Fire Department Station No. 4
420 West 5th Street
Charlotte, North Carolina
In researching and writing about ghosts, I often forget that there were real individuals behind every ghost that I encounter. When I come across something like a death certificate for someone whose activity from the spiritual plane may be witnessed by those in the living plane, it can be a bit of a shock.
Legend often conflicts with the truthful history behind a haunting, and as a legend persists and spreads, the historical details may be discarded. Though, when I went searching for the truth behind the ghost of Charlotte’s Fire Station No. 4, the actual story has survived intact, except for some minor details. My current job requires a good amount of genealogical research, so I employed those skills in sussing out the details of this ghost story.
First, the legend as told by Israel Petty of The Lantern News & Media Group:
“On April 1st, 1934, a firefighter by the name of Pruitt Black headed out in response to a call. But when he tried to slide down the fire pole, he became tangled in his heavy bunker pants and fell through the hole instead.
Pruitt fractured his skull and died on impact. His ghost reportedly still haunts the building to this day, and visitors of the museum claim to see and smell the smoke of his cigar.”
Not only does the legend provide an exact name for the victim, but an exact date of death, as well as the location of the death. A quick search of Find-a-Grave, a website that provides the details of billions of graves worldwide, pulls up a Pruett L. Black who died 1 April 1934 buried in Charlotte’s Elmwood Cemetery. Bingo! This Pruett Black died at Fire Station No. 4!
With this basic information, I go to search Mr. Black on FamilySearch and his profile is the first to pop up. Included among the sources is a copy of the death certificate which can help to confirm the details of the legend. The cause of death is given as “Fractured skull cause [sic] by fall on concrete floor as he attempted to come down the pole from fireman’s quarters the distance being 14 feet.” The main details of his death also match up with the legend.
All these details are backed up in the Charlotte Observer the following day. The section 2 headline blares “CHARLOTTE FIREMAN LOSES LIFE IN FALL AT STATION.”
Pruett L. Black, Charlotte fireman, was fatally injured yesterday morning at No. 4 fire station on West Fifth street when he lost his footing and plunged headfirst through the pole opening on the second floor and dropped to the concrete floor 14 feet below. He died three hours later at St. Peter’s hospital.
…Black was killed in action. He and other members of the No. 4 fire station were answering an alarm at 7:40 o’clock. When the alarm came in, the firemen, who were sleeping on the second floor of the station, dressed hurriedly and started for the brass pole which leads from the dormitory to the first floor where the apparatus is housed. A fellow fireman said that Black started toward to the pole, drawing on his coat as he went. Just as he grasped for the pole, his foot appeared to slip, and he missed his catch and fell through the opening. His head struck the concrete below and was horribly smashed.
The detail of Black dying upon impact at the firehouse is incorrect. He was injured in the fall and died at the hospital several hours later.
Putting these records together, a portrait of Mr. Black emerges. Pruett Livingston Black was born 6 February 1906 in Long Creek Township in northern Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. There are some discrepancies with his date of birth, his death certificate states 26 February 1905, putting it at odds with his grave marker which reads 6 February 1906. His wife was the informant on the death certificate, so it is unknown which date may be correct. Black’s parents were Robert Rush Black (1877-1955) and Katherine Clarinda Wallace (1881-1911) and Pruett Black had five siblings: three brothers and two sisters.
Black joined the Charlotte Fire Department 15 March 1928, meaning he had just passed his sixth year of service when he died. On 30 June 1931, Pruett married Pansy Green Fortner (1910-2002) of Mount Holly, Gaston County, North Carolina at the Lutheran parsonage in Mount Holly. On 4 May 1932, Pansy gave birth to a son, Pruett Livingston Black, Jr. (1932-2013). When her husband died just about three years after their wedding, Pansy Black was left a widow and single mother at the age of 24. She would remarry around 1938, dying in 2002 in Charlotte.
