What gives you goosebumps?
With 200 years of history, Tallahassee has its share of witches, ghosts and urban legends that fascinate audiences of all ages.
And they came to life as the LeRoy Collins Leon County Main Library hosted “Haunted Tallahassee: Legends, Lore and Local Memory” on Oct. 15, hosted by Stephanie Chandler of Storied Paths.
She spoke to a packed room, many left standing as they all munched on cartoon ghost cookies. Chandler entertained the crowd with not just scary stories but also sprinkled in bits of history on the haunts.
Ghosts 101: The new frontier
According to Chandler, ghost stories are a cross-cultural phenomenon, typically to explain the unexplainable or a way of coping with tragedy and grief. They are also usually created during periods of history that see a surge of deaths.
“I’m going to start with the medieval period, because that’s where things start to get really, really good, … with massive wars, with plagues, these things are happening en masse,” Chandler said. “So we have large numbers of people that are dying and have to be buried quickly … which means that proper burial rites are not being (used).”
During the middle ages, ghost stories center around sin and morality, and are being passed by word of mouth. This leads to the Renaissance, in which people accept this idea of having both a body and a soul. Ghosts begin to pop up in literature, including Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.”
Ahead of Halloween, a visitor placed an array of candles at the foot of the grave of Bessie in Tallahassee’s Old City Cemetery
Jumping to the industrial age, people are going to seances and Gothic literature explores “morality and psychology through ghosts.” This era creates not only ghost stories but classic monsters, Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” and Edgar Allen Poe, who had stories such as “The Raven,” “The Tell-Tale Heart” and more.
“Mary Todd Lincoln had seances in the White House because their child, Willie, died … so she was consulting mediums,” Chandler said.
Hitting the 20th century, ghosts are celebrities on the big and small screens alike. There’s “Casper the Friendly Ghost” and “Scooby-Doo.” We even see ghosts getting “busted” in New York by the aptly named “Ghostbusters.” And people seek out the fear factor in movies like “Poltergeist” and “Candyman.”
Ghosts even begin to make it into videogames, “Super Mario” has Boos, Nintendo creates “Luigi’s Mansion” where one plays as the other brother in overalls exorcising ghosts in a haunted mansion?
“We’re in a library so I felt like I should list some literature, right? ‘Epic of Gilgamesh,’ ‘A Christmas Carol,’ ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,’ ‘The Shining,’ ‘The Haunting of Hill House,’ ‘The Turn of the Screw,’ ” Chandler said.
Closer to home, we have our own haunts. Here are some of the spookiest.
Florida Spirit University? Haunted higher ed
In 1854, this academy was built on Gallows Hill — the site of present day Westcott Hall at Florida State University. In 1857, it became the West Florida Seminary, forerunner of FSU. The building was torn down in 1891 for construction of College Hall, which was replaced in 1911 by Westcott Hall. This southwest view shows the building on present-day Copeland street, facing present-day College Avenue.
Do you like ghosts with your Garnet and Gold?
Chandler shared some stories of her time as an FSU student: “I moved up here in 1989 at the age of 17 to go to FSU and I lived in Reynolds Hall,” she said. “I lived there for three years and I was really close, each year, with the girls in my hall.”
She said their “was no doubt” FSU was haunted.
She said that the doors in the shared bathrooms, which were saloon style, swung open several times with no explanation.
“I remember one time I was studying in the breezeway and I just had this really creepy feeling … I was up there alone, it was like two in the morning. It was dark and the windows rattled for no reason … it scared the bejesus out of me. I picked up my books and went back to bed.”
Other buildings on campus with some frightening friends include Cochran Hall and Cawthon Hall.
“Another story is actually about the woman Cawthon Hall is named after,” she said. “Her name was Sarah Cawthon, (but) she was known as Tissy. She was the first Dean of Home at FSU back in the 1910s and 1920s and what that meant was she took care of you, if you were a young woman at Florida State College for Women she was kind of your mom on campus.”
