by Kala Ambrose
Want to check out the Latta Plantation for yourself? My recommendation is to visit in October, when Latta Place offers a Ghost Walk around the plantation at night. Tour guides share real haunting stories that they’ve experienced and share the haunted history and stories of ghost battles between soldiers and other paranormal tales. When approaching the old cabin, keep an eye out; you just might see the shadow being in the woods.
Joshua P. Warren’s Asheville Tourism Center and Free Museum
Joshua Warren, radio host, paranormal researcher, and author of more than 12 books, including How to Hunt Ghosts, has opened the Joshua P. Warren’s Asheville Tourism Center and Free Museum in a building that once housed the county jail. Located in downtown Asheville, the museum is full of macabre exhibits and paranormal artifacts and has already reported a ghostly experience in the museum itself.
In January 2011, shortly after the museum opened, a staff member encountered a full-body apparition of a man inside the museum. After describing the man, the museum historian discovered that on the same date 87 years earlier, a Buncombe County sheriff and former chief of police named John Lyerly committed suicide by shooting himself in the building. Historic records state that Lyerly was not the friendliest of characters, and his presence today still feels dark and ominous.
Some of the historic exhibits shared in the museum include a model of the Battery Park Hotel, where Helen Clevenger was murdered in 1936, and an exhibit on the tale of Will Harris, who committed Asheville’s largest mass murder spree.
The old jail building has bars on the windows, and the history of crime and punishment in Asheville is shared, including how hangings were handled in the town. Other interesting stories include Asheville’s connection to the Hope Diamond, Warren’s research on the Brown Mountain Lights, haunted dolls, and a psychomanteum room, which is used to connect with the spirit world. Psychomanteums were originally used in ancient Greece. Most recently, Dr. Raymond Moody, author of Life After Life, reintroduced the technique, which involves sitting in a dark room and facing a mirror in order to see and communicate with the spiritual realms.
CHAPTER 22
The Legend of Blowing Rock and the Green Park Inn
BLOWING ROCK
The sign to Blowing Rock showcases the legend and lore.
“The lawn is pressed by unseen feet, and ghosts return gently at twilight, gently go at dawn. The sad intangible who grieve and yearn.”
—T. S. Eliot
THE LITTLE TOWN OF BLOWING ROCK is a picturesque place surrounded by mountains, green forest, and waterfalls. It gets my vote for the most romantic town in North Carolina, with its own native Romeo and Juliet love story. It was once the home of the Cherokee and the Catawba Native American tribes, who got along as well as Romeo’s and Juliet’s families did.
Blowing Rock was named after two natural occurrences in the area, one being the high winds that blow around the mountains, which can be downright chilling in the winter and a cool respite in the summer. This accounts for the town’s population swelling by the thousands each summer, as tourists from other Southern states flock to the area to enjoy the cooler weather.
The second reason for the town’s name is a rock formation in the area that stretches out more than fifteen hundred feet above the John’s River gorge. As the high wind gusts blow around this substantial rock face, the current swirls around the shape of the rock, causing objects to blow upward around it.
The naming of the town begins with the Native American legend, which starts out like so many of these stories do, with a sweet, romantic tale. There once was a boy who met a girl, and they fell in love. One was from the Cherokee tribe and the other from the Catawba tribe. (Some say that it was the Chickasaw tribe, not Catawba.) The two tribes did not get along, and so their innocent love was forbidden. To hide their love from their families and tribes, they often met at the rock formation to be together in secret. Here they would pass the time together and dream of the day that their families would make peace so they could marry and begin their life together.
One day, the young man met his love at the rock and told her that his tribe had informed him that he would need to prepare to go to war tomorrow against her tribe. They were both very upset, and the legend states that she begged him to run away with her so they could be together. The young man was torn between his love for the young woman and his allegiance to his tribe. He became so upset that he decided that rather than make a choice between family and his love, he would end his life instead.
He stood up and jumped off the rock, in a free fall to the gorge far below. In a panic, the young woman called out to the Great Spirit to save him as he fell. The Great Spirit, hearing the young woman’s call and feeling the love between the young lovers, felt compassion for their plight. The Great Spirit blew a huge gust of wind around the rock, which stopped her lover from falling and then lifted his body in the air and returned him back into her arms where she stood on the rock. Overcome with this gift of life, it is assumed then that the two lovers left the area and their families to be together. The legend ends here, but the name of this area became known as Blowing Rock, and lovers visit this spot from around the world, caught up in the romantic tale.
Some people say that if you sit quietly, you can hear voices carried in the wind from the ancestors of the natives who once lived here and, if you’re really lucky, the Great Spirit may share a message in the wind with you as you visit.
In the mid-eighteenth century, the population of Blowing Rock expanded as Scottish and Irish settlers began to move into the area. One of the families who settled in Blowing Rock was the Greene family, who built their home on the site upon which the Green Park Inn is now located.
The village of Blowing Rock incorporated in 1889 with a population of around 300 people. Tourism was already a primary source of revenue at this time, as Southern families traveled to the location to camp and rent rooms at boarding homes in order to escape the high summer temperatures.
