There’s something almost too perfect about a church built to memorialize the dead hosting a night of music inspired by ghosts, ghouls, and things that go bump in the night.
New York doesn’t usually hand you symbolism this clean, but here it is anyway.
The Church of the Heavenly Rest, a Fifth Avenue landmark facing Central Park, is trading its usual Sunday hush for something considerably spookier this October.
Candlelight: A Haunted Evening of Halloween Classics takes over the church on October 29 and 30, turning its soaring Gothic nave into a candlelit concert hall for one hour of the genre’s most iconic music, performed live by string quartet.
29 October 2026 18:00 + more dates
Church of the Heavenly Rest
Sure it might not seem like your average Halloween plans, but that’s the whole point. Here are all the details on why you have to check this out when it rolls through NYC for only two nights.
A church born from the Civil War, now hosting an evening built for ghosts
The story behind this building only makes the concert land harder.
The Church of the Heavenly Rest was founded in 1865, just months after the Civil War ended, by a group of Union veterans who wanted to build something permanent for the friends they’d lost.
Reverend Robert Shaw Howland led the effort, and by 1868 the congregation had officially taken its name, one meant specifically as a memorial to soldiers who never made it home.
The church didn’t always sit where it does now. Its first home stood at 551 Fifth Avenue, three blocks north of its original meeting spot.
And it wasn’t until 1924 that the congregation purchased its current site directly across from Central Park, land sold to them by the widow of industrialist Andrew Carnegie herself, with one very specific catch: the new building couldn’t rise taller than 75 feet.
Construction began on All Saints’ Day in 1926, which feels like it was scripted for this exact concert nearly a century later. The building was completed and dedicated on Easter Sunday, 1929, just months before the Great Depression hit.
Gothic bones, Art Deco polish
Architecturally, this church sits in a category almost entirely its own.
Original architect Bertram Goodhue died before construction ever began, and the project passed to his successor firm, Mayers, Murray & Phillip, whose lead designer Hardie Phillip created what’s often described as “Gothic Deco,” a stripped-down, severe take on neo-Gothic design layered with Art Moderne detailing.
The result is a building that reads as instantly historic and quietly modern at the same time: broad, unadorned limestone walls punctuated by intricate Gothic tracery, soaring vaulted ceilings, and stained glass crafted by the storied English glassworks Whitefriars Ltd.
It’s the kind of interior built for exactly this sort of moment, a room designed for solemn silence that’s about to be filled instead with the opening synth stab of Thriller.
The church has quietly hosted more history than most passersby realize. President Chester A. Arthur’s funeral was held inside its walls, and screen legend Gloria Swanson’s ashes are interred there.
It’s a building that has spent a century being genuinely lived in and mourned in, which makes handing its nave over to a night of Halloween film scores feel less like a gimmick and more like the building finally getting in on the joke.
What to actually expect on the setlist
This isn’t a random grab bag of spooky songs.
The Highline String Quartet performs a carefully built 60-minute program that spans classical Halloween staples and modern horror soundtracks, all rearranged for strings and lit entirely by candlelight.
Expect to hear:
- Thriller, Michael Jackson
- Tubular Bells, the theme from The Exorcist
- The Beetlejuice theme, Danny Elfman
- The Halloween theme, John Carpenter
- Psycho’s Prelude, Bernard Herrmann
- The Addams Family theme, Vic Mizzy
- Ghostbusters, Ray Parker Jr.
- Danse Macabre, Camille Saint-Saëns
- Night on Bald Mountain, Modest Mussorgsky
- In the Hall of the Mountain King, Edvard Grieg
- A medley from The Nightmare Before Christmas
- The Stranger Things theme
All of the essential details
📍 Church of the Heavenly Rest, 1085 Fifth Avenue
🗓️ Wednesday, October 29 and Thursday, October 30, 2026, with 6:00 pm and 8:30 pm sessions available for both dates
🕯️ Duration: 60 minutes. Doors open 45 minutes before showtime and close 5 minutes prior to start, no late entry
🎟️ Tickets start around $30.50 and go up to $68.50 depending on seating zone, available through Fever’s official listing
👤 Recommended for ages 8 and up. Anyone under 16 must attend with an adult