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Published: 2022-09-01 21:51:00 Updated: 2022-09-01 22:00:36
Posted September 1, 2022 9:51 p.m. EDT Updated September 1, 2022 10:00 p.m. EDT
By Paula Stephenson, Washington Tourism Development Authority
This article was written by our sponsor, Washington Tourism Development Authority.
Whether you love a good ghost story, want something fun and fright-filled to do, or just love learning about history, Little Washington has you covered this Halloween season.
Terry Rollins, Youth Services Librarian at Brown Library and coordinator of Washington Haunts: the Historic Ghost Walk, says that Washington is rich with history, and it naturally (or supernaturally) has many haunted locations in town.
“One of the most haunted buildings is the old Beaufort County Courthouse (currently BHM Regional Library). There was a high profile murder trial there in the early 1850’s.” Rollins says that hundreds of people showed up for the trial of Reverend George Carawan, which lasted about a week. He was found guilty of killing a male school teacher in Hyde County when he suspected the man was having an affair with his wife. “Someone had smuggled in two guns to Carawan, and when he was found guilty, he stood up and started shooting. He then shot himself in the full courtroom and is said to have haunted the building ever since. People have heard what sounds like gunshots with no one else in the building.”
Rollins says that the Historic Turnage Theatre, located in downtown Washington, has multiple ghosts as well. “When they built the movie theatre in the early 1930’s, after the vaudeville theatre had closed, the story is that the man operating the projector hung himself in the projector box, and that his ghost still haunts the main theatre to this day.” Rollins says that many local newspaper reporters have claimed to feel a presence of something ‘not quite right’ in the vaudeville theatre upstairs.
When asked about why he thinks people are so enthralled with haunted history, Rollins says, “I think it goes back to childhood when we would hear ghost stories or read books about hauntings. It is fascination with the unknown. What I like about the ghost walk here is that it just isn’t about the supernatural, it is a HISTORIC ghost walk. We [in Washington] have all of this history, and it is a connection to the past.”
He says that people are allowed to take photographs during the ghost walks, and has had folks show him pictures that cannot be explained. “Orbs of light in different places, figures in the windows that match historical persons, like at the courthouse. I’ve been outside the theatre telling stories when the lighted marquee will go out or suddenly flash for no logical reason.”
Local resident, Jim Helms, has had experiences with the supernatural as well. Helms has a computer business in the historic Fowle Warehouse building, and remembers when he lived in an apartment upstairs. “I woke up one night and saw a woman at the foot of the bed. She was wearing a Victorian style dress, had long hair, I think with glasses. She looked to be around thirty years old, and was leaning. Then she stood up and just evaporated, kind of like how a TV goes off.”
Helms never saw the apparition again, but did have another bizarre occurrence in the location. “I had been living in the apartment and found an ectoplasm, sticky stuff on my closet shelf. There were no leaks anywhere and no explanation for it. It continued for days. I cleaned it up and never saw it again.” Helms believes there are many spirits in the Fowle building because it has such a long history.
Gary Ceres, a resident of Washington that once owned a bookstore on Main Street in the Bank of Washington and one other building, says he has had numerous paranormal experiences. “We heard lots of noises in the back at all times of day, but the most significant event was when we had a Santa and Santa chair set up in the room behind the store. There was an old fashioned pony on a stick up high and it lifted up and shot down close to my employee’s head. That freaked us all out.”
Vann and Colleen Knight have lived in the historic Franklin Bryan House on East Main Street for about five years and have also had supernatural experiences. Colleen recounts, “Probably the scariest thing that’s happened was about 3 o’clock in the morning, I woke up and the temperature had dropped. It was suddenly so cold, and I felt someone sit on the edge of the bed. I immediately woke my husband, and he said that had happened to him, too.”
All of the other experiences that the Knights have had have really been positive. They have been told by a medium that there are two entities in the house, a male and a female. The female was said to be wearing a red party dress in 1920’s style. At various times there has been the overwhelming smell of cigar smoke, and at other times the scent of lavender fills the air. The scents disappear as quickly as they arrive.
When the Knights were renovating the house, a subcontractor accidentally broke a window that had a specific, historic-style wavy glass. When the worker assured the Knights that he had a source for the same glass, a window on the other side of the house that had been replaced with a more modern pane, spontaneously broke, pushing outward from the house. Vann says, “Our theory is the ghosts wanted the wavy glass to replace the flat glass that had been put in.”
Other occurrences that have saved the house (and quite possibly the Knights’ lives), include an isolated strip of flooring with termites directly over two sparking wires under the floor, and a mysterious wet spot on the ceiling after painting that prompted the owners to check upstairs and found rotten flooring under the bathtub.
To learn more about these historic hauntings and many others in Washington, check out upcoming Historic Ghost Walks that are scheduled for: September 3 & 17, October 1, 15, 29 & 31, and by special appointment. Basically the ghost walks will be held on the first and third Saturdays, with extra dates around Halloween.
There are two unique ghost walks to experience. The traditional walk takes place on the first Saturdays and includes stops at the old Beaufort County Courthouse, St. Peter’s Church cemetery, and the old houses along Water Street, to name a few.
The second ghost walk each month takes place on the third Saturdays and includes stops such as the Turnage Theater, the Havens House, Brown Library, and the US 17 Business Bridge (General Grimes story), to name a few.
These two distinct walks are referred to as the Traditional Ghost Walk and the Downtown West Side Ghost Walk.
Tickets are $20 each, cash only. There are no advance sales and tickets will be sold beginning at 7:30 pm on the night of the walk.
All ghost walks begin promptly at 8:00 pm and meet at Harding Square, beside the Washington Visitor’s Center (102 Stewart Parkway), in historic downtown Washington. We recommend bringing a flashlight and wearing comfortable shoes. All children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. The walk is not recommended for children under 10 years of age. For more information, call 252-402-8595 or visit the Washington Haunts Facebook Page.
This article was written by our sponsor, Washington Tourism Development Authority.
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