Port Townsend has long embraced its past, and this month sees the Port Townsend Main Street Program offering historic walks and tours with an appropriately spooky theme in time for Halloween.

The Port Townsend Main Street Program’s “Haunted Walks” through downtown are set to proceed on the Saturdays of Oct. 12, 19 and 26, from 2-3:30 p.m., sharing stories along the waterfront of the Victorian seaport’s colorful and occasionally chilling past, with some mysteries lingering to this day.

Mari Mullen, executive director of the Port Townsend Main Street Program, acknowledged that the “Haunted Histories and Mysteries” weekends were initiated to draw more foot-traffic to town during “the slower time of the four quarter,” by recounting some of the town’s more intriguing events and legends.

“We researched Port Townsend’s many haunted tales, and interviewed a number of people who have had paranormal experiences here,” Mullen said. “We’ve previously included paranormal investigations, psychic readings and historic building tours as part of the program.”

Indeed, a tour of the historic Hastings building on Saturday, Oct. 26, is already sold out, so only ticket-holders will get to explore the distinctive 1889 structure on Water Street that weekend, which is still owned by the descendants of Lucinda Hastings, and which featured prominently in this year’s Port Townsend Film Festival short film screenplay award-winner, “Glampire.”

This year has seen the popular “Haunted Walks” expand to encompass three weekends, with last year’s tour leaders, Joyce Hester and Dawn Reis, returning to recount documented accounts from Port Townsend’s haunted past and present.

“What happened to Charles Eisenbeis Jr. on Sept. 29, 1897?” Mullen said. “What supernatural sighting took place at the Haller Fountain in 1900? Taking part in the Haunted Walks will give you a deeper appreciation of Port Townsend’s mysterious past. There is a close connection to the paranormal here, and the historic backdrop of our downtown is the perfect setting to evoke that atmosphere.”

While a number of local ghost stories have become more well-known over the years, Mullen anticipated that Hester and Reis would still be able to surprise some listeners with their more obscure and esoteric anecdotes.

“I don’t want to spoil it, but there’s even a tale from a former Leader employee, who was working late one night, alone in that building, or so she thought,” Mullen said. “It turns out she had some ghostly company. We’ve also had some interesting otherworldly experiences passen on to us about the Mount Baker Block building.”

The “Haunted Walks” take place outdoors, so attendees are asked to dress appropriately for the weather. Tickets are $25 each and available at ptmainstreet.org.

Mullen also confirmed that the Port Townsend Main Street Program’s Downtown Trick-or-Treat and Costume Parade, geared toward local kindergarteners through sixth-graders and their parents, will again be on Oct. 31.