Charles Washington Inn

Located in Jefferson County, WV and not to be confused with just the Washington Inn located nearby.

This house was originally known as the Tiffin House, home of Senator Edward Tiffin.

Scroll down to Tiffin House for info:
http://www.hilltophousehotel.net/walking%20tour.html

Short bio on Edward Tiffin:
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=T000268

Haunting information:
In an upstairs bathroom, the shower often turns on by itself, despite repeated inspection and intervention by reputable plumbers.

Guests utilizing that same upstairs bathroom have sometimes reported "boiling water in the toilet."

River Park Hospital

http://media.www.marshallparthenon.com/media/storage/paper534/news/2003/10/31/hauntedhuntington/A.Spooktacular.Guide.To.Some.Ghostly.Fun.Around.Town-545480.shtml

"River Park Hospital, located at 1230 Sixth Ave. in Huntington WV has not always been a psychiatric hospital. The building started as an orthopedics hospital in 1923, then it became the Huntington Hospital before finally becoming the River Park Hospital.

"I was walking down the hallway on the fifth floor and the hair on the back of my neck stood straight up and I had the most overwhelming feeling shoot straight through my body," Donna Swiger, a registered nurse who has worked at River Park Hospital for 10 years, said. "My shift supervisor turned to me and said I just had my first experience with Edith."

Jennifer McVey-Holley, director of community relations at River Park Hospital, said the employees have reported strange sightings at the hospital. McVey-Holley said the staff is convinced a ghost named Edith haunts the hospital.

Edith Miller, a registered nurse, helped start the hospital in 1923.

Employees at the hospital said Edith is a friendly ghost and she is just checking to see if everything is running smoothly.

Some of the employees said they find it eerie when the elevator doors open when no one is in sight.

McVey-Holley said she hears various reports from employees about cold spots in the hospital, which often feel like a human presence.

She said other reports, such as hearing someone walk down the hallway only to find no one is there and lights turning on and off have mysteriously occurred.

McVey-Holley said most employees report incidents on the fifth floor, where Edith's office was located.

Swiger said Edith's office is now where the record room is located. The nurse supervisors used to use Edith's room as their office, Swiger said. The supervisors did not stay in the room for long. They moved into a different room because they reported that they could feel Edith's presence.

McVey-Holley said Edith is not interested in hurting anyone. Edith is a positive spirit because she is looking out for all the employees.

McVey-Holley said, in a joking manner, everyone knows about Edith. She said the hospital should have an orientation program for the new employees to prepare them for their first experience with the ghost."

River Park Hospital, located at 1230 Sixth Ave., has not always been a psychiatric hospital. The building started as an orthopedics hospital in 1923, then it became the Huntington Hospital before finally becoming the River Park Hospital.

"I was walking down the hallway on the fifth floor and the hair on the back of my neck stood straight up and I had the most overwhelming feeling shoot straight through my body," Donna Swiger, a registered nurse who has worked at River Park Hospital for 10 years, said. "My shift supervisor turned to me and said I just had my first experience with Edith."

Jennifer McVey-Holley, director of community relations at River Park Hospital, said the employees have reported strange sightings at the hospital. McVey-Holley said the staff is convinced a ghost named Edith haunts the hospital.

Edith Miller, a registered nurse, helped start the hospital in 1923.

Employees at the hospital said Edith is a friendly ghost and she is just checking to see if everything is running smoothly.

Some of the employees said they find it eerie when the elevator doors open when no one is in sight.

McVey-Holley said she hears various reports from employees about cold spots in the hospital, which often feel like a human presence.

She said other reports, such as hearing someone walk down the hallway only to find no one is there and lights turning on and off have mysteriously occurred.

McVey-Holley said most employees report incidents on the fifth floor, where Edith's office was located.

Swiger said Edith's office is now where the record room is located. The nurse supervisors used to use Edith's room as their office, Swiger said.

 The supervisors did not stay in the room for long. They moved into a different room because they reported that they could feel Edith's presence.

McVey-Holley said Edith is not interested in hurting anyone. Edith is a positive spirit because she is looking out for all the employees.

