VICTORIAN GHOST WALK
History Comes to Life
David Dominé’s Victorian Ghost Walk® is once-a-year production of outdoor theater where a cast of characters returns from the grave to tell their stories in Old Louisville, aptly named one of America’s most haunted neighborhoods.
During this approximately two-hour guided walking tour, the ghostly past of this historic district comes alive along gas-lit walkways as well as on the porches and in the parlors of some of the neighborhood’s stunning gilded age mansions.
A Living History
Every year during the third weekend of October, the historic Old Louisville Preservation District becomes a stage where its haunted history is brought to life. Written from David Dominé’s own research, the Victorian Ghost Walk brings together local acting talent to portray real-life historical figures and legendary spirits who are all “dying” to recount their stories: witches and hoodoo priestesses, a grave robber, wealthy Gilded Age residents who died in penury or descended into madness, and cautionary tales of those who dabbled in the black arts.
The Hallowed Halls
2026 Dates
Tours run Friday through Sunday, departing every 15 minutes between 6-9pm.
They start and end at the Conrad-Caldwell House Museum on the corner of St. James Court at Magnolia Avenue
(1402 St. James Court).
Know Before You Go
The Haunting Archive
Voices of the Past
VICTORIAN GHOST WALK
About the Author
From Victorian folklore to recipes with bourbon, Kentucky spirits often come alive in the narratives of David Dominé, an author whose numerous books showcase Kentucky’s rich cultural heritage. David not only uses his art to draw attention to sites of historical interest, such as the Kentucky Bourbon Trail or the stunning Old Louisville preservation district, he also highlights the legacy that has shaped the region's exceptional folk traditions and culinary past. The result is a body of work that includes memoirs, travel journals, historical sketches, cookbooks, photographic essays, articles, stories, and translations – all painting an inviting picture of the state he has called home since 1993.
David lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where he teaches foreign languages and translation at Bellarmine University. In addition to an MFA in Writing from Spalding University, he has an MA in Spanish Literature from the University of Louisville and an MA in German Literature from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He also completed studies in literary translation at the Karl-Franzens Universität in Graz, Austria.
The tales recounted during the Victorian Ghost Walk are from David’s research, most coming from his books Haunts of Old Louisville, Phantoms of Old Louisville and Ghosts of Old Louisville. His true-crime book about the bizarre 2009 murder of a drag queen and the subsequent trials of the alleged killers, A Dark Room in Glitter Ball City, inspired the HBO Original true-crime documentary Murder in Glitterball City! The Ghost Walk takes you through the historic neighborhood featured in both – right past the house where the murder occurred and the body was found buried in the basement.
Established in 2004, David Dominé's Louisville Historic Tours is the city’s oldest and most well-known Old Louisville tour company, having guided more than 250,000 visitors through the neighborhood. For a full list of tours offered through LHT, visit https://louisvillehistorictours.com.
To learn more about David Dominé, visit https://www.daviddomine.com.