Category: House Museums

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Mad Rivers, Mills and Merrehope—Meridian, Mississippi

Meridian, Mississippi was founded competitively. Lewis Ragsdale and John Ball bet on making a profit from the proposed junction of the Mobile and Ohio and the Vicksburg and Montgomery Railroads. Both purchased land in the area and they began laying out lots, yet they could not agree on the orientation of the streets thus creating streets that sometimes turn at odd angles. There was also disagreement over the new city’s name. Ball favored the name “Meridian,” while Ragsdale had a Native American name in mind, “Sowashee,” meaning “mad river” for a nearby creek. The competition progressed to the point where supporters of the two founders would change the train station’s name nightly.

The cloud of war arrived in the city just after the name Meridian was established, but it brought it many opportunities for the burgeoning town. The town’s strategic location brought an arsenal, military hospital, prisoner of war stockade and many state offices. The city’s importance also caught the eye of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman who decided to capture the city from Confederate General Leonidas Polk. On Valentine’s Day, 1864, the city fell to Sherman who intended to wipe this upstart town off the map. The city, already heavily damaged from the battle, was put to the torch.

Early 20th Century view of 22nd Avenue. The building with the rounded corner, just left of center is the Grand Opera House. This view now looks towards the large Threefoot Building. Postcard from the Cooper Postcard Collection, Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Like so many other cities put to the torch by the Union army, such as Atlanta and Columbia, Meridian rose phoenix-like from the ashes.  For the next half century the city served as a shining example of the “New South.” Mills and factories sprang up next to the railroads and workers poured in from the agricultural fields. Businessmen opened businesses to cater to the workers and business districts spring up. Among the many commercial buildings constructed were three in the 800 block of 22nd Avenue: THE PIGFORD BUILDING (818 22nd Avenue), THE MERIDIAN STAR BUILDING (814 22nd Avenue) and  813 22nd AVENUE (formerly the Peavey Melody Music store), all of which are believed to be haunted. The Meridian Star Building still houses the newspaper and takes up a large portion of the east side of the block and sits in the shadow of the Pigford Building which towers above. (I’ve just recently covered the hauntings here.)

The Pigford Building, 2008. Photo by Dudemanfellabra, courtesy of Wikipedia.

The Pigford Building has a fairly well-investigated and documented haunting. The building was constructed around 1915 for the Knights of Pythias, a secret fraternal organization, and was called Pythian Castle Hall. In the 1920s, the building was purchased by Pigford Realty who rented out the building for retail and office space while the third floor held a ballroom. The retail space on the ground floor has seen many tenants and at some point in the last decade, the top floors have been closed. The windows to those two floors have remained boarded up.

Most of the activity has centered around a dress shop located in the retail space adjacent to the Meridian Star Building. Three different dress shops have occupied the space and both shops have had activity. The haunting was first noticed by employees in the form of spectral female laughter then later, whimpering and crying. Footsteps were heard upstairs in the empty building. Soon enough, clothing and jewelry which had been hung up the night before were being found scattered on the floor the following morning. In 1999, an employee saw an apparition: a lady with long hair in a white gown gliding across the balcony.

The shop’s owner worked late one night and had her young daughter with her when the little girl heard a woman’s voice on the intercom. She responded, thinking it was her mother, the mother asked her daughter who she was talking to and discovered someone else was on the intercom. The same owner had her three-year-old cousin with her another time. The little boy wandered upstairs and came down later saying, “I don’t like the lady in the long dress. She doesn’t like me.” Again, no one else was or should have been in the building. Not long after, the owner saw the lady in white for herself, silently gliding along the balcony.

Owners of the current dress shop had experiences with a vacuum cleaner. In both cases, the vacuum cleaner had been unplugged and moments after leaving the room, the machine turned itself on. The spirit may also have an affinity for a clock in the store. During one investigation, the clock moved forward by two minutes while witnesses were in the room.

Across the street the even older Wagoner Annex No. 3 Building housed the Peavey Melody Music store for many years. The store was opened in this building in 1945 by J. B. Peavey whose son, Hartley, started selling electronics out of the upstairs of this building, eventually creating Peavey Electronics. The store closed its doors in 2006 and the building appears to be unoccupied at the moment.

Devastation from the 1906 tornado. Postcard from the Cooper Postcard Collection, Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

This building, however, has a much darker history. The same year the building was completed, a devastating tornado struck the central business district of Meridian, killing nearly 50 people. The Wagoner Annex No. 3 building housed the Smith Funeral Parlor which handled many of the bodies. The morticians were so overwhelmed with bodies that many were stacked on the second floor. Legend holds that there was so much blood that it was swept out of the first floor with a broom. During its time as the music store, employees in the building would occasionally hear the sound of children upstairs. At times they would hear children laughing and running up and down the hall only to discover no one upstairs.

A little ways down 22nd Avenue between Fifth and Sixth Streets stands another building from the post-war Golden Era, a building that brought prestige and culture to this backwoods town, the GRAND OPERA HOUSE (now called the Riley Center for the Performing Arts, 2206 Fifth Street). Built in 1889 by the owners of the neighboring department store, Israel Marks and Levi Rothenberg, this opera house brought the world to Meridian’s stage including the great French actress Sarah Bernhardt and the actress Lily Langtry, who was a mistress to Albert, Prince of Wales. The theatre operated successfully into the next century and part of it was converted for use as a movie house in the 1920s. The building was leased to Saenger Films of New Orleans and after a dispute over use of the structure, Saenger wanted to convert the building to offices so it wouldn’t compete with the Temple Theatre, the second floor opera house was closed. It remained shut up until the late 20th century, when it was rediscovered. It was recently fully restored and is now owned by Mississippi State University – Meridian Campus.

Grand Opera House, now the Riley Center, 2008. Photo by Dudemanfellabra, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Before the Grand Opera House was reopened, people began to tell stories of a ghost. The executive director first encountered a spirit there while giving a tour to a young woman he was dating. Leading the young woman through the dark halls, the pair walked into a cold spot. Later the director would hear from a woman who worked in one of the retail stores that once operated on the street level. She would sometimes eat lunch on the old stairs to the opera house and would hear a woman singing in the dark theatre. Others have witnessed a woman in a white gown in the theatre. Most recently, a member of the cleaning staff and her daughter saw the woman who they said resembled the woman painted in a medallion above the stage. While the model for that painting is unknown, she certainly still gazes down upon audiences over nearly a hundred and twenty-five years since she was first painted.

When the curtain for the Grand Opera House was drawn in 1927, it was done to prevent competition with Meridian’s new grand showplace, the TEMPLE THEATRE (2320 Eighth Street). The Temple was constructed as a temple for the Hamasa Shrine organization, part of the Freemason order. In 1927, the temple was leased to the Saenger Corporation for use as a movie house. The Moorish revival-designed structure house the second largest stage in the country at the time, after New York’s Roxy and contained a marvelous Robert Morgan pipe organ to provide accompaniment for the silent films of the era.

Temple Theatre, 2008. Photo by Dudemanfellabra, courtesy of Wikipedia.

The theatre was in regular use until the early 1970s when the Saenger’s lease expired. The building saw nominal use and was only very recently purchased by a Dallas businessman for use as a performing arts center. Staff members have begun reporting odd occurrences. One woman saw a dark human shaped form standing in a doorway while a group of people saw a white haired man standing in the corner of the room just beneath the stage. A group of stage hands who dared spend the night on the stage of the old theatre were frightened by numerous odd noises throughout the building all through the night.

With the Great Depression, Meridian’s economy faltered, but it picked up quite a bit of steam with World War II. Into the 1950s, the economy began a decline as the importance of the railroad waned with the advent of the car and the interstate highway system. The fight for civil rights during the 1960s brought the city some notoriety. When three young civil rights workers were killed in nearby Neshoba County, Michael Chaney, a citizen of Meridian, was among them. These deaths, among many, coupled with the work of the African-American community, helped spur Federal Civil Rights legislation. Meridian later honored Chaney by renaming part of 49th Avenue after him.

While repairing its race relations and reputation, the city has worked to preserve some of its history; though this fight is far from over. As industrialization has pulled out of the South, and the nation as a whole, cities like Meridian have watched their cores rot and crumble. Where the bells of streetcars one rang a peal of prosperity, the rumble of the bulldozer brought only despair and emptiness. The 1980s and 90s saw a good deal of work to preserve the historical fabric of Meridian; work that continues today and includes the preservation of the monumental Threefoot Building just down the street from the Grand Opera House and the 800 block of 22nd Avenue. A city landmark, this 16-story 1929 structure is mostly abandoned and was named to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2010 list of America’s Most Endangered Places. The building, named for the Threefoot family, since 2002 has also served as the centerpiece for the Threefoot Arts Festival. There is hope that this building will be saved and revitalized with much of the rest of downtown.

The name for MERREHOPE (905 Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Drive), the culmination of that hope that Meridian has to preserve its history, is derived from “Meridian,” “restoration” and “hope.” Merrehope carries that hope into the future after witnessing so much of Meridian’s history.

Merrehope, 2008. Photo by Dudemanfellabra, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Merrehope’s history begins with one of its first settlers, Richard McLemore. A Virginian, McLemore settled the area in 1831, just after the Choctaw signed away much of their land in central Mississippi with the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. When Lewis Ragsdale arrived in the area to create his city, he purchased McLemore’s property. John Ball arrived only a few days later and purchased land adjacent to Ragsdale’s property which would all eventually become downtown Meridian. McLemore moved to an area north of his old property and in 1858 built a small house for his daughter Juriah and her husband, W. H. Jackson.

This small house, a few years later, served as headquarters for “The Fighting Bishop,“ Confederate General Leonidas Polk, who also served as the Episcopalian bishop for Diocese of Louisiana. Polk tried to ward off Sherman as he advanced on the city in February of 1864, but he was unsuccessful. The Jackson cottage would be one of only a handful of buildings that Sherman spared and it housed some of his officers. After the war, the house passed to John H. Gary who resided there with his wife and family. He added on to the cottage as did the next few owners; each adding and remodeling portions of the residence.

