Some of Brooklyn\u2019s darkest secrets lie in its hippest neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
The borough\u2019s scariest tales involve everything from a ghostly mansion in Park Slope to forgotten church cemeteries under a hip bar in Williamsburg to a buzzy but reputedly haunted Trader Joe\u2019s in Cobble Hill \u2014 and you can learn about them on an offbeat, macabre history tour.<\/p>\n
Allison Huntington Chase, the 38-year-old founder of Madame Morbid\u2019s Trolley Tours, is tooling around droves of New Yorkers and tourists to the creepiest spots in town in a replica Victorian-era funeral parlor retrofitted onto a trolley.<\/p>\n
Allison Huntington Chase founded Madame Morbid\u2019s Trolley Tours eight years ago as a means to share the strange history and lore she dug up about the Borough of Churches. William Miller<\/p>\n
Some tour-takers pass \u201dthese sites every day, and now they know what it used to be,\u201d Chase told The Post.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey get a kick out of exploring their own neighborhood and being a local tourist.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 90-minute jaunt from Williamsburg to Park Slope contains a medley of trivia, comedy, videos, music and artifacts as roughly two dozen local tourists learn about Brooklyn\u2019s 400-year-old past \u2014 consisting of \u201c90%\u201d true crime stories with \u201cparanormal sprinkles\u201d along with it, according to the guide.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, the events are scarier than a ghost haunting,\u201d she said, before listing off some of the tour\u2019s stranger-than-fiction stops: <\/p>\n
An illustration of the deadly fire at the Brooklyn Theatre in 1876 depicts its deadly chaos. De Agostini via Getty Images<\/p>\n
New York City\u2019s deadliest theater fire<\/p>\n
Before fire regulations, nearly 300 theatergoers died in a blaze at the Brooklyn Theatre at the site of what is now Cadman Plaza downtown.<\/p>\n
The fire started on the evening of Dec. 5, 1876, during a performance of \u201cThe Two Orphans.\u201d\u00a0At least 278 people \u2014 many of which were sitting in cheaper seats with limited access to exits \u2014 were melted together before they could escape, Chase said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The disaster was the greatest loss of life in New York City until the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to reps from Brooklyn\u2019s Green-Wood Cemetery, where more than 100 of the deceased are laid to rest in a mass grave.<\/p>\n
The Adams House at Carroll Street in Park Slope is reportedly haunted by Irish former workers. Beyond My Ken via Wikipedia<\/p>\n
Park Slope\u2019s \u2018haunted\u2019 mansion<\/p>\n
A massive Romanesque Revival mansion on Eighth Avenue in Park Slope was built by Chiclets gum inventor Thomas Adams Jr. in 1888, featuring one of the borough\u2019s first private elevators.<\/p>\n
Legend has it that the building is haunted by the ghosts of a handful of Adams\u2019 former servants \u2014 Irish immigrant workers who tried using the elevator when the entrepreneur was away, Chase said. The elevator had stuck, and their bodies were only discovered after Adams had returned.<\/p>\n