Virginia Archives - Page 2 of 5 - Southern Spirit Guide

May 19, 2020July 11, 2020

Spirited Southern Tidewater—Review of Kinney’s Haunted Surry to Suffolk

Haunted Surry to Suffolk: Spooky Locations Along
Routes 10 and 460
Pamela K. Kinney
Anubis Press, 2020

The South is a veritable garden of ghostly delights. After researching the region for many years, I continue to be delighted at the depth and the range of stories that have been unearthed and documented. As one of the earliest created of the colonies, Virginia possesses an embarrassment of riches in terms of ghostlore and haunted places.

While many of the Old Dominion State’s ghosts have been documented through the works of authors such as Marguerite Dupont Lee and L. B. Taylor, Jr., there are still areas that have not been properly documented. In recent years, Pamela K. Kinney has taken the lead in documenting the state’s haunted locales. She has produced a book on the state as a whole (Haunted Virginia: Legends, Myths, and True Tales), two books on the haunting of Richmond, two editions on the Historic Triangle (which I have reviewed here and here), a book on Petersburg, and she encouraged the writing of a book on the Charlottesville region.

Kinney’s spirited repertoire has recently been expanded with the publication of her Haunted Surry to Suffolk: Spooky Locations Along Routes 10 and 460, which once again explores a neglected region of Virginia’s ghostlore.

The Virginia Tidewater is one of three main regions of the state. Covering the coastal areas of the state, the Tidewater borders much of the Chesapeake Bay and all those places affected by the tides. This region includes the southern tip of the Delmarva Peninsula (known as the Eastern Shore), the three peninsulas jutting into the bay (the Northern Neck, Middle Peninsula, and the Virginia Peninsula), and the Southern Tidewater ranges from Virginia Beach to Hopewell lying south of the James River.

However, the Tidewater region’s documented ghostlore is spotty. Much of this region is rural (specifically the Eastern Shore, Northern Neck, and the Middle Peninsula) and it usually follows that rural regions have less documented ghostlore than urban areas. This case is no exception. The Virginia Peninsula, the most historic area and most urbanized of the entire region, has an exceptional amount of documented ghostlore. Coverage of the Southern Tidewater is mostly spotty, with decent documentation for Virginia Beach and Norfolk, though far less as you move west along the James River.

In looking into this region a couple years ago, there was relatively little information on haunted locations and ghost stories. Pamela Kinney has filled in this information marvelously with her new book.

The history of European settlement here begins just after the settlement of Jamestown. The area’s location adjacent to the Virginia Peninsula spurred the growth of plantations and eventually the cities of Suffolk, Surry, and Smithfield. As political divisions were established, the area was divided into two counties: Surry and Isle of Wight, and one independent city, Suffolk. Over time, this area has been crossed by two major roads, US Route 460 and Virginia Route 10.

book cover Pamela Kinney Haunted Surry to Suffolk Among the hauntings that Kinney covers in her book are Bacon’s Castle, one of the oldest brick structures in the country, and St. Luke’s Church in Smithfield, one of the oldest churches. While much of the paranormal activity at Bacon’s Castle has been thoroughly documented, Kinney deftly sketches out the home’s history and hauntings before adding her own experiences investigating there. Other nearby plantations such as Chippokes and Smith’s Fort are included as well to round out the paranormal experiences in Surry County.

St Luke's Church Smithfield Virginia — An 1885 illustration of St. Luke’s Church in Smithfield from The History: American Episcopal Church 1587-1883 by William Stevens Perry.

From Surry, Kinney takes the reader through Isle of Wight County to explore Smithfield and includes several local businesses, a cemetery, St. Luke’s Church, and a couple Civil War fortifications. In Suffolk, the author covers some of the stops on the local ghost tour before heading towards the Great Dismal Swamp, which straddles the state line between Virginia and North Carolina. Within the swamp, Kinney covers the plethora of myths, legends, and mysteries emanating from this impenetrable natural area. Throughout, she adds her own experiences from visits and investigations, making this a fabulous resource on the hauntings of this region.

Haunted Surry to Suffolk: Spooky Locations Along Routes 10 and 460 is available as an eBook and in print from Amazon.