The house was carved into small rooms for a boarding house in the 1930s and remained that way for some 30 years. It was during this time that a young schoolteacher boarded in the house. Addicted to alcohol and gambling, the young man one night lined the mantelpiece of his room with whiskey bottles and shot them off one by one, then shot himself. His playful, yet mischievous spirit is one of the first that was encountered by the staff after the house was purchased by the Meridian Restorations Foundation and restored as a house museum and events facility in 1968. It is believed that his spirit haunts what is now the Periwinkle Room. The bed in that room is sometimes discovered to have a human-shaped indention in it.

In addition sounds of breaking glass sometimes emanate from this room. Jennifer Jacob, a reporter for The Meridian Star captured a possible EVP when she visited the home in 2007. She took and tour and recorded it on her recorder. When she played back the recording, she was surprised to hear a loud scream in the background. The other people speaking at the time took no notice of it.

Merrehope’s other spirit may be that of one of John Gary’s daughters. Eugenia Gary never lived at Merrehope, as she died before her parents moved there, but her spirit may be connected with her portrait that was acquired by the Foundation not long after they bought the home. Staff members have had run-ins with a young woman in a dress with a solid green top and a green plaid hoop skirt. Evidently, she bears a striking resemblance to the portrait of Eugenia. Staff members have also heard the rustle of her skirts and smelled rosewater perfume on occasions.

The hope of Merrehope has spread to another house, the FRANK W. WILLIAMS HOUSE that is now located just behind Merrehope. Built in 1886 on once fashionable 8th Street, this marvelous Queen Anne Style house was built by Frank W. Williams, the owner of an insurance agency for his bride, Mamie Watson. Williams had found success in this booming city and love with his new bride. After they married, they lived happily in the house until Mamie’s unfortunate death. In her later years, Mamie had become wheelchair bound and an elevator had been installed in the house. One day Mamie opened the door and backed on the elevator, but it was still on the first floor and she succumbed to her injuries a few weeks later. 

Frank W. Williams House, 2008. Photo by Dudemanfellabra, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Mamie’s devastated husband became a recluse, locking himself in his library until his death in 1949. In the 1970s as the city’s core began to deteriorate, the house was given to the Merrehope Restorations Foundations in order to save it. The house was moved and is being restored. With the restorations, staff and visitors have noted that the spirits of Frank and Mamie Williams remain. Most recently, a couple visiting last year noted the spirits and left hurriedly after feeling odd sensations. But, in their house as well as the rest of Meridian’s historic structures, hope and spirits linger on.

Sources

  • Brown, Alan. Haunted Places in the American South. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. 2002.
  • Brown, Alan. Stories from the Haunted South. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2004.
  • Brown, Jennifer Jacob. “Elusive ‘lady’ spotted at Grand Opera House.” The Meridian Star. 14 September 2009.
  • History of Meridian, Mississippi. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopdia. Accessed 27 August 2011.
  • Hubbard, Sylvia Booth. Ghosts! Personal Accounts of Modern Mississippi Hauntings. Brandon, MS: Quail Ridge Press, 1992.
  • Jacob, Jennifer. “The legendary ‘lady’ of the Grand Opera House.” The Meridian Star. 29 October 2007.
  • Jacob, Jennifer. “Merrehope: Meridians Haunted Mansion.” The Meridian Star. 28 October 2007.
  • Jacob, Jennifer. “The Pigford building’s ‘Lady in White.’” The Meridian Star. 25 October 2008.
  • Knights of Pythias. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 30 August 2011.
  • Livingston, Brian. “Experience creepy with Temple tour.” The Meridian Star. 10 October 2010.
  • Meridian, Mississippi. Wikipedia, the Free Encylopedia. Accessed 27 August 2011.
  • Pigford Building. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 30 August 2011.
  • Riley Center. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 31 August 2011.
  • Sillery, Barbara. The Haunting of Mississippi. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing, 2011.
  • Temple Theater (Meridian, Mississippi). Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 1 September 2011.
  • Threefoot Building. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 28 August 2011.
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A Piece of Marietta’s History – The Root House Museum

Root House Museum
145 Denmead Street
Marietta, Georgia

The internet has made mounds of information available for mining. Among these mounds of information are content sites like Examiner.com, Associated Content and Suite101. Sometimes denigrated as “content farms,” these sites provide a platform for writers on all levels and can also provide some financial income as well. Certainly these sites may be mined for information on haunted places and they can produce junk but also occasional gems, like this article from Rhetta Akamatsu.

Akamatsu, the author of the recent Haunted Marietta, has provided a well-researched and informative article on The Root House Museum. Built around 1845, this middle class residence has been moved twice in the name of progress and has finally been preserved by the Cobb Landmarks and Historical Society some two blocks away from its original location. The house is now open as a house museum with costumed docents guiding visitors through the home filled with period furnishings and gardens planted with plants appropriate to the period.

The house was the home to William Root, the town’s first druggist and a merchant. While residing here, Root was a founder of St. James Episcopal Church and served as its Sunday School Superintendant for many years. He also served as the county coroner for two terms. His family did experience a loss in the house, one of his sons died at a young age which was sadly a common occurrence at the time.

According to Akamatsu there has been paranormal activity experienced in the main bedroom of the house. Some have claimed to see the spirit of a woman, quite possibly that of Mrs. Root. Both the article and the book report that Mrs. Root’s spirit has been seen by passersby peering from the bedrooms windows. The book goes on to explain that the room contains an antique rope bed that is sometimes appears to have been slept in when the house is opened in the mornings. The bed, it is noted, is tightened every night before the house is closed. Sleep well, Mrs. Root!

Sources

  • Akamatsu, Rhetta. Haunted Marietta. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2009.
  • Akamatsu, Rhetta. “The Root House Museum, Marietta, GA.” com. 30 June 2011.
  • “The Root House Museum.” Cobb Landmarks and Historical Accessed 1 July 2011.
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Town and Gown–Ghosts of Athens and the University of Georgia

A Haunted Southern Book of Days–27 January

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.”

 

The roots of both Athens and the University of Georgia are inextricably linked. Land for the university was purchased in 1801 by John Milledge who would later serve the state as governor. The land, on a hill overlooking Cedar Shoals on the Oconee River, was to house the state-supported university and parcels of land adjacent to the campus were sold to private interests. The town was incorporated as “Athens” in 1806 with a handful of residents, faculty and students. Athens grew quickly into a regional center for trade and education as well as a social center.

After the Civil War and the emancipation of slaves, Athens became a regional center for the African-America community. A school, The Knox School, was created and a prosperous African-American middle class emerged towards the end of the 19th century. The entire city saw rapid growth throughout the 20th century, some of it tied with the growth of the university. The city continues to expand with the university which has brought a world-class cultural experience to the region.

Alpha Gamma Delta House
(Thomas-Carithers House)
530 South Milledge Avenue

Alpha Gamma Delta House, 2011. Photo by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.
Alpha Gamma Delta House showing the bas-relief that gives the house its wedding cake appearance, 2011. Photo by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

Built as a private home in 1896 and used as a sorority house since 1939, this exuberant wedding-cake like house is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. William Winstead Thomas, a local engineer, built the house which was later bought by James Yancey Carithers as a wedding gift for his daughter, Susie. As legend tells, when Susie’s groom failed to show up for the ceremony on time, the distraught woman hung herself in the attic. The groom finally did show, having been delayed on the way to the nuptials, but Susie was dead. Her spirit has been seen throughout the house while girls living in her old room often become engaged, thus the suite’s name, “The Engagement Suite.” 

Classic Center
300 North Thomas Street

 

Firehouse No. 1, now the Classic Center, 2011. Photo by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

When it was decided to build a performing arts center in Athens, the original plans called for the demolition of the warehouses and the old 1912 Firehouse Number 1 which were standing on the site. However, local citizens fought to have the firehouse incorporated in the design. The firehouse was remodeled and now serves as a box office for the performing arts center that stands around it. Captain Hiram Peeler had had a distinguished career as head of the Athens Fire Department when he plunged to his death in an elevator shaft in 1928. It is believed to be his spirit that remains in the firehouse. Reports of activity were reported in the building while it still served as a firehouse. The activity continued through the building’s use as the Chamber of Commerce and has continued while it serves as the Classic Center.  

For further information on the Classic Center, see my article, “A chain-rattling, Classic spirit–Athens, Georgia.”

Morton Theatre
199 West Washington Street

Morton Theatre, 2011. Photo by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

Actors in the dressing room of this restored theatre have reported odd activity in the dressing room. Sadly, that’s all the information I can find in terms of the paranormal. The Morton Theatre was built by African-American businessman Monroe Bowers “Pink” Morton starting in 1909. The theatre was one of the main anchors of “Hot Corner,” the intersection of Washington and Hull Streets, that was the center of African-American life in Athens. It opened as a vaudeville house for the black community and such names as Butterbeans and Susie, Louie Armstrong and Cab Calloway appeared there. The building has since been restored as a performing arts center for the community and is one of the few remaining black vaudeville houses in the nation.

Oconee Hill Cemetery
297 Cemetery Street

Oconee Hill Cemetery, 2011. Photo by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

When the main city cemetery (now known as the Old Athens Cemetery) began sprawling close to the campus and the homes of the university president and professors, steps were taken to create a new cemetery nearby. Since it’s opening in 1855, the university has sprawled close to the cemetery with massive Sanford Stadium now looming across the street. The cemetery now hosts a number of prominent Georgians including two governors, eight university presidents and at least one ghost. The legend exists of a ghostly carriage appearing on the bridge between the old and newer portions of the cemetery.

