Dublin's three big Halloween-season events this year all happen at the same address, 6600 Donlon Way. The Harvest Fair on October 10, the Ghosts of Dublin flashlight tours on October 23 and 24, and Cinema at the Cemetery on October 30 are all at Dublin Heritage Park & Museums. Each event is built around a different building on the site. The fair uses the open lawns. The ghost tours take you inside a church and a farmhouse. The movie is projected onto the side of a barn.
Knowing which building each night uses tells you more about the event than any flyer will. And this fall, several of those buildings are being worked on.
What sits on the 10 acres
The City describes Heritage Park as a 10-acre site with historic buildings, lawns, a cemetery, picnic areas and two museums with free admission. In order of age, the main pieces are:
- Murray Schoolhouse, 1856. It first stood on Flanagan Lane and was moved to Dublin Canyon Road after its original site flooded. More than a century later it was moved again, to the park, where it now presents local history.
- Old St. Raymond Church, built 1859 and dedicated 1860. The City calls it the oldest surviving Catholic church in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. It started as a mission church, got its original belfry in 1880, and can now be booked for small public and private gatherings.
- Dublin Pioneer Cemetery, established 1859. It is still an active cemetery, but the City says no burial plots are available for purchase.
- The Kolb ranch buildings. The Kolb family donated five structures to the park: the 1910 main house, an older cottage, the Sunday School Barn from before 1870, a hay barn and a pump house. The Sunday School Barn was once a Protestant Sunday school and meeting place. George Kolb bought it in 1905, it was given to Dublin in 2009, and it was moved to the park in 2011.
The Kolb family's roots in Dublin go back further than the house. The East Bay Times reported that George Kolb bought the Green Store in 1894 and farmed a 300-acre ranch, and that the family moved into its Craftsman bungalow in 1911. That bungalow is now the Kolb House museum, one of the stops on the ghost tour.
October 10: The Harvest Fair Uses the Lawns
The Harvest Fair runs Saturday, October 10, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The City has held it at Heritage Park every year since the Kolb buildings arrived in 2011, according to Pleasanton Weekly's 2025 coverage. Most of the activities are old farm chores turned into games: gold panning, washboard laundry and butter churning, along with a petting zoo, face painting, an apple crate toss, a pumpkin ring toss and a pumpkin patch.
Entry is free, but you'll need a wristband for the activities, and buying ahead saves money:
| Option | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Activity wristband, bought in advance | $9 | Sold online through the City |
| Advance wristband plus a medium carving pumpkin | $15 | Pumpkin goes home with you |
| Activity wristband on the day | $15 | Cash only |
| Pumpkins on the day | Not listed | While supplies last |
If you're buying a pumpkin anyway, the $15 advance bundle costs the same as a day-of wristband alone and includes the pumpkin. If you wait, you pay $15 in cash for the wristband and the pumpkin costs extra. The listing above says October 10. An undated City email newsletter gave October 11, but the City calendar lists the 10th.
October 23 and 24: The Ghost Tours Go Indoors
The fair happens outside. Ghosts of Dublin, two weeks later, takes you inside the buildings. The flashlight tours run 7:30 to 11 p.m. on Friday, October 23. On Saturday, October 24, they end earlier, at 10:30 p.m., and the Saturday listing gives both 7:00 and 7:30 as start times. Check-in on both nights is at the Sunday School Barn in the center of the park. Tickets are $15 for residents and $18 for non-residents. The route goes through the Pioneer Cemetery, into Old St. Raymond Church to see what the City calls "ghostly images of long-departed pioneers," and into the Kolb House.
The City sets two age guidelines. Tours are recommended for ages 8 and up, and after 9 p.m. only older teens and adults should go. For families with younger kids, that leaves 7:30 to 9 p.m. as the practical window.
The Friday tour is also the same night as one of the City's Night Markets. The Night Market series on St. Pat's Row has two dates left this year, October 23 and November 13, both from 5 to 9 p.m., with food, live music and product vendors. Based on the posted hours, Friday the 23rd could go like this:
- Night Market on St. Pat's Row opens at 5 p.m.
- Ghosts of Dublin tours start at Heritage Park at 7:30 p.m.
- The City's suggested family window for the tour ends at 9 p.m., the same time the Night Market closes.
- Tours keep going until 11 p.m. for older teens and adults.
The Saturday tour on October 24 has nothing else scheduled against it.
October 30: The Hay Barn Becomes a Movie Screen
Cinema at the Cemetery, on Friday, October 30, uses the Kolb ranch hay barn. The City will project Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" onto the barn wall, and the audience sits among the historic headstones on blankets or lawn chairs they bring. The event is free.
Free tours of the Pioneer Cemetery start at 5:30 p.m. The event runs 6:00 to 8:45 p.m. One line of the listing says the movie starts around dusk, about 6 p.m. Another says it starts 30 minutes after sunset. To be safe, arrive at 5:30 for the free tour and you'll be settled before the film starts. The listing gives a contact line, 925-556-4500, for questions.
Sources disagree on the barn's age. The City's event listing says the hay barn was built in 1910. An East Bay Times photo caption from 2011 dates it to 1905. Either way, it has been standing for well over a century.
The Buildings Are Getting Work Done This Year
Several of the buildings used this season are also partway through a maintenance project. The hay barn used for the movie is not on the list. At its March 12, 2026 meeting, Dublin's Heritage and Cultural Arts Commission reviewed a capital project called GI0226 Exterior Improvements. It combines roof replacement and exterior painting at a list of City facilities. The Heritage Park buildings on that list are the Kolb House Museum, the Kolb House restroom, the Sunday School Barn, the Murray Schoolhouse Museum and its outbuildings, and Old St. Raymond's Church. The project was under construction at the time and expected to finish by the end of 2026.
That means the fall events and the repairs are happening in the same season. The same report lists a separate project, PK0125 Sunday School Barn Flooring, to structurally preserve the barn's existing wood floor "to ensure facility demands can continue to be met." In March it was still being designed, with construction expected in the upcoming fiscal year. The City is planning around heavy use of a barn that is more than 150 years old.
The museums' exhibits have changed too. A City exhibit on Dublin's early firefighters opened in August 2025 and covered local firefighting from the 1960s through the 1990s with oral histories, gear and artifacts. Its listing ran through February 28, 2026. If you saw it last winter, expect something different on your next visit.
Visiting When Nothing Is Scheduled
You don't need an event to visit. The City's facility page and the Dublin Historical Society both list free museum hours of Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4 to 8 p.m., and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The grounds are open from dawn to dusk. Neither page is dated, so check before you go, especially with the exterior work still underway. The park also has a reservable picnic area that seats up to 80 and has two barbecues.
Two other City events this season are held elsewhere. Trunk or Treat is Saturday, October 17, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Don Biddle Community Park, with treats, food vendors and a family movie. The Holiday Craft Boutique is Saturday, November 7, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Dublin Senior Center, 7600 Amador Valley Blvd. The ghost tours, the movie and the Harvest Fair stay on Donlon Way because each one depends on a building that's there: the cemetery, the church, the Kolb House or the barn.
Our family has been part of the Tri-Valley for four generations, long enough to remember when the Kolb buildings stood on a working ranch. If your own Dublin home has some history and you're curious what it's worth today, Fracisco Realty and Investments can help. Get Your Instant Home Valuation.
