The Friends of Historic Race Street will illuminate exquisitely-carved pumpkins at 11:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 26 to make this particular midnight not quite so dreary.

As the clock in the courthouse tower strikes midnight, Edgar Allan Poe, as portrayed by Race Street resident and literary historian Edward Moran, will visit the Rex House, 29 Race St., for a midnight reading of "The Raven" and excerpts from "The Bells."The Rex House is home to Three Mountains Gallery and acclaimed artist David Watkins Price. The gallery will be open to the public from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 27 and Sunday, Oct. 28. for a showing of prints from the artist's recently released eBook, "Voices of the Hollow Maze." Glass art jewelry by Jayne Persico will also be displayed.With drawings, etchings and 19th century images, "Voices of the Hollow Maze" is an elegy for Mauch Chunk, a town that is no more. Published as an eBook by Amazon.com, it tells the story of a young printmaker, who buying a house at the bottom of a dark valley discovers it to be haunted. The haunting takes the form of voices heard in the house after the printmaker falls down a tiny stair that climbs to the attic, the night his friends play with the Ouija Board.An old lady from the historical society suggests he write the words down. By doing so, the printmaker is no longer afraid and a town lost in the past is reborn as a diamond place, a place people come, after they've experienced the "cosmic terror."Price's "Voices of the Hollow Maze" was inspired not only by his experiences in his Stone Row home, but also by the 3 a.m. rolling 32 years ago of a 500 pound granite ball from atop the Edward Rex monument in the Mauch Chunk Cemetery and its half-mile descent to Race Street, where the family had lived for decades.For more information call Diane Prokop at (267) 934-9393 or visit

http://www.facebook.com/JimThorpeHistoricRaceStreet.Advance reservations are required for Edgar Allen Poe's visit to the Rex House. Refreshments will be served.In addition, please note the last tours of the season of historic St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 21 Race St., will be held from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 27 and 28. Listed on the National Historic Register, St. Mark's Church features beautiful Gothic architecture and Tiffany windows.Be sure to ask your tour guide about the ghost of Mary Packer Cummings and the spot where the Civil War widow fainted at the exact moment her husband was killed in action.For more information, visit

http://www.stmarkandjohn.org. There is a fee for tours of the church.