Top 5 Haunted Locations in Tallahassee

Beyond the canopy roads and legislative halls, Tallahassee has a history that stretches back centuries. This history includes a collection of local legends and ghost stories about some of the city's most iconic locations. The tales, passed down through generations, leave the Florida capital with mystery. Here are five locations renowned for their resident ghosts, with a few extras you'd miss out on.

1. The Old City Cemetery

Dedicated in 1829, the Old City Cemetery is a quiet observer of Tallahassee's rich history. On one of the worn headstones in Section D, Lot 5, lies Elizabeth "Bessie" Budd-Graham. She was born on Halloween in 1865 and died from yellow fever at age 23 in 1889. Local legend after her death branded her a "white witch," which lives on today. Her burial is unique, with a great headstone cut to resemble a tree trunk and a small, distinct footstone. Individuals have reported feeling abrupt, unexplained cold temperatures and the sensation of being stared at when they are positioned between the two stones. According to the Florida Division of Historical Resources, her grave remains one of the most visited and discussed in the cemetery.

2. Cawthon Hall at Florida State University

Cawthon Hall residents claim two spirits inhabit the building. One is said to be the eponym of the hall, Sarah "Tissie" Landrum Cawthon, a dean at FSCW. Hired to keep students up to "fine young women" standards, she supposedly became disillusioned with the freewheeling attitudes, style, and thought of the Roaring '20s. Her spirit became a permanent resident in Cawthon Hall after its dedication to guard over the women students, with some saying her residency began when men were first allowed to move into the co-educational dorm.

The second, less benevolent ghost, gained popularity following Lucy Weber's 1971 Florida Flambeau article titled, "Is there a ghost in Cawthon Hall?" Legend has it that an FSCW student was sunbathing on the roof when an unexpected thunderstorm ambushed her. Following banging on windows and doors for help, she was struck and killed by lightning. Up to the present, there are still students who live on the fifth floor and have odd banging on their windows with accompanying shrieks and wails, and some even claim to have glimpsed a girl's face peering in through them.

3. The Knott House Museum

Built in 1843, the house is commonly referred to as "The House That Rhymes." The former residents, politician William Knott and Luella, his wife, had a unique tradition of tying poems with silk ribbons on the Victorian furniture, each line of poetry detailing the item's history. Mrs. Knott did not want to leave her rhyming house. Staff members of the museum, which belongs to the Museum of Florida History, have had contact events with a benevolent being they believe is Luella. The most common reports include smelling the delicate, sweet scent of her rose-scented perfume in the corridors and the soft, inexplicable sound of the house's Chickering piano playing by itself, as if an otherworldly occupant still appreciates the parlor.

4. Goodwood Museum & Gardens

While the late 1990s restoration, workers in the main house of Goodwood Plantation, one of Tallahassee's architectural gems of the 19th century, reported hearing childlike chatter and the sound of a running child. This ghostly activity is always credited to the owner, Hardy Croom, and his family members, who died during travel to Goodwood from North Carolina in the 1830s after the steamboat they traveled on, the home, sank. This led some to wonder if the Croom children ever completed their journey in spirit. Years earlier, in the 1980s, cottage renters in the back of the large house, such as artists, writers, and jewelers, also reported hearing laughter and voices in the late-night hours up on an ancient tower above the back yard. However, parties held at Goodwood during those years could account for most of the strange noises.

5. Westcott Fountain and Ruby Diamond Auditorium (FSU)

Before the university existed, the ground beneath the legendary Westcott Fountain was tainted with black history, just like Gallows Hill. Established in 1829 and chronicled in Tallahassee: A Capital City, it was where murderers were executed, the most famous of which was a mother who was convicted of murdering her child. Today, that dismal history is said to linger, as students walking by the fountain at night have felt spontaneous chills and unexplained sounds. Another campus myth comes from when the university was formerly the Florida Military and Collegiate Institute, an FSU predecessor. Members of the modern-day FSU ROTC claim the parade grounds are haunted by the ghostly form of Confederate cadets who drilled there, and claim the ghosts continue to perform their drills and, on occasion, turn off the lights in the showers.

Honorable Mentions

The Columns: This historic home on Duval St. is said to be haunted by the spirit of Rebecca Bailey, by local legend, looking for her husband, William, a Civil War general who never returned, the story goes. Although the historical record shows that William Bailey was no general and stayed in Tallahassee many years after the war, the legend of the bride searching has stuck. The narrative is fueled by eyewitness accounts, such as the observation by a former custodian of an unknown woman in a long skirt entering the facility on a rainy Saturday morning. He followed her up the center staircase to the second floor, where she vanished inexplicably. This intriguing tale has made The Columns a top stop on the official Downtown Tallahassee Ghost Tour.

Bellevue Plantation: Currently owned by the Tallahassee Museum, the 1850s Bellevue Plantation main house is said to be haunted by the ghost of its previous mistress, Catherine "Caty" Murat. Great-grandniece of George Washington and wife of Prince Achille Murat (nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte), Caty was a high society lady. Staff and visitors have seen a woman's ghost in the windows, have caught the fragrance of strange perfume, and have heard the rustling of a skirt in empty rooms.

Velda Mound Park: Velda Mound, a pre-Columbian archaeological site in northeast Tallahassee, is as renowned for its historic past as it is for its eerie myths. The site was a burial and ceremonial ground. In local lore, the spirits of the mound's earliest inhabitants, particularly a powerful chief, are guardians of the sacred ground. Visitors, especially those strolling near the mound at dawn or dusk, have felt a haunting sense of being watched, seen the far-off sound of rhythmic drumming, or heard whispers on the wind when nobody is around. These stories add to an atmosphere of respect and watch-guarding, suggesting that the spirits are not malevolent but are rather eternally bound to keep the location from safe desecration.