Ghosts of Athens, GA (Long but Good!)
Matthew Head
Athens, GA. Please don't visit the places without permission of the
owners--some people get very annoyed with these rumors and people bugging
them about them. Please consider this entertainment only.
Also, Please also reply to my email address regarding this email
(frid...@arches.uga.edu), since I don't always have time to look at the
newsgroup! Thanks
----
GHOSTS OF ATHENS
THE LUSTRAT HOUSE
Campus
The Lustrat House, built in the early 1800s, was first occupied by the
family of Dr. Robert Morris. It is said that Dr. Morris loved to sit in a
rocking chair in the front room by the fireplace. Marie Lustrat reported
seeing the ghost of Dr. Morris seated in the dining room at a desk near
the window. Visitors sometimes report having seen a man in a flowered
dressing gown descend the stairs to sit in front of the fireplace. After
the house was remodeled in the early 1970s and the fireplaces were bricked
up, the sightings of Dr. Morris dwindled. Current occupants report no
notable occurences.
ALPHA GAMMA DELTA SORORITY HOUSE
530 S. Milledge Avenue (corner of Milledge and Baxter)
The story of the AGD house is wrought with versions. As near as can be
figured, the house was built in 1894, 1895, or 1896 by W.W. Thomas as a
wedding gift to his daughter, who is either Susie Carithers or Mary
Saffold Thomas. On the night of the wedding, the groom never showed up,
perhaps because of a carraige accident that delayed him. The distraught
daughter slipped away from her parents and hanged herself in either an
upstairs bedroom or in the attic above that bedroom. The house was bought
by the sorority in 1939, and eventually a trend was noticed that every
girl to stay in that room became engaged or otherwise hitched before the
end of the year. Now the room is known as the Engagement Suite. A
painting of the house done years ago shows a beam of light connecting the
attic with the heavens; a beam of light that the artist swears he never
put there.
THE LADY OF THE BLUE VEIL
340 Boulevard
Jack Thomas purchased a bust of a dark-haired woman with a blue veil from
his sister in 1965 because she had become frightened after inexplicably
seeing an appartition of the woman pass through a wall. Thomas took the
bust, and soon after he saw an apparition of the woman in his home. The
ghost didn't disturb him, and he even saw it often on the side porch when
he came home from work. The ghost has even found money and a diamond ring
that had been lost. Thomas and the bust now reside in Watkinsville, and
no further incidents have been reported.
HOWELL COBB HOUSE
Pope Street
In this house, built for General Howell Cobb, it is rumored that a
beautiful young woman, Mary Thomas Safford, took her life by slitting her
throat after the birth of her child. The aunt of Susan Frances Barrow
Tate once heard the blood dripping from the balcony where she took her
life. Apparently the ghost returns only when there is an infant in the
house.
JOHN B. COBB HOUSE
575 Harris Street
Now split up, the John B. Cobb House was once home to three ghosts, which
never seemed to meet. Jefferson Lamar married John Cobb's stepdaughter,
Mary A. Lamar, in the house on July 22 of that year, but he was hurriedly
whisked of to a Virginia death before their marriage was consummated (this
point is not firm, it might've been afterwards that he went to war). His
death was reported by the spirit of a long-dead family nurse to the
family. Both Jefferson and his wife reportedly wandered around the house
at different times. A related tale has the newly-installed gas lights
going out on the night of the wedding celebration. One of the family
servants quickly relit the fireplaces and distributed candles, saving the
party. In the years following, whenever the house had lighting problems,
the ghost would return, trying to relight the party.
CHENEY HOUSE
490 N. Milledge Avenue (corner of Milledge and Hill)
This house is rumored to be haunted but former owners deny it. The house
surely has an interesting past, however. The house, the first in Athens
to have a bathroom in its original design, was built in 1893 and served as
the home for Mrs. Frances Cheney and her four daughters, two of which
stayed there until the late 1960s, Maud and Frances. Maud became known as
"the cat lady." Once a neighbor's cat came to her house and had kittens,
but Maud refused to return them. The matter went to court, and Maud lost.
She refused to return the kittens and was held in contempt. She showed up
at the jail only to have the sheriff tell her to spend her sentence at
home. She soundly berated him on the steps of the jail for his
inhospitality. After her death in 1969, the Heritage Foundation optioned
the property in 1971, selling it to a young couple for restoration. The
house has been through many owners, but now holds the offices of Richmond
Financial.