April 18, 2020December 17, 2021

Superlatives–Virginia

Berry Hill Resort and Conference Center
3105 River Road
South Boston

Even the ghosts of Berry Hill are spoken of in superlatives. In fact, the ghosts have found their way into the august pages of the New York Times, a place where even some of the most famous ghosts have yet to tread. In a 2002 article, the Berry Hill Resort is described as “bucolic” and as having, “ghosts. Lots of ghosts.” The reporter spoke with a local paranormal investigator:

“There are three ghosts upstairs,” said Francis Hunt, a local entrepreneur known as Biggy whose hobby is “dowsing,” or ghost hunting. “Malcolm, James Coles, and a lady. Three ladies are in the nursery; four slave ladies and three free black ladies are in the slaves’ quarters.” That adds up to an unlucky 13. Also, he says, 20 or so “immature” ghosts (of babies and children) haunt the main foyer, under the elaborately carved mahogany staircase.

staircase Berry Hill Plantation South Boston Virginia — The magnificent double staircase inside Berry Hill. Taken for the Historic American Buildings Survey, no date. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

The author continues:

Here at Berry Hill, rumors of celestial squatters have abounded for centuries — tales of phantom horses, mussed sheets, cold-air pockets, rearranged tools, people being “touched” on the shoulder or arm, and apparitions (especially of a young boy) in windows.

While the atmosphere of Berry Hill seems to be seething with “celestial squatters,” an investigation with the reporter and a local paranormal team produced few results. Though, one investigator reported that as they drove home their car inexplicably filled with the aroma of pipe or cigar smoke.

Berry Hill Plantation South Boston Virginia — The front facade of Berry Hill with one of its dependencies. Taken for the Historic American Buildings Survey, no date. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Berry Hill’s origins are impressive. The property, once owned by William Byrd of (haunted) Westover Plantation, and later statesman and planter Isaac Coles, was inherited by businessman James Coles Bruce from his father. Bruce, whose fortune had been made through a chain of general stores, was considered the wealthiest man in the country at that time, being worth an estimated $4 million. His wealth included some 3,000 enslaved who would work what would become the largest plantation in the state.

Undertaking the task of renovating the plantation’s original home in 1839, Bruce hired architect John E. Johnson to build this impressive manse. The home’s design borrows from the Parthenon of Ancient Greece to create a sense of awe. As one of the greatest examples of Greek Revival architecture in the country and possessing “the purest style of Virginia’s surviving Greek Revival houses,” the house has been named a National Historic Landmark. When he died in 1865, Bruce escaped witnessing the collapse of the Southern economy and the downfall of the planter aristocracy, though his spirit may be one of the throng that watches and stirs for the guests and staff of the hotel and conference center that now occupies the house and grounds.

While the New York Times reporter did not witness anything supernatural during her investigation, a reporter from the local South Boston News & Record participated in a different investigation in 2010. Starting at the plantation’s Diamond Hill Slave Cemetery, considered the largest of its type in the South, the group interacted with a number of spirits. To the investigators, the atmosphere seemed “welcoming, inviting, and restful.”

As the group spread out among various locations on the plantation grounds, they found the spirits to be “social and positive.” In addition to a few EVPs, the group collected several photographs that seemed to show odd figures and shadows within the house. One of the investigators told the reporter that she couldn’t “personally can’t say that Berry Hill is haunted. It’s very possible that there is something there.”

So it may be that even with its dearth of spirits, Berry Hill may not live up to its superlatives in terms of hauntings, but perhaps further investigation will help it to eventually do so.

Sources

Ellin, Abby. “Business Travel; A Hotel Stephen King might find just right.” New York Times. 23 July 2002.
Rose, Sullivan. “Just in time for Halloween, a ghost hunt at Berry Hill.” South Boston News & Record. 28 October 2010.
Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission. National Register of Historic Places Nomination form for Berry Hill. 25 April 1969.

January 23, 2020January 23, 2020

Do ghosts like gelato?—Richmond, Virginia

Stoplight Gelato Café
405 Brook Road

In 2013, as he was renovating the old commercial building in Richmond’s historic Jackson Ward, Bryce Given had some unexpected paranormal experiences. He told Richmond BizSense that he was sitting near the front of the shop facing the rear of the building when he saw a white figure that repeatedly moved up the stairs and came back down. It eventually disappeared but it left Given wondering what he had just witnessed.

“The first time I saw it, I was checking all the street lights and car lights’ reflections and ruled all that out. It was just too bizarre.”

When he bought the hundred-year-old building to open a gelato café, he did not consider that one of the obstacles to opening the new business might come from the other side. However, he later noted that he had not had any further paranormal experiences and that perhaps the spirit approved of his work. “I haven’t seen him in a few months, so I think he approves of the renovations I’m doing.”

