The Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana, calls itself one of America’s most haunted homes, and it has the paperwork to prove how long people have believed it.
The house was built in 1796 by General David Bradford, a man who fled Pennsylvania after the Whiskey Rebellion. Over the next two centuries the stories piled up. The most famous is Chloe, an enslaved woman said to have been caught eavesdropping, had her ear cut off as punishment, and taken her revenge with a poisoned birthday cake that killed the mistress of the house and two of her daughters. She is said to have been hanged by the other slaves and thrown in the river, and to wear a green turban to hide the missing ear.
Historians can find no record that Chloe existed. The woman and children who died in the house died of yellow fever.
And yet. In 1992 the owners took a photograph of the house for insurance purposes. Between two of the buildings stands a figure in what looks like a long dress and a head wrap, where no one was standing. The owners say they did not notice her until the print came back. The photograph has been studied ever since.
Visitors report handprints in the mirror in the front hall that return no matter how often the glass is cleaned, a grand piano that plays a single chord at night, and small children’s footsteps on the stairs.
Makes you wonder whether a legend can be false in the details and true in the bones.
Tourist tale with a lucky photograph, or something still walking the grounds?
