Sharpsburg, Maryland is a small, quaint town with a haunting legacy. On the morning of September 17, 1862, fighting broke out just outside of town which developed into the bloodiest battle in American military history, the Battle of Antietam. By the end of that day, more than 22,000 men were dead, wounded or missing. The Confederate armies were packed into many of the buildings and spaces in the small village in an attempt to dislodge the Union armies massed north of town and continue with an invasion of Pennsylvania. The battle ended with the armies having held their own, though it was considered a victory for the Union. Within a few days, General Robert E. Lee’s troops were withdrawn from the wasted and pillaged village.
Much of the town remains as it was on that fateful day, including spirits of the soldiers and locals who were killed in the battle. Locals and visitors still encounter apparitions to this day. One image of the battle is repeated on West Main Street in the heart of Sharpsburg. Near the town’s primary intersection of Main and Mechanic Streets, the image of a military battery struggling with a damaged artillery caisson has been encountered.
Local tour guides, Mark and Julia Brugh describe this scene in their 2015 book, Civil War Ghosts of Sharpsburg, “one repeated sighting on Main Street in Sharpsburg, just west of the town square, is of a broken artillery caisson that is dragged by a team of horses and pushed by the remnants of a unit of men who appear fatigued and strained by the ardor of battle. The men and horses struggle to move the heavy load with smashed and broken wagon wheels up a long sloping rise as the street heads to the west. Sometimes the story is reported with a single broken-down caisson and cannon; other times there are two cannons, one of them described as severely smashed or bent at the barrel.”
Buildings on Main Street at the town square in Sharpsburg, 2012. Photo by Acroterion, courtesy of Wikipedia.
The Brughs explain this this sighting is one of the first ghost stories they learned, and they continue to hear from a variety of people who have seen this spectral scene. One witness described the men in great detail including the insignia of a palm tree on the soldiers’ uniforms. However, this seeming incongruous detail led to the Brugh’s identification of these soldiers. The palm tree was the palmetto that is emblematic of South Carolina soldiers. The state’s flag depicts a palmetto tree reminiscent of the fort built to defend Sullivan’s Island during the American Revolution, which was constructed of palmetto logs and sand and was able to repel British artillery bombardment.
During the Battle of Antietam, a South Carolina artillery battery under the command of Capt. Hugh R. Garden did not have the protection of palmetto logs as they were bombarded by Union artillery. Civil War historian Stephen W. Sears describes the scene on Cemetery Hill, on the eastern edge of the town:
“…one gun was disabled by a direct hit on the muzzle and a second knocked out when a shell smashed its carriage. Presently Garden’s ammunition ran out and the guns were hauled off the hill by hand, the horses hitched up, and the battery went clattering back through the streets of Sharpsburg under the lash of the drivers, the gun with the splintered wheels dragged along in a great dust cloud by its straining team.”
A limber and artillery caisson from “Instruction for Field Artillery” (1864) by Wm. H. French, Wm. F. Barry, and H.J. Hunt.
Long before Sharpsburg was founded, Main Street was the Great Wagon Road leading German Palatine, Swiss Protestant, and Scotch-Irish immigrants from Pennsylvania south to the Carolinas and Georgia. Sharpsburg was established here in 1763 and named for Horatio Sharpe, the Propriety Governor of the Province of Maryland. Satisfied with this sylvan farming community, some of the travelers put down roots here. The construction of the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Canal nearby running parallel to the Potomac brought business to community, but it did not wake from its slumber until the Union Army began to rain artillery on that September morning.
With its innocence lost through the tumult of the battle, the town has retained its quiet demeanor as well as energy from that time that is spontaneously revived in the streets.
Sources
Brugh, Mark P. & Julia Stinson Brugh. Civil War Ghosts of Sharpsburg. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2015.
Great Wagon Road. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 2 September 2023.
Sears, Stephen W. Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam. NYC: Houghton Mifflin, 1983.
Sharpsburg, Maryland. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 2 September 2023.
St. Michael’s Cemetery
6 North Alcaniz Street Pensacola, Florida
St. Michael’s Cemetery in the heart of the most historic area in Pensacola, was first used as a burying ground as far back as the early 18th century. It is considered one of the two oldest extant cemeteries in the state with the other being St. Augustine’s haunted Tolomato Cemetery. The oldest graves date to the late 18th century and the cemetery was officially designated as a burial ground by the King of Spain in 1807. When space this eight-acre cemetery was exhausted in 1876, St. John’s Cemetery was established nearby. With so many burials, this cemetery can be considered an open-air museum of the city’s history.
