Stand by!
Cue the ghoulish music! Perhaps, Modest Mussorgsky’s A Night on Bald Mountain ; or Camille Saint-Saëns’ Dance Macabre ; or Fred Molin's film score for Friday the 13th . How about the music from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho?
It’s time for ghost stories. Just as an overnight camping trip begs for scary tales around the campfire — or the owner of a historic home tells of strange happenings in the old house — and some buildings exude bizarre stories of years gone by — there are some tales best told in the nighttime when the denizens of darkness prevail. You can discover what mysteries lurk in the haunted mansions of the Sunshine City on the Ghost Tour of St. Petersburg.
| One of the best is about the Lady in Red. It seems there was a lady who loved red dresses. She was madly in love with a handsome sea captain. The lady owned the Detroit Hotel. The sea captain was a hopeless romantic, and entertained many a lass on his yacht at the nearby marina. The wrath of a woman scorned calls forth all the fury of the nether world as the old saying goes. She was so humiliated by the captain’s many infidelities, that she had her favorite portrait of him moved to the attic, sealed behind a wall so she would never see it again. Then she left town. Her spirit somehow remained. Soon after she left, a mysterious “lady” dressed in red was often seen on some of the balconies surrounding the courtyard — sometimes her ghostly image appeared in one of the taverns near the hotel. When anyone approached, the apparition would suddenly vanish into thin air. |
A renovation to the hotel occurred several years ago. When a wall was torn down, the astonished workmen saw eyes staring back at them. It was the long-forgotten portrait. The old St. Petersburg Independent ran a feature story that included a photograph of the portrait. Dozens of respondents identified the old captain, thus lending credence to this fanciful St. Petersburg ghost tale. |  Image: Ghost Tours of St. Petersburg |
 Photograph by Susan Woods Alderson, Northeast Journal | The Ghost Tour of St. Petersburg excels in tales like this. Each night a professional tour guide leads a ninety-minute meandering through downtown, with many a chilling story about several well-known landmarks. On a very warm summer evening, I made this spiritual trek along with Susan Woods Alderson, to document in words and pictures the underworld that exists just steps away from your homes. Our guide was Lynn Wolf. Her knowledge of the haunts lurking on each street corner was — well — eerie. |
On our first stop, she pointed out a face in an old banyan tree in Straub Park. Lynn mentioned that this was her favorite place to play when she was a little girl. Her friend was the face in the banyan tree. You may have to stare at the photo for awhile to make the face appear! Yep. We picked the right tour guide to learn about ghosts in St. Petersburg. As a born-and-bred son of Georgia, I have heard many supernatural tales. My grandmother, by all accounts (all unbiased of course), was Atlanta’s premiere storyteller. I thought so, anyhow. So, I know all about ghosts in the attic from her houseboy, how they inhabit the very soul of bats and owls and other creatures that fly at dusk and how these mysterious spirits scoot through the piney woods at dark to scare the bejabbers out of anyone foolish enough to walk through such a forest at night. Screech owls especially can bring forth the scariest of the spirits. |  "Face" in Banyan Tree |
Our readers must understand that I am, by training and demeanor, a rational person with a smattering of scientific training and skepticism. I need to see proof when presented with a theory or concept. So when it comes to the realm inhabited by spirits, I try to keep an open mind. And being a southerner, will never use two words when three will do just fine.
 Image: City of Savannah | I learned early in my life, for instance, why people throughout the south will paint blue shutters or frames around their windows. The Gullahs call this color “haint blue” in the low country around Savannah and Charleston. Gullahs are descendants of the slaves who were brought to Savannah back in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Historians believe the word is a contraction of their ancestral home in Africa, the country known as Angola. The Gullahs used this color of paint to protect houses from “haints,” a Geechee or voodoo word for “spirit.” The blue represents water, and it was thought that dangerous poltergeists would not cross anything resembling water. The haints, confused by these watery pigments, are tricked into thinking they can’t enter. |
The word “haint” is not an African term. It is from the same root word as “haunt,” most likely from the German/French/Middle English “hanter” (c.1330), which meant “to stalk, to make uneasy, to inhabit.” English usage was first recorded in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, over four hundred years ago in 1590, itself a ghost story of a sort.