View from Oconee Hill Cemetery towards Sanford Stadium, 2011. Photo by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

Old Athens Cemetery
Jackson Street

Old Athens Cemetery, 2011. Photo by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

The original city cemetery before Oconee Hill Cemetery was created; the cemetery was created around 1810. The last burial occurred in 1898, not long after the university first tried to reclaim the land. This would be a struggle that would continue through the 1980s. The cemetery was deeded back to school in 2004 and in 2006 a preservation program was instituted under the university’s grounds department. Kathleen Wall mentions that the ghost of a young girl has been seen in the cemetery. The location was investigated by the Georgia Haunt Hunters team in 1998 and the team discovered some temperature fluctuations.

Grave at the Old Athens Cemetery, 2011. Photo by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

Phi Kappa Psi House
398 South Milledge Avenue

Phi Kappa Psi House, 2011. Photo by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

In researching Athens, I keep coming across locations that are mentioned as being haunted, but there are few specifics given. This is one location that is briefly mentioned. Daniel Barefoot mentions that the brothers in this house have heard the crying of a baby. This Queen Anne style home was built in 1890.

Phi Mu House
(Hamilton-Phinizy-Segrest House)
250 South Milledge Avenue

Phi Mu House, 2011. Photo by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

The legend of the Phi Mu House, according to the sorority, concerns a young woman named Anna Powell. Her husband shot himself, either purposefully or accidentally at the bottom of the stairs. At times, it is said, a cross will appear on the floor where this horrific incident took place. Anna’s spirit has been encountered frequently by sisters in the house. Knocking and sobbing have been heard in the house and one young woman had the door unlocked for her late one night by unseen hands. The house was constructed by Colonel Thomas Hamilton, reportedly Georgia’s first millionaire, and finished in 1858 by his widow, Sarah. It has served as a sorority house since 1964. 

Taylor-Grady House
634 Prince Avenue

Taylor-Grady House, 2011. Photo by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

Built by Irish immigrant turned cotton merchant and planter, Robert Taylor, in 1844, the Taylor-Grady House was purchased by Major William S. Grady in 1863, at the height of the Civil War which he was fighting in. Major Grady was killed in the Battle of Petersburg and his spirit is said to have returned to his family’s home. Henry Grady, the major’s son, was a staunch advocate for the “New South” as managing editor for the Atlanta Constitution and a famed orator. As the only existing of Grady’s homes, the Taylor-Grady House was named a National Historic Landmark in 1976.

T. R. R. Cobb House
175 Hill Street

T. R. R. Cobb House, 2011. Photo by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

This noteworthy home with octagonal wings took the scenic route in its move from nearby Prince Avenue. It faced the wrecking ball in 1985, and was moved to Stone Mountain Park, just outside of Atlanta, to be restored as a part of the living history village there (which also has some notable haunted structures). After languishing 20 years, the home was returned to Athens and restored. A ghost story from this house was collected as part of the WPA Writers’ Project and recalls the spirit of “a gentleman wearing a gay dressing gown” who is seen descending the stairs and sitting in front of the fire in the drawing room. For further information, see my in-depth entry on this home, “A firebrand phantom.”

University of Georgia Campus

Joe E. Brown Hall

Joe E. Brown Hall, 2011. Photo by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

This 1932 building, built as a dormitory is home to a staircase to nowhere. Legend states that not long after the building was built, a student hung himself during Christmas break. His decomposing body was found when students returned. Though the mess was cleaned up, the blood stains were said to return. According to Daniel Barefoot, when the building was remodeled for office space, the room was sealed and the staircase leading to it blocked. In an article in the university newspaper, The Red and Black, a photograph of the staircase to nowhere was published in an article on campus legends. Supposedly knocking still issues from the sealed room.

Lustrat House 

Lustrat House, 2011. Photo by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

Like many of the oldest campus buildings, the Lustrat House has served a variety of functions. Currently the office of Legal Affairs, the building initially served as a residence for professors. Towards the end of the 19th century, it was home to Dr. Charles Morris, chair of the English Department. When the university decided to relocate the house in 1903, Dr. Morris attempted to assuage officials away from that plan. He refused to move with the home. After his death, the family of Professor Joseph Lustrat began to see Dr. Morris has surprisingly taken up residence, sitting in his favorite chair by the fire. 

Waddel Hall

Waddel Hall, 2011. Photo by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

The oldest building on campus still in its complete form according to Daniel Barefoot, Waddel Hall was built in 1821 as Philosophical Hall. The sounds of a tragic lovers quarrel are still heard in this building that now houses the university special events office. During World War I, a young man left his female love who fell for another in his absence. When he returned, he confronted his beloved and the quarrel ended in a murder-suicide.

Sources

  • Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation. Milledge Avenue Walking Tour. No date.
  • Barefoot, Daniel W. Haunted Halls of Ivy: Ghosts of Southern Colleges and Universities. Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair, 2004.
  • Bender, William N. Haunted Atlanta and Beyond. Toccoa, GA: Currahee Books, 2005.
  • Beynon, Valerie. “Morton Theatre.” The New Georgia Encyclopedia. 26 March 2005.
  • Burnett, Daniel. “Mythbusters UGA.” The Red and Black. 28 January 2009.
  • Hendricks, Bill. “Ghost trackers look for proof of afterlife: Athens haunt club checks Georgia sites.” The Atlanta Journal and Constitution. 1 December 1998.
  • “History.” The Classic Center. Accessed 17 June 2011.
  • “History.” Oconee Hill Cemetery. Accessed 17 June 2011.
  • “History.” The Taylor-Grady House. Accessed 21 June 2011.
  • Jackson Street Cemetery. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 17 June 2011.
  • Killion, Ronald G. and Charles T. Waller. A Treasury of Georgia Folklore. Atlanta, GA: Cherokee Publishing, 1972.
  • Miles, Jim. Weird Georgia. NYC: Sterling Publishers, 2006.
  • Miles, Jim. “Weird Georgia T.R.R. Cobb Haunts Athens Home.” Brown’s Guide to Georgia. Accessed 18 June 2011.
  • Roberts, Nancy. Georgia Ghosts. Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair, 1997.
  • Thomas, Frances Taliaferro. “Athens.” The New Georgia20 October 2010.
  • “Thomas-Carithers House.” Accessed 15 June 2011.
  • R. R. Cobb House. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 18 June 2011.
  • Walls, Kathleen. Georgia’s Ghostly Getaways. Global Authors Publications, 2002.
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A tornado victim returns–William Winston House

Winston House
Deshler High School Campus
200 Northeast Commons Street
Tuscumbia, Alabama

N.B. Edited 4 March 2019.

1874 Alabama tornado ghost haunt William Winston House Judith Winston victim Tuscumbia haunting Deshler High School
William Winston House, 2010. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith. From the George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

In recent days, tremendous storms and tornados cut their way across the South. The storms affected Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee and especially hard hit was Alabama. Northern Alabama felt the brunt of the storm in urban areas like Tuscaloosa, Birmingham and Huntsville; but also in small towns like Cullman, Rainsville, and a little town in Franklin County with the unusual name, Phil Campbell. Just north of Franklin County is Colbert County and its seat, Tuscumbia. It was here that a tornado in the late nineteenth century left a spiritual mark.

On November 22, 1874, as a tornado bore down upon her home, Judith Winston, the lady of the house tried to take cover. She failed, and was crushed beneath rubble. Her sons pulled her from the wreckage still alive, but she lived only a little while. According to Debra Johnson, she breathed her last in the front bedroom on the eastern side of the house.

Tuscumbia, Alabama began its rise to prominence as the town of Occocopoosa, along the military road completed in 1820 by General Andrew Jackson linking Tennessee with Louisiana. The town’s name was changed to Big Spring in 1821 and the next year to Tuscumbia. The richness of the area’s land and the abundance of game brought settlers to the area along with business and eventually the railroad. Tuscumbia rose as one of the leading cities in the region.

Among early settlers were members of the prominent Winston family. Descended from Captain Anthony Winston, a cousin of Dolly Madison and Patrick Henry, the Winstons fought at the side of Andrew Jackson and acquired land in Virginia, Tennessee, and finally Alabama. Further descendants would serve as governors of both Alabama and Mississippi as well as a senator from Alabama.

William Winston began construction on this magnificent edifice in 1824, and it was completed nine years later. This Georgian house is the largest remaining antebellum house in the city. It remained in private hands until 1948 when it was purchased by the City of Tuscumbia for the new campus of Deshler High School. Restoration efforts began on the house in the early 1980s and these efforts were boosted by the home being placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Since that time, the home has served as a house museum and events space.

1874 Alabama tornado ghost haunt William Winston House Judith Winston victim Tuscumbia haunting Deshler High School
The magnificent “flying staircase” in the Winston House, 2010. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith. From the George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Mrs. Winston may be the source of some rather interesting phenomena that has occurred in the house. One woman setting up chairs for her daughter’s wedding was disturbed by the chairs rattling by themselves. Upset, the woman questioned the home’s curator and was told that Mrs. Winston simply wanted an invitation to the event. Once the mother of the bride issued an oral invitation, the rattling ceased. Debra Johnston also credits Judith Winston’s spirit with the “weeping walls” in the downstairs entry hall when there is the threat of a storm.

Jessica Penot, author of Haunted North Alabama and the Ghost Stories and Haunted Places Blog, identifies one of the spirits in the home as William Winston, the home’s builder. She states that his spirit has been seen standing at the top of the stairs and wandering through the halls. She also speaks of white figures seen through the windows of the house at night after it is closed.

Sources

  • April 25-28, 2011 tornado outbreak. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 1 May 2011.
  • Garfrerick, Beth. “National Register Nomination Boosts Tuscumbia Restoration.” The (Tuscumbia, AL) Times-Daily. 21 January 1982.
  • Johnston, Debra. Skeletons in the Closet: True Ghost Stories of The Shoals Area. Debra Johnston, 2002.
  • Penot, Jessica. Haunted North Alabama. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2010.
  • Thornton, Linda. “Tuscumbia.” Encyclopedia of Alabama. 22 May 2009.
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The haunts of Washington, D.C.

N.B. This article was edited and revised 2 September 2020.