McVey-Holley said, in a joking manner, everyone knows about Edith. She said the hospital should have an orientation program for the new employees to prepare them for their first experience with the ghost. "

WV Turnpike

The WV Turnpike between Princeton and Charleston is plagued with many ghostly happenings.

Phantom hitchhikers, strange lights, and UFOs are just some of the things that have been reported since construction of the highway began in 1952.

Although the whole stretch of road is known for its haunts just as much as its known for its treacherous terrain, most of the activity seems concentrated on a 15 mile stretch between Beckley and Mossy.

Along this area, there are numerous reports of activity, many coming from state troopers. In two separate incidents involving two different troopers, a phantom hitchhiker has been picked up, only to disappear in the back seat of the cruiser.

Besides the actual road itself, the old Morton Truck Stop and Glass House restaurant (now torn down) were reported to be haunted, as well as a highway maintenance building and offices.

Many old family cemeteries were paved over or moved in the building of the highway, and at least 5 workers died in its construction. The highway runs along the sites of several major floods and mine disasters, not to mention countless murders, so perhaps this has something to do with the activity. Not many reports have surfaced since the highway upgraded in the 1970s, yet a few strange things have recently happened.

My mom and I had our own phantom hitchhiker story along this road a few years back. We were visiting my grandmother in Beckley and passed a scraggly looking young man wearing dark clothing and carrying an olive green army-like sack. This was an area where there were no exits for many miles in either direction, and we never saw a broken down car or anything in the area. We both looked in the rearview mirror as we passed him, but he had mysteriously vanished. We turned around at the nearest spot in the road and went back, but we never did find him again and saw no place where he could have been, nor no cars which could have picked him up.

For complete hauntings info, check out Dennis Dietz's The Greenbrier Ghost, or A Guide to Haunted WV by Walter Gavenda and Michael T. Shoemaker. For a history of the highway, see below:

http://www.answers.com/topic/west-virginia-turnpike

http://www.wvculture.org/HiStory/wvhs1121.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_Turnpike

http://www.centerfornationalresponse.com/about/history/history.html

Poor House Farm - Martinsburg

WVGhosts Listing:
The stone house on the property has had a troubled past. Starting out as a farm, then was made into the poor house. A boys home and a state run mental ward. I'm not sure if civil war fighting took place, but a soldier was reported roaming the property. Plus graves have been dug up for some unknown reason. My cousin is living in the house at the moment. Before I knew about the history of the house, there were spots in the house where it was hard to breath. By the kitchen fireplace there seemed to be a heavy feeling. I don't know if it's haunted. Why not check it out. It's outside of Martinsburg.

The area is currently owned and operated by the Martinsburg-Berkeley County Parks and Recreation (http://www.mbcparks-rec.org/index.html ). The land was originally donated by Robert Christy.

Here's the website and directions to the park itself:
http://www.mbcparks-rec.org/park_poorhousefarm.html

Here's an article about a group out of Hedgesville, the Paranormal Patrol (www.paranormalpatrol.com), who did an investigation and I believe still run haunted tours out there each October:
http://www.afterlifenews.com/a/778.html

Mai Moore Mansion

Located in Apple Grove WV, the Mai Moore mansion was once the home to Charles Page Thomas Moore, his wife Urilla Kline, and four daughters, Ida, Rebecca, Lauretta Mai, and Elizabeth.

Charles was born in February of 1831 in Greenbrier County.

After his parents died when he was 14, he was adopted by his uncle George Moore and moved to Mason county.

While at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, PA, Charles co-founded the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity in 1852.

 He went on to become a justice of the WV Supreme Court of Appeals and died on July 7, 1904. He is buried in nearby Bruce Chapel Cemetery.

The mansion is located near the Adena Indian mound, named the Mai Moore Mound after Charles' daughter, Lauretta Mai, and thus the mansion became known as the Mai Moore Mansion.

It was gutted by fire in 1968 and not much remains as of today.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvmason/henderson/mooremansion.html

http://www.texastechphipsi.org/history.htm

Weston State Hospital

http://www.westonlandmark.com/links.htm Lots of history on this site.