The entrance to St. Michael’s Cemetery in 2007. From the Pensapedia.
Its age has perhaps led to the many rumors, some unfounded, regarding the cemetery being haunted. For years, some believed the strange greenish glow seen around some of the graves here was paranormal, though it was found to be caused by the neon sign on the nearby San Carlos Hotel. A local grocer bereaved by the death of his wife and two children, gave rise to another ghost story in the late 19th century when he would sometimes spend the night sleeping on their graves. Passersby seeing him rise from the graves assumed he was a spirit. Sometime later, after reports of a white apparition flitting through this ancient cemetery, the local police department investigated only to discover an albino fox had taken up residence here.
According to Mark Muncy, author of Creepy Florida, during World War II, several sailors on leave had a truly frightening experience as they passed the cemetery one evening. The group witnessed a glowing skeleton arise from a grave within the cemetery and begin to charge them. The entity touched one of the young men leaving behind blistered skin. The group fled. Upon return to their ship they were showing symptoms of yellow fever, despite having been inoculated against the viral disease. Interestingly, many of the early burials here were victims of the dreaded yellow fever outbreaks.
In recent years, visitors to the cemetery have reported hearing disembodied voices. Are these just the product of over-active minds or paranormal?
Sources
Brown, Alan. Haunted Pensacola. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2010.
Johnson, Sandra & Leora Sutton. Ghosts, Legends and Folklore of Old Pensacola. Pensacola, FL: Pensacola Historical Society, 1994.
Moon, Troy. “Pensacola’s spooky past haunts the present.” Pensacola News-Journal. 15 October 2016.
Muncy, Mark and Kari Schultz. Creepy Florida: Phantom Pirates, the Hog Island Witch, the Demented Doctor at the Don Vicente & More. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2019.
I have added a new feature page to this blog. My Southern Haunted Places Map logs nearly 800 locations I have covered in this blog. Each map marker has links to the corresponding blog article or articles. The link can be found among the state directories on the right side of this page.
The death mask of Rosalie Raymond White, Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, South Carolina. Photo 2011, by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.
Not only does this help to provide my readers with a selection of haunted places in whatever area they are interested in but it will help me to identify areas where I need to research and feature those places in the pages of this blog.
Cleland House (private) 405 Front Street Georgetown, South Carolina
N.B. This article was originally published as part of my 2011 article, “Ghosts of Georgetown, SC.”
Standing proudly on the corner of Front and St. James Streets among the oak and moss shaded residential section of Georgetown, the Cleland House is among the oldest houses in town, having been built in 1737. From this corner it has witnessed the whole panoply of American history, some of it even passing over its thresholds.
During the American Revolution, the Prussian General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben; French generals Baron Johann de Kalb and Gilbert de Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette; made visits to the house while they were giving aid to American forces. Later, Vice President Aaron Burr stayed at the home while visiting his daughter, Theodosia.
The Cleland House, 2011, by Lewis O. Powell IV, all rights reserved.
The story behind this house reads very much like an old-fashioned ghost story. Anne Withers, possibly related to John Withers who is listed on the historical marker in front of the house as one of the owners, fell in love with a dashing sea captain. After one of his voyages he returned to Georgetown, and presented his fiancée with a rare gift, an ancient Egyptian bracelet, which featured a series of scarabs.
The scarab, an Ancient Egyptian amulet representing the common dung beetle, is found throughout the ancient world. Some scarabs were used as ornaments, while others were used as seals. During the era of the New Kingdom (1535-1079 BCE), scarabs began to be included in the wrappings of mummies. To the ancient Egyptians, the lowly dung beetle symbolized resurrection and new life as it laid its eggs within animal dung which it rolled into a ball. In the ancient religion, the beetle, personified as the god, Khepri, was believed to roll the sun into the sky.
A selection of Ancient Egyptian Scarabs in the Bibel + Orient Museum, Freiburg, Switzerland. Courtesy of Wikipedia.
