True Virginia

With significant historic destinations like Colonial Williamsburg, Monticello, Jamestown, and Mount Vernon, Virginia draws countless visitors looking to learn more about the Commonwealth’s past each year. In addition to these monumental landmarks, if you walk more than a few feet in any direction in Virginia, you’re almost guaranteed to step foot onto hallowed grounds of an American Revolution battlefield or a Civil War site. But such a rich history also brings an eerie side effect: a long list of supposedly haunted sites. Virginia has more than its share of ghost stories, and we have compiled a few of the spookiest locations that are open to the public. Experience a truly haunted Halloween when you visit these ghostly grounds.

Ferry Plantation House—Virginia Beach

The constructed grounds on which the resides date back to 1642, when the second ferry service in Hampton Roads began carrying passengers across the Lynnhaven River to plantations and the county courthouse along the waterway. After the ferry closed, several buildings were erected in succession, only to be torn down or destroyed. Eventually, the last buildings fell into disrepair and were all but forgotten by the living. But the previous residents are said to have never truly left the grounds; eleven spirits have been reported to haunt this house, including victims of a shipwreck that occurred in 1810.

After the city completed extensive renovations, the house was added to the Virginia Landmarks Register and now serves as a museum, allowing people to visit the historic grounds. This tour takes a terrifying turn during Halloween, when for several days, the museum holds the, where guests learn the interesting history behind the property and the tragic tales of the ghosts that now call Ferry Plantation House their home.

Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery

Lexington has numerous historic sites, but few are as creepy as the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery, where the famous Confederate general was laid to rest. Take a tour of Lexington that ends in the cemetery with Haunting Tales, Lexington’s Ghost Tour, where entertainers dressed in old-fashioned attire take you back through the history of Lexington and the chilling tales that have many believing there are ghosts roaming the region, especially during Halloween. Some even swear they have seen Jackson and fellow Confederate General Robert E. Lee on his horse, Traveler, as they wandered down the now-unfamiliar streets of Lexington.