Myrtles Plantation
Ghost Report originally 7/15/19
(This “Ghost Report” originally appeared on the 7/15/19 edition of the Ghost Magnet With Bridget Marquardt podcast, and in the years since Myrtles has come up in Bridget’s conversations with guests more than any other location. It’s probably my Number One ghost-hunting destination at this point.)
A lot of places claim to be “the most haunted house in America”, but the Myrtles Plantation has had that title for a while now. Built in 1794 by General David Bradford, this antebellum home is located in St. Francisville, Louisiana, 26 miles north of Baton Rouge, and nowadays serves as a tourist attraction and bed-and-breakfast.
As you might expect for a house that’s seen over 200 years of history, a lot of strange and tragic things have happened at the Myrtles. The estate’s owner in 1871, William Winter, was shot in the house by a mysterious man who fled. And although it’s been claimed that one of the earliest owners, Clark Woodruff, sexually assaulted a slave girl named Chloe who exacted revenge by poisoning his wife and children in 1823, the truth is probably that Sarah Woodruff and her children died from yellow fever. So did Chloe even exist?
Well, in 1992, the current owner of the Myrtles was photographing the buildings for insurance purposes, and when the pictures were processed one showed the transparent image of a slave girl standing in a breezeway. Was that Chloe?
Another famous photo of the Myrtles shows a young girl in a nineteenth-century dress standing in a front window. Is she one of the unfortunate Woodruff children?
And because there ALWAYS has to be the woman in white…there was the story of the employee working at the front gate who watched a woman in an old-fashioned white gown walk past him, and right through the closed front door of the house.
If you’ve stayed at the Myrtles, I’d love to hear about YOUR encounter(s)!