Though I haven’t really touched on it much yet, the geographical region for this blog includes the District of Columbia. When it was established in 1790, the district was not based in a specific state and instead is under the direct supervision of the Federal Government. With the drama that has and continues to occur in this monumental city, it’s no surprise that there are spiritual remnants. The spirits of past presidents, politicians and their families, civil servants and common people are found throughout the city, from the White House to the Capitol and beyond.

Congressional Cemetery
1801 E Street, SE

Congressional Cemetery, 2008. Photo by AgnosticPreachersKid, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Established as a private burying ground in 1807, this cemetery was later deemed the Washington Parish Burial Ground. About ten years later, space was designated for the burial of government officials and legislators. Cenotaphs, monuments to persons buried elsewhere, were also erected here to memorialize certain notables. Over time, as the burial spot for many of Washington’s elite, this became known as the Congressional Cemetery, though it was not officially a congressional entity.

Among the many famous people who rest here are three who are believed to remain in this plane of existence. John Philip Sousa, was a bandleader and composer known for such patriotic standards as The Washington Post March and Stars and Stripes Forever, he also invented the sousaphone, a type of marching tuba. Legend has it that the bass tones of a sousaphone are sometimes heard around Sousa’s grave.

Famed Civil War-era photographer Mathew Brady, whose stunning images captured the horrors of war is also buried here. After the war, Brady expected that the government would purchase his photographs. When they declined to do so, Brady was left in a penurious state. After being forced to sell his New York studio, he died penniless. His spirit has been reported wandering among the graves of some of those same government officials who denied him compensation.

In 1824, Choctaw Chief Pushmataha, considered by some historians to be the greatest of the chiefs to serve this particular tribe, journeyed to Washington to argue against further concessions of his tribal lands. While on this trip, he fell ill and died and was given full military honors in his burial in this cemetery. Despite his eloquent arguments against the removal of his people, the Choctaw were removed from their homeland. It is possible that his spirit remains here causing trouble at the graves of those who spurned his people after his death.

Sources

  • Congressional Cemetery. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.Accessed 20 December 2010.
  • Hauck, Dennis William. Haunted Places: The National Directory. NYC: Penguin, 2002.
  • John Philip Sousa. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 20 December 2010.
  • Mathew Brady. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 20 December 2010.
  • Ogden, Tom. Haunted Washington, DC: Federal Phantoms, Government Ghosts, and Beltway Banshee. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot, 2016.
  • Pushmataha. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 2 September 2020.
  • Taylor, Troy. Beyond the Grave: The History of America’s Most Haunted Graveyards. Alton, IL: Whitechapel Press, 2001.

Decatur House
1610 H Street, NW

Decatur House, 2009. Photo by Tim1965, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Overlooking Lafayette Park and situated just down the street from the White House stands the Decatur House which is open as the National Center for White House History, a joint effort of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the White House Historical Association. Built in 1818 by Commodore Stephen Decatur, a naval hero of the War of 1812, the house was designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, America’s first professional architect and the designer of the U.S. Capitol Building. Decatur lived in the house only a little more than a year before he was killed in a duel with Commodore James Barron. Decatur’s spirit has been seen standing at a window perhaps contemplating the duel that would end his life while his wife’s piteous spirit has been heard and felt throughout the house.

Sources

  • Hauck, Dennis William. Haunted Places: The National Directory. NYC: Penguin, 2002.
  • Decatur House. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 2 September 2020.
  • McCurry, Jason. “Decatur House” in Jeff Belanger’s Encyclopedia of Haunted Places. Franklin Lakes, NJ: New Page Books, 2005.
  • Reportedly haunted locations in Washington, D.C. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 20 December 2010.

Independence Avenue
In the vicinity of FAA Headquarters

FAA Headquarters on Independence Avenue, 2009. Photo by Matthew Bisanz, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Much of early Washington was built on the backs of African-American slaves. Two of the most notorious slave markets, the Williams Slave Pen and the Robey Slave Pen were ironically located along Independence Avenue near what is now the headquarters of the Federal Aviation Administration. Witnesses in the area report the clanking of chains and screams in this area.

Sources

Indonesian Embassy
(Walsh-McLean Mansion)
2020 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

Indonesian Embassy (Walsh-McLean Mansion), 2008. Photo by Josh Carolina, courtesy of Wikipedia.

 

 

 

The Walsh-McLean Mansion is an architectural gem and currently the home to the Indonesian Embassy and several mysteries. The home was owned by the wealthy Edward Beale McLean, owner and publisher of The Washington Post. In 1911, he purchased the famed Hope Diamond, which he presented to his wife, socialite Evelyn Walsh McLean. The purchase went through despite the rumors of a curse attached to the stone.

For eight years the McLeans avoided any tragedy that could be blamed on the stone. As a series of misfortunes befell the family, the press labeled the diamond a “talisman of evil.” These tragedies included the death of the McLean’s son in an automobile accident, their eventual divorce, their daughter from an overdose of sleeping pills, Edward’s dive into insanity, and Evalyn’s demise from disease in 1947. It is Evalyn’s spirit that is supposedly seen descending the grand staircase of the house.

Sources

  • Edward Beale McLean. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 2 September 2020.
  • Ganschinietz, Suzanne. National Register of Historic Places Nomination form for Indonesian Embassy. Listed 18 January 1973.
  • Hauck, Dennis William. Haunted Places: The National Directory. NYC: Penguin, 2002.
  • Holzer, Hans. Where the Ghosts Are: The Ultimate Guide To Haunted Houses. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1995.
  • Hope Diamond. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 22 December 2010.

National Building Museum
(Old Pension Building)
440 G Street, NW

National Building Museum, 2010. Photo by AgnosticPreachersKid, courtesy of Wikipedia.
The faux-onyx Corinthian columns in the National Building Museum, 1918. Photo by National Photo Company, courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Some of the first paranormal phenomena witnessed in the 1885 Old Pension Building were odd faces appearing on the simulated onyx Corinthian columns in the main court of the building. In 1917, on the eve of the death of “Buffalo” Bill Cody, a guard saw the veins in the onyx take on the shape of a Native American head and a buffalo. Other faces seen on the columns include George and Martha Washington and eventually got so bad the columns were painted over. Following the painting, the spirits took to the halls in the form of shadowy figures.

Sources

  • Hauck, Dennis William. Haunted Places: The National Directory. NYC: Penguin, 2002.
  • National Building Museum. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 22 December 2010.

Octagon House
1799 New York Avenue

The Octagon House, 2009. Photo by AgnosticPreachersKid, courtesy of Wikipedia.

The Octagon House is described by the National Park Service as “a zenith in Federal architecture in the United States, through its brilliant plan which combines a circle, two rectangles, and a triangle, and through the elegance and restraint of the interior and exterior decoration.” Construction on this magnificent manse began in 1798 and was completed two years later. The house was home to Colonel John Tayloe, one of the wealthiest planters in Virginia and his spirit as well as the spirits of two of his daughters have been seen in the house. One daughter died after plunging over the stair’s railing. Among other spirits reported is that of Dolley Madison who spent time in house when it served temporarily as Executive Mansion after the White House was burned by the British.

Sources

  • Holzer, Hans. Where the Ghosts Are: The Ultimate Guide To Haunted Houses. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1995.
  • National Park Service. “Octagon Hall.” Accessed 22 December 2010.

United States Capitol Building
Capitol Hill

Among the more interesting legends of this most legendary city is that of Statuary Hall in the Capitol. The magnificent domed chamber originally served as the chamber for the House of Representatives in the first half of the nineteenth century. When the House of Representatives moved into a new chamber, legislation was put forth to use the room to celebrate prominent Americans with each state adding statues of two of its most prominent citizens. The collection of statues has grown to the point where only 38 are actually located in the hall with the remainder of the collection scattered throughout the Capitol. The legend associated with this room is that on the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, the statues all climb down from their pedestals and dance to celebrate another year of the Republic’s survival. According to Dennis William Hauck, the guard who swore he saw this happen was dismissed.

For information on a ghost from the Library of Congress’ original location within the Capitol that may continue to haunt the building see my article on the haunted libraries of D.C.

Sources

  • Hauck, Dennis William. Haunted Places: The National Directory. NYC: Penguin, 2002.
  • National Statuary Hall. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 20 December 2010.

Woodrow Wilson House
2340 S StrOeet, NW

Woodrow Wilson House, 2008. Photo by AgnosticPreachersKid, courtesy of Wikipedia.

The shade of our 28th president, Woodrow Wilson apparently appears in two places: Blair House and his home in the northwestern part of the city. Also facing Lafayette Square near the Decatur, Cutts-Madison and White Houses, all of which are haunted, the Blair House is now the official state guest house. According to Michael Varhola, Wilson’s spirit has been seen rocking in a rocking chair in one of the bedrooms. His spirit is also seen in the home he occupied following his presidency and where he subsequently died in 1924. Wilson’s “slow shuffle” aided by a cane, which he used following a stroke in 1919, has been heard frequently in this house.

Sources

    • Blair House. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 22 December 2010.
    • Hauck, Dennis William. Haunted Places: The National Directory. NYC: Penguin, 2002.
    • Varhola, Michael J. Ghosthunting Virginia. Cincinnati, OH: Clerisy Press, 2008.
    • Woodrow Wilson House (Washington, D.C.). Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 22 December 2010.
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The haunts of Williamsburg, Virginia

Williamsburg, Virginia is one of three locations, the others being Jamestown and Yorktown, that form the Historic Triangle of Virginia. These three locations tell the story of the nation’s colonial development from its first settlement to the defeat of the British at Yorktown, ending the American Revolution. Williamsburg was founded as Middle Plantation, a fortified plantation in 1632. When the capital of the Virginia Colony was moved there in 1698, it was renamed Williamsburg. The city was at the heart of much of the anti-British movement in the South that led to the American Revolution.

