Six years in, the Jamestown Halloween Party is moving to October 31. With the party on Saturday, the town's three big Halloween-week events now fall on three days in a row. The library hosts an author night Thursday. The Historic Jamestown Society runs its after-dark tour Friday. On Saturday the party covers the whole day, from the morning vendor market to a 5 p.m. trunk-or-treat. All three are on Main Street. This year you can plan one Jamestown weekend around all of them.
The date change behind the busy week
The Jamestowner's event listing makes a point of the date. Blue House Bakery is sponsoring the 7th annual party, "and this time it's on the actual day/night of HALLOWEEN!" A separate listing on Eventeny confirms the date as Saturday, October 31, 2026.
With Halloween on a Saturday, the party lines up right after the town's other two fixtures. Here is how the week stacks up, starting with the warm-up on Saturday, October 24:
| Day | Event | Where | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, Oct. 24 | Family Fall Festival | Jamestown Public Library, 200 W. Main St. | 10:30 a.m. |
| Thursday, Oct. 29 | An evening with Cameron Kent | Jamestown Public Library, 200 W. Main St. | 6:30 p.m. |
| Friday, Oct. 30 | True Tales of the Macabre | Mendenhall Homeplace, 603 W. Main St. | 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. |
| Saturday, Oct. 31 | 7th annual Jamestown Halloween Party | Blue House Bakery, 113 E. Main St., and participating businesses | 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. |
The Family Fall Festival on October 24 is the low-key start. It's a morning program at the library, listed on the Patch Jamestown calendar for 10:30 a.m. The Halloween events start the following Thursday.
Thursday: a WXII voice at 200 West Main
The Jamestown Friends of the Library are hosting Cameron Kent, the former WXII 12 newscaster, on Thursday, October 29 at 6:30 p.m. He'll talk about his books and share stories from his years in broadcasting. It's the one event of the week with no costumes and no candy, which makes it the easy grown-ups' night.
The building has a local legend of its own. In a Halloween piece on Jamestown ghost stories, YES! Weekly mentioned reports of footsteps at the public library when no one could be found. The paper suggested the sounds might come from the children who once went to school in the building. So Thursday's talk takes place in a building with ghost stories attached, the night before the ghost tours start.
Friday: Mendenhall Homeplace after dark
On Friday, October 30, the Historic Jamestown Society runs "True Tales of the Macabre" at Mendenhall Homeplace, 603 W. Main St. Tours run back to back from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., and admission is $15 per person, payable by cash, PayPal or a check made out to the Historic Jamestown Society. You can park on site or across the street at the medical office.
The tour leans on actual local history, which sets it apart from a typical haunted attraction. The Homeplace is a home more than 200 years old, and Jamestown was settled in 1752. YES! Weekly's earlier coverage of the tour described the route through the Mendenhall House, past the barn and on to the Dr. Madison Lindsay Medical School, which now stands on the Homeplace grounds. The same article told the story of Minerva Mendenhall, who died in the house in 1900 and whose ghost is said to appear in and around it.
For parents deciding whether to bring younger kids, that earlier write-up said the stories were adjusted for young children and that the tour had no jump-out-and-scare-you moments. All proceeds go to the Historic Jamestown Society for the upkeep of the Homeplace.
Before the date change, the Friday tour and the Halloween party were on separate weekends. This year the party starts the next morning.
Saturday, from market to trunk-or-treat
The party runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and has three parts. Here's the order The Jamestowner gives:
- 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.: Vendor market. Shopping is the main event of the morning.
- During the day: Business trick-or-treat. Kids go door to door at participating Jamestown businesses. No separate hours are published, so the daytime window is the best guide.
- 5 to 6 p.m.: Trunk-or-treat. It takes place behind Blue House Bakery and is hosted by Connection Valley Church.
Blue House Bakery is at 113 East Main Street, and the Eventeny listing says there's free parking behind the bakery. The market wraps up at 2 p.m. and the trunk-or-treat starts at 5, so you have a three-hour gap. Families who want to stay downtown can use it for the business trick-or-treat and a late lunch.
The doors on this year's roster
The Jamestowner lists fifteen participating businesses:
- Guilford + Main
- Southern Roots Restaurant
- Melody Jade
- Zenful U
- Food Lion
- Black Powder Smokehouse – Jamestown
- Domino's Pizza
- The Manor On Main
- Second Chance Closet Thrift Boutique
- The Deck Live
- Three Daughters & Co. Boutique + Coffee House
- The Soap Lady
- The Blend in Jamestown
- Full Moon Oyster Bar
- Southern Junk
Several of those names are places to eat. Southern Roots Restaurant, Black Powder Smokehouse and Full Moon Oyster Bar are on the list, so the stops for candy also give you options for lunch or an early dinner. If you'd like to see where these businesses fit in a regular week, our late-summer guide to Jamestown follows the same Main Street corridor in a quieter season.
Full Moon Oyster Bar also comes up in Jamestown's ghost stories. YES! Weekly placed the Coffin House, which locals also call the Yellow House, next door to it, facing Oakdale Road. The paper said some people claimed to have seen a figure in an upper window.
The ghost story with no ticket
Lydia is the oldest Halloween fixture on Main Street and the only one without a schedule. NCpedia describes her as a vanishing-hitchhiker legend tied to the railroad bridge over East Main Street and to an abandoned bridge nearby. It also notes that efforts to identify a real Lydia haven't produced conclusive evidence. YES! Weekly called her the town's most famous ghost, still said to haunt the old railroad underpass on East Main.
The trunk-or-treat is on the same street, so Lydia's bridge works as a last stop on the way home Saturday night. You can stop by any night of the year, but on Halloween the story fits the evening.
What comes after the candy
The next time Main Street fills up is Sunday, December 6, when the Jamestown Rotary Club holds its Christmas parade. Town Council approved the permit in July, along with town support for traffic control and help from public works. The time and route haven't been announced yet, so check the town's announcements closer to December.
If a walkable Main Street and weekends like this one are high on your list for your next home, or you're weighing what your current home in Jamestown is worth, The Jordan Factor will put together a clear plan and handle the details for you. Let's Connect.
