Most Haunted Places in Virginia

By Matthew Ludwick

Fort Magruder Hotel (Williamsburg)

• Located on the battlefield where the Battle of Williamsburg occurred.!

• Guests report waking up in the middle of the night and seeing a red-haired Confederate solider sitting on their bed.

Peyton Randolph House (Williamsburg)

• A 300 year-old house that’s seen no shortage of tragedy: the deaths of several children, one family member’s suicide and the untimely deaths of several boarders.!

• There are reports of mirrors shattering, thumping footsteps and an array of ghostly apparitions that include a young man, an older woman in a flowing gown, a little girl and a woman trying to warn of impending danger.

Ferry Plantation House (Virginia Beach)

• Has been inhabited as far back as 1642.!• Was the site of a courthouse where witch Grace Sherwood was tried and convicted

in 1706.!• Said to be home to at least 11 ghosts, including a cat, children, a grumpy slave, a

lady in white and a boy who broke his neck when he fell out of the second story.!• Also said to be home to an Indian burial ground.

St. Albans Sanatorium (Radford)

• Built on top of a hill that was once the site of massacres between Indians and white settlers, it later served as an artillery battery in the Civil War.!

• A boys school was built in 1892, which was converted into an insane asylum in 1916.!

• Reports have been made of floating objects and various ghosts, including schoolboys, patients and a former staff member at the asylum who really doesn’t like women.

Weems Botts Museum

(Dumfries)

• One of the oldest houses in Dumfries.!

• Served as a poorhouse for the town, and has been owned by an array of different families.!

• Spirits in the house include Civil War soldiers, previous residents and a mysterious older man.!

• Paranormal investigators claim the ghosts here are huge “hams” that love attention and publicity.

Jordan Springs (Stephenson)

• Served as a military hospital during the Civil War, but has reports of ghosts from various eras in history.!

• Ghosts sighted here include Indians, nurses and soldiers from the Civil War and many others.

Cold Harbor Battlefield (Mechanicsville)

• The site of one of the bloodiest, lopsided battles in American history, where thousands of Union soldiers were killed in pointless slaughter.!

• Spirits of dead soldiers are said to still haunt the battlefield.!

• Locals hear the sounds of men screaming and guns and cannons going off.!

• Strange apparitions and mists have been known to appear when people take photos of the battlefield.

Cavalier Hotel (Virginia Beach)

• Used to be a swanky hangout spot for various celebrities in the 1920s.!

• Adolph Coors, founder of Coors Brewery, committed suicide here by jumping out of the sixth floor of the hotel.!

• Was used by the US Navy in World War II, and according to one story housed dead bodies.!

• There are reports of a mysterious man in a military uniform warning guests that there are “dead bodies” nearby.

Boxwood Inn Bed and Breakfast (Newport News)

• Originally served as a hall of records, tax assessor’s office, general store, country post office and home.!

• Ghosts here include the daughter of the house’s first owner, a man with a cane, a salesman who died while staying here and a mysterious woman in a bonnet.!

• Silverware has been known to mysteriously disappear and reappear in the dining room.

Bacon’s Castle (Surry)• Built in 1665, it’s one of the oldest houses in Virginia.!• The only Jacobean house in the United States, and

one of just three in the Western Hemisphere.!• Ghostly phenomena here includes a roving fireball,

rearranged furniture and ghostly faces.