With the loss of status as a capital in 1780, Williamsburg reverted to being a small provincial town. The town remained a sleepy, provincial town until the dream of Episcopal priest, the Rev. W. A. R. Goodwin began to take shape and return the town to its colonial appearance. With such a concentration of historic structures, these were preserved and more modern structures removed and replaced with recreations of the original structures. This recreation of colonial Williamsburg, now under the control of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is now one of the premier tourist attractions in Virginia.

Of course, with such a concentration of historic structures, Williamsburg has a good deal of paranormal activity. Some of the hauntings in Williamsburg are well documented such as the Peyton Randolph and Wythe Houses, but others aren’t. It is my belief that these hauntings are just the tip of the iceberg. I’ll be certainly working on trying to find more about the hauntings of Williamsburg.

Brafferton Building
College of William & Mary Campus

Brafferton Building, 2007. Photo by Ser Amantio di Nicolao, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Built in 1723 with funds provided by English scientist Robert Boyle with the intent to spread the Gospel to the Indians, the Brafferton Building saw many young Native American men pass through its halls and sleep in its rooms. Now serving as the college president’s and administrative offices, the building may still have the spirits of these young Native Americans still roaming it. When the building served as a dormitory for both students and faculty, reports came out of the building of footsteps late at night accompanied by the sound of sobbing and even the sound of Indian drums. Over the centuries the school has been in operation, students have seen the site of a young Native American running bare-chested and barefooted near this building. This building sits near the Wren Building featured later in this entry and across from the President’s House which is haunted by the spirit of a French soldier.

Chiswell-Bucktrout House
416 Francis Street, East

Chiswell-Bucktrout House, 1959. Photo by Gottscho-Schleismer, Inc. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Built around 1764 (deed books and other records for Williamsburg were destroyed during the Civil War so houses usually cannot be dated exactly), this house was occupied by Colonel John Chiswell when he was accused of murder in 1766. While free on bail awaiting trial, Colonel Chiswell died mysteriously in the house. Now used as lodging, stories have surfaced from this house of people being awakened by spirits touching and talking to them.

Public Gaol
461 East Nicholson Street

Gaol in 1936 before it was restored. Taken for the Historic American Building Survey, courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

According to Dennis William Hauck’s Haunted Places: The Nation Directory, the old Williamsburg Gaol is haunted by the ghosts of two women who are heard in animated conversation on the second floor of the jailer’s quarters.

Ludwell-Paradise House
207 East Duke of Gloucester Street

Ludwell-Paradise House. Taken for the Historic American Building Survey, courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Built around 1755 possibly on the site of a much earlier house, the Ludwell-Paradise House was also the first house purchased for restoration by Dr. Goodwin and his partner in the venture, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. In 1805, the house was occupied by Lucy Paradise nee Ludwell. Stories of the former London socialite’s odd quirks quickly spread through town. Among them, Lucy’s penchant for bathing several times a day and her habit of borrowing new hats from other ladies in town to compliment her own dresses. She was also known for conducting carriage tours from a carriage on her back porch that was rolled back and forth by a servant. In 1812, she was committed to the state’s mental asylum, the nearby (and still extant) Public Hospital, where she died two years later. When the house was occupied by one of the vice presidents of the Colonial Williamsburg foundation, they reported hearing the sound of someone running bathwater and bathing on the second floor. Evidently, Lucy continues her eccentric rituals.

Nicholson House
139 York Street

Nicholson House. Taken for the Historic American Building Survey, courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Some believe the spirit found in the Nicholson house is that of an itinerant musician, Cuthbert Ogle who is known to have died in the house shortly after arriving in town. Among the scant evidence of Ogle’s existence is an advertisement in the local paper announcing his arrival in 1755 and that he would be teaching “Ladies and Gentlemen to play on the Organ, Harpsichord or Spinet.” A little less than a month later, records indicate that Ogle was dead leaving a little money and a few things. Residents of the house have spoken of feeling a male presence in the house, being tapped on the shoulder by an unseen force and a mysterious scratching coming from the walls of the house.

Old Capitol
500 East Duke of Gloucester Street 

Old Capitol Building from an undated postcard, courtesy of Wikipedia.

At the foot of Duke of Gloucester street stands the stately Old Capitol building. The third capitol to stand on this spot, this structure witnessed the some of the first contractions in the birth of the nation. According to Michael Varhola, there are many ghost stories associated with this building, but the main one that he describes is the legend that at the stroke of midnight on July Fourth, the spirits of Patrick Henry and other Revolutionary leaders assemble once again. A fanciful legend at most. I have covered the spirits of the Old Capitol in depth in a separate article.

Orrell House
302 Francis Street, East

Orrell House. Taken for the Historic American Building Survey, courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Sheila Turnage documents an odd experience a family had while staying in the Orrell House. While the entire family was watching TV one evening in the living room of this house, they heard the sound of water running in the bathroom. The father went into the bathroom and turned it off. Upon returning to the living room the sound of water was heard once again. Returning to the bathroom, the water was found to be running again. Again, the father turned it off and returned to the living room. Once again the water turned on and the father turned it off. After hearing glass breaking in the bathroom, the father returned to find that a glass had been removed from the medicine cabinet, removed from its plastic wrapping and then thrown to the floor. Turnage also notes that activity had not been previously reported in the house.

Peyton Randolph House
100 West Nicholson Street

Peyton Randolph House in 2008. Photo by Jrcla2, courtesy of Wikipedia.

The Peyton Randolph House is one of the best-documented houses in Williamsburg in terms of its spiritual activity and may also be one of the most active locations in the area. Built around 1715 by Sir John Randolph, a member of the House of Burgesses, the house was passed to his son, Peyton who would serve as speaker of the House of Burgesses and later, first president of the Continental Congress. Since his ownership the house passed through many hands and was the scene of many deaths, perhaps some that have left a spiritual imprint on the house. Former residents, as well as guides and docents, have reported numerous odd sounds as well as apparitions including a man in colonial dress.

Public Records Office
433 East Duke of Gloucester Street

Public Records Office. Taken for the Historic American Building Survey, courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

When the Capitol burned in 1747, many of the colony’s records were destroyed. Legislation was later passed to construct the Public Records Office or Secretary’s Office to house and protect records. Construction began in 1748 and the building was used for records until they were moved to the new capital, Richmond, in 1780. Since that time, the building has served a variety of purposes including as a residence. Legend tells us of a family occupying the building in the early twentieth century whose myopic daughter was killed when she stepped in front of a carriage. Since that time, her spirit has been seen lingering around the building she once called home. This article has been broken out into a separate article.

Raleigh Tavern
410 East Duke of Gloucester Street

Raleigh Tavern in 2008. Photo by Jrcla2, courtesy of Wikipedia.

In order to recreate Williamsburg as it appeared before the American Revolution, much of the city had to be completely rebuilt as was the case with the Raleigh Tavern. Opened in 1717, this respected tavern served as a meeting place for many involved in the creation of the nation as well as the first meeting site for the fraternity Phi Beta Kappa. In 1859, the old tavern burned and was not rebuilt. When Colonial Williamsburg purchased the site it was occupied by two brick stores which were razed and after finding the remains of the tavern’s original foundation, the tavern arose once again in its original footprint. The building reopened in 1932 and apparently many of the tavern’s spectral residents resumed their parties. Reports of these spectral parties surfaced first in 1856 and have continued since.

Wren Building
College of William & Mary Campus

Wren Building on the campus of the College of William & Mary. Photo taken 2007 by Highereditor2, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Known as the oldest functioning academic building in the nation, this structure is at the heart of one of the most venerable institutions of higher learning in the nation. As noted earlier, this building has two other haunted structures nearby: the Brafferton Building and the President’s House. Possibly designed by English architect, Sir Christopher Wren, construction on this edifice began in 1695. As one would expect of a building so old, there is evidently some spiritual activity including odd sounds that resonate throughout the structure. Daniel Barefoot in his Haunted Halls of Ivy, describes a professor whose lectures was interrupted by odd noises from the floors above. When the professor and his class investigated, no sources was discovered.

Wythe House
101 Palace Green

George Wyeth House, 2007. Photo by Ser Amantio di Nicolao, courtesy of Wikipedia.

In Williamsburg, it seems that the more important the history of a location, as that of the Payton Randolph House, the more likely it is to be haunted. Such is the case with the George Wyeth (rhymes with “with”) House. The home of George Wyeth, patriot leader, Continental Congress leader and one of the Virginia signers of the Declaration of Independence, this large, Georgian house has seen much historical activity in its eight rooms. There are numerous reports of spectral activity as well including people being tapped on the shoulder by an unseen person, apparitions seen throughout the house and even a docent feeling hands trying to push her down the stairs.

Sources

  • Barefoot, Daniel W. Haunted Halls of Ivy: Ghosts of Southern Colleges and Universities. Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair, 2004.
  • Brafferton (building). Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 5 November 2010.
  • Colonial Williamsburg. George Wyeth House. www.history.org. Accessed 6 November 2010.
  • Colonial Williamsburg. Ludwell-Paradise House. www.history.org. Accessed 6 November 2010.
  • Colonial Williamsburg. Peyton Randolph House. www.history.org. Accessed 6 November 2010.
  • Colonial Williamsburg. Raleigh Tavern. www.history.org. Accessed 6 November 2010.
  • Colonial Williamsburg. Wren Building. www.history.org. Accessed 6 November 2010.
  • Hauck, William Dennis. Haunted Places: The National Directory. NYC: Penguin, 2002.
  • Stephenson, Mary A. Chiswell-Bucktrout House Historical Report, Block 2 Building 17 Lot 253-254. Colonial Williamsburg  Foundation Library. 1959    
  • Taylor, L. B., Jr. The Ghosts of Tidewater…and nearby environs. Progress Printing Co., 1990.
  • Taylor, L. B., Jr. The Ghosts of Williamsburg and Nearby Environs. Progress Printing Co., 1983.
  • Varhola, Michael J. Ghosthunting Virginia. Cincinnatti, OH: Clerisy Press, 2008.
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The haunting of Columbus, Mississippi

The Google News Search feature is quite useful for web-based ghost hunting, especially around Halloween. Newspapers throughout the world are printing articles about local ghosts and ghost tours. I stumbled on an article about a ghost tour being held in Columbus, Mississippi and it put me on the path to a handful of articles. I’ve been able to connect those with a few entries in some books, and voila; I have the basis for a blog entry.

