The Ghost Across the Street

The Hannah Heyward House

Charleston, S.C.

     Yesterday, I wrote about the Swords Gate House at Number 32 Legare Street but as I also wrote, one ghost doesn’t put an entire city on the list of being the most haunted. But what about two ghosts, two haunting’s that are neighbors?

     It’s known as the Hannah Heyward House and it’s located at Number 31 Legare Street. The house has been described as a comfortable, two story house, containing 7 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms (whoa!), a library and an elevator. It’s currently a private residence so I’m sure you’ll understand the owners would like to keep their privacy intact. The story behind it however, and it’s ghostly inhabitant is one that we can tell...

     The house was built at the end of the Revolutionary War by a war widow whose name was Hannah Heyward and who enjoyed living in the city of Charleston, which at that time, must have been a southern woman’s garden of eden. Her late husband’s rice plantation was located a far distance from town, she refused to live at the plantation and so built the house on Legare Street.
     Quite often, her grown children would come and visit with her at her home in the city and it was Hannah’s Favorite son James, who would visit the most. While she hoped that he would one day run the plantation, he for the moment preferred to read, and hunt and didn’t have much interest in planting, harvesting or managing the plantation.

     On the morning of January 14, 1805, Mrs. Heyward went into the library of the house to read and upon entering, saw her son James sitting at his desk in the alcove, holding his head in his hands. She was very surprised to see him as the night before, he had told her that he and some of his friends were to go quail hunting in the morning. Remembering this, she walked up to where he was sitting and asked him why he was not out hunting with his friends as he’d planned. When he didn’t respond to her question, she reached out to touch him and the apparition she thought was her brother, slowly faded into nothingness. She fainted and a doctor was called. A little while later, workers from the plantation carried the body of her dead son James, into the parlor. James had been killed instantly when his horse threw him off after being startled by the sudden appearance of a cow while they were hunting. It was at the exact moment of his death that Mrs. Heyward saw him in her library.

     Is the house haunted by James Heyward? slightly more than two hundred years later, the ghostly apparition of James has been seen in the library, dressed in his green hunting coat, making himself at home. He’s been seen reading his favorite books and sometimes he’s been seen gazing out of the window as if he were deep in thought. The present owners of the house have accepted him and are not bothered by his spirit and apparently the ghost of James Heyward is not bothered with the presence of the new owners! And what of Hannah Heyward? Well, there's been so evidence that she is hanging about the house, but who knows...

     Yes, two ghosts do not make a most haunted city - But tomorrow we'll delve into the city of Charleston a bit more deeply before we head north. I'm sure that you'll enjoy what I uncover!

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Happy belated Birthday to Her Royal Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II -