These two sites have only some history, but have tons of pictures and postcards:

http://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/buildings/weston.html
http://www.rootsweb.com/~asylums/weston_wv/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weston_State_Hospital Info and links

Hale House

This house is located outside of Charleston, WV in the town of Malden. Built in 1838 by Dr. Joseph P. Hale as his private residence, it is now owned by the Cabin Creek Quilt Cooperative.

http://www.larrylrowe.com/malden/clicktour.html
(Info about the house and history of Malden)

http://www.cabincreekquilts.com/about.asp
(Cabin Creek Quilt’s Homepage)

http://www.wvculture.org/History/notewv/hale1.html
(Short bio of Dr. Hale's accomplishments)

Haunted WV listing from the WV Ghost Hunter's website (www.wvghosthunters.com):
The Hale House is a historical house near Cabin Creek, West Virginia.
The legend of the house is that a woman lived there with her abusive
husband and his uncle. One night, someone killed the husband. There
was an investigation, but no one was ever convicted for the crime. The
man still roams the house and grounds seeking justice for his murder

Colored TB Hospital at Denmar

In February of 1917, the WV Legislature approved the building of a TB sanitarium in Pocahontas County for African Americans.

The site was chosen for its high altitude, and thus healthy, fresh air. Several buildings and a tract of land were purchased from the Maryland Lumber Company, and in January of 1919, the hospital admitted its first patients.

However, the hospital only admitted those who could afford to pay for their own care, leaving many to suffer without medical attention.

Soon after, though...patients began being sent to the hospital by court order in an effort to control the disease...and even the WV State Penitentiary in Moundsville sent infected prisoners to the Denmar site.

Therefore, by 1937, the population had increased so substantially that the state was forced to add a children's school and dormitories, and fund a new building to alleviate overflow.

As medical science improved, the need for TB sanitariums became less and less, and in 1957 the sanitarium was converted into a home for the chronically ill, with the remaining TB patients being sent to the Hopemont Sanitarium, which had just begun admitting black patients.

 It too was was shut down 8 years later and also turned into a hospital for the chronically ill.

Denmar formally closed in 1990, and by 1993 was turned into a correctional facility, so access today is prohibited.

According to the WV Ghosts website:

Nearly 1000 African-American women and men spent their last days suffering with Tuberculosis at this isolated location in Pocahontas County and nearly 300 of them are permanently laid to rest here

. This is a very isolated and active paranormal location. In the mid 1990's the location was renovated and turned into a correctional facility and is not available for the public to visit.

Links:
http://www.wvculture.org/history/timetrl/ttfeb.html#0216
(History of the hospital)

http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh56-6.html
(Hospital death list)

http://www.abandonedonline.net/index.php?catid=78

Alderson Junior College

The school opened in the fall of 1901 as Alderson Academy and then gained the status of junior college several years later.

 It was founded by Emma Alderson under the sponsorship of the Greenbrier Baptist Church. (There is now a scholarship in her name for students in Greenbrier Co.)

Due to financial difficulties in the 1920s, Alderson Junior College and Broaddus College, which recently had opened another junior college in Philippi (1908) decided to merge into one campus located in Philippi.

Both shared a strong liberal arts Baptist philosophy. The merger was completed in 1932.

Apparently, this was quite upsetting to Emma, and even though she was elected to the Board of Trustees and many of the students and faculty of the junior college went to AB, she chose never to even visit the campus.

A few websites about Alderson Academy:
http://www.wvculture.org/HiStory/edu...academy03.html
http://www.wvculture.org/history/timetrl/ttsept.html
http://www.ab.edu/about_us/history

After that there's a twenty or so year gap until the Mountain State Baptist High School, the co-ed boarding school was put in....and produced such graduates as a Baptist preacher and a used car salesman.

The building is now abandoned.

Hawks Nest State Park

Hawks Nest State Park is located in Ansted, WV...in Fayette County. In the paranormal community, it is known for its long legacy of tragedy, and the subsequent hauntings that tend to follow such.

Hawks Nest is home to a popular "Lovers' Leap" cliff, that has a tradition going all the way back to the 1800s. The first pair of lovers to take this suicidal plunge is debatable, however. Some stories tell of an Indian Princess and her lover from an enemy tribe who jump together. Other tales say the Princess jumped on her own because a white man killed her lover.

