Strange Virginia

Virginia is a state rich in more than just history. According to Harper’s Index, the Ghost Research Society of Oak Lawn, Illinois, Virginia ranks number one among states with the largest ghost population. In the interest of Halloween, a little research was done on the Roanoke and New River Valley’s ghosts. Some stories have come from oral traditions and others are mentioned in books about the area. Regardless of their source or authenticity, they are a slice of our past.

In 1902, the “Woman in Black” terrified Bristol, Roanoke and Bluefield. According to newspaper reports in Roanoke, “Her name was on every lip; strong men scrambled when her name was spoken; terror reigned supreme.”

One night, over 25 people saw her. She never caused any physical harm, and all who saw her agreed to her breathtaking beauty. The suspicion was that she was the ghost of a wronged wife making sure that other married men didn’t stray.

One account is that she appeared suddenly at the side of a prominent businessman returning home after midnight. She called him by name. He increased his pace, but she easily kept along side. “Where do you turn off?” she asked. “Twelfth Avenue,” he replied. She put her head on his shoulder and he tried to shake it off. “You are not the first married man I have walked home this night.”

Two men tried to trip her on a downtown bridge one evening, approaching her coming from each end of the bridge. Just before they reached her, she vanished into thin air.

The Patrick Henry Hotel is home to well-known ghost. “Miss Lucy” supposedly still roams the hotel which housed the apartment in which she lived and died. According to Manager Bill Carter, there have been at least 40 accounts of seeing “a lady in a big, long white dress.” Flight attendants and pilots are familiar with the stories of Miss Lucy, and will request a night in the room. None will stay the night after the episode. One flight attendant fled her room in the middle of the night after seeing stairs come out of the wall and a lady walk down them and across the room.

Virginia Western Community College is no stranger to ghosts, according to Debbie Carveli, Professor of Parapsychology. Debbie has assisted both West Virginia and Virginia State Police in investigations, and was recently interviewed by Sightings during a filming at Avenel in Bedford for a ScFi-Channel.

The Fine Arts Building used to be the city’s Poor House. Campus lore has it that the building is haunted.Lights turn on and off, and the air over the stairs has a strange feeling. Certain hallways smell of isopropyl alcohol, and sometimes the building’s “energy” will make people sick. As Debbie Carvielli said, “It’s like replaying things that happened here long ago.”

Upon the hill to the west side of Poor House Road was a Pest House, built for victims of the dreaded small pox to be isolated and treated. Looking down from the current Library and Anderson Hall, you can see a mound that was obviously once a building foundation. Perhaps the old Pest House? Security guards on campus have reported feeling temperature differences in this area, like running through a cold spot on a hot summer day. Lights reportedly turn on and off in Anderson Hall.

To top it off, the hill on the arboretum side, which is now home to the Humanities Building, once was an Indian burial ground. There are reports of cold spots and sever temperature drops in the area.

Virginia Western is not the only college with ghosts. Hollins College is home to several whom have made the pages of the newspaper and have been the focus of student research.

Presser Hall is believed to be haunted. Doors shut by themselves, and students have found themselves locked in a practice room only to easily open the door minutes later. A wedding or funeral procession has been seen entering and leaving the building. Associate Professor of Film, Carl Plantinga, says that the ghost has most recently been visiting video production students in the top floor of the Presser.

Two students witnessed a chair on wheels being flung across the floor, denting a register, in an empty editing room. Another student felt a “wind” and looked behind her to see the figure of a man. The “man” turned and floated down the stairs.

Starkie House, which is now a resident hall, served as the Old Hollins infirmary. A ghost nurse, dressed in turn of the century attire, has visited students at night. She feels their foreheads and watches over them.

Last, but not least, the Hollins Theatre is home to “Elizabeth.” Rumor has it that she committed suicide in the theatre in the late 1920′s. She visits the theatre at night, usually during rehearsals, and catches people off guard as she strolls across the stage or behind lights.

Legend surrounds the Bellvue Plantaiton and Black Horse Tavern. The tavern, established in 1782, is one of the oldest buildings in Roanoke. It is now a home. Kyle’s Hotel, now Bellvue, was located next to the hotel. Built in 1854, it operated as a hotel until 1875.

Linda Selfe, owner of Bellvue will not stay alone in the home at night. The family has often heard the sounds of a child running up the stairs, hitting the rungs of the banister with a stick. The sound of footsteps in the hall are also common.

The legend of Black Horse Tavern is that a man on a white horse comes out of Reed Mountain and rides toward Hollins College. The belief is that the rider is looking for his lost love.

Salem, of course, appears to be home to more ghosts than any other area. The Goodlett Home on Union Street may be inhabited by the spirit of Anna Marion Bland. Family lore has it that she is trying to get back to the house after dying in Maryland in 1931. William Goodlett, owner, has felt and heard the spirit. He has been “tucked into bed” and patted on the shoulder. He has also heard a horn honking in his closet.

Pennsylvania Ave. in Salem is home to at leat two ghosts. Residents of a Victorian home built in 1887 have encountered a spirit. Lights mysteriously turn on and off. People have been awakened by what felt like someone pulling the covers back and sitting beside them. While the vanBlaricom family, previous owners, were vacationing, a neighbor walked to the house twice to turn off a light. It was off when she arrived. After returning home, the light was back on.

William Victorine tuned a piano in a house father down Pennsylvania Avenue, and felt as if he were being watched. He felt a sudden draft on his arm that remained there for a minute. He found no open doors or windows to cause a draft, and no people were in the house. After sitting back down, he felt as if someone had almost touched his arm, and it raised the hair on his arm. “A very memorable experience.”

