Capitol ghost stories - "We're around here."

This is the first Capitol Ghost Story for 2009. I'll be posting others up until Halloween. It's still early, so if you have a ghost story to share, please send me a message. If you want to see the past ghost stories from 2007 and 2008, click on the "Capitol Ghost Stories" tag under topics.

The North Carolina State Capitol in Raleigh claims that it is the most haunted state capitol in America. The Ghost Research Foundation visited the site and filed this report. The numerous accountings of ghostly experiences date back to the Civil War. There is even an audio recording of a southern gentleman who responded to the researcher questioning if the spirits were still around.


The researcher said, hoping to bait a southern ghost: "I know there's something up here. I just hope it ain't no damn Yankee."


"Following that statement, Steve was quiet for several seconds. He later found that he had captured a gruff male voice that said, “We’re around here…” in a thick Southern accent, different from our Pennsylvania voices. The voice print analysis determined that Steve spoke a level of 4,000 hertz. The unknown male voice heard modulated at 22,000 hertz (well above the normal range of human speech."


The original building was built sometime after 1792 when Raleigh was named the state capital city, but was destroyed by fire in 1831. A new capitol was built on the same site, completed in 1840. The researcher who conducted an interview with the capitol's historian, Mr. Beck, saw a ghost first-hand:


"Approximately forty minutes into my interview with Mr. Beck, I noticed a blur of motion off to my right, in the third row behind Mr. Beck and at the far right side of that aisle. I was surprised to see a man sitting there watching us. He appeared to be in his thirties and was dressed in clothing from the mid-to-late 1800s. He was dressed as a gentleman, had dark hair brushed to one side, and was quite pleasant looking. The thing that struck me most about his appearance was his smile. He was laughing at us as we talked about the ghosts of the building and seemed immensely amused. I thought over what to do. Should I call Mr. Beck’s attention to the gentleman? Chances were that by the time Mr. Beck turned to look the fellow would have disappeared. Should I keep quiet and observe him for as long as possible? I followed the second option, keeping him in view for several minutes while Mr. Beck and I chatted."


The following is from Mr. Owen Jackson, who served for 12 years as a security policeman on the 4:30 p.m. to 12:15 a.m. shift. Mr. Jackson has many stories, among them:


"One evening, Mr. Jackson was sitting at the receptionist’s desk in the east hall across from the elevator when a lady came out of the men’s room next door. The woman had on a blue choir robe with white trim. He described her as a short, slightly-built white lady. She walked toward the double glass entry doors and went through them without opening them. As he watched in amazement, she simply faded away on the other side.Mr. Jackson’s most dramatic sighting was yet to come and was described as follows: “I was fixing to leave one night and I was parked out in the north driveway out there. I had a car that if you didn’t let it warm up in the wintertime it would stall out on ya. I was looking up at the second floor you know; the shades were pulled. And there was a fellow standing there and you could see from here to here (he indicated from neck to chest). And he had on a Confederate soldier’s uniform. You could see them brass buttons up and down that uniform. He was just standing there looking out that window….It was about 12:15 A.M. I said, ‘Well he’ll take care of it; I’m gone.’”

The research team reported that there are at least five known entities that haunt the building consistently, and probably many more who turn up occasionally. They suspect that there have been many unreported incidents.