Ready to get in the spirit? Check out this collection of local ghost stories.
You don’t need to go far in downtown Lexington to find a good ghost story. According to Kevin Steele, host of the Lexington Ghost Walk, now in its 12th consecutive year, many of the city’s most popular landmarks have some creepy stories to tell.
Old Lexington Courthouse
courthouse
The former Lexington Courthouse building at 215 W. Main was completed in 1898, and became home to the Lexington History Museum in 2003. Museum manager Debra Watkins says she has had several ghostly encounters in the building, which is believed to be the site of a grizzly hanging out a second-story window in the 1880s. (The existing structure is built on the foundations of the building where the hanging occurred.)
“We have had lights turn on and off, chairs move, and doors open and close,” Watkins said.
Watkins reports that she had one volunteer quit after feeling he had been grabbed while cleaning alone one night. Evidently, the volunteer had previously heard voices and footsteps in the building, but said he just couldn’t tolerate the sensation of being seized by ghostly hands.
Watkins herself reports she didn’t believe in the ghost until late one night when she was carrying a prop for a Halloween exhibit at the museum. The prop just happened to be a fake noose, and as she was carrying the rope to put it away, something grabbed her around the neck and started squeezing. She says she paid no attention at first, until she realized there was no rational explanation for the sudden feeling of strangulation.
“I ran screaming from the building. Whatever it was did not let go until I hit the middle of Short Street. Interesting to note – our basement extends into roughly the middle of Short,” she recalled.
Watkins says the official position of the History Museum is that the building, which is currently shuttered as a result of lead-based paint, is not haunted. For her own part, she is not afraid of the place, and is eager to return to the building.
The Bell House
bellhouse
The graceful white columned-building on Sayre Avenue known as the Bell House has quite an elegant history. The house was built in 1845 by prominent Lexington resident David Sayre along with architect Thomas Lewinski, who also worked on the reconstruction of Ashland, White Hall and the Henry Clay monument. The mansion was purchased by Henry Bell after its construction and remained in the Bell family until the 1950s, when the city of Lexington acquired the property.
Today, the Bell House is available for rent, and is a popular spot for downtown weddings. According to a Bell House employee, the house is rumored to be haunted. Paranormal experts have suggested that the ghost is that of a young lady who was involved in a love triangle in life.
“Generally she only shows up when it’s a love situation, a wedding or an anniversary, that kind of stuff,” the employee remarked.
She notes that although she has never seen or heard anything out of the ordinary, staff members have reported unusual noises coming from upstairs while they clean up after events (at which point, no one else is there). The lady ghost has been spotted once or twice, and even captured in the background of one couple’s wedding photos.
“The mirror in the bathroom shattered all by itself, and no one was in there … we don’t know if she got mad or what happened, but it wasn’t like it just fell off the wall,” she said. “We’ve since replaced it, but it was kind of an interesting story at the time.”
Distillery District
Tony Davis, owner and artist at Studio 300, has his workshop in the old James Pepper distillery (now known as Barrel House) on Manchester Street, and says the building could be haunted.
Davis has done extensive research on the distillery’s history and says he’s uncovered a few violent deaths in its past. The main building, where bourbon was aged, was the site of a fire in 1934 that was started when a night watchman mistook gas near a stove for kerosene. The resulting blaze killed him and destroyed the four brick warehouses. Davis also discovered that another night watchman was shot and killed in 1920 when a group of men tried to rob the place; the murder was later suspected to have mob connections.
Davis reports he does hear odd noises and pings when working late at night, but hadn’t really noticed anything too out of the ordinary until the last few weeks. He keeps a mini museum of bourbon barrels and memorabilia in his workshop, and recently brought an old ladder, original to the building’s days of operation as a distillery, over to his workshop. The ladder is about 12 feet tall and solid wood, and yet Davis has noticed it will move about a foot from its original place overnight, while the building is supposed to be empty. A bottle of bourbon left sitting on the ladder fell off and broke on its own, leaving a stain on the floor that Davis inexplicably has not been able to remove.
Jefferson Street Fire Station
firestation
The Lexington Fire Department Station No. 4 on Jefferson Street is a fan favorite when it comes to ghost stories. The building, constructed in 1904, can be a bit imposing on its own at night from the outside. Additionally, Lyndall Large, a retired station captain of the Jefferson Street facility, says that the building is supposed to be haunted by a former fire fighter who died in the station in his sleep.
When Large first began work at the station, he noticed a rocking chair that would begin moving on its own, regardless of where in the station it was placed. It wasn’t uncommon for items from the downstairs portion where the trucks were kept to turn up in nonsensical places in the upstairs living quarters of the station. The glass doors on a cabinet would open themselves on a regular basis.
After some years at the station, Large says he finally saw the ghost himself one night when the phone rang at about three in the morning.
“I thought it was one of my guys who had gotten up to answer the phone. As I came around the corner, I could see him taking a step toward the door,” Large recalled. “I thought, ‘Oh well, it must be Cleave,’ but I looked down and Cleave was in his bed, and Ray was in his bed, and I looked back up and this guy was gone.”
The ghost has been spotted by passersby the station, as well. According to Large, most of the fire fighters don’t let the haunting bother them too much. In fact, they named their fire engine “The Phantom” and created an insignia for their engine featuring a skull to acknowledge the ghost.
“When he died he didn’t want to leave, he loved it so well,” Large said.