Sold-out ghost hunts inside a 138-year-old Dunedin chapel are drawing visitors from more than 100 miles away, adding a paranormal twist to the city's record-setting tourism year.

Silent Slayer Ghost Tours, founded by Safety Harbor resident Cynthia Dominick, has turned the Historic Andrews Memorial Chapel into a destination for supernatural thrill-seekers. The after-hours investigations cap attendance at 15 guests and have sold out, with a recent session generating a waitlist of equal size, the Tampa Bay Times reported Aug. 5.

The chapel sits at 1899 San Mateo Drive next to Hammock Park. Built in 1888 as Andrews Memorial Church at Scotland Street and Highland Avenue, the Carpenter Gothic structure has been physically relocated three times. In 1926 it was moved south on Scotland Street. In 1970 the Dunedin Historical Society bought it, had it sawed in half and transported a mile north to its current site. A visible scar still runs down the chapel's interior where the two halves were rejoined. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

Few buildings offer tour operators a better story.

Dominick, a former hotel sales director, pivoted to paranormal work after the pandemic shuttered her career. She founded Silent Slayer in 2021 and has since conducted more than 100 investigations across the state and country. The August session at Andrews Chapel was her eighth there. Dominick told the Times she considers the work a passion, not a job.

Participants use dowsing rods, spirit boxes and the Estes Method to attempt contact with the chapel's alleged spirits, including "Ken," described as a carpenter who fell from the wooden ceiling trusses, and William Andrews, the chapel's namesake, said to have been killed by a lightning-struck tree limb while riding a horse.

Makayla Gustave, 19, a University of South Florida nursing student, attended her first ghost hunt at the chapel in July with her mother and grandmother.

"I just want to know what happens after you die," Gustave told the Tampa Bay Times.

The tours arrive as Dunedin rides a broader visitor surge. Pinellas County collected more than $36.2 million in tourist development taxes from February through April 2026, up 7.7% year-over-year and the strongest spring on record, according to WUSF reporting July 29. Nearly 3.1 million visitors came to the county in May alone, a 9.7% jump. Brian Lowack, president and CEO of Visit St. Pete-Clearwater, specifically named Dunedin as one of the county's fastest-growing destinations.

A 2025 City of Dunedin business survey found that 57% of local businesses rated tourism "very important" to their decision to locate here, and 40% said expanding events and festivals would be the most beneficial city effort for attracting off-season customers.

Silent Slayer's Andrews Chapel sessions are listed on silentslayertours.com as exclusive after-hours events limited to 15 guests. The chapel is also open for public visits Sundays from 2 to 4 p.m.