405 Brook Road Richmond Virginia — 405 Brook Road in 1978, photo by John G. Zehmer for the Richmond Department of Planning and Community Development. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

According to neighborhood lore, the building operated as “a horse depot” and the owner committed suicide in the 1930s as business declined due to the prevalence of automobiles. Perhaps, this is the spirit that was checking up on the building’s renovations?

A reporter for the local CBS affiliate, WTVR, looked into the building’s history and discovered that R. D. Harlow operated a grain and tack business here in the early 20^th century. Perhaps this is the business owner who committed suicide? After his ownership, the building passed through a few different hands and operated as several businesses. Given believed that whatever was there approved of what he was doing with the building.

“I have a good feeling about the apparition—or spirit—that may be here.” He mused. “But now that the bricks are fixed, and everything is stable and solid again, I may not see him again.”

Discovering a spirit in the building was just one of the surprises on the years long journey that Given and his mother made while trying to open this gelato café. After buying the building in 2010, Bryce Given spent years working on the renovations before succumbing to cancer in 2015. Despite her grief, his mother, Barbara, oversaw completion of the renovations and the opening of the café in 2016. In early 2019, she sold the café to a young couple who have continued the business. If spirits are still active in the building, nothing has been noted, so I’m left thinking that perhaps the spirit may be appeased by the gelato.

Sources

Holmberg, Mark. “A ghost in historic Jackson Ward?” 12 July 2013.
O’Neal, J. Elias. “With new owners in place, Jackson Ward gelato shop has greenlight for reopening.” Richmond BizSense. 12 April 2019.

Robinson, Mark. “Café’s first visitor loves the new haunt.” Richmond BizSense. 25 June 2013.

January 20, 2020

Encounters in Hollywood—Richmond, Virginia

Hollywood Cemetery
412 South Cherry Street

Most of the sources on Richmond’s famed Hollywood Cemetery speak only of the vague legendary hauntings with no personal experiences. There are legends surrounding the large stone Monument of Confederate War Dead that marks the resting place for tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers. Supposedly the soft moaning of the dead is heard here. There is also the cast iron dog marking the grave of a little girl that continues to guard her in death. But there are almost no documented personal experiences here save for one that I discovered in a back corner of the internet.

Ghostvillage.com hardly is a back corner of the internet, though with its thousands of pages of content, some things can seemingly get lost in the shuffle. The website was established in 1999 by author Jeff Belanger and has grown by leaps and bounds as more and more people have shared their paranormal encounters from all over the globe. Among the encounters is one from a sheriff’s deputy who worked off duty at Hollywood Cemetery.

Hollywood Cemetery Richmond Virginia James Monroe Tomb — James Monroe’s Gothic Revival metalwork tomb, 2017. Photo by William M. Ferriter, courtesy of Wikipedia.

One of this deputy’s first experiences happened at the tomb of President James Monroe. While patrolling the cemetery grounds late at night, a group of officers were standing beside the president’s grave. Looking at the size of the grave, the deputy remarked, “He must have been a short son of a…” Out of nowhere, a swarm of flies began to attack him, and he fled towards his van, followed by the flies. Perhaps the president was sensitive about his height?

The deputy notes another experience near the Monument of Confederate War Dead where he regularly encountered a cold spot.

Hollywood Cemetery Richmond Virginia Confederate Pyramid — The pyramidal Monument to the Confederate Dead, 2011. Photo by David Broad, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Another notable experience involved the cemetery’s maintenance shed. The deputy was sick in the shed’s bathroom and vomiting into the toilet. He heard the door open and the sound of footsteps with the hair on the back of his neck beginning to stand up. Out loud he said, “Please leave me alone today, people, I’m not feeling well” and the sensation stopped.

Hollywood Cemetery Richmond Virginia — Hollywood Cemetery with the Richmond skyline and James River beyond, 2007. Photo by Andrew Bain, courtesy of Wikipedia.

There is no doubt that there are many spirits still roaming the cemetery’s rustic and hilly 135 acres. Among those at rest here are many notables including President John Tyler, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, 28 Confederate generals including J.E.B. Stuart, and many noted authors, diplomats, and businessmen. Some 18,000 Confederate soldiers are also buried here. The cemetery was first envisioned in 1847 with its first burial in 1848. Based on the concept of the rural cemetery, a 19^th century idea that was used for many major urban cemeteries around the country, it is now maintained as an arboretum and remains an active cemetery for the living and the dead.