The Old Manse Bed and Breakfast in Salem houses a lively ghost that apparently likes to smoke cigarettes and read books, according to 20-year owner Charlotte Griffith. Lights turn on and off mysteriously, even though the house has been rewired. The electrician can offer no explanation. Many of the lights are turned…

…on near shelves of books. Heavy doors open and close on their own, and a “thud” can often be heard between two and three o’clock in the morning.The house is a non-smoking environment, yet cigarette smoke can often be smelled in a bathroom in the back hallway.

Botetourt County is home to “the Ragman.” Centuries ago, gypsy-like old men traveled from town to town gathering rats to make paper, giving them the name “ragmen.” Parents would tell bad children that the Ragman would get them if they didn’t behave. One account in a 19th century Betetourt newspaper tells the story of young Priscilla of Fincastle on Halloween. Pricilla accidentlly spilled her father’s supper and let the dog eat it. When her mother left to go shopping, she told Priscilla that she was going to give her to the Ragman if she didn’t behave. Priscilla went to her room and nodded off to sleep. She was awakened be a loud rapping at the door. Assuming it was her mother, she answered it, only to find a filthy old man standing over her. According to the article Priscilla died of fright “certain that her mother had sent the Ragman after her.”

“The Black Sisters” have been part of Christiansburg’s history for many years. They were called the “black” sisters because they dressed in mourning-type clothes and wore heavy dark veils. The story tied to the Montgomery Female Academy, which opened in 1852.

In 1859, the school moved to a building on the land where the Christiansburg Middle School now stands. Around the turn of the century, ownership passed from Mrs. O. S. Polluck to her sister, Martha Wardlaw, and her three daughters, Mary Snead, Caroline Martin, and Virginia Wardlaw.

The terror began. The sisters wanted Mary’s son, John, to join the faculty. Caroline went to his Tennessee home and convinced John to leave his wife and return with her on the next train. A string of incidents surrounded John, including a fall from the tarin which resulted in injury, and almost drowning in the school’s cistern. He finally did die from injuries sustained when he was found burning in a kerosene-soaked bed. Foul play was suspected when it was discovered that John had been heavily insured by his aunts with them as the sole beneficiaries.

Fletcher, John’s brother, was then brought to the academy, where he married his first cousin, Ocey. Meanwhile, the sisters had piled enormous debt and refused to pay. One by one, the sisters left town. By 1908, they were gone.

In 1909, a newspaper report from New Jersey brought the fear back to Christiansburg. Ocey had been found dead in a half-filled bathtub, head under the faucet. A suicide note was pinned on her robe speaking of being despondent over the loss of “loved ones.” Neighbors reported that Flethcer and Ocey had moved there a year earlier. All was happy until two women in black moved in. Then Fletcher mysteriously disappeared.

Virginia Wardlaw’s answer aroused suspicion. The coroner’s examination found that Ocey had been dead for at least 24 hours before the call. There was only one bathroom in the house, no towels in the bathroom, and no pens or aper to write a note with.

Circumstantial evidence bought the sisters to trial in January 1911. Virginia Wardlaw starved herself to death before the trial began. She is buried in Christiansburg’s Sunset Cemetery. Mary Snead pled guilty to manslaughter and was placed in her son’s custody. Caroline Martin, was sent to New Jersey’s State Prison, but was moved to the State Hospital for the insane and died soon after.

Reports of moving lights seen in the windows of the Middle School at night are commonplace. Could be the spirits of the Black Sisters returned to Christiansburg?

Blacksburg’s historic Lyric Theater, like most great threaters, is home to at least one ghost. To read more, look for The Ghost of the Lyric by Joel Furr on the internet (jfurr@danger.com).

Rumors abound that a workman was killed when the Lyric was being built. The theater also houses a screaming lady. Sometimes she even cries to be let out. The scream seems to come from the direction of the ticket booth, or at least from above it.

Employees have reported hearing faint mutterings and seeing shadows in the balcony when standing on the stairs. One story tells of an employee closing up and hearing a man and woman talking in the balcony. When he went to the balconly, it was empty. Another time, an employee was up in the balcony and heard a voice speacking quietly to itself down in the main seating area. No one else was in the theater, and yet the voice spoke.

People assciated with the Lyric assume the incidents are caused by a ghost. There is no way for a patron who might have hidden to “scare” employees to get out of the threater. An employee would have to unlock the doors with a key for anyone to leave.

Probably one of the best known nearby haunts is Caamberly’s Martha Washington Inn of Abingdon. Built in the 1830′s, the Inn served as the Martha Washington College for girls at one time. No one is sure just how many ghosts roam the halls of the hotel, but most of the activity stems from incidents which occured during the Civil War.

Employees have seen wispy figures floating around, walked through cold spots in the middle of summer and have seen door knobs turn on their own. A bloodstain from a mortally wounded Confederate soldier reappears on the floor outside of the Chamberley Suite. A couple who stayed in room 403 experienced the violent shaking of the bed upon which they were sitting.

The most memorable story involves room 403. Captain John Stoves, a Yankee spy, was gravely wounded and carried to the room. “Beth” was a student at the college who cared for and fell in love with the captain. She would play her violin to put him at ease. One day, she was summoned to his room where he lay near death. He asked her to play her violin, and as she did, he passed on. She never got over the shock and died within a few weeks.

People have seen a milky-like figure with long flowing hair on the stairs. Others have seen a slim young girl sitting in a chair by the bed. Sometimes the refrains of a violin can be heard. One security guard passed a lady in a dress and high-button shoes in the hal near the dining room around four o’clock in the morning. She turned into a swirl and took off for the stairs. He followed up the stairs and saw a “whitish vapor” go through the door of room 403.

Betty Holbrook “Strange Happenings: Virginia Division Safety News” 1998.