Weekend nights throughout October, small crowds gather in Little Five Points to hear about the neighborhood's ghosts, its queer history and the buildings that supposedly hold both. The walks mix neighborhood lore with drag performance, and organizers say the stories keep drawing people back year after year.
According to CBS News Atlanta, the neighborhood currently offers three versions of the experience: Queens of the Crypt, regular ghost tours and boozy ghost tours. Queens of the Crypt is described as an LGBTQ+ tour led by drag performers, with Hera Kane leading the experience and Katrina Prowess serving as a guide. Tour manager Karla Beasley told the outlet that tours introduce visitors to local businesses and draw guests from outside Georgia, adding that she finds it neat how far the tours' reach extends.
Per CBS News Atlanta, Hera Kane said the neighborhood's queer history makes it sensible to talk about it more, and that even longtime visitors can learn new things about familiar neighborhood buildings. Katrina Prowess echoed that sentiment, saying Little Five is special because of its queer community. According to the Rough Draft Atlanta, the Queens of the Crypt format was built as part history tour, part drag show and part paranormal adventure, with ALT3R drag performers Hera Kane, Katrina Prowess and Minty hosting the tour every Friday and Saturday from June 19 to July 18, each session running two hours and costing $49.87, meeting at the Little 5 Points Community Center at 1083 Austin Avenue Northeast at 7:30 p.m.
Stories From a Burned-Down Church and a Haunted Warehouse
Some of the ghost stories attached to the tours involve a church in central Little Five Points that burned down, according to CBS News Atlanta. Local lore, as relayed by Hera Kane, claims that people who fall asleep in nearby apartments can still hear a choir singing. Katrina Prowess shared a separate story about an alleged ghost at a clothing warehouse, where local lore claims a ghost girl lives and tugs at workers' clothes to get their attention.
The official Little 5 Points Ghost Tours page describes its own version of the walk as a mile-long, 1.5-hour trek through the neighborhood's most historic and eerie landmarks. Tours meet in Findley Plaza and set off several times per week at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m., with organizers hoping to encounter spirits tied to Lady Sintana from House of Ravenwood, 7Stages ghosts, Deacon Lunchbox, Gregory Davis and more. The site also notes Thursday Boo-ze Crawls for guests 21 and older, with proceeds from the tours benefiting nonprofit organizations.
Scheduling details differ depending on the source. The official site states that tours begin October 1st, while the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the third annual Little Five Points Ghost Tour runs several times each week through November 4, highlighting landmarks like 7 Stages Theater and lesser-known haunts like House of Ravenwood. CBS News Atlanta reports that tour tickets are available on the Little Five Points website, and that all ticket sales get directed back into the neighborhood to help pay for community events and security.
A Neighborhood Built Around a Trolley Stop
Little Five Points takes its name from the five-point trolley-car intersection around which the community grew, according to the neighborhood's own history page. By the 1890s, the area had already developed into a bustling retail center, and in 1920 it was designated one of Atlanta's first commercial districts. That early commercial identity didn't last without interruption.
By the late 1960s and 1970s, the business district had become largely rundown, a decline tied to white flight and the looming threat of a freeway that could have cut through much of the neighborhood, according to Creative Loafing. A tight band of mostly young residents and activists worked to rehabilitate the surrounding blocks, and in 1975 neighborhood communities came together to draft a plan for Little Five Points' future, using meetings, surveys and tenant-recruitment efforts to rebuild what investment had abandoned.
That organizing history helps explain why the ghost tours have found an audience willing to show up year after year. Little Five Points' own 2022 recap noted that more tours sold out than not that year, often requiring organizers to add extra dates, while tourists and neighbors came out in droves for walks led by the Atlanta Preservation Center to learn more about the neighborhood's eccentric history.