As I stated in one of the first entries, it appears to me that Mississippi has not been as well documented as other Southern states. I still believe this. Where my research might turn up mounds of information, I can usually only find a trickle for the Magnolia State. That’s why I’ve been surprised to find so much information on Columbus. Certainly, this city could be called the best documented city in Mississippi, at least in terms of its ghosts. Of course, it does help that three of the state’s better known hauntings: Waverly, Errolton and Temple Heights; are located in the city.

The banks of the Tombigbee River near Columbus, Mississippi. Undated postcard courtesy of the Mississippi State Archives, Cooper Postcard Collection.

“Sprawling leisurely along the banks of the Tombigbee and Luxapalila Rivers, is a city in which there is room to breathe.” That’s how the opening line of the city’s entry in the 1938 WPA Guide to Mississippi begins. It continues and describes the “gracious lines of Georgian porticos forming a belt of mellowed beauty about a modern business district.” Certainly, Columbus is a city known for its concentration of old homes, many of them antebellum. The city was later the birthplace of famed American playwright, Tennessee Williams, who would preserve and analyze the South in his plays; among them, A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Streetcar Named Desire.

Columbus was originally named “Possum Town,” for Spirus Roach who was “gray and bent and wizened” and reminded the local Native Americans of a possum. Roach set up a tavern there in 1817. However, with the arrival of other white men who “expressed their distaste for Indian humor,” the town was given the more respectable name of Columbus in 1821. The city grew as a center for the many planters in the area as well as a center for education with the establishment of Franklin Academy and later, the Columbus Female Institute (now Mississippi University for Women). During the Civil War, the city hosted the state government while Jackson was in Union hands. A story told of the 1863 visit of Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, describes the townspeople gathering under Davis’ bedroom window and serenading him. After being awakened by the joyous throng, Davis addressed the crowd, still in his nightshirt, from his balcony. History aside, though, we came about the ghosts…

The following list has been created not just from articles on the ghost tour, but other resources as well.

Friendship Cemetery
Fourth Street South

Created on land by the Order of the Odd Fellows in 1849, Friendship Cemetery includes local citizens and soldiers who fell at the Civil War Battle of Shiloh in 1862. It is a Confederate soldier that is said to still walk through the military section of the cemetery. Visitors to the cemetery are also attracted to the weeping angel that stands over the grave of the Reverend Thomas Teasdale. People grasping the angel’s hand have remarked that it feels lifelike. While the angel’s hand might be explainable phenomena, the soldier’s apparition may not be as easily explained away. I would be interested to find out if the cemetery has been investigated by a ghost hunting organization.

Lincoln Home
714 Third Avenue South

Built in 1833, the Lincoln Home was home to one of the first mayors of the city. Now a bed and breakfast, the home has been marvelously restored and may still be visited by former residents. A woman in white has been reported by neighbors and guests while a dark, black and grey cloud has been witnessed by the owners drifting though the parlor.

Waverly
1852 Waverly Mansion Road

 
Waverly in 1936, this is probably as the house probably first appeared to the Snows. This was taken nearly 30 years before the house was rescued. Photo by James Butters for
the Historic American Building Survey (HABS), courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Located between Columbus and West Point in Clay County, Waverly was named a National Historic Landmark in 1974. This graceful house features an octagonal rotunda that rises above the roof of the house. When Robert and Donna Snow discovered the house in the early 1960s, it was an immense, magnificent mess, uninhabited for nearly 50 years that had been left to its ghosts. Though ghosts were not at all on their mind when they began restoration, the spirits of Waverly announced their presence with a loud crash that awoke the family. Locals began to tell stories of hearing the sound of parties coming from the ruined manse as well as the spirit of an Indian riding a stallion through the nearby fields. But no one prepared Mrs. Snow for the plaintive cries of a little girl that she began hearing. Occasionally, between two and four in the afternoon, the impression of a little girl would appear on the bed of one of the upstairs bedrooms.

Waverly after restoration. Photo for the Historic American Building Survey (HABS), courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

The voice of the little girl was heard for about five years and then no more, but her spirit is still seen around the house. According to Alan Brown’s Haunted Places in the American South, the identity of this little girl was a mystery until 1997 when records revealed that two little girls staying in the house during the Civil War died during a single, tragic week. One girl died of diphtheria, the other, while playing on the stairs, got her head stuck between two of the spindles. During the struggle to free herself, she died as well.

The magnificent rotunda of Waverly. Photo for the Historic American Building Survey (HABS), courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and
Photographs Division.

Since her death in 1991, the ghost of Mrs. Snow has been reported sitting on the third floor stairs smoking. Apparently, the ghosts of Waverly are still quite active. The North Mississippi After Life (NMAL), a paranormal investigation group, performed an investigation at the house, though only a small amount of evidence was uncovered.

Princess Theatre
217 Fifth Street South

The 1924 Princess Theater was constructed originally as a vaudeville theater, then converted to cinema as the popularity of vaudeville waned. According to Adelle Elliott, with the Columbus Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, the ghost of the theater’s original owner, Mr. Kirkendall, has been seen throughout the theater. A paranormal team photographed a figure standing in the balcony, possibly one of many ghosts within the theater. The theater is still utilized as a performance space.

Errolton
216 Third Avenue South

For more than half a century, the familiar figure of Miss Nellie Weaver rocked on the porch of her father’s home telling stories of Columbus’ past that she had witnessed herself. Until her death in the 1930s, the story of Miss Nellie, as she was affectionately called, was well known in town. Born and raised in the magnificent house on Third Avenue, she had had numerous suitors, but Charles Tucker caught her eye and they were married 1878. In her nuptial mirth, Miss Nellie carved her name with her diamond engagement ring on one of the windows in the south parlor. Charles Tucker left his wife and young daughter, Ellen, a few years later.

Errolton, around the time of Miss Nellie’s death. Photo by James Butters for the Historic American Building Survey (HABS), courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and
Photographs Division.

Miss Nellie and her daughter remained in the home and she supported herself by teaching, though the house slowly decayed. In 1950, the house was purchased by Mrs. Erroldine Hay Bateman who set about restoring the home. It was during this restoration that a careless worker broke the pane of glass bearing Miss Nellie’s signature. The glass was replaced and after the restoration, the residents were surprised to notice the atching had reappeared. Besides this reappearing signature, no other spiritual activity has been reported in this regal, “Columbus eclectic” styled home.

Temple Heights
515 Ninth Street North

Built in the style of a Doric Temple with an odd (at least to me) roof rising above it, Temple Heights is one of the more well known restoration jobs in the city. Dennis William Hauck states that the ghost in this circa 1837 home is that of Miss Elizabeth Kennebrew, whose father purchased the house in 1887. Miss Kennebrew died a spinster and was known for her eccentric behavior. Her ghost has been spotted throughout the house and she may also be responsible for the voices heard throughout. The house is open for visitors and events.

Temple Heights, 1936. Photo by James Butters for the Historic American Building Survey (HABS), courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Wisteria Place
524 Eight Street North

Upon the death of William Cannon, who built Wisteria Place around 1854, Jefferson Davis remarked, “I have lost my best friend.” While Cannon did die in this house, the identity of the home’s resident spirit is unknown. According to the Beth Scott and Michael Norman’s Haunted America, a figure in a white shirt has been seen scurrying past the kitchen window towards the door. This house is a private residence.

Highland House
810 Highland Circle

Highland House. Undated postcard courtesy of the Mississippi State Archives, Cooper Postcard Collection.

According to the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau Historic Driving Tour pamphlet, this house was built by W. S. Lindamood in the “Robber Baron style” around 1902. This was in love with Lindamood. Garthia Elena Burnett, author of one of the articles highlighting the city’s ghost tour states that some interesting EVPs have been captured in this historic residence.

Lee House
316 Seventh Street North

Once the home of General Stephen D. Lee, the youngest Confederate lieutenant general during the Civil War, this house was built circa 1847. Lee was later involved with the creation of Vicksburg Military Park. His ghost has been seen sitting in the parlor of his former home, while the shade of his wife has been seen during the annual pilgrimage tours. Her form was so solid, she was mistaken for a costumed guide.

Lee House, 1936. Photo by James Butters for the Historic American Building Survey (HABS), courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Sources 

  • —–. Lincoln Home circa 1833. AmziLoveLincolnHomes.com. 2010. Accessed 24 October 2010.
  • Breland, David. “Local Haunts: Columbus Ghost and Legend Tour offers look into town’s spooky past.” The Reflector. 21 October 2010.
  • Breland, David. “Visit to Columbus haunts makes for Halloween not easily forgotten.” The Reflector. 29 October 2007.
  • Brown, Alan. Haunted Places in the American South. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2002.
  • Burnett, Garthia Elena. “Ghosts and Legends: A tour of local haunts.” The Commercial Dispatch. 14 October 2010.
  • Columbus Mississippi Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. Historic Driving Tour, Columbus, Mississippi. July, 2008.
  • Federal Writer’s Project of the WPA. Mississippi: A Guide to the Magnolia State. NYC: Viking, 1938.
  • Hauck, Dennis William. Haunted Places: The National Directory. NYC: Penguin, 2002.
  • Hubbard, Sylvia Booth. Ghosts! Personal Accounts of Modern Mississippi Hauntings. Brandon, MS: Quail Ridge Press, 1992.
  • Lowndes County, Mississippi History and Genealogy. Friendship Cemetery. Accessed 24 October 2010.
  • North Mississippi After Life. Waverly Mansion. Accessed 24 October 2010.
  • Scott, Beth and Michael Norman. Haunted America. NYC: TOR, 1994.
  • Stephen D. Lee. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 25 October 2010.
  • Taylor, Troy. “Haunted Mississippi, Errolton, Columbus, Mississippi.” Ghosts of the Prairie. 1998. Accessed 22 October 2010.
  • Taylor, Troy. “Haunted Mississippi, Temple Heights, Columbus, Mississippi.” Ghosts of the Prairie. 1998. Accessed 22 October 2010.
  • Taylor, Troy. “Haunted Mississippi, Waverly, Columbus, Mississippi.” Ghosts of the Prairie. 1998. Accessed 22 October 2010.
  • Windham, Kathryn Tucker. 13 Mississippi Ghosts and Jeffrey. Tuscaloosa, AL: U. of Alabama Press, 1974.
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Brice House Photos–Annapolis, Maryland

Brice House
42 East Street
Annapolis, Maryland

N.B. This article was edited and revised 25 February 2019.