Construction on Firehouse No. 4 began in 1925 “to better balance downtown‘s fire protection with close proximity to the city center and accessibility to the Fourth Ward neighborhood.” The fire house opened in 1926, serving the city as until 1972 when its bays were deemed too narrow to allow for modern fire equipment. After closure, the building housed offices and storage for the city’s sanitation department as well as several businesses, including a digital media company and an antique store before reopening in 2002 as a fire museum. The museum was forced to close in 2009 due to rising rent. Since then, suggestions have been put forth for usage of the building, though nothing seems to have come to fruition.
It seems that the first stories of the building’s ghost were published by Stephanie Burt Williams in her 2003 book, Ghost Stories of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County: Remnants of the Past in a New South. For the book, Williams spoke with several people who worked in the building discovering that smelling the odor of cigar smoke was the most common experience for people in the building. The owner of the antique shop experienced the smoke the first time he toured the building. “In 1997, I was walking through the building for the first time. It had been boarded up and no one in there for years, and my first thought was that someone had been living there because the smell of cigar smoke was so strong. It was consistent and stronger in some areas than others, but I smelled it throughout the entire time I had my business there.”
Not only did people smell cigar smoke, but several people had face to face encounters with an apparition. One quiet Sunday afternoon, the antique store owner witnessed a man wearing a bright yellow parka walk through part of his store, approaching a wall and disappearing. He said, “It unnerved me, and I left for the day.” His electrical contractor had an experience shortly after. While working upstairs where the barracks were originally located the contractor observed a man walking down the hall. He followed the man into the old barracks room, though upon entering, the mysterious man had disappeared. A moment later, the store’s owner, who was downstairs, saw the man cross the room and disappear near the location of the original exterior door.
A short time later, the owner came face to face with the same apparition in the upstairs hallway. After doing some research on the building, he found a photo of Pruett Black, recognizing him as the apparition he had encountered a short time earlier. Quickly he started saying hello and goodbye to Mr. Black, who seemed to enjoy the greetings. “We never had any conversations, and I never felt scared. I felt very protected, but I definitely felt there was someone there,” he explained.
After he was sent some antique fire equipment and uniforms, the store owner displayed them in the old equipment room. Frequently, he found himself having to fold the uniforms as the spirit liked them hanging on the old pegs in the room.
While so many legends are recounted with questionable historical details, in this case, most of the historical details have been preserved. If you find yourself passing the old fire house and you happen to smell cigar smoke, be sure to wave hello to Pruett Black, I’m sure he would appreciate it!
Sources
- Charlotte fireman loses life in fall at station. Charlotte Observer. 2 April 1934. Section 2, page 1.
- FamilySearch profile for Pruett Livingston Black, Sr. Accessed 31 October 2024. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/MYJV-W6S.
- Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/75659356/pruett_l-black accessed October 31, 2024), memorial page for Pruett L. Black (6 Feb 1906–1 Apr 1934), Find a Grave Memorial ID 75659356. Citing Elmwood Cemetery, Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, USA; Maintained by JJH 47481859.
- Petty, Israel. “This Haunted NC Fire Station Still Houses a Fireman that Refuses to Clock Out.” The Lantern News & Media Group. 17 June 2024. https://www.facebook.com/TheLanternNewsandMediaGroup/posts/pfbid02QVE5RdRGT3SMeeT4PC6ubReHNQMhwXYVyS4HgDKvwTgENnJmSpi1XomoPPpq4adpl.
- Portillo, Ely. “A Carolina Panthers player’s uptown restaurant building got named to the National Historic Register.” Charlotte Observer. 23 March 2017.
- Price, Mark. “He died in the line of duty. Now he reportedly haunts his old Charlotte fire station.” Charlotte Observer. 24 October 2017.
- Williams, Stephanie Burt. Ghost Stories of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County: Remnants of the Past in a New South. Winston-Salem, NC: Bandit Books, 2003.
- Wootson, Cleve R., Jr. “Fire Museum closing its doors.” Charlotte Observer. 5 April 2009.