This thriving business prompted the opening of the Green Park Hotel in 1891, which is located 3,600 feet above sea level in the Blue Ridge Mountains along the Eastern Continental Divide. As tourism boomed, several other hotels in the village also opened during this time, including the Watauga Hotel and the Mayview Manor. The Watauga Hotel burned down twice. After the second time, the owners believed that it was cursed and did not rebuild.
Blowing Rock and the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains where the young man was said to have returned to his lover’s arms
The Mayview Manor lasted longer, until around 1966, before it closed. It sat in a state of disrepair for 12 years before being demolished. Many local residents expressed their remorse that the manor was not purchased by the city or a developer interested in restoring the historic property.
The Green Park Inn has stood the test of time as the only remaining inn of those three. It has a history of famous guests, including Herbert Hoover, Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Mitchell, Calvin Coolidge, John D. Rockefeller, and Annie Oakley. The inn also has a long history of haunted activity.
In its heyday, people stayed at the inn for months at a time. At one time the inn had its own post office, zip code, hairdresser, and doctor on-site. As charming and romantic as Blowing Rock is, there are also sad tales of romance gone wrong.
Guests and employees of the Green Park Inn have recorded a number of strange disturbances and paranormal events at the hotel. Some reports state that Room 318 is the most haunted room in the hotel, where a young woman reportedly died in the room decades ago. There doesn’t appear to have been an autopsy, but legends state that she is believed to have died from a broken heart or by committing suicide. Apparently, she waited at the church for her groom to arrive for their wedding, but he never did. She retreated to this room in despair and passed away soon after.
In the same room, the scent of pipe smoke is also detected on occasion. Theories include that the groom might have come to the inn to find her and apologize, only to find her dead, and
that his spirit has now joined hers at the inn. Others feel that a more sinister male spirit haunts the inn. They report feeling cold spots a few moments before detecting his pipe smoke as he searches for the female ghost.
Many of the reports of paranormal activity appear to originate in several of the rooms on the third floor. Some reports state that the old caretaker of the inn, who many years ago looked after the place when it would close for the winter months, stayed in Room 327. Many claim that, though he passed on many years back, he remains at the inn in spirit. Some guests have reported the feeling of a man watching them in the room and hearing noises and movement like someone walking in the room while they sleep. The caretaker seems to stay in this room and feels as comfortable living there today in the afterlife as he did while alive.
While the ghosts of the third floor all appear to be a bit lonely and searching for something in the afterlife, the ghosts of the second floor reported by guests seem to be enjoying their time at the inn. Most of the second floor ghost experiences shared by guests are stories of hearing children running noisily back and forth through the halls, laughing and playing. When the guests open their door to see the children, the hallway is always found to be completely empty.
So many paranormal incidents have been reported over the years that in 2004, a ghost register was installed at the reception desk. This register allowed all guests who experienced seeing a ghost or other supernatural activity to record their experiences. A number of North Carolina paranormal investigators have also stayed at the inn to investigate the haunted activity. Several have also held conferences on the paranormal at the inn.
The hotel closed in 2010 and was put up on auction. It was purchased by new owners and underwent renovation the same year. Reportedly, a large amount of the original furnishings were sold during this time. The hotel reopened in 2011.
I toured Blowing Rock and the Green Park Inn while conducting research in the area but did not stay in one of the haunted rooms. During my stay in the area, the inn was in a state of disrepair, undergoing renovation, so my husband and I decided to stay elsewhere for the evening. I will be returning to see the inn again in the future, this time to stay overnight, as I’m curious to experience any paranormal activity that may be present, as well as to see if the renovations and removal of furniture have had any effect on the amount of paranormal activity in the inn. Many times renovations stir up ghosts along with the dust, as they often don’t care for the change in their surroundings. Ghosts are also known to attach themselves to furniture and other belongings, and it’s possible that some of them have followed the sold items to new homes around the country.
It’s always a pleasure to see a historic site being lovingly restored and cared for as part of our nation’s and state’s heritage. A visit to Blowing Rock will be back on my to-do list soon, as I always enjoy my time there.
Blowing Rock is a peaceful community with romance and spirits literally blowing in the air.
Mass Murderer Charlie Lawson, Germanton
On December 25, 1929, tobacco farmer Charlie Lawson, in Germanton, North Carolina, shot and bludgeoned his entire family, which included his wife, Fannie, and six of his seven children. His oldest son, Arthur, age 18, was not home at the time. The other children were Marie, seventeen; Carrie, twelve; Maybell, seven; James, four; Raymond, two; and Marylou, four months.
At the time no one was sure why Charlie killed his entire family. A few days prior to the mass murder he had taken his family to town to buy them all new clothes and had a family portrait taken. These clothes later became their burial outfits, and the family portrait was printed in newspapers around the country when the murder was reported.
In 1990, M. Bruce Jones and Trudy J. Smith published the book White Christmas, Bloody Christmas, which contained interviews and information from the extended family about the murders. Trudy J. Smith also wrote a second book on the topic, The Meaning of Our Tears, which delved further into the family history.
