved. The Homestead Museum’s Beyond the Grave Tour is recommended for ages 9 and over.
For Halloween 2018, the Homestead Museum replaced Beyond the Grave Tours with the “Sorrowful Soirée,” which covered much of the same territory, specifically the changing attitudes toward death from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. The rebranded event included activities trick-or-treating on the museum grounds, ghostly tales, music, and magic.
After closing during the 2020 pandemic, the Homestead Museum did not resurrected The Sorrowful Soirée for Halloween 2021.
Read Hollywood Gothique’s review of the 2015 Beyond the Grave Tour here.
Homestead Museum’s Beyond the Grave Tour Photo Gallery
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