Sources

Hollywood Cemetery (Richmond, Virginia). Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 20 January 2020.
Kinney, Pamela K. Haunted Richmond. Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 2007.
Taylor, L.B., Jr. The Ghosts of Richmond…and Nearby Environs. Progress Printing, 1985.
Womack, Rodney A. Sr. “Graveyard Shift at Hollywood Cemetery.” Ghostvillage.com. 22 February 2006.

January 20, 2020January 20, 2020

“Launched into eternity”—Richmond, Virginia

Virginia State Capitol
1000 Bank Street
Richmond, Virginia

The mass of human beings who were in attendance were sent, mingled with the bricks, mortar, splinters, beams, iron bars, desks, and chairs to the floor of the House of Delegates and in a second more, over fifty souls were launched into eternity!
—Richmond Dispatch, 28 April 1870

Under the headline “HORRIBLE CALAMITY” the Richmond Dispatch was admittedly at a loss of words for the events that had occurred at the state capitol the previous day. A mass of spectators had gathered in a second-floor courtroom to bring about an end to mayoral tensions in the city when the room seemingly disintegrated throwing the mass of humanity through the floor into the room below. The reporter who had been given the sad duty of reporting the events was taken aback in “palsied horror in the undertaking of the narration.” Continuing, he remarked, “To describe it would be beyond the power of man, and with those who witnessed it its recollection will remain indelibly vivid as long as life shall last.”

Virginia State Capitol Richmond — The state capitol building a few years after the disaster. From the 1879 American Cyclopaedia.

The city of Richmond, over the past decade had witnessed the heights of glory when it was named the capital of the Confederacy to the depths of despair as war waged around it. A portion of the city was left a smoking ruin after the war and the city had to endure the indignities of Reconstruction before self-rule was once again allowed. It was the issues of this self-rule that was the cause of this court session.

Under Reconstruction, the city’s mayor was appointed by the state’s Federal military commander. Appointed in 1868, George Chahoon immediately undertook a purge of former Confederates in the city government and stiffened many local ordinances, causing a good deal of consternation among the city’s citizens. When Reconstruction ended in the state in 1870, the new governor appointed newspaper publisher Henry K. Ellison as mayor. Chahoon and his supporters refused to leave office and with much of the loyalty of the police force, battled the forces of the new mayor and his acolytes.

The Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals undertook the case and was poised to announce the verdict on April 27^th in the second-floor courtroom inside the state capitol building. Just after 11 AM, the clerk entered the packed courtroom with the two mayors and their counsels were already sitting along with reporters for all the city’s major papers. A piece of the ceiling fell into the courtroom followed by one of the girders supporting the spectator-laden gallery. As the gallery’s structure crashed into the floor, the room’s entire floor gave away sending those gathered and debris to the floor of the House of Delegates chamber below. “In a moment, a few survivors clinging to the windows and fragments of hanging timber, and the bare and torn walls were all that remained to mark the place where only a moment before there was a scene of life, vigor, and hope.”

Virginia State Capitol disaster 1870 Harper's Weekly Virginia State Capitol Richmond — The disaster as illustrated in Harper’s Weekly, 14 May 1870.

Within the twisted rubble lay 62 dead or gravely wounded who would die from their injuries in short order and nearly 250 were injured. Among the casualties were Patrick Henry’s grandson and three members of the state’s General Assembly. The injured included both the men vying for mayor; Henry H. Wells, a former governor; and a former Confederate general, Montgomery Corse.

The cause of disaster was attributed to a poorly designed floor for the courtroom, which had been added to the building some years previous. The architect failed to provide proper support for the courtroom’s floor which had developed a noticeable sag. With the political turmoil brought about by the Civil War and Reconstruction, the sag was overlooked. After the disaster, consideration was made to demolish the capitol, though others decided to repair the noble Thomas Jefferson and Charles-Louis Clerisseau designed structure.

For many years since the disasters there have been murmurs of paranormal activity within the halls of the venerable state capitol. L.B. Taylor, Jr., the state’s major chronicler of its mysterious events, was the first author to note “some say the eerie cry of mournful voices, muted under tons of debris, can still be heard in the hallowed corridors of the Capitol.” Pamela K. Kinney echoes this description in her 2007 Haunted Richmond.

It wasn’t until the 2013 publication of Paul Hope’s Policing the Paranormal, that the Capitol’s haunting activity has enjoyed a detailed description. Hope, a former member of the Capitol’s police force, records the experiences of many of the force’s officers throughout the complex of buildings that comprise the Capitol complex. At least some of the activity experienced in the building centers on the Old House of Delegates Chamber, the room which witnessed the tragic events of 1870.

