Look beyond the gentle southern charm of moonlight and magnolias and you’ll find Atlanta, Georgia, is actually a city haunted by its gruesome and bloody Civil War past. Historic sites throughout the city are ripe with rumors of ghostly spirits, some more friendly than others.
The Masquerade in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward is a three-story concert venue that hosts live acts year-round and whose three stages are dubbed Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. The structure originally served as the DuPre Excelsior Mill in 1890. Legend claims that ghosts of former workers roam the building, including those who died from a fire and tuberculosis outbreak in the mill. There are also reports of cold spots, footsteps and large amplifiers flipping over in the storage room. Nearly 4,000 confederate soldiers who were killed during Sherman’s Atlanta invasion call Oakland Cemetery their final resting place. As a result, rumors abound that, at night, a disembodied voice is heard calling out the names of the dead. The cemetery is open year-round from dusk to dawn. Guided tours are available on the weekends and a special Halloween evening tour takes place on select dates in October where tales of the dearly departed are shared.
Based in downtown Atlanta, the New American Shakespeare Tavern is a small, 200-seat playhouse that specializes in Elizabethan productions and has its own in-house British pub. Tales of hauntings at the site describe the spirits of a young boy and an old man in late 19th-century clothing walking the halls and a ghostly woman who reportedly plays pranks, such as knocking down scenery and rearranging props. Strange lights and disembodied voices fill the air as well. The restaurant is open to theater patrons only. At the Ellis, a chic boutique hotel in downtown Atlanta, a 1947 fire raged through the building, killing 119 people. Some claim you can hear the sounds of women and children screaming down hallways and the fire alarm sounding at 2:48 a.m., the same time the fire struck in 1946.
Located in Atlanta’s trendy Midtown district, the Fox Theatre is an ornate former movie palace whose Moorish-themed decor includes stained glass windows and turreted, gold-leaf ceilings. Now a performing arts venue, the site hosts concerts, ballets and musicals throughout the year. Workers claim the basement of the theater -- where doors slam, objects move and cold spots occur -- is haunted by the ghost of a confederate soldier, a woman and a little girl. Ordinarily the area is closed to the public, but each October the venue hosts ghost tours throughout the theater’s supposedly haunted region. Rhodes Hall is a 1904 Gothic castle that once served as the private residence for furniture magnate, Amos Rhodes. Two days a week, guided and self-guided tours allow a look inside the preserved four-story building outfitted with antique furnishings. Ghost stories involving the castle include reported sightings of Mr. Rhodes himself and the sound of children's laughter. A lurking figure known as the Shadow Man is also said to haunt the basement.
Six Flags Over Georgia, a large big-thrills amusement park, is in Austell, 20 minutes northwest of Atlanta. The park is open from mid-March through early January. From late September through early November, the park hosts a Halloween haunt with monsters and goblins. Six Flags is said to be haunted by a the spirit of a girl who died in the park and by former staff members, including a figure in the balcony at Crystal Pistol Music Hall and costumed workers who hover along the railroad tracks. Kennesaw House in Marietta, 25 minutes northwest of Atlanta, was originally operated as a cotton warehouse in the 1840s and a hospital and morgue during the Civil War. Sightings over the years include apparitions of confederate soldiers being operated on and the ghostly image of Mrs. Fletcher, the wife of one of the owners, who waves to visitors before vanishing. The building now serves as the Marietta Museum of History and is open to the public six days a week.
