Boston's oldest surviving church building is about to host Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. Crescendo Productions is partnering with Old North Illuminated to stage The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: A Musical Reading inside the 303-year-old sanctuary at 193 Salem St., with two performances featuring a live three-piece ensemble and, for those who want the full effect, a guided walk through the brick tombs beneath the nave.
According to the Charlestown Patriot Bridge, actor Johnny Kinsman will deliver the dramatic recitation of Washington Irving's classic tale, backed by an original score performed by Josiah Reibstein on bass, Tev Stevig on banjo, and Joe Kessler on fiddle. Doors open 30 minutes before each show, with performances beginning at 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets are advance-purchase only, and organizers say seating and crypt tours are limited.
Irving first published the story in 1820 inside his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., written while he was living in Birmingham, England, according to Historic Hudson Valley. The gothic tale, set in Tarrytown, New York, introduced Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman and has never gone out of print in the 206 years since.
A Cast With Local Roots
Kinsman grew up in Concord, Massachusetts, earned a BFA in theater from Syracuse University, and works as Tour Quality Manager for Boston Duck Tours, according to the Concord Players. He also serves as Associate Artistic Director for Boston's Anthem Theater. Crescendo Productions has run this kind of literary staging before, having partnered with Kinsman on an annual live reading of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol at the Omni Parker House, a performance staged near the suite where Dickens himself once practiced readings during his 1867-1868 American tour, per the Boston Sun.
Guests can add a 20-minute guided crypt tour for $12 per person, with tours running at 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Private pews seating three, four, or five guests run $100 to $160, while single seats cost $36, per the Patriot Bridge report.
What's Buried Beneath the Floor
The tour's draw sits literally underfoot. Old North Church contains 37 brick tombs holding the remains of roughly 1,100 early Bostonians, interments that took place between 1732 and 1872 even after the City of Boston banned indoor burials in 1850, according to CBS News. The church never had surrounding land for a graveyard, so it built subterranean brick vaults instead.
Notable figures interred in the crypt include Captain Samuel Nicholson, the first commander of the USS Constitution, and Major John Pitcairn, a British Marine officer killed at the 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill, the Boston Sun reports. The crypt also holds the 1813 Stranger's Tomb, used for poorer citizens and epidemic victims. In October 2023, Old North Illuminated and the National Park Service wrapped a ten-month restoration that replaced tomb doors and let archaeologists document intact colonial-era coffins without disturbing human remains, documenting stacked adult and child coffins sealed inside individual vaults.
A Building Older Than the Nation Itself
Built in 1723 and dedicated that December, Old North Church, officially Christ Church in the City of Boston, is the oldest surviving church building in the city, according to the National Park Service. Its steeple carries its own legend: on the night of April 18, 1775, sexton Robert Newman and vestryman Captain John Pulling Jr. hung two lanterns there to signal that British regulars were advancing by sea across the Charles River, a signal devised by Paul Revere that alerted Patriot riders who spread word to Lexington and Concord.
That history recently earned formal protection. In December 2025, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and the Boston Landmarks Commission designated Old North Church and Campus an official Boston Landmark on the 252nd anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, alongside the Old South Meeting House and Old Corner Bookstore, as Hoodline previously reported. Old North Illuminated, an independent secular non-profit founded in 1991 as the Old North Foundation, manages the site's tourism, education, and preservation work, while the building itself remains an active Episcopal parish hosting regular services.
That dual identity, part working church and part museum, is part of what makes the venue an unusual stage for a ghost story. Old North Illuminated has leaned into atmospheric programming before, pairing candlelit readings with live music and crypt access to draw visitors while funding the upkeep of a 303-year-old building that predates the country it helped launch.