“If you were a young lady and your dress was too short … if you got caught smoking or drinking or staying out late, dating the wrong kind of boy, you could get in trouble with Tissy Cawthon.”
Chandler says that there exists a spirit in Cawthon that seems to pick on only the girls, leading many to believe it to be Tissy. It’s said if your behavior is questionable you may find your hot water ice cold and vice versa, or your favorite sweater may go missing and show up folded on the edge of your bed just a few days later.
Sunland Hospital: Frozen in time for years
Before it was torn down and replaced with an apartment complex, a visit to the remains of Sunland Hospital was a rite of passage for Tallahassee teens to get a taste of the macabre, jumping the fence and facing their fears.
Sunland Hospital began as the W.T. Edwards Hospital in the 1950s as one of several state hospitals to treat tuberculosis patients. The first hospital closed in 1966 and, after a remodeling, it was reopened as Sunland.
More: Former Sunland Hospital workers reunite to remember time working at Tallahassee facility
Sunland Hospital was a facility for mentally and physically disabled children before it was ordered to be closed in 1979 by the Florida Legislature due to a scandal of overcrowding, poor sanitation, patient abuse and more.
The building finally closed in 1983 with the last transfer of patients and stood frozen in time for two decades until 2006 when it was demolished to make way for the current apartments.
According to a Tallahassee Democrat column, the best way to experience the old facility was in the middle of the night with a group supplied with flashlights, walkie-talkies, dark clothes – all the necessary items for ghost hunting.
Phillips Mausoleum: Filled with mysteries
Calvin Phillips designed and built the mausoleum in which he’s buried in Oakland Cemetery.
Calvin C. Phillips‘ life was filled with many mysteries.
He was an architect, supposedly obsessed with time, who created work for the Paris World’s Fair. He designed his own final resting place in Oakland Cemetery.
He lived in Tallahassee while his wife and children remained in New York and during his time in the capital city, legend says he kept to himself. It was said he adored his crypt so much he went during the day and took naps inside, just enjoying his space.
He died in 1919 and in April 2000 his skull was stolen from the mausoleum and to this day remains an unsolved case.
It is said his spirit still lingers around the mausoleum, with visitors reporting cold spots. Others say he holds on due to the loss of his skull, holding him back from eternal rest.
Bessie the white witch of Old City Cemetery?
People leave belongings at the gravesite of Bessie at City Cemetery in Tallahassee, Florida as seen on Tuesday, July 1, 2025.
The grave of Bessie in Old City Cemetery has long been a draw of visitors who leave trinkets for the so-called “white witch” of Tallahassee.
In the Old City Cemetery lies the large granite monument and grave of Elizabeth Budd “Bessie” Graham, who died in her early 20s in the late 1800s.
As the years have gone by, many locals have claimed her to be a white witch; that is, a good witch who cast spells of love and protection.
The proof that she’s a witch? Her grave faces to the west, going against the conventional standard of tombstones pointing to the east because some Christian cultures believe Jesus Christ will return from the east on Judgment Day.
In life, she managed to marry a wealthy man, so it’s believed she used whatever powers she had to lure him into the romance and earn herself one of the largest monuments in the cemetery.
Adding to the intrigue, the Edgar Allen Poe poem “Lenore” is inscribed on the monument.
“Come, let the burial rite be read, the Funeral song be sung; an Anthem for the queenliest dead. That ever died so young, a dirge for her, the doubly dead — in that she died so young.”
To this day, her grave is a draw for late night visitors who leave her trinkets in exchange for her afterlife favor. On a recent visit ahead of Halloween, dozens of candles were laid out at the foot of her marker.
Even if she was just a regular person, here local legend has endured generations after her death.
So the next time a cold breeze brushes past you on a still night, or a door creaks without warning, maybe don’t be so quick to call it the wind.
After all, in a city as old as Tallahassee, you never really know who — or what — might still be hanging around.
Arianna Otero is the trending and breaking news reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact her via email at AOtero@tallahassee.com and follow her on X: @ari_v_otero.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Ghost stories and legends bring chills to Tallahassee