THE BARROW-TATE HOUSE
436 Dearing Street
Mrs. Susan Barrow Tate, a former librarian in Special Collections,
believed that an old yard man that she had known as a child had come back
to comfort her during a difficult time. She was laying on her bed working
over her problem, when she suddenly opened her eyes only to see "Uncle
York" at the doorway. When she tried to speak, he disappeared. Once a
student asked her who that elderly man with a beard that always sat on her
porch was. She assured him that she didn't know, although the description
matched that of her late Papa.
OCONEE HILL CEMETERY
297 Cemetery Street
A ghostly carraige supposedly crosses the bridge of the Cemetery on nights
of a full moon. Many mysterious lights have been sighted there, including
one that is shaped like a lantern and can be viewed by sitting on a bench
across from a certain tombstone and watching the moonlight hit it a
certain way. A more fanciful rumor has it that a troll lives under the
bridge. If you turn your back and throw a penny over your shoulder off
the side, it won't make a sound because the greedy troll snatches it up.
SIGMA NU FRATERNITY
Shortly after the house was completed, William Simpson, a Sigma Nu in the
50s, fell out of a second-story window to his death. Now lights and music
go on and off without explanation, the soft drink machine gives cokes on
its own, cue balls move by themselves in the basement, and a plaque
commemorating William's death won't stay on the wall or even in one place.
Supposedly, Simpson's spirit will place the shoes of an acceptible
candidate for frat president by the wall but will turn over the shoes of
an unacceptable one.
PHI MU HOUSE
250 S. Milledge Avenue
This house once belonged to Charles Phinizy, who was having an affair with
Anna Hamilton. Anna feared that Phinizy was about to tell her husband
about the affair and attempted to shoot him, fainting after the shot.
After recovering, she discovered that she had hit her husband, James
Watkins Harris, rather than Phinizy. Her husband is supposedly buried
under the stairs of the house. There is no record of his death and no
tombstone has been found. A cross of light is often seen on the spot
where Harris was shot, and some sorority members have heard the sounds of
a woman crying on the first floor, only to find no one around.
T.R.R. COBB HOUSE
Prince Avenue
A ghost of a man wearing a gay dressing gown was often seen walking down
the stairway of this house and sitting before the fire in the drawing
room, much like Dr. Morris in the Lustrat House legend.
ATHENS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Old Fire Hall No. 1, North Thomas
In the early 1980s, when the Chamber of Commerce moved into the Old Fire
Hall No. 1 building, the employees began to hear cabinets and doors
shutting with no one there. Older members of the fire department
explained that the building is haunted by Captain Otis Peeler, a former
fireman. This ghost was once heard by Jimmy Hansford, a Fire Chief.
After the COC moved in, Paul Miller was working a Saturday night and sat
down to watch TV. He swears he heard footsteps going upstairs, where
there's only storage space that's kept locked. He went home. It happened
again the next week. One woman felt a hand on her shoulder. Allen
Stephenson reported a chain swinging noticeably in the basement although
no one had been there.
HILSMAN MIDDLE SCHOOL
Although decidedly not a ghost, in 1990 a group of Middle School students
thought that they saw the eyes on a portrait of the school's first
principal, Patti Hilsmann, move in the school library. Very quickly the
question became a wild rumor, out of control and increasingly elaborate.
Unknown to the students, video equipment caught the rumor's progression.
However, the furor was so great that Halloween that the portrait had to be
taken down.
CAPTAIN OTIS PEELER HOUSE
Boulevard Neighborhood
A few years ago a 20 year reign of renters was halted when Rob Holmes
moved his family into the old house of Captain Otis Peeler. After hearing
an old man's unmistakeable raspy cough but finding no one there and
hearing the story of the Old Fire Hall No. 1, Holmes decided that Captain
Peeler haunts more than one Athens locale.
TAYLOR-GRADY HOUSE
634 Prince Avenue
Supposedly, during the Christmas season, a Confederate soldier and an
unidentified lady haunt this headquarters of the Junior League of Athens
and site of many celebrations and weddings. On November 30, 1991, Mrs.
Lynn Yarbrough and two fellow Leaguers were leaving at 11:50pm. As they
entered the main floor, they smelt liqour and felt the presence of a party
and many people. Yarborough won't go to the house by herself anymore.
DEMOSTHENIAN HALL
Campus
Robert Tooms haunts the home of his beloved literary society to this day.
