Editor’s note: For Halloween, we asked our readers to share the scariest things they’ve experienced in our area. Readers came through with shivery accounts of mysterious occurrences, including this one.
by Michaela Lowe, co-owner of The Southern Porch in Canton
The building that houses The Southern Porch was built in 1876. It began as a private home, then became a boardinghouse for men at the paper mill and later turned into North Carolina’s “best $2 hotel.”
My husband and I have owned the business a little over seven years. When we started it, we were open much later. So, some nights we didn’t get finished locking up until after 1 a.m.
One night, I finished up and went outside and was waiting for my husband to join me. I kept waiting and waiting and was like, “Gosh, what in the world is he doing?” So, I pulled up the cameras on my phone to see if I could figure it out, or if I needed to go back in and help him.
I could see something moving in the bar area on the camera. And again, I was like, “What is he doing?” All I could see was a figure moving back and forth, back and forth. I thought it must be a reflection from something that he was doing up front.
And then all of a sudden, my husband came out the back door — as I’m watching the camera. I said, “You gotta come here and look at this.” And he said, “Is that what I think it is?”
I went to the front and looked in the windows but could not see anything. It was only appearing on the camera. And then it just disappeared from where it was saved on our security system. Nobody can explain why. The system doesn’t wipe clean after any amount of time. It was just gone.
Our bar does seem to be a bit of a hot spot. We’ll have bottles come down off the shelves at times. From what I have been told — of course, none of this has been confirmed — there was a woman who lost a baby while living or staying here and then she hanged herself.
If the spirit is this woman, maybe she’s just bored and stuck in time. She’s not mean, she’s just lingering. My husband is definitely one of those who is skeptical of ghosts. But now he’ll tell you he’s sort of convinced.
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