Anne Withers, the blushing bride, saved the bracelet to wear on her wedding day. After putting on her wedding gown, she placed the bracelet on her wrist and carried on with her other preparations. Just as she was about to descend the staircase of the Cleland House, the bride let out a scream and fell down the stairs. By the time she tumbled to the floor at the foot of the stairs, she was dead.
Rushing to her side, her family discovered blood dripping from underneath the bracelet. When it was removed, the scarabs were found to have tiny legs that had dug into the bride’s pale flesh.
Leaving Georgetown soon after his fiancée’s death, the heartbroken took the bracelet to London where it was examined by a chemist. He discovered that the legs on the scarabs had been rigged to open by the warmth from human skin. Each leg contained poison that would be injected into the hapless victim. He surmised the bracelet had been made to afflict the person who stole the artifact from a tomb.
Ever since Anne Withers’ wedding day death, her form, still wearing nuptial white, has been seen in the gardens of the Cleland House.
A search of cemetery records on FindaGrave.com does not bring up a burial for Miss Withers.
Sources
Huntsinger, Elizabeth Robertson. Ghosts of Georgetown. Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair, 1995.
“Attention, blog readers! Cleanup on the Florida aisle!” Since the move from Blogger, I’ve been sitting on several articles that needed a bit of cleanup before being reposted. This article combines the remains of my original “Haunted Florida” article along with some theatre entries that were written for a book on haunted Southern theatres, that was never completed.
Athens Theatre—Sands Theatre Center 124 North Florida Avenue DeLand
Henry Addison DeLand dreamed of creating the “Athens of the South” when he began developing land around a small Florida settlement called Persimmon Hollow. He opened a small academy, DeLand Academy, but after a freeze in 1885 destroyed the orange crop, DeLand returned north short his investment. Wealthy Philadelphia hat maker, John B. Stetson, took over the academy and reopened it as John B. Stetson University, later just Stetson University.
DeLand grew over the next few decades, becoming a center of learning and culture on the east coast of Florida. The Athens Theatre was opened in 1922 with the hope of continuing that cultural influence. The magnificent Beaux Arts style theatre opened as a vaudeville and movie house. In 2009, the building was renovated, restored and reopened as the Sands Theatre Center, a performing arts center for the community.
Athens Theatre, 2007, by Ebyabe. Courtesy of Wikipedia.
Within the walls of the theatre two spirits linger. The shade of a stagehand who fell to his death still resides here, but it is the lively spirit of a young actress who is most often felt. Legend speaks of a young actress starring in a show who began a torrid affair with the theatre’s manager. The manager’s wife appeared one day to find the two in flagrante delicto and, after a shouting match, the wife bludgeoned the pretty, young actress to death with a lamp. Actors using the actress’ old dressing room sometimes incur her contempt which is sometimes expressed through objects being thrown or the room’s temperature drastically lowered.
Sources
DeLand, Florida. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 18 March 2013.
Martin, C. Lee. Florida Ghosts and Pirates. Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 2008.
Coral Castle 28655 South Dixie Highway Homestead
Coral sculptures at Coral Castle, 2005, by Christina Rutz. Courtesy of Wikipedia.
Edward Leedskalnin, an eccentric and possibly brilliant Latvian immigrant, began work on his masterpiece in nearby Florida City in 1923. In 1936 he moved himself and the castle to Homestead where he worked until he died in 1951. There have been questions about how Leedskalnin, who was five feet tall and weighed less than a hundred pounds, maneuvered the massive blocks of coral that sometimes weighed a few tons. When visitors would ask how he did it, he would only answer, “It’s not difficult if you know how.” This has given rise to numerous theories of how this massive complex was constructed including the help of aliens, though engineers surmise that much of his work was done using known techniques.
It is only appropriate that this legendary place has legends attached. More sensitive visitors have noted the existence of energy vortices throughout the complex. Throughout the site, Mr. Leedskalnin’s presence is felt. Other visitors have seen figures appear among the castle’s huge coral blocks.
Sources
Coral Castle. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 26 March 2012.
Walls, Kathleen. Finding Florida’s Phantoms. Global Authors Publications, 2004.
Deering Estate 16701 Southwest 72nd Avenue Miami
It seems that the former estate of Charles Deering, the founder of International Harvester, may be just crawling with spirits. And a variety of spirits at that. One investigation photographed the possible spirit of a Victorian woman while spirits of Native Americans may be associated with burial grounds nearby. The Deering Estate also features ghost tours of the estate that the League of Paranormal Investigators (LPI) dubbed, “ground-zero for lost spirits.” LPI has documented at least two full-bodied apparitions as well as numerous EVPs.