Several nearby homes and buildings have abundant tales of these shadowy spirit-beings. The Three-Birds Tavern on 4th Street has stories of a ghost in the cellar of that 125-year old house. At least half-dozen homes in the Old Northeast and Snell Isle reportedly have other-worldly goings-on.
The Vinoy Hotel has many tales. Visiting baseball teams report strange happenings on the fifth floor. It has been noted on the Ghostbusters television show and on ESPN that several visiting baseball teams have reported strange happenings on the fifth floor of the Vinoy. A pitcher and teammates for the Cincinnati Reds say they were kept awake during one visit just a couple of years ago when closet doors and windows rattled all night long. Some say a white veiled spirit inhabits the tower close to Beach Drive and Fifth Avenue.
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Lynn detailed these haunts in the Vinoy, the Blocker home and several other buildings along the way. She was careful to explain that all of the stories have been researched and documented but it is up to us, the listeners, to determine whether or not we personally believe the stories.
We learned that with all of the middens — shell mounds — in the area, Native Americans have blessed this area many times over the years. Lynn described one tour where she had groups from the Chippewa, Dakota and Seminole tribes. At several of the stops where middens are known to have been located, a ceremony was conducted by each of the tribes. The Native Americans said that their spirits feel at peace here because they have been honored by these ceremonies. Lynn assured us we need not worry that these “spirits” will follow us into our own homes since they were “at peace.”
At Williams Park, Lynn described Esther Wright, the “bird lady” of St. Petersburg. She was famous for feeding the hordes of pigeons around Williams Park and other downtown locations some fifty or so years ago. Some say they still hear the bell on the tricycle she rode and the sudden fluttering of birds rising up when Esther would come on her self-appointed rounds, near the fountain that was placed there in her memory. |  Image: City of St. Petersburg |
There are also reports that an Indian spirit shows up frequently at Weedon Island, which is the location of an ancient culture dating back thousands of years. Some of the approaches to the original Sunshine Skyway were built on an old Native American midden. Because of this, many believe the Skyway is frequented by supernatural beings. Fishermen on the north fishing pier sometimes tell of some sort of entity whooshing by late at night. The north pier was the roadbed of the original bridge.
Lynn also mentioned other areas near St. Petersburg with unusual happenings. One of these is Haslam’s Book Store. Haslam’s Book Store employees tell stories about books mysteriously falling from shelves. Mr. Haslam often said this was because the ghost of Jack Kerouac would push his books off if he didn’t like where they were placed. Kerouac lived in St. Petersburg when he died in 1969. He was a frequent visitor to Haslam’s.
Lynn Wolf put it well when the tour began: “It is up to you whether or not you believe the stories.”
Next month is normally a busy time for these tours, as we get closer to Hallowe’en. You can learn all about the haints and haunts around St. Petersburg. More information about Ghost Tours can be found by contacting Tim Reeser, Ghost Tours of St. Petersburg, 727-894-4678, or go online to www.ghosttour.com. It’s a pleasant — if spooky — way to spend an evening.
 Image: The Owl Community | Wait! What was that creaking on the stairs — the rustling of the window drapes? Whew. Just the breeze blowing in the cool of the evening. Is it getting chilly in here? We hope you sleep well tonight, dear readers. To help you rest, you may want to listen to the haunting sound of the screech owl, just in case you’ve never heard one: www.webtradeshows.com/screechowl.htm |
| John L. Bailey is an Emmy-award-winning video producer / writer with over 45 years experience, producing informational films. Now he specializes in using your video and photographs to help you create DVD memories of family histories, events, birthdays and more. A recently posted video can be found at www.webtradeshows.com/jlb-videodemo.htm. Contact him at 727-798-2846 or e-mail: jlbwriter@earthlink.net. | 
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