Online registration is now available for special Capitol suffrage tours celebrating the centennial of women winning the right to vote in New York State and for the annual Capitol Hauntings tours of the New York State Capitol.

New York State is where the first Women’s Rights Convention was held in Seneca Falls in 1848 and where women won the right to vote in 1917, three years before the 19th Amendment was ratified. The one-hour tour will explore the connections between the Capitol and the historic fight for suffrage.

It will feature an exhibit of artifacts selected to showcase the suffragists’ journey from earliest ambition to success. The tours also coincide with suffrage exhibits and events at the New York State Museum and the Albany Institute of History and Art.

The free Capitol suffrage tours will be offered: Thursday, Sept. 14, at 11 a.m.; on Tuesdays, Nov 7 and 14, at 5:30 p.m.; and on Saturdays, Nov. 11 and Dec. 9, at noon.

Capitol Hauntings Tours explore the legends, folklore, and “ghost stories” connected to the historic state Capitol, begins on Monday, October 2.

“In tales that mix history with the macabre, tour guides will tell shocking stories about the night watchman who died in the Capitol fire of 1911 and still makes his rounds today and the two United States presidents who visited the Capitol after they died,” says a press release from the state’s Office of General Services.

Find out where the Assembly Chamber’s “lost” murals are located and what happened to the tormented artist who created them. Walking among the gargoyle-like carvings and strange carved faces, visitors will discover the location of the Capitol’s “secret demon” and evidence of a curse the demon may hold on the Capitol will be revealed, along with other dark secrets, the release says.

Given throughout the month of October, the free Capitol Hauntings tours will be offered weekdays at 1 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. and Saturdays at noon. No tours will be offered on Columbus Day, Monday, Oct. 9.
Space is limited, so pre-registration for both the suffrage and hauntings tours is required and can be done online at www.ogs.ny.gov or by calling (518) 474-2418). Weekday tours begin at the information desk in the Capitol’s State Street lobby, and Saturday tours start at the Empire State Plaza Visitor Center and Gift Shop in the underground North Concourse. Both tours last approximately an hour