Downtown Brooksville has real unsolved arsons and real murders in its past, and for the next two nights a historian is walking visitors past the actual addresses where they happened.
The Historic Hernando Preservation Society runs its 2nd Annual Haunted Hernando History Tour tonight, Wednesday, Oct. 14, and again tomorrow, Thursday, Oct. 15, both nights 6:30-8:30 p.m. It’s a one-hour guided walk from the Hernando County Courthouse through downtown, covering what the Society describes as chilling murders, destructive arsons, and scandalous bootlegging tied to specific downtown locations — not a generic ghost-tour script dropped onto a different town.
Groups are capped at 15 people, and the subject matter is restricted to ages 17 and up. Tickets run $25 per person and have to be bought in advance through the Society’s Facebook page — there’s no walk-up ticket sales at the courthouse steps.
The Historic Hernando Preservation Society isn’t a seasonal pop-up running this as a one-off — it’s a 501(c)(3) founded in 2008 that also operates the May-Stringer House museum, installs the county’s historic markers, and holds monthly meetings open to the public at Brooksville City Hall. The after-dark true-crime angle is this one event’s specific hook; the rest of the Society’s work is the daytime version of the same mission.
Brooksville’s downtown already carries a lot of this history quietly — the county seat’s own guide covers what’s actually on that same block today, and the May-Stringer House a few blocks over packs three museums’ worth of local history into one stop if two hours downtown leaves you wanting more.
Good to know: Meets at the Hernando County Courthouse, 20 N. Main St., Brooksville. Wed., Oct. 14 and Thu., Oct. 15, 6:30-8:30 p.m. $25/person, 17+, tickets via the Historic Hernando Preservation Society’s Facebook page — none sold on site.
Photo: the Hernando County Courthouse, Brooksville, by Leila Guerrios, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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