Spirited away: Warm weather and community draw hundreds to town center Halloween

Harvard’s 2024 Halloween at the Common did not disappoint this year, as hundreds of children, teens, and adults descended on the center of town Thursday night, Oct. 31, for two hours of trick-or-treating, socializing, and food.

As the town clock struck 5 and the sun sank, costumed spirits appeared, as if summoned by the balmy, late-October evening, gathering at the General Store parking and outdoor picnic areas, massing at the always popular Lions Club concession tent on the Common, and drifting onto Ayer Road, Mass. Ave., and other town center streets, drawn by the lure of candy and spooky entertainment.

Officers were on hand to direct traffic and pedestrians, and spotlights illuminated crosswalks in front of the Congregational Church on Still River Road as well as the intersection of Routes 110 and 111.

Stick figures Stephen, Quinn, and Shannon Molloy pose for a photo. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)

While no official estimate of crowd size has been released, other stats hint at the magnitude of the event. Police administrative assistant and Halloween candy coordinator Trish Rouvel reported she had distributed 96 tote bags to the 33 households participating in Thursday night’s event. Elm Street resident Scott Hayward, owner of the General Store, said he had handed out 1,200 pieces of candy to costumed trick-or-treaters, one per person, not including adults, suggesting the night’s turnout numbered well over 1,000.

Chris Ryan, who organized food operations for the Lions tent on the Common, told the Press his organization had served 825 hot dogs and buns before running out at 6:30 p.m., a half-hour before the event ended. Ryan estimated the volunteers had also distributed an estimated four hundred and twenty 10-ounce bags of popcorn plus countless cups of water to the crowd. The General Store served an estimated 190 cups of Hayward’s spicy chile con carne to hungry revelers. Even the Congregational Church got into the act, preparing popcorn on an old-timey machine and distributing more than 150 boxes before the night ended.

There were plenty of witches among this year’s trick-or-treaters, perhaps anticipating the release of Disney’s “Wicked” movie on Nov. 22. There was an occasional homage to “Beetlejuice” and sightings of one or two Swifties, channeling costumes from Taylor Swift’s Eras tour. Look for glitter, advised one parent. There were walking bananas, a giant blow-up T-Rex guided by a friend, more than one figure dressed in the cape and bird beak mask worn by 17th-century doctors during outbreaks of the bubonic plague, and numerous toddlers dressed as furry animals. Shannon Molloy of Stow Road and her family dressed as stick figures, sketched by strings of LEDs stitched to black hooded one-piece suits. And Town Administrator Dan Nason strode the Common as Uncle Sam in red, white, and blue and a top hat, the night’s sole reminder of Election Day on Nov. 5.

Longtime resident and Press staff writer Carlene Phillips has seen and written about Harvard Halloweens for decades. “My favorite costumes are always the homemade ones,” she said, seated at her Oak Hill Road house next to a giant Hubbard squash and a smaller pumpkin, the first turned into Mr. Peanut and the second to an outsized M&M. Homemade costumes were “few and far between,” she told the Press. Her favorite, she said, was a young person dressed as a tree with fall foliage. “Really well done—the trunk and then all these colorful leaves around their head.”

Assisting Phillips was her daughter-in-law, Rebecca Phillips, dressed as the mythical gorgon Medusa with a head full of snakes. She said she was impressed that so many children recognized her character, apparently from reading the popular Percy Jackson series that features Greek gods. “One kid even said, ‘Don’t turn me to stone,’” said Rebecca.

A number of town center homes offered entertainment of their own, many draped in cobwebs, some with carved pumpkins posted on walkways and porches. Erin Sullivan of Littleton Road was once again the spooky talking lady in the framed portrait on her front porch. Billy Salter of Elm Street was back as a white-coated doctor with a patient, clearly deceased, seated behind him. The big white house at the corner of Littleton Road and Fairbank Street featured a giant skeleton named Beetlejuice. Further down the street, Lucy Wallace, Pat Jennings, Della Jennings, and Craig Kilmer entertained passersby with their impersonation of the ’70s rock band KISS, lip syncing the group’s greatest hits.

Squash creatures Mr. Peanut and Ms. M&M sit outside the Phillips’ house on Oak Hill Road.

Maura and Elliott Visconsi, also of Fairbank Street, continued the tradition of their home’s previous owner, Carl Sciple, featuring a corpse in an open coffin just inside the door to their barn, a candy stash awaiting trick-or-treaters brave enough to reach for it. When he and his wife bought the house a year ago, Elliott said, they asked Sciple to leave all of his Halloween decorations. He did, including a tombstone, which remained in the basement this year but might be retrieved for Halloween 2025, Elliott said, to take their display “to the next level.”

The most anticipated and elaborate decorations, however, were to be found at the Old Littleton Road home of Hilary Maglothin, site of last year’s Barbie Land sensation. This year trick-or-treaters were required to enter the gameboard world of Candy Land and follow its trail. Bathed in pink spotlights, the walkway passed through Lollipop Woods, Peppermint Stick Forest, the Ice Cream Islands, the Gumdrop Mountains, and Donut Dreamland, ending at the Maglothin’s front porch. It was an eight-month labor of love, Maglothin told the Press. “I just wanted something to be happy and nostalgic. And I thought ‘Candy Land,’ that is the thing everybody from my generation knows.”

The 33 town center families that chose to participate in the festivities had the support of Trish Rouvel, who collected candy from donors and organized volunteers from the high school to help manage the handouts at any house whose residents had requested it. Supplies appeared to be more than sufficient.

At 7 p.m., the evening came to an end. A crowd lingered at the Lions tent as volunteers began to dismantle it, and a line of costumed children and adults waited to enter the haunted house inside the Congregational Church. Earlier, the church’s scary venue had drawn a visit from the Fire Department when a fog machine inside set off a smoke alarm, forcing everyone to evacuate while fighters cleared the air.

With the General Store closed, families reunited in the parking lot and patio area, socializing with neighbors before heading home. But by 7:30 p.m. the spirits of Halloween 2024 had vanished, and town center was eerily empty.

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