Visit Fayetteville’s Spooky Spots
posted by DorMiya Vance | October 5, 2021 | In Arts and CultureReaders, beware, you’re in for a scare! Spooky season is here, and Fayetteville may have some haunted homes you never knew existed.
Four main areas are “haunted” in Fayetteville, including the Sandford House, the Kyle House, Cool Spring Tavern, and The Vander Light.
At the top of the list, the Sandford House was built in 1800 and became home to John and Margaret Sandford and their seven children. According to the Fayetteville Observer, “one of the ghosts is said to be Margaret Sandford.” The Fayetteville Observer reported that Margaret Sandford’s ghost was “believed to be checking on her children and husband even after her death.”
The spookiness does not stop there. The Kyle House, located on Green Street, is another haunted home on the list.
Built in 1842 by James Kyle, the Kyle House was inhabited by James Kyle Jr., the great-great-grandson of James Kyle. Kyle Jr. ‘experienced his ancestor’s ghostly presence twice” in 1988, as reported by the Fayetteville Observer.
Kyle Jr. believed that his great-great-grandfather haunted the home out of dissatisfaction because “the family wasn’t in the house” after being rented out to others.
Heading over to Cool Spring Street, the Cool Spring Tavern, built in 1788, is still standing after the Great Fire of 1831. The Fayetteville Observer describes the fire as “a huge fire that started in the kitchen building that quickly spread rooftop-to-rooftop downtown with more than 600 buildings reported destroyed.”
The Cool Spring Tavern may be haunted by the spirit of NC Gov. Richard Caswell. Caswell lost his life inside the Tavern as he was leading NC’s Constitutional Convention in 1789. There are speculations that the ghost of a woman servant occupies the Cool Spring Tavern. The servant committed suicide in the attic, and her spirit still roams the Tavern.
Last on the list of spooky spots in Fayetteville is The Vander Light.
The nightmarish narrative behind The Vander Light is Archer Matthew, an employee for the railroad, was waiting for the train as some noise down the tracks grabbed his attention. Matthew went to explore the noise and slipped, knocking himself unconscious on the tracks. With Matthew knocked out, the next train came, decapitating the railroad employee. So, the headless ghost of Archer Matthews still roams the tracks in search of his head.
Photo courtesy of Adrian Russell
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