The Brice House is one of three large, brick, and quite similarly designed, Georgian houses in Annapolis (the others being the William Paca House and the Hammond-Harwood House). According to various sources, all three are haunted, but the best information I have found so far, attests to the haunting of the Brice House.

The house was erected between 1766 and 1773 by Colonel James Brice who would later serve two-terms as mayor of Annapolis and acting governor for the state of Maryland in 1792. The house remained in the family until the 1870s and passed through other private hands until the 1920s when St. John’s College purchased it. Restoration began in the 1950s under private ownership. The house is now owned by the International Masonry Institute which uses the flanking pavilions. The main house is occasionally open for tours. The house was named a National Historic Landmark in 1970.

I have covered three haunted local taverns in my article, “One nation, under the table–The haunted taverns of Annapolis.”

haunted Brice House Annapolis ghosts
The Brice House, 2009. The house is made up of five parts, the large main house, two pavilions with “hyphens” that connect the pavilions to the main house. Photo by Wikipedia user, Pubdog. Courtesy of Wikipedia.
haunted Brice House Annapolis ghosts
First floor reception hall and staircase. Two of the spirits have been identified as one of the sons of Col. Brice and his manservant. The elderly son is said to have been murdered by the manservant. Photo by Jack Boucher, 1964, for the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
haunted Brice House Annapolis ghosts
Dining Room. The spirit of James Brice is said to be wandering this house, possibly checking up on the upkeep of his manse. Photo taken by Jack Boucher, 1964, for the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
haunted Brice House Annapolis ghosts
Ballroom. The spirit of a young woman has frequently been seen wandering from room to room. During restoration work in the 1970s, a skeleton of a woman was discovered in a sealed, closet-like room. Photo by Jack Boucher, 1964, for the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
haunted Brice House Annapolis ghosts
The ballroom from a different angle. Photo taken for the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Sources

  • Brice House (Annapolis, Maryland). Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 22 October 2010.
  • Heintzelman, Patricia. National Register of Historic Places Nomination form for the Brice House. Listed 15 April 1970.
  • Jarvis, Sharon. Dead Zones. NYC: Warner Books, 1992.
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Spirits of Old Morrison and the Gratz Park Historic District

Gratz Park Historic District
Bounded by Second Street, the Byway,
Third Street and Bark Alley
Lexington, Kentucky

Old Morrison
Transylvania University Campus

Transylvania University was almost 40 years old when the European with the odd name of Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz strode into the large, Federal Main building. Rafinesque had journeyed “across the woods,” as the Latin name of the university implied, to take on a professorship of botany as well as teach Italian and French, languages from his broad repertoire.

Constantine Rafinesque from
an 1820 publication. Courtesy
of Wikipedia.

His Christian name belied his birthplace, Constantinople, where he was born to a French trader father and a Turkish-born German mother. His education was as mixed as his heritage and upbringing. A polymath autodidact, he taught himself Latin and early on began to collect natural specimens, ranging from plants to shells. Rafinesque spent time in the fledgling United States and in various locales in Europe returning to the States in 1815. Travelling throughout the states, he gathered, described and named an astounding array of species and studied the Native Americans who were just beginning to be pushed west of the Mississippi River.

His new employer was also on an upward trajectory. Transylvania University had grown in its forty years of existence into one of the premier universities in the U.S. As one of the nation’s top ranked schools, it produced and employed some of the greatest names of the day including lawyer and later statesman, Henry Clay who served as a professor; Stephen Austin, the “Father of Texas;” Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy; and the fiery abolitionist, Cassius Clay. The medical school included in its faculty, smallpox vaccination pioneer Samuel Brown and Benjamin W. Dudley, the most imminent surgeon in the Mississippi Valley.

These two upward trajectories maintained a parallel course briefly and then collided in the spring of 1826 when university president Horace Holley dismissed Rafinesque. Officially, the reason was that Rafinesque had acted unprofessionally and had missed numerous classes, but the unofficial reason, according to campus gossip, was the affair that Rafinesque was carrying on with Holley’s wife. When informed of his dismissal, an incensed Rafinesque uttered a curse, “Damn thee and thy school as I place a curse upon you!”

Rafinesque quietly returned to Philadelphia where he lived the remaining years of his life. He died of stomach cancer some 14 years later. According to legend, friends of Rafinesque had to break into his home to steal his corpse as his landlord was planning to sell it to a local medical school in lieu of back rent. He was buried in Philadelphia, but, in 1924, a campus organization rallied to have his remains returned to rest on campus; an “Honor to Whom Honor is Overdue,” as the words are inscribed on his crypt in Old Morrison. The group, though, was somewhat unsuccessful. Recent tests on the remains have discovered that they are fact the remains of Mary Ann Passamore, one of the handful of others interred in Rafinesque’s plot in the cemetery. 

Old Morrison. Photo taken for the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

While Rafinesque still rests in Philadelphia, his curse still may linger in Lexington. President Horace Holley resigned the following year and died unexpectedly of yellow fever. Two years later, the main building was destroyed by fire. Following the destruction of the campus, the campus was moved across the street. The University’s upward momentum as one of the premier universities slowed as well, perhaps a result of the curse?

Old Morrison, designed by architect Gideon Shryock, was completed in 1834 and considered one of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in America. The edifice was restored to its original appearance in 1962 which removed unsympathetic additions added in the late nineteenth century. On January 27, 1969, a fire swept the newly restored building leaving only exterior walls standing, according to the National Register of Historic Places nomination form. Daniel Barefoot in his Haunted Halls of Ivy, points out that a little more survived: the crypt of Rafinesque was completely untouched by fire. Even more, he reports that firefighters saw the figure of a man standing in the doorway of the crypt while the fire raged around.

Old Morrison was restored and still stands a symbol of the school, though odd things still happen. A security guard in the buildings claims to have been tripped by something in the dark hall. Every few years, tragic things occur on campus and of course, the curse is invoked. But, Old Morrison faces a historic district where some even stranger events may occur.

Hunt-Morgan House
201 North Mill Street

Hunt-Morgan House, 2008, by Russell and Sydney Poore. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Just a block down North Mill Street from Old Morrison sits one of the more historic structures in the region, the Hunt-Morgan House. Originally known as Hopemont, the house was built in 1814 by John Wesley Hunt. One of the first millionaires west of the Alleghenies, John Hunt Morgan was the head of an illustrious family that included his grandson, General John Hunt Morgan, a notable Confederate general and Dr. Thomas Hunt Morgan, the Nobel Prize-winning geneticist.

The legend of the Hunt-Morgan House dates to the Civil War. The Morgans had a slave named Bouviette James, known to the family as Ma’am Bette.  Ma’am Bette served as the nursemaid to the Morgan’s children and by all accounts was a valued member of the family. Upon her death, she was laid out in the parlor and four of the Morgan’s sons, whom she had raised, served as pallbearers. She was even buried in the family plot, but, she would not rest there. After she passed, one of the children became grievously ill. The child’s nurse fell asleep at the child’s bedside and awoke to see a woman, wearing Ma’am Bette’s signature red shoes and turban sitting at the child’s side. The child died soon after, but the thought of Ma’am Bette guiding the child in the afterlife was comforting to the Morgans.

Maria Dudley House. Photo taken for the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Maria Dudley House
215 North Mill Street

Sitting among Federal and Greek Revival houses, the starkly Victorian Maria Dudley House stands out. This 1880 structure remains a private residence, but one that, according to Jamie Millard, author of the article that inspired this entry, possesses a dark energy. Millard describes a recent incident where a young man was apparently thrown over a stair railing which broke his arm. Indeed, others have felt a disturbing presence in the rear portion of the house and a family dog refused to go into that portion. Unfortunately, I have found no further information on this house.

John Stark House
228 Market Street 

On the opposite side of Gratz Park, the John Stark House, also a private residence, was built in 1813 and was occupied by Gideon Shryock during the building of Old Morrison. Later, this house was the home of Dr. Robert Peter, Union Surgeon General during the Civil War. Perhaps the apparition of a Union soldier that has been seen here is one of Dr. Peter’s former patients.

Bodley-Bullock House
200 Market Street

Built around 1814-5, the Bodley-Bullock house has seen a range of owners in its history. The house was built by General Thomas Bodley, a veteran of the War of 1812. After losing the house in the financial crisis of 1819, the house passed through a series of hands. During the Civil War, the house was used as a headquarters for both Confederate and Union troops. It is noted that grand balls were held under both sides. The house’s illustrious history ended with Mrs. Minnie Bullock who purchased the house in 1912. Mrs. Bullock lived in this house longer than anyone and helped in the restoration of the Hunt-Morgan House. Upon her death, the house was restored and opened as a house museum as well.

Reports of spiritual activity have been reported by museum staff and visitors. A photographer taking a bridal portrait in the house apparently captured the image of a woman and a small child standing on the staircase behind the bride. Staff members believe the woman is Mrs. Bullock who is disapproving of some of the activity in her old home. In her will, Mrs. Bullock stipulated that there would be no drinking in the house, but the will was changed when it was decided the house would be used for events as well as a museum.