Virginia State Capitol Richmond Old House of Delegates Chamber — Old House of Delegates Chamber in 2010. Photo by AlbertHerring, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Only a few days into his training for the Capitol police force, Hope was assigned to work a graveyard shift along with one of the longtime officers. The nightly patrol of the building provided the young officer with his first brush with the odd activity of the Capitol at night. Entering the magnificent Rotunda occupied by Jean-Antoine Houdon’s marble likeness of George Washington, the pair made their entry into the Old House Chamber. Hope notes that the room had a constant mysterious chill, so much so that the doors of the room were sometimes opened to help cool the other parts of the building during the sweltering Southern summers.

Virginia State Capitol Richmond plaque — The plaque in the Old House of Delegates Chamber that the officers were reading when they observed a shadow in the gallery. Photo 2008 by AlertHerring, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Scanning the dark chamber with their flashlights, the training officer encouraged Hope to read the plaque memorializing the 1870 collapse. As the pair stood silently reading the plaque, Hope saw a dark shadow move and then disappear in the gallery above them. The other officer saw this as well and the pair scanned the gallery with their flashlights to determine that no living humans were up there. No one appeared in the gallery, and the pair resumed their patrol after only a brief acknowledgement of the strange moment.

Perhaps one of the souls that was “launched into eternity” here in 1870 has remained within this old chamber for eternity.

The Old House of Delegates Chamber is not the only haunted space within the Capitol building, Hope reports experiences throughout the building and on the surrounding grounds.

Sources

George Chahoon. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 19 January 2020.
Hope, Paul. Policing the Paranormal: The Haunting of Virginia’s State Capitol Complex. Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 2013.
“Horrible Calamity.” Richmond Dispatch. 28 April 1870.
HUIS 1501. “The Virginia Capitol Disaster of 1870.” UVADisasters Wiki. Accessed 19 January 2020.
Kinney, Pamela K. Haunted Richmond. Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 2007.
Taylor, L.B., Jr. The Ghosts of Richmond…and Nearby Environs. Progress Printing, 1985.
Virginia State Capitol. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 19 January 2020.

January 1, 2020January 1, 2020

“Hard to dance with the devil in your back”–Virginia

This is the seventh entry in my Twelve Days of Southern Spirits Series celebrating traditional ghost story telling over Christmas. May you have a blessed New Year!

Braley Pond Campground
Forest Development Road 96
West Augusta, Virginia

Regrets collect like old friends
Here to relive your darkest moments
I can see no way, I can see no way
And all of the ghouls come out to play
And every demon wants his pound of flesh…
–“Shake it out,” (2011) Florence + the Machine

Deep within George Washington and Jefferson National Forests in Virginia, a paranormal investigator had a frightening experience at a popular campground some miles from civilization.

Elliott's Knob Virginia — A view of Elliott’s Knob, the highest point in Augusta County, in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest a few miles south of Braley Pond. Photo by Aneta Kaluza, 2006. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

The group of investigators had arrived around 4:30 in the afternoon of October 25, 2003 to investigate Braley Pond Campground. Stepping out of their vehicles, the lead investigator noted that the atmosphere was “so heavy as to be almost palatable, and I knew immediately that [this feeling] was not my own. I was feeling something that belonged to someone else.”

As the group neared the dam, a couple of group members became physically ill and the entire group retreated. Two of the investigators decided to return to the campground after nightfall to investigate further.

Arriving around 11:30 PM, the pair sensed the same heaviness in the atmosphere that they had experienced on the first visit. Moving on, they felt as if whatever had been there before was lying in wait for their return. As they tenuously made their way towards the dam, one of them saw an orb of light in a nearby pine tree. “Roughly thirty or forty feet in the air, looking as though it were nestled in the branches of one of the big pines that flank the opening to the path, was a brightly glowing fluorescent green light.”

After the light mysteriously blinked out, the pair began to hear violent splashing in the water below. Sensing that something was coming after them, the pair took off for the safety of their vehicle. As they ran, one of the investigators was knocked off the bridge into the water. “I don’t know how to explain it except for he literally flew upwards and to the left, as if something had hit him right in the middle of his back, like using his forward momentum, and he went off the side of the bridge into the water.” The pair would later discover that their audio equipment picked up a mysterious screech just before the man was thrown into the water.