Tooms was known at the University for his constant fighting and rowdy
behavior. In 1828 he was expelled for chasing a citizen with a hatchet
and a gun. During commencement exercises, Toombs commanded a crowd with a
powerful oration under a tree in front of the Hall, know known as "Toombs
Oak." It was reportedly struck by lightning in 1885, the very night
Toombs passed away. The society holds sacred wood from the stump of the
famous oak. Ever since his death, the society has heard footsteps, seeing
doors fly open, and witnessing lampshades spinning. Phantom meetings have
been heard when the hall is empty, and cold spots abound.
CANDLER HALL
Campus
Candler Hall was a dormitory until 1953, and now it holds the Institute of
Higher Learning, Romance Languages, and the Gerontology Center. When it
was a dorm, students claimed that often when they awoke, they would feel
presences as if someone were bending over them. Some saw an apparition in
Room 13 and others heard chains being dragged up the stairs. After the
building was converted, a portrait of a young man was found. Rumor has it
that the ghost was the restless spirit of this man who hanged himself.
The painting was turned over to the Georgia Museum of Art.
OLD ATHENS CEMETERY
Jackson Street
Of course, the cemetery was once a burial ground for students that died at
school and couldn't be shipped home. It was forsaken for the bigger
Oconee Hill cemetery later. In 1905, Chancellor Walter Hill planned to
restructure the University, including removing the cemetery. The plan
wasn't poorly received, and he died shortly thereafter. Supposedly he
wanders the old cemetery that added to his early death.
WADDEL HALL
Campus
Now housing the Dean Rusk Center, it was once Philosophical Hall, built in
1819 and the only building that maintains its complete original structure.
In 1919 a young man had just returned from WWI to find that his girl had
left him for another man. A mutual friend let them use his dorm room to
discuss the matter and part on good terms. A confrontation ensued, and
gunshots were heard. The man had shot the woman, left a suicide note, and
then killed himself. Visitors often report hearing strange noises at
night.
JOE BROWN HALL
Campus
In the 1970s Joe E. Brown Hall functioned as dorms. A student who stayed
in them during the break accidentally killed himself. His rotting body
wasn't discovered until after the break. Occupants afterward reported
hearing noises. The horrible smell could not be removed. Apparently,
these problems aided a decision to remodel the dorms. The room in which
the man died was reconstructed, but occupants continued to report a cold
spot by a stairwell were the room used to be. (The stairwell goes up to
nothing).
ZETA PHI BETA HOUSE
This house was the first Athens General Hospital, purchased by Mother
Dupree. Shortly after, Dupree fell and died in a mysterious accident.
There have been numerous sightings of a female ghost.
MEMORIAL PARK
A personal friend reported that she was going to Memorial at night with
three friends when they saw a man in front of them. They got closer and
he turned around. He wore a trenchcoat, a hat, and glasses, but the
features of his face were completely blank. When she hastily turned
around, she looked back in the rearview only to see that he was no longer
there.
THE ALIEN GRAVEYARD
Pulaski Heights
Right across from 160 Pulaski Heights are what appear to be the concrete
base stones of an old water tower. One friend of mine has seen various
people out there involved in all manner of ritual. Another friend
apparently performed one of these rituals, painting her sign of the Zodiac
on a stone with some friends. When they went back a few days later to
show other friends what they had done, the paint was completely gone.
THE GATES OF HELL
Somewhere behind K-Mart (Spooky!)
In the neighborhood somewhere in west-central Athens (I can't tell where-people live there and have been greatly disturbed by this rumor and sightseers), there is a house named "The Gates of Hell." According the my sister's boyfriend, the porch light is
never on, and it's always dark. The dominating characteristic is the wrought iron gate leading into the driveway. One rumor holds that a cemetery is behind the house and that once you pass the gates, you'll never come back. Another states that an old,
broken-up guillotine and a stone or wood altar can be seen in the backyard. According to my sister, a bunch of people from all of the area high schools had been trespassing there a few years back a little too frequently, and the owner got together with t
he Oconee school paper and got a story written about the "reality" of the Gates, which my sister
claims is the real story.
HOYT STREET STATION BAR
Hoyt Street
My sister's boyfriend also told me of when he worked at this bar and a
ghost terrorized a manager. One night, during an electrical storm, the
man was in a back room when the lights went out and the door slammed shut.
He raced to open the door but couldn't open it. All of the sudden, the
lights came back on and the door moved. The lights in the front of the
bar had never gone off.