Gratz Park Inn
120 West Second Street

Hospitals almost invariably have haunting and the Gratz Park Inn, built as the Lexington Clinic, is no exception. With construction beginning in 1916 and opening its doors to the public in 1920, this structure is one of the few 20th century structures in the historic district and among the founders of the clinic was Dr. Waller Bullock, husband of Minnie, who resided in the Bodley-Bullock House just down the street. This building served as a clinic until 1958 when the clinic moved. The building was then used as the offices of an engineering firm which closed its doors in 1976. The building remained vacant until it was bought and renovated for use as an inn in 1987. It now ranks as one of the top inns in the region.

Among the inn’s non-paying guests are three spirits: a young girl, a man and a classic “lady in white.” The little girl is described differently in the two sources I have consulted. The Jamie Millard article names her “Little Annie” and states she plays quietly with her doll on the third floor. Alan Brown in his Haunted Kentucky, calls her Lizzie and says her voice is most commonly heard laughing and playing, though she did crawl in bed with a guest and fall asleep on evening. The Millard article goes on to describe the other two spirits: John is a humorous spirit and the “lady in white” is apparently looking for something or someone.

Sources

  • Brown, Alan. Haunted Kentucky: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Bluegrass State. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole, 2009.
  • Brown, Alan. Stories from the Haunted South. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2004.
  • Constantine Samuel Rafinesque. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 3 October 2010.
  • Constantine Samuel Rafinesque Biography. YourDictionary.com. Accessed 3 October 2010.
  • Fayette County Committee. National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form for the Gratz Park Historic District. Listed 14 March 1973.
  • Millard, Jamie. “Hauntings in Gratz Park.” Chevy Chaser Magazine. 28 September 2010.
  • National Park Service. “Bodley-Bullock House.” Lexington Kentucky: Athens of the West. National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary. Accessed 3 October 2010.
  • National Park Service. “Gratz Park Historic District.” Lexington Kentucky: Athens of the West. National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary. Accessed 3 October 2010.
  • National Park Service. “Hunt-Morgan House.” Lexington Kentucky: Athens of the West. National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary. Accessed 3 October 2010.
  • National Park Service. “Old Morrison, Transylvania College.” Lexington Kentucky: Athens of the West. National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary. Accessed 3 October 2010.
  • Rettig, Polly M. National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form for Old Morrison Building. Listed 15 October 1966.
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Spirits of Spring Villa

Spring Villa
1474 Spring Villa Road (Lee County Road-148)
Opelika, Alabama

N.B. This article was revised 6 December 2018.

In a clearing amid remnants of the pine forests that once covered this landscape, Spring Villa still stands proudly, though faded. Like a tired, aged matron, her paint needs to be reapplied and a piece of ornamental woodwork hangs above a window like a fallen false eyelash. From her back a modern addition juts out like an ill-fitting headpiece and only sharpens the harsh angles of her architecture. Even in this state of dishabille, the home’s Gothic symmetry and angularity still shines through.

staircase Spring Villa plantation Opelika Alabama haunted ghosts
The haunted staircase at Spring Villa during renovation in 1934. Photo by W. N. Manning for the Historic American Buildings Survey. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

The large Gothic gables give the house a villainous and haunted appearance. During the 1930s, when this estate was used as a 4-H camp, campers would be taken into this house at night where they heard the legend of this house. That legend centers on the small, closet-like staircase that claustrophobically rises to the second floor, from living quarters to sleeping quarters, mirroring the trajectory of the soul. In this cramped staircase a vengeful slave supposedly hid in the small niche and leapt out one evening as his master, William Yonge, ascended the staircase. The slave stabbed the master he hated and fled, leaving Yonge to bleed out on the thirteenth stair.

William Penn C. Yonge was, according to Horace King’s biographers, from Marianne, Florida and had returned to the South after going to California for the Gold Rush. He married, Mary, the oldest daughter of John Godwin, a builder in nearby Columbus, Georgia. Quite possibly, money that Yonge had earned in the Gold Rush provided the capital for him to build a house as well as going into business. Yonge, with two other investors opened the Chewacla Lime Company in 1851 and it was around this time that he also built Spring Villa. It’s important to note the area’s geology includes large amounts of limestone as well as quartz, both of which are believed to provide energy to spirits. (see my article on Sylacauga, Alabama’s Comer Museum for more about stone’s ability to conduct energy)

front door Spring Villa plantation Opelika Alabama haunted ghosts
Front door and middle gable of Spring Villa, 2013. Photo by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

Godwin, Yonge’s father-in-law, moved from South Carolina with his slave, Horace King, to build a bridge across the Chattahoochee River in Columbus. More important in this equation is Horace King, a fairly important name in the history of the region. Born a slave with African and possibly Native American ancestry, he distinguished himself as an important architect and builder, especially of bridges. King constructed massive town lattice truss bridges over many major rivers throughout the Deep South. At the time of the building of Spring Villa, King was a freedman, after purchasing his freedom from Godwin. Though records do not exist, it is quite possible that King was both the designer and builder of Spring Villa with some aid from John Godwin.

The home’s design utilizes the Carpenter or Vernacular Gothic Style which became popular in America in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. The façade is identical on both sides of the house and sports three steeply pitched gables decorated with wooden millwork and topped with a decorative finial. All three gables also feature latticework balconies that may perhaps be a nod to Kings use of lattice in bridges.

Horace King Spring Villa plantation Opelika Alabama haunted ghosts
Horace King around the time of the building of Spring Villa. Courtesy of the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Georgia.

The house is described as having initially been a showplace with gardens and lakes where the Yonge’s held lavish parties and events. Following the death of her husband, Mary Godwin Yonge sold the entire 455-acre plantation to the Chewacla Lime Works and later the estate passed into the hands of the Renfro family. The Renfro’s sold the property to the City of Opelika to use as a water supply. The house was restored by the Lee County Civil Works Administration in 1934 and a matching kitchen added perpendicular to the back of the house. The grounds were developed to accommodate a summer camp, the same camp that created the legend. The grounds were then turned into a city park and remain so to this day.

Returning to the legend, by all accounts the story is preposterous. William Penn C. Yonge died in 1879 and was buried in a small cemetery near the house. That presents a problem if a slave murdered him as slavery had been abolished in 1865, 14 years earlier. The second issue is that Mr. Yonge reportedly died of natural causes. Even though the legend is entirely derailed by history, that fact does not preclude the house from being haunted.

Over the years visitors to Spring Villa have reported a variety of paranormal phenomena, though I have been unable to determine how long visitors have experienced anything unusual. Phenomena reported has included people seeing figures in the upper stories of the house and the 1934 addition, though currently the second floor of the addition cannot be reached without a ladder as the breezeway between the buildings has been torn down. Voices, music from a piano (the house is not furnished) and the sound of footsteps have also been reported. Visitors also report feelings of unease and also feeling hands pushing them on the thirteenth step.

facade Spring Villa plantation Opelika Alabama haunted ghosts
Spring Villa, 2010, by Lewis O. Powell IV, all rights reserved.

The Alabama Paranormal Research Team has investigated the house on numerous occasions and it has included an investigation report on its website. One interesting account that they report involves a camp counselor called “Magic Mike” who reportedly witnessed a man playing the piano in the empty house. A Mr. Harrellson, the director of Opelika Parks and Recreation, found the man sitting on the floor of the empty residence crying and shocked at the scene he had just witnessed. Unfortunately, the team fails to include a source for this story.

The team also reports that one of their researchers located the details of the deaths of three young girls who drowned in a lake on the property. The evidence that the group presents includes a few examples of EVP (electronic voice phenomena – when voices are picked up on recording devices, though not heard by those present at the time) and some interesting video.

Southern Paranormal Research, who investigated the house and grounds in 2008, presents a more complete report as well as some very compelling evidence. In their investigation of May 24th, investigators made some interesting discoveries in trying to debunk some of the phenomena. They explain that matrixing may be responsible for figures being seen in the upper stories. In other words, the minds of witnesses may simply be fooled by the odd interplay of light and architecture into seeing figures. The team also notes that sound carries very well throughout the house which might explain some of the sounds heard by witnesses.

The remaining investigation appears to be mostly of the grounds where the team did have some odd experiences, hearing things in the woods and seeing a large, shadowy figure on the road. Some EVPs were also recorded that are rather interesting including a growl and laughter possibly from a child. The director’s final verdict suggests that further study is needed, though there is apparently a good deal of paranormal phenomena going on. The report for the team’s second investigation is incomplete, but does include an EVP of a man screaming that is rather haunting.

On a hot and muggy Sunday in 2010, I visited Spring Villa for the first time. The park was almost spookily devoid of visitors or any other humans and seemed the proper setting for the opening of a horror film. Birds and bugs chirped and chortled as I approached the house. The house certainly appears to be haunted and the dreadful condition of the house only adds to the feeling. Paint is peeling, a few balconies are missing, one of the boards from a balcony hangs by a single nail, the windows of the main house appear to the covered with black plastic from the inside and the buildings appear to have not been well maintained since the 1934 restoration.

As I approached one of the side chimneys to take a photograph, I was met with the titter of bats in the eaves. I immediately thought of a line from one of Horatio’s speeches in Shakespeare’s Hamlet where he notes that “The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead/ Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.” Perhaps the sheeted dead still squeak and gibber here just as the bats; it’s certainly not hard to imagine so.

Sources

  • Alabama Paranormal Research Team. Investigation Report: Spring Villa Mansion, Opelika, AL. Retrieved 7 August 2010.
  • City of Opelika. Spring Villa. Retrieved 7 August 2010.
  • Lee County Heritage Book Committee. The Heritage of Lee County, Alabama. Clanton, AL: Heritage Publishing Company, 2000.
  • Lupold, John S. and Thomas L. French, Jr. Bridging Deep South Rivers: The Life and Legend of Horace King. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2004.
  • Opelika Parks and Recreation. Spring Villa Park. Retrieved 7 August 2010.
  • Southern Paranormal Research. Investigation Reports for Spring Villa, May 24, 2008 and September 20, 2008. Retrieved 7 August 2010.