If you’re hoping to avoid a couch-bound Halloween season scanning streaming platforms for scary movies, here’s an option for local, seasonal spooky exploring just outside of town. The Aurora Theatre offers Lawrenceville Ghost Tours to bring you “hauntings, history and horror” through October 31st, and “City Lights” producer Summer Evans was brave enough to take one.
On Evans’ tour of the Lawrenceville town center, a charismatic tour guide in traditional Mexican regalia, holding a lantern, gathers her visitors. “La Loca Lopez Perez,” played by Lorena Morales, is searching for her handsome husband, “Capitán Smith.” The tour explorers are asked to watch Smith on their 90 minute tour of Historic Lawrenceville under the night sky.
The tour provides a bit of history on Lawrenceville, which got its name from Captain James Lawrence, one of the earliest officers in the U.S. Navy and once considered one of its bravest. It’s unproven whether Lawrence ever actually set foot in Gwinnett County, but his reputation served him well enough to earn the honor of the town’s name. He commanded the U.S.S. Chesapeake during the battle of 1812. After being shot in battle, Lawrence was dying and uttered five famous last words: “Don’t give up the ship,” now known as a popular naval battle cry.
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