The legend around this story is that Charlie’s wife had confided to her sisters-in-law and aunts that she believed Charlie was committing incest with their oldest daughter, Marie. She also believed that Marie was now pregnant with his child. A friend of Marie’s also shared that Marie had told her that she was pregnant with her father’s child.
The theories and opinions differ according to the various family descendants.
After the murders, Charlie’s brother Marion Lawson opened the house as a tourist attraction for many years. The mass murder in North Carolina has continued to shock and sadden all who hear the story. Not only have books been written about it, but the tragedy also prompted the Stanley Brothers in 1956 to record a folk song written about the event titled “The Murder of the Lawson Family.” A documentary titled A Christmas Family Tragedy has also been created, and the producers donate ten percent of the proceeds from the film to domestic violence prevention charities.
The Lawson house was torn down in 1984, and reportedly the wood for the home was used to build a nearby covered bridge. The ghosts of the family are still reportedly seen around the gravesites of Charlie Lawson and his family in Browder Cemetery in Germanton.
CHAPTER 23
The Haunting Charm of Charlotte’s Fourth Ward and the Old Settler’s Cemetery
CHARLOTTE
The Old Settler’s Cemetery in Charlotte
“There are an infinite number of universes existing side by side and through which our consciousnesses constantly pass. In these universes, all possibilities exist. You are alive in some, long dead in others, and never existed in still others. Many of our “ghosts” could indeed be visions of people going about their business in a parallel universe or another time—or both.”
—Paul F. Eno, Faces at the Window
LOCATED IN THE HISTORIC Fourth Ward section of downtown Charlotte, the Old Settler’s Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in the city. The area is easy to walk around, and a tourist information office on South Tryon provides maps of a self-guided tour so that you can see other historic sites along the way to the cemetery. The residential district is laid out in one of the easiest patterns I’ve ever found to get around a city, as the historic center of Charlotte is divided into four wards and the Square, at the intersection of Trade and Tryon, represents the center point.
I’ve visited Charlotte many times, including bringing my mystery school students to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at Discovery Place. During that visit, we stayed at the historic Dunhill Hotel, which is right in the heart of the city and all of its activities, including nearby Spirit Square. The Dunhill is a beautifully restored hotel that opened in 1929 and was originally called the Mayfair Manor apartment hotel. Many of the rooms were rented on a long-term basis, which was common at that time.
At the Dunhill Hotel, the European style with neoclassic touches had me feeling right at home, and I could easily imagine living at that hotel. For all that we wanted to do and see in Charlotte it was perfectly located. We could walk to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit and enjoy nearby restaurants and entertainment. Some of us even hopped in a carriage ride one evening to tour the downtown.
After we wrapped up our tour of the Dead Sea Scrolls, we returned to the Dunhill to freshen up and prepare to go to dinner as a group. Two of my students were ready very quickly, so they decided to go down to wait in the lobby for the rest of us. There is a piano in the lobby with live music in the late afternoon and early evening, and my students decided to wait in this area and enjoy the music. As they stood there chatting, they noticed a ghostly figure standing by the piano, evidently enjoying the music. Neither of them had ever seen a ghost before, and it was a big surprise for both of them.
Almost park-like in setting, many people enjoy spending time here in the cemetery during lunchtime.
By the time I arrived downstairs, the ghost was gone. When we had checked in I felt the presence of a female ghost in our room. She was shy and unassuming. I didn’t know if she was the same ghost at the piano or
not, but our descriptions of what we both saw and felt were similar. Whoever she is, she’s very pleasant. She appears to be enjoying her stay and the music at the hotel, like any other guest.
During another visit to Charlotte, we returned to the Fourth Ward to eat at a pub many locals had suggested we try for the food, the atmosphere, and the haunted history. It’s called Alexander Michael’s or, as I was told by another diner, it’s often called Al Mike’s. Al Mike’s opened in 1983 in a historic location in the Fourth Ward. The building first opened as a grocery store in 1897 and continued to operate as a store through 1960. Old-timers know the history and refer to it as the Crowell-Berryhill place. The original owner was Wilson Crowell, who ran the Star Mill grocery, and later Ernest Berryhill began running Berryhill grocery here beginning in 1907. The building continued to metamorphose, operating as a laundromat from 1960 to 1973 and then as Mac Mac’s Deli until Al Mike’s opened in 1983. There are reports by the locals of a friendly ghost that sits at the pub, enjoying the atmosphere and most likely hoping someone will take his order. What’s unclear is when the ghost first attached himself to the location.
Pubs, bars, and restaurants are popular sites frequented by ghosts. Some stay because they enjoyed alcohol so much during their physical life that they enjoy just being around it in the afterlife. Some theories on the matter state that if the ghost can gather close enough around a person who has been drinking, they can experience the same sensation in their spirit form. For a ghost who enjoyed drinking, this is a contact high, and it’s rare for them to want to leave a pub that they enjoyed. This is often also the case with cigar and pipe smoking. Many ghosts still carry with them the scent of tobacco that they loved so much when alive. Other ghosts are often detected by the scent of a favorite perfume they wore throughout their lifetime.
