Eat, drink and be wary

As you drive into Geneva along Route 31, nearing the signal at Third Street, you cannot miss the Atwater House.

The white, wood mansion with the huge wrap-around porch on top of a hill at 814 Batavia Ave. has overlooked Route 31 for 140 years, since John B. Atwater, an actor of some note, built it.

Atwater had performed in Sacramento and San Francisco, and eventually helped "Happy Jack" Langrishe open the first legitimate theater in Madison, Wis. Atwater started a second career as an inventor, developing a sewing machine, a quartz crusher to aid in gold mining and an artillery device. His family enjoyed prosperity and built the grand house on Route 31.

But Atwater fell on hard times, returned to the theater with little success, and his son died in an accident on the way to meet his fiancé in St. Louis. The family moved, and the house stayed empty for a while, until A. Mary McDonald took it over as a boardinghouse in the late 1930s.

By this time, the house was in disrepair and the trees on the lot had grown wild. McDonald took in a young woman to help her run things -- and it was at this time that ghost stories about the house began to circulate.

The reason I know this is, I am going to be reading the ghost story that was printed in a Geneva publication in 1942 regarding the house as part of "Spirits of Geneva," a fundraiser for the Geneva History Center which, by the way, provided me the information about the house I have set forth in this column.

Joining me will be 11 other storytellers, as we fan out throughout Geneva's downtown pubs and restaurants for the pub crawl with a Halloweeny, ghostly tinge. The crawl will take place between 6 and 11 p.m. Saturday, beginning at the Geneva History Center, and then going on at: Caboose's, FoxFire, Front Street Cantina, Gratto, The Little Owl Restaurant and Flagstone Pub, Mill Race Inn, Old Towne Pub and Eatery, Sanfratello's Pizza, Sergio's Cantina, Stockholm's, Villa Verone and The Urban Grille.

At each stop, the pubs and restaurants will offer free appetizers, drink specials and other special offers. And you will get to hear ghost stories about local places told by the likes of me and other actors and volunteers.

I will be at The Urban Grille, relating the story about the Atwater House, a long-standing legend. You can decide for yourself if you think it's true or not.

This year's fundraiser has even more meaning for supporters of Geneva's History Center, with the recent announcement that the museum, store and archival research center might have to close if it does not raise more money.

The museum and store on Third Street has a tradition of fine educational programs for adults and children --– well-attended and even award-winning.

Tickets for "Spirits of Geneva" are $25 for History Center members and $35 for non-members. That's the price if you reserve a spot in the next three days. If you get your wristbands the day of the event, they are $30 and $40. You can buy them online at genevahistorycenter.org .

And after you hear my tale at The Urban Grille, you can walk the six blocks to the Atwater House, in the dark, and judge for yourself if there are any ghostly goings-on.