SIGMA CHI HOUSE
327 S. Milledge Avenue
Sometimes called the DaDeDa house (for some reason), it apparently houses
a Door to Hell. In the basement the frat members have dug hallways, and
separating sections of these halls are cloths, supposedly drenched in
blood. At the end of the maze is a pentagram on the wall made with
glow-in-the-dark paint, two torches, and a chair. Obviously a freaky frat
initiation tool, it's a disconcerting factoid.
HOUSE ON MILLEDGE CIRCLE
In the 1970s, Journalist Don Nelson moved into a house on Milledge Circle.
He found in the basement a pentagram drawn on the floor, along with a
barrel filled with dirt and 1940s newspapers. Nelson and his roommates
all heard the sound of a crying baby coming from a closet at various times
of the night. One afternoon, as Nelson was washing dishes, he heard the
front door open and close. He heard footsteps come down towards the
kitchen, and he turned to greet the person, but no one was there. This
happened another time, but the door slammed hard and footsteps bounded
down the hall so loud that he yelped.
UNKNOWN SORORITY HOUSE
(corner of Waddell and Milledge)
In this house a pledge named Donna was killed in a car accident before she
could become a sister. Now stuff disappears and reappears inexplicably.
"Donna" is written on dry-erase boards everyonce in a while and no one
takes credit for it. She apparently only comes out when the heater is on.
UNKNOWN HOUSE ON BOULEVARD
According to Jack Thomas, five ghosts live in a house up from his old
abode on Boulevard, a man, his wife, and their son and daughter and the
daughter's daughter. The granddaughter is the only one to have been seen,
but the others have been heard.
CLEVELAND AVENUE RAILROAD CROSSING
One night Wee Willie was coming up the Athens Lumber Company when he was
hit by a train. His head was completely destroyed. He was buried in a
pauper's grave in the Old Athens Cemetery. Sometimes at night his head
will go up and down the railroad track about five feet up and just yelling
and screaming, hunting for it's body. Jack Thomas says he's never seen it
but he's heard the screams.
UNKNOWN HOUSE IN MILLEDGE-DEARING-HENDERSON AREA
In this house on certain nights, music will start playing. A couple will
come out of the house and will dance in the room and will go out a
supposed door and into a garden, only the door is now a window. This
happens about two or three times a month, according to Jack Thomas.
AN OLD CHURCH IN ATHENS
An old man in this church with solid, white hair walks up the aisle around
twilight and lights the candles. An organ will begin to play real low.
He walks behind the altar and just vanishes back there. He wears and
old-fashioned, black worsted suit and an expression of astonishing
adoration.
Well, that's the end of the VERY VERY LONG list of Athens Ghosts that I've
heard of. If you know of any others or personal experiences, come talk to
me in the circulation office. I'm Matthew by the way. Hope the length of
this doesn't upset anybody. I'm new to the rules.
REFERENCES
Adkins-Ramey, Pamela. "Legend of the Lady's Eyes Lives, Haunts Hilsman
Middle School Students." _Athens Daily News_. 29 Oct. 1990: 1A+
Galt, Virginia. "Cheney House Stories Bizarre." _Athens Daily
News/Athens Banner-Herald_. 24 April 1988: 3C
Glover, Wanda, and Robin Littlefield. "Genteel Ghosts." _Athens
Magazine_. Oct. 1995: 32-37
Killon, Ronald G., and Charles T. Walker. _A Treasury of Georgia
Folklore_. Atlanta: Cherokee Publishing, 1972.
Ready, Valerie. "A Ghostly Glance." _Athens Banner-Herald and Athens
Daily News_. 19 Dec. 1983: 13
---. "Restless Spirits." _Athens Banner-Herald and Athens Daily News_.
19 Dec. 1983: 13
Rhyne, Debbie. "Myths and Legends of the Classic City." _UGAzine_.
Summer 1996: 30-36.
Roberts, Nancy. _Georgia Ghosts_. Winston-Salem: John F. Blair, 1997.
Sanderlin, Phil. "Footsteps Heard: Ghost Roams C of C." _Athens
Observer_. 14 June 1984: 1A+
Schiller, Paige. "Athens Musings." _Athens Magazine_. Fall 1989: 7
_University of Georgia Press News_. 3.1 (1954).
-- ------------------------------------
Matthew Zachary Head ]
frid...@arches.uga.edu ]
]
Creator of the Friday the 13th FAQ ]
-----------------------------------
Dash Martin
Gin
