[High resolution photograph available upon request]

Popular lantern tours return in May to First State Heritage Park

DOVER (April 29, 2011) – With only candlelight as a guide, the First State Heritage Park’s historical interpreters bring back four popular lantern tours on Friday evenings this May. The park’s season opens on May 6 with a tour of The Green. Tours of Dover’s three historic churchyards will take place on the following Fridays – the old Methodist Cemetery on May 13, Christ Episcopal churchyard on May 20, and the Presbyterian cemetery on May 27. The churchyard tours are made possible with the support and collaboration of the Presbyterian Church of Dover, Christ Episcopal Church and Wesley United Methodist Church.

Admission to all lantern tours is $5 and all tours begin at 8 p.m. Tour space is limited; lanterns may be reserved by calling 302-739-9194. Lantern tours cancelled due to inclement weather will not be rescheduled.

Lantern Tour of the Dover Green
Friday, May 6, 8 p.m.
Meet at the John Bell House on The Green
Historical interpreters from the First State Heritage Park dressed in colonial attire relate the stories of historic Dover. The Dover’s public square was the site of markets and fairs, suffragists and abolitionists, soldiers and slaves, lawmakers and law breakers. The tour includes tales of the most infamous resident of Dover’s jail, of devastating fires that threatened the town, of poisonings and tragic love.

Old Methodist Cemetery
Friday, May 13, 8 p.m.
Meet at the Johnson Victrola Museum Parking Lot – 375 S. New Street
Varied and often unusual funerary customs of the Victorian Period will be revealed on this guided tour through ornate tombstones of the Old Methodist Church’s historic cemetery.  The tour will reveal the sacrifices made by average residents of Dover during the Civil War and the elaborate rituals associated with death and mourning in the nineteenth century. Participants will learn the meaning of the carefully chosen and crafted funeral art that decorates the tombs of the high and low alike and what the symbols might reveal about the people buried beneath them.

Christ Church Cemetery
Friday, May 20, 8 p.m.
Meet at Christ Episcopal Church – at the corner of S. State and Water Streets
On this tour, visitors will encounter characters from the past and hear tales of the tombstones, as well as tales of joy and sorrow from those who are laid to rest within the walls of the churchyard. From Caesar Rodney’s unrequited love to Civil War opponents buried within yards of one another, there may be a surprise or two on this unique tour. 

Presbyterian Churchyard Cemetery
Friday, May 27, 8 p.m.
Meet at the Johnson Victrola Museum Parking Lot – 375 S. New Street
This tour by lantern light features the Presbyterian Church of Dover’s historic cemetery where many prominent Delawareans and their families are buried.  Visitors will meet figures from Dover’s history including Delaware’s Revolutionary War hero Colonel John Haslet, who died a hero’s death at the Battle of Princeton in 1777.  James Fulton, John Patton, Joseph Comegys and several 18^th-century Dover widows with decided opinions about their husbands will also make their presence known.

The First State Heritage Park at Dover is Delaware’s first urban “park without boundaries” linking historic and cultural sites in the city that has been the seat of state government since 1777. The park is a partnership of state agencies, under the leadership of Delaware State Parks, working in collaboration with city and county government, nonprofit organizations and the private sector.

Vol. 41, No. 172