Richmond Cottage on the Deering Estate, 2010, by Zoohouse. Courtesy of Wikipedia.
The estate has been preserved by the State of Florida and Miami-Dade County as a cultural and educational facility. Two buildings dating from 1896 and 1922 remain and are surrounded by swaths of land in its natural state. Battered by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, restoration of the estate took years and the grounds did not reopen to the public until 1999.
Sources
Charles Deering. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 27 December 2010.
Cohen, Howard. “Halloween howling.” The Miami Herald. 27 October 2011.
Malone, Kenny. “Miami’s Deering Estate: A real haunted house?” 28 October 2009.
“Miami-Dade Estate deemed ‘severely haunted.’” The Miami Herald. 22 October 2009.
Henegar Center for the Arts 625 East New Haven Avenue Melbourne
Henegar Center, 2010, by Leonard J. DeFrancisci. Courtesy of Wikipedia.
A fine example of adaptive reuse, the Henegar Center is located within an old school building. Having opened in 1920, the Melbourne school was named after a former principal, Ruth Henegar in 1963. The building was closed as a school in 1975 and reopened as the Henegar Center for the Arts in 1991. In addition to opening with a 493-seat theatre, the building also came with a resident ghost, Jonathan. According to Kathleen Walls, Jonathan’s antics include the usual noises attributed to spirits as well as moving actors’ props. The theatre’s balcony seems to be his favorite area of the theatre and he has been spotted there on occasion.
Sources
Henegar Center for the Arts. “Our Rich History.” Accessed 25 March 2013.
Walls, Kathleen. Finding Florida’s Phantoms. Global Authors Publications, 2004.
Hotel Blanche 212 North Marion Street Lake City
For decades, travelers heading down Highway 441 from Georgia to Florida would stop at the luxurious Hotel Blanche in Lake City, among them, gangster Al Capone on his way to Miami. This landmark, the heart of downtown Lake City, has been witness to the city’s history for more than a hundred years. Recently, one of the building’s owners described part of the building as a “death trap.”As the hotel’s clientele dwindled towards the middle part of the 20th century, the hotel began to deteriorate. The ground floors have remained occupied with businesses and the second floor has occasionally been used for office space and meetings, but the third floor has not been in use for some time. In fact, the door to the third floor has been screwed shut; perhaps to contain some force from the Other Side?
Over the past few years, arguments have arisen over what to do with the massive white elephant. The city has considered purchasing the building, though I can find nothing to definitively say if that has occurred. Taking up nearly a block of downtown Lake City, directly across from City Hall, the Hotel Blanche was once the heart of Lake City. The hotel was constructed in 1902 by Will Brown and named for his daughter. The hotel added two wings amidst the tourist boom of the 1920s. The hotel closed in 1967 and its third floor has not been used since that time.
Hotel Blanche, 1908, from a postcard. Courtesy of the State Archives of Florida.
The paranormal history of the hotel is less clear. Greg Jenkins reports in his Florida’s Ghostly Legends and Haunted Folklore that the hotel may very well have a “large collection of spirits,” though this hasn’t been officially investigated. Apparently many sounds are heard including children running and giggling. The sounds of door slamming have also been heard as well as many odd smells including perfume, vinegar, and sulfur (which may be an indication of a malevolent entity). The spirits, though, do seem as unsettled as the recent plans for the building.
Sources
Burkhardt, Karl. “Renovation of the Blanche Hotel, Lake City’s most famous historic structure, may restore it as a downtown centerpiece.” Lake City Journal. 18 July 2011.
Hotel Blanche. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 27 December 2010.
Lilker, Stew. “Conversation with Steve Smith, Blanche investment trust spokesman.” Columbia County Observer. 21 October 2009.
Lilker, Stew. “The Blanche Hotel: The seventh inning stretch.” Columbia County Observer. 3 March 2010.
Lilker, Stew. “The Blanche: The city steps up, Councilman Hill wants to slow down.” Columbia County Observer. 21 October 2009.
