Cordesville is a small, rural community in Berkeley County with much history and a few ghost stories. Many believe the old railroad tracks on Highway 402, near Alligator Road, are home to a phantom ghost train. According to an online article from the Berkeley Observer, the tracks come alive around midnight with ghostly activity. Onlookers…
Jake Still Walks the Floors of This Historic Commerce, Georgia Building
Nerd U Comics and Collectibles is a Must-Stop when you pass through the area on I-85. The business is located at 55 State Street in a historic building that dates back to the early 1900s in downtown Commerce. Initially, a bank operated on the premises, but ultimately, through the years, other businesses moved into the…
The City Saved By the Dead
By the end of the twentieth century, it seemed that the glory days that had once filled Senoia, Georgia, approximately 40 miles south of Atlanta, were over. In 1989, Paul Lombardi began a search for a site for a new film studio and ultimately settled in the area. Several movies in the late 1980s and…
The Little Girl of the Vance Hotel
The Vance Hotel has been shuttered for more than 20 years in Statesville, North Carolina. Plans were announced in the summer of 2023 to revive the property as the “jewel of Downtown Statesville.” Columbus Vance-Hinkel built the hotel in 1927 at the intersection of West Front and South Center Streets. When it opened, it had…
The 1948 Asheville Mental Hospital Fire
On March 10 or March 11, 1948, a fire broke out in the women’s building of the Highland Mental Hospital in Asheville. The fire quickly swept through the building, engulfing all of the stories. According to author Sherman Carmichael in his Mysterious Tales of Western North Carolina, this was the third fire in the hospital…
The 1882 Dillsboro, North Carolina, Tunnel Accident
Dillsboro, North Carolina, is full of history and haunts for such a small community. In 1882, the Western North Carolina Railroad planned the Cowee Tunnel, just west of Dillsboro. Every day, convicts were forced to perform manual labor to straighten a bend in the Tuckasegee River. On the morning of December 30, 1882, tragedy struck…
The Pawleys Island Witch
Many years ago, a young woman who loved the beach and island life began to roam Pawleys Island with her family and friends to locate herbs and spices that grew wild. After many years, the woman started to partake in the sacrament of whiskey, but her addiction overcame her. After each passing day, the once-beautiful…
The Iconic Georgetown Town Clock
The Greek Revival market and town hall were built in 1842 after a fire destroyed many frame buildings on Front Street in Georgetown, South Carolina. An open-air market occupied the first floor, and the town hall occupied the second floor. The clock tower and belfry were added in 1845. On February 24, 1865, the town…
Two Hydrogen Bombs Fall on North Carolina in 1961
Just three days after President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in January 1961, bright orange flames lit the horizon of North Carolina in the town of Faro in Wayne County. With the rising tension and fear of a Cold War, a B-52 Stratofortress took to the skies on a long, extended patrol. Sometime around the 12-hour…
The Most Prominent and Wealthiest Black Plantation Owner in the State
Sumter County, South Carolina, is rich in history, haunts, and folklore. From the haunted Church of the Holy Cross, containing not one but two popular ghost stories, to the historic Ellison Plantation, the entire county should have a permanent historical marker stamped on every street corner. One community, Stateburg, is home to William Ellison Jr.,…