From among the hundreds of trick-or-treaters on the University of Virginia Lawn Thursday evening, a towering figure appeared.
The university was a familiar haunt for author Edgar Allan Poe in his younger days, but the Poe that walked the grassy Grounds of UVa on Halloween night stood a fair deal taller than the Poe of yesteryear: 13 feet tall to be exact.
But on a night like Halloween, such sights are nothing out of the ordinary, and a mob of trick-or-treaters — dressed as sharks, skeletons, Nintendo characters and dinosaurs — mobbed their literal literary giant. Fourth-year student Benson Harlan, the Poe pretender, was happy to oblige them.
The Charlottesville community took advantage of Thursday's 70-degree weather and showed up in force for UVa's annual Trick-or-Treating on the Lawn, whether to grab some treats or show off some tricks with the Hacky Sack.
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The tradition was started by university students in the 1980s to provide children in the area a safe place to trick or treat. It regularly draws a crowd large enough to mob the Lawn at the heart of the Academical Village established by Founding Father Thomas Jefferson.
Jefferson's successor, UVa President Jim Ryan, made his annual appearance Thursday — this year dressed as a member of the Cavalier Marching Band.