When the lead investigator stopped to check on her companion, he was fine but encouraged her to continue running back to the truck. As she stood up on the side of the pond, she began to feel something crawling on her back. She recalled that it moved like an inchworm and felt as if it had tentacles.

Continuing back to the truck, she screamed that something was on her. Both investigators piled back into the vehicle and nothing was found on the investigator, though she continued to feel the thing creeping along her body.

Over the next few months, the lead investigator was plagued by nightmares and dark feelings and images that would surface in her mind periodically. The pair returned to the campground several more times and witnessed odd events, but none as dramatic as the events of that first night. When the lead investigator felt oddly drawn to visit alone, she found herself walking trancelike around the parking lot and suddenly found herself in the restroom without any memory of getting there.

Several weeks later, she and her husband heard a terrifying scream from her eight-year-old son in another room. The boy had witnessed the image of a man standing in the corner “with multiple holes in his chest; wet and covered in blood.”

Following this frightening vision, the dark feelings began to retreat. Revisiting the campground a few years later, the investigator did not sense anything there.

According to the Mysterious Universe website, campers and hikers in the area have encountered sudden feelings of nausea and dread, orbs of light, shadow figures, the sounds of splashing water, and a feeling of being drawn into the water.

What could be the cause of the darkness here? The answer may lie in tragedies that have occurred here. Mysterious Universe notes that the quiet pond has been the scene of suicides, which I have not been able to confirm, but it was here that a vicious gang-related murder took place in May of 2003, some months before the terrifying investigation took place.

On the evening of May 21, 2003, two young men picked up 19-year-old Christopher Kennedy in nearby Staunton. Kennedy had reportedly become a member of the Los Angeles-based street gang, the Crips. After being picked up by two other members, the group drove to the Braley Pond Campground. A short time previous, Kennedy admitted to his grandfather that he had joined the gang and expressed his anxiety that he was “too young to die.” An account of the murder in the Staunton, Virginia News Leader says, “Kennedy first left with Noa and Tinsley voluntarily and might have realized he was going to be killed on the way out to Braley Pond.”

Once they arrived at the pond, Kennedy was stabbed 12 times in the chest and back at the water’s edge. It was there that his partially submerged body was found. In the initial reports of the murder, police speculated that Kennedy had tried to leave the gang.

Details of the murder would line up with some of paranormal activity reported here: feelings of nausea and dread, splashing of water, and the investigator’s son’s vision of a wet man with holes in his chest and covered in blood.

Allow me to speculate a bit on this haunting. I sincerely hope that Kennedy’s spirit is at rest, and it seems that his residual energy may be felt at the campground. The lead investigator, who is sensitive, noted in her journal that she felt “another presence ‘behind’ the original one. This one didn’t feel like the others. In fact, it didn’t feel human.” This leads me to believe that perhaps this inhuman spirit may be an elemental, or nature, spirit angered by the intense violence that took place in its domain. In fact, it was this spirit’s ire that attached itself to the investigator and haunted her.

If you visit the Braley Pond Campground, enjoy the scenery, but beware that this beauty has a darker side.

Sources

Harrington, Tim. “Family worried about troubled boy.” News Leader. 24 May 2003.
Moss, Charles. “We spoke to a paranormal researcher about the most haunted campground in Virginia.” com. 16 October 2018.
Swancer, Brent. “Supernatural terror at the Braley Pond Campground.” Mysterious Universe. 19 September 2019.
Zinn, Brad & Maria Longley. “Gang kills teen, police say.” News Leader. 24 May 2003.

October 1, 2019January 19, 2024

‘He said we could descend’—Bluemont, Virginia

This is the first entry of my Encounter Countdown to Halloween. There are only 30 more days until All Hallows Eve!

TWA Flight 514 Crash Site Memorial
VA-601
Bluemont, Virginia

A Haunted Southern Book of Days–1 December

This article is a part of an occasional blog series highlighting Southern hauntings or high strangeness associated with specific days. For a complete listing, see “A Haunted Southern Book of Days.”

Early on a chilly morning in 2004, a long-haul trucker pulled into a closed gas station near the intersection of VA-7 and VA-601 to check his map. It was extremely dark in this rural, mountainous area, though close to the bustle of cities like Winchester, Leesburg, and suburban Washington, D.C.

He was startled by a knock on the door of his cab, turned on the interior light, and rolled down his window. Staring into the dark, chilly morning, he saw a man standing next to his truck oddly wearing an airline uniform.