However, since there is no such thing as an Indian Princess, and these stories have become a quite popular way to romanticize Native American culture...it probably isn't true.

More likely, the first pair of Lover's to take the plunge were a pair of pioneers from Lewisburg...then known as Fort Union...who fled because the girl's parents did not approve of the relationship. It is said the girl became dizzy and fell...and her anguished lover jumped on after her. More info can be found in George Atkinson's History of Kanawha County.

There is still no real evidence for this story either...but what IS verifiable is that the cliffs of Hawks Nest have had a long tradition of attracting suicides. Such suicides include a pregnant school teacher, a woman from Beckley, and a 17 year old boy named Robert Caldwell from New River State College (now WV Institute of Technology).

The tour guides and park personnel are hesitant to speak of the suicides, but will admit that the park is a favorite spot...with emphasis leaving the original Lover's Leap, and the new cliff of choice being the more secluded Hawk's Nest Overlook.

Hawks Nest is also famous for its Death Tunnel. During the 1930s, a tunnel was constructed, intending to divert water for electricity production. Over 500 men died from silicosis, a disease acquired by inhaling the high amounts of silica found in the rock. A smaller, but still notable tragedy happened on January 30, 1908 when an explosion at the Bachman Mine killed 9 men.

Because of all this tragedy, it is said that the park may be "haunted" by a genius loci...or guardian spirit of a location.

Here are some links on that, but check out my thread in the Other Entities forum for more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genius_loci

http://www.aether.hu/pgl/

Other supernatural tales include a glowing white horse being seen by either a family or a group of campers...or both...that mysteriously ascended into the sky, leaving a glow, after it rampaged through the house/campsite. White horses are seen as a death omen to some cultures.

Also, it is said that if you stand on Lover's Leap, you can hear screams...and the sound of a body falling and landing on the rocks below.

Sources:
A Guide to Haunted WV by Walter Gavenda and Michael T. Shoemaker

Hawks Nest State Park Website
http://www.hawksnestsp.com/

Websites about the Silica Mining deaths:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawk's_Nest_incident
http://www.wvculture.org/hiStory/wvhs122.html http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewshortstory.asp?id=26022

Picture of the famous Lover's Leap, and info on other popular Lover's Leaps:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lover's_Leap

Soldier's Memorial Theater

The Soldier's Memorial Theater opened up in Beckley, WV in 1932 as a memorial to WWI soldiers and sailors.

In November of 1931, a ceremony was planned to celebrate the laying of the cornerstone. Veterans paraded, bands marched, and Rev. E. Gibson Davis was scheduled to give the invocation.

Before Davis could begin, the temporary flooring that many spectators were standing on collapsed. Six people in total were injured-3 seriously. Panic was averted when the Mark Twain High School Band struck up a march tune, as the injured were tended to and carried out.

The building was finished and opened up with another ceremony on Memorial Day of 1932...this time without incident.

The building served as a temporary courthouse, office building, YMCA, and community building. In the 1970s, it was closed for storage, and reopened in 1993.

Ghost sightings include:
A man dressed in 1930s style clothing. The man appears to be in his 60s, and is seen often in the balcony.

Sounds of children playing have been heard inside the auditorium.

The sound of a saxophone playing.

 http://www.forgemtn.net/~smtac/

Newspaper Article about a ghost investigation:

Soldier's Memorial Haunted

Team confirms it with high tech investigation

FROM STAFF REPORTS

BECKLEY -- The results are in -- according to World Paranormal Investigations, the Soldiers Memorial Theatre & Arts Centre is, in fact, haunted.

The seven member investigative team traveled from northern Ohio to visit the SMT building and perform an extensive investigation utilizing digital cameras, 35mm cameras, DVRs (digital voice recorders), video cameras, security cameras, EMF (electromagnetic field) meters, as well as several audio devices.

World Paranormal Investigations was founded six years ago and now has a division in the UK as well as the USA team. Different members of the team specialize in different areas of paranormal investigation. Upon their arrival at the SMT building, they were given a complete tour and told some of the history of the building.

"Although I have heard stories of some strange things happen