Miami International Airport 2100 Northwest 42nd Avenue Miami
It’s not unheard of that an airport could be haunted. An airport may be the last place that a plane may board before an accident or perhaps a destination that is not reached. Either way, an airport may attract spirits. Miami International was the destination for Eastern Airlines Flight 401 on December 29, 1972. As the plane flew over the Everglades on its approach to the airport, it crashed killing 77 including both pilots. While the plane never arrived, legend speaks of the form of the plane’s captain, Robert Loft, being seen in the airport near where the ticket counters for Eastern Airlines once stood and disappearing into the old Eastern concourse.
Miami International Airport, 2007, by Jason Walsh. Courtesy of Wikipedia.
In the annals of paranormal phenomena, this plane crash is the focus of many stories. Stories abound of the appearance of the captain and 2nd Officer Don Repo on planes that utilized parts recovered from the crash site. After these stories began to surface, Eastern Airlines reportedly removed all these parts from service. Additionally, during the recovery efforts for victims, many working in the swamps late at night heard whimpering and sobbing and saw phantom faces in the black water.
Richey Suncoast Theatre 6237 Grand Boulevard New Port Richey
The patron attended a performance at the theatre. He sat in his favorite seat, BB1 in the balcony, for the performance and a few hours after leaving was dead of a heart attack. Not only was Willard Clark not just a patron, he was the president of the theatre. Following his death in 1981, he has apparently returned to the theatre he loved so and is not happy when his favorite seat is occupied. Patrons unfamiliar with the story have experienced a distinct chill while watching performances from Clark’s favorite seat. Others have spotted a gentleman in a tuxedo in that seat. For awhile, the seat was simply reserved for the ghost and patrons were told it was broken.
The history of this theatre reflects much of the bumpy history of Florida in the early 20th century. Land booms, busts and the Great Depression fill the history of the state and the theatre felt shockwaves from all of these.
Richey Suncoast Theatre, 2010, by Karm Atwin. Courtesy of Wikipedia.
Thomas Meighan made a name for himself in silent films. After his 1919 film, The Miracle Man, he officially had become a “star” and he appeared opposite great leading ladies like Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford (known popularly as “America’s Sweetheart”) and Norma Talmadge and under the direction of such greats as Cecil B. DeMille. Talking with his brother, James, a realtor, Meighan became very interested in Florida and bought land there in 1925. Inspired by dreams of making the New Port Richey area a celebrity winter playground, he built a home there and encouraged his friends to visit. When a new theatre opened in town in 1926, it was named, appropriately, the Thomas Meighan Theatre.
The grand opening of the theatre on July 1, 1926 was heralded with a showing of Meighan’s film, The New Klondike. The theatre experienced ups and downs in its business and improvements were made to allow for the latest in film technology: “talkies.” But with the hardships imposed on the area during the Great Depression, the theatre closed its doors. The theatre reopened under a new name in 1938 and continued operating under a variety of names until 1968 when competition from a local multiplex led to the theatre’s closure. It was purchased in 1972 for use as a community theatre. The Richey Suncoast Theatre has continued to operate as a successful community theatre ever since. And Willard Clark continues to watch fabulous performances from his favorite balcony seat.
Sources
Cannon, Jeff. “Ghostly Encounters in Pasco County.” com. 25 October 2012.
Fredericksen, Barbara L. “Attention ghost: Exit stage left, through wall.” Tampa Bay Times. 31 October 2006.
Spencer, Camille C. “Is New Port Richey a truly ghostly town? Or is it a myth?” Tampa Bay Times. 30 October 2009.
Thomas Meighan. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 3 April 2013.
Venice Theatre 140 Tampa Avenue, West Venice
Venice Little Theatre has grown so much they dropped the “Little” from their name in 2008. Founded in 1950 and first performing in an airport hangar at the Venice Airport, Venice Theatre has expanded into one of the premier community theatre companies in the nation. After the city needed the airport hangar for storage in 1972, the company purchased its current building: a 1926 structure with a tower resembling the St. Mark’s Campanile in Venice, Italy, the town’s namesake.
Where actors now play, cadets from the Kentucky Military Institute—which summered in Venice—once sweated and occasionally the spirit of a small girl still roams. She has been seen curiously watching groups of juvenile actors and bouncing a ball in the corridors that once served as the military institute’s gymnasium. Who she is or what she’s doing in this particular building remains a mystery.