The man climbed up onto the side of the truck and asked if the trucker could give him a lift. The trucker noticed the TWA insignia on the man’s cap and the four stripes of a captain on the shoulder of his short-sleeved shirt. The man also reeked of kerosene.

“I am with TWA. I have to get to Dulles Airport to work a flight. Please give me a ride. I’ll pay you.”

“Well, how about I give you a ride to the next open store where you can call a taxi?” the trucker responded.

“Okay, thank you.” the captain muttered awkwardly. “He said we could descend.”

The trucker invited him to get in and the captain jumped down off the side of the truck.

As he walked around the front, the captain suddenly vanished. Shaken, the trucker got out of his cab to investigate, even looking under the truck with a flashlight. The captain was nowhere to be seen.

Agitated, the trucker continued his lonely route home pondering his strange encounter, made especially strange when he realized that TWA had gone bankrupt just two years prior. A little research revealed that his experience had occurred a short distance from the crash site of TWA Flight 514 in 1974.

The trucker recounted his story on the Your Ghost Stories website where it was picked up by the late L.B. Taylor, Jr. and included in his 2010 Big Book of Virginia Ghost Stories.

TWA Flight 514 crash site Virginia — TWA Flight 514 crashed around this rocky outcropping on VA-601. A small memorial is now located here. Taken in March 2017 by Engelalber, courtesy of Wikipedia.

The crash site today, along a wooded stretch of VA-601 on the flanks of Mount Weather, is marked by a small memorial stone set upon a rocky outcropping. It was at this site on the morning of December 1, 1974, the TWA Boeing 727 with 92 souls aboard slammed into this mountain on their descent into Dulles Airport. Miscommunication between the pilot and air traffic control led the plane to shear off the tops of trees before it disintegrated.

Ghost stories concerning the crash site have circulated for some time receiving attention from the nearby Queen City Cryptic Researchers who checked out the site in October of 2018. According to their case file, the group witnessed lights in the woods around the crash site as well as a hearing voices. They also noted feeling a powerful energy there.

Sources

“Dead Pilot?” Your Ghost Stories. 5 May 2007.
Rogers, Dawn. “Case File—TWA Flight 514 Crash Site.” Queen City Cryptic Researchers. 22 October 2018.
Taylor, L.B. Jr. The Big Book of Virginia Ghost Stories. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2010.
TWA Flight 514. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 1 October 2019.

September 4, 2019January 24, 2021

Capitol Creepiness—Williamsburg, Virginia

Old Capitol
500 East Duke of Gloucester Street

Pamela K. Kinney, author of Virginia’s Haunted Historic Triangle (now in its second edition), and her husband took a guided tour of the Old Capitol in 2010. As the guide and the group descended the stairs from the second floor, the pair was briefly alone, and Kinney snapped some photos before returning to the group. When she uploaded the photos at home, she was stunned to find that one of those pictures included the head of a person, Kinney and her husband were alone on that floor.

The man is standing in front of the photographer and his head is very brightly illuminated, with individual hairs quite visible. Did she capture the image of one of the spirits that lingers in this reconstructed building?

Old Capitol Williamsburg Virginia ghosts haunted — The Old Capitol Building, between 1934 and 1950 by Fay Sturtevant Lincoln. Courtesy of the A. D. White Architectural Photographs Collection, Cornell University Library.

The building that stands today is a reconstruction of the first capitol building constructed between 1701 and 1704. That structure was gutted by fire in 1747 with only “the naked Brick Walls only left standing.” Using those remaining walls, another capitol was constructed, though it was architecturally different from the first building. It was this second building that witnessed the fiery speeches of Patrick Henry and meetings of revolutionaries as they worked to throw off the shackles of British rule. After the removal of the colony’s capital to Richmond in 1780, the building was used for a variety of purposes before it was also destroyed by fire in 1832.

In his 1938 book, Old Williamsburg, William Oliver Stevens related two fanciful tales about the old capitol building: the first that Patrick Henry’s portrait hanging inside has come to bear a disgusted look thanks to the British flag flying overhead, and second, that Henry and other patriots assemble in front of the building at the stroke of midnight on July 4^th and “use the most reprehensible language.” I presume they are cursing the modern government, though Stevens doesn’t clarify.

Aside from William Oliver Stevens’ fanciful tales and Kinney’s photo, there is little published on the building’s ghosts, though Jamie Roush Pearce features accounts from several interpreters in her 2013 book, Historic Haunts of the South. These accounts concern two spirits that staff members have encountered. The first is reported to be a little girl who has been heard to call out, “Mommy?” and some interpreters have sensed her following them as they close the building for the day.

