Vince Wilson presents
The Baltimore Experience
Ghost stories, séances, magic and the parts of Baltimore history that don't make the brochures. Walks that find you at the corner where it happened. Evenings you walk into rather than watch.
New: Mysterious Baltimore
The Pagoda on Hampstead Hill, around 1903.
Self-guided GPS tour · Fifty stops citywide · Lifetime access · $9
Legends and lore, from anywhere you're standing
Fifty places across Baltimore where history got strange, from Poe's grave and the hospital where he called for a man nobody can identify, through Little Italy, Fells Point, Canton and Highlandtown, to Federal Hill, Locust Point and Fort McHenry. A lighthouse that walked into town. A hill that is partly hollow. The train Frederick Douglass leapt onto. An eight-hundred-pound ball of string.
Turn on location and it starts with the stops nearest you, with a brass arrow to lead the way along real streets. It tells you when the Water Taxi, the free Harbor Connector, the Circulator or Light Rail will save your feet. Narrated by Dominic, with a calling card to collect at every stop. Your code arrives by email and works for life.
Every stop is told from a public sidewalk, park or square. Museums along the way sell their own tickets.
Now walking: The Poe Walk
Vince Wilson at Poe's original burial place.
Self-guided GPS walking tour · Downtown Baltimore · $7
Walk to Poe's grave, or start there
For years Vince walked people from the Lord Baltimore Hotel to the corner of Fayette and Greene, where Edgar Allan Poe has been buried twice (once more than most people get). Now the walk runs on your phone, at your own pace, with a compass, a hand-drawn map and narration that opens up only when you're standing in the right spot.
Along the way: the corner where Houdini hung upside down over fifty thousand people, the Hippodrome and its four elephants, a theatre that was very nearly a parking garage, and inside the burying ground, the Poe Toaster, Frank the Body Snatcher and his whiskey barrels, and a voice on a recorder that should not have been there.
About a mile either way. One ticket covers both directions, as often as you like.
Restless Baltimore
The raven stone at Poe's first grave, where the walk begins.
Self-guided GPS spirit walk · Fourteen stops · $7
From Poe's grave to Poe's statue
A walk through the parts of Baltimore that refuse to stay buried. The house where Poe lived, the tavern where he was found on election day, the hall where he insulted the one man who'd write his obituary, the barber accused of plotting against Lincoln, a fire whose official death toll was a little too tidy, and a flying man who never left the top of the Shot Tower.
Every place you reach leaves you a calling card, and the set fills in as you go. A little over five miles in all, and your progress stays on your phone, so take it in parts.
Every stop is free to see from the street. The Poe House museum sells its own timed tickets online if you'd like to go inside.
Ways to explore Baltimore
GPS tour · $9 · lifetimeMysterious Baltimore
Legends and lore across the whole city, fifty stops from Poe's grave to Fort McHenry. Start wherever you are.
See the tour →
GPS walk · $7Restless Baltimore
Fourteen unquiet stops from Poe's grave to Poe's statue, with calling cards to collect along the way.
See the walk →
GPS walk · $7The Poe Walk
Downtown, from the hotel to the grave or the grave to the hotel. Six stops and nine chapters among the dead.
See the walk →
GPS walk · freeA Ghost Walk of Fells Point
Six spirits along the old waterfront, each waiting at the spot where its story belongs. A free sample of what a phone can do on a dark street.
Start walking →
Guided tourLord Baltimore Hotel Ghost Tours
From the lobby to the nineteenth floor, with Molly, her red ball and the other residents who never checked out.
Tours and tickets →
Live eveningsSéances and strange nights
Séance tables, mentalism and bizarre magic, staged in rooms old enough to have opinions about it.
The Paranormalist →
What we make
The Baltimore Experience is also a workshop. Vince Wilson and the SpellCast Theatre collaborators design these things for venues, hotels, bars, museums, private parties and companies that want their guests talking about it on the drive home. Sometimes for weeks.
Immersive eveningsGhost story nights, séances, murder mysteries and story worlds written for your building and your guests.
GPS story walksSelf-guided tours that unlock at the right corner, narrated, illustrated with real photographs, and kept inside the app (nobody gets bounced out to a map).
Guest apps and propsPhone companions for events: talking boards, tarot readings, cabinets of curiosities, QR-triggered scenes. No app store required.
Live performanceMagic, mentalism, séances and paranormal storytelling from performers who have worked from The Magic Circle in London to the Lord Baltimore's own stage.
Writing and consultingHistory research, scripts, show design and coaching for venues and performers who have the place and need the story.
The creator
Vince Wilson
Baltimore magician, mentalist, author and producer, working in magic and the paranormal since 1998. He founded Poe's Magic Theatre at the Lord Baltimore Hotel and leads SpellCast Theatre, the company behind most of what you see here. Television credits include CNN, PBS, Discovery, National Geographic and the Travel Channel.
Baltimore is his hometown. The point of all this is simple: find creative ways to explore the city, and give its stories (and the talented people who tell them) a stage.
More about Vince and the collaborators
Questions people ask
Where does the Poe Walk start?
Wherever suits you. One version starts in the lobby of the Lord Baltimore Hotel, 20 West Baltimore Street, and ends at Edgar Allan Poe's grave at Westminster Burying Ground, Fayette and Greene Streets. The other starts at the grave and ends at the hotel. One $7 ticket opens both.
What is Restless Baltimore?
A $7 self-guided GPS walk with fourteen historic and haunted stops, from Poe's grave at Westminster Burying Ground to his statue at the University of Baltimore: the Poe House, Lexington Market, Camden Station, the Great Fire, Barnum's Hotel, Gunner's Hall, the Shot Tower, Mount Vernon Place and more. Each stop you reach adds a calling card to your collection.
What is Mysterious Baltimore?
A $9 self-guided GPS tour of fifty legends and true stories across Baltimore, from Poe's grave and Mount Vernon through Little Italy, Fells Point, Canton and Highlandtown to Federal Hill, Locust Point and Fort McHenry. It starts with the stops nearest you, suggests the Water Taxi, Harbor Connector, Circulator and Light Rail between neighborhoods, and your lifetime code arrives by email. No account needed.
Is there a free walk?
Yes. The Fells Point ghost walk is free and runs on your phone. Six spirits wait along the route, and each one speaks up only when you reach the spot where its story belongs.
Do I need to download an app?
No. Everything runs in your phone's web browser. Your location is read only by your own phone.
Can you build an experience for my venue, event or company?
That is most of what we do. Vince Wilson and SpellCast Theatre design immersive evenings, séances, murder mysteries, guest apps and GPS story walks for venues, private parties and corporate groups. Tell us about the place on the contact page.
Is it family friendly?
The stories are written for adults, the way a good ghost story should be, but nothing on the walks is gory. Curious teenagers do very well.
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