The second spirit is a person in blue holding a handkerchief. Pearce and a friend actually saw this spirit while attending a historical reenactment in the courtroom. An interpreter saw this spirit descending the stairs one morning as he unlocked the door. After seeing someone disappear into the courtroom, the interpreter followed to find no one there, and no one should have been in the locked building. Those who have witnessed this apparition have been inclined to identify it as the shade of former guide who enjoyed her work so much that she has continued her duties in the afterlife.

Sources

Kinney, Pamela K. Virginia’s Haunted Historic Triangle: Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown, & Other Haunted Locations, 2^nd Edition. Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 2019.
Olmert, Michael. Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg. Williamsburg, VA: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1985.
Pearce, Jamie Roush. Historic Haunts of the South. CreateSpace, 2013.
Taylor, L.B., Jr. The Ghosts of Williamsburg, Volume II. Progress Printing Company, 1999.

August 31, 2019August 31, 2019

Tending the Garden of Virginia Ghosts—Pamela K. Kinney’s 2nd Edition

Virginia’s Haunted Historic Triangle: Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown, & Other Haunted Locations, 2^nd Edition
Pamela K. Kinney
Schiffer Publishing, 2019

In 2011 when I was still a novice blogger, Pamela Kinney found my blog and asked if I would review her book on Virginia’s Historic Triangle. Now, eight years later, I’m happily reviewing the second edition.

In that first review, I used the analogy of paranormal researchers and writers tending to ghost stories as a gardener tending to a garden. “They tend to stories that have been cultivated by others; they add and correct facts; update reports of paranormal activity; and generally, maintain stories. They also seek out seeds of information and work to grow these into full stories. If a story isn’t tended it may simply pass into the realm of legend.” This analogy applies to this book even more so than the first.

Pamela Kinney has been very busy in the garden of Virginia ghosts. Since my first review, she has penned a second book on the haunts of Richmond, a book on the paranormal side of Petersburg, as well as short pieces in anthologies, a blog, and fiction works. Watching her comings and goings involving writers’ groups, conventions, book signings, investigations, library appearances and other trappings of a successful writer is fascinating. In fact, she’s living the life I hope to someday attain.

During this time, she has investigated some of the places she covered in her first book and she covers those investigations in her new book. This additional evidence adds to the concise entries Kinney has provided. She has also added in several new locations including Williamsburg’s Fort Magruder Hotel and the Busch Gardens theme park, which heighten the haunted nature of the whole area.

Pamela K. Kinney's 2nd Edition Haunted Historic Triangle Kinney’s second edition is a nice upgrade from the first edition. The layout has been adjusted which changes the rhythm of the book, visually speaking, from the crowded and chaotic first edition, when compared side by side, to a book that is more relaxed and consistent. The move from matte to glossy pages also improves the visual appeal of the second edition giving the photographs, especially those that may capture paranormal phenomena, are much clearer.

Overall, the book is a tremendous addition to any bookshelf on paranormal Virginia.

Pamela K. Kinney’s Virginia’s Haunted Historic Triangle: Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown, & Other Haunted Locations, 2^nd Edition is available on Amazon.

August 12, 2019December 7, 2020

Sipping with Spirits—Guide to Spirited Southern Bars

N.B. Last updated 29 May 2020.

Throughout the South, there are many places where you can sip with spirits. This guide covers all of the bars that I have explored in the pages of this blog over the years. Not only have I included independent bars, but breweries, wineries, restaurants, and hotels with bars as well.

Alabama

Battle House Renaissance Mobile Hotel & Spa, 26 North Royal Street
Bella’s Fine Dining (located in the haunted Colby Building), 111 West Troy Street, Dothan
Buttermilk Hill Restaurant & Bar, 300 East 3^rd Street, Sylacauga
Peerless Saloon & Grille, 13 West 10th Street, Anniston
Redmont Hotel, 2105 5^th Avenue North, Birmingham
Tutwiler Hotel, 2021 Park Place, Birmingham

District of Columbia

Hay-Adams Hotel, 800 16^th Street, Washington
Mayflower Hotel, 1127 Connecticut Avenue, Northwest, Washington
Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert Street, Northwest, Washington
Rock & Roll Hotel, 1353 H Street, Northeast, Washington
Wok and Roll Chinese and Japanese Restaurant, formerly Mrs. Surratt’s Boarding House, 604 H Street, Northwest, Washington