Got ghosts? Try a walking tour

By Darrell Laurant

Published: October 22, 2008

On the eve of the sixth annual “Historic Ghosts of Lynchburg” walking tour organized by the Lynchburg Historic Foundation, foundation director Sally Schneider admitted to being somewhat haunted by the weather forecast.

“They’re talking about rain on Saturday,” she said Wednesday, “and that might hurt us a little bit.”

On the other hand, attendance at this pre-Halloween event has increased steadily each year, whatever the weather.

Ghosts, it seems, are trendy these days. Most older cities in the U.S. have their own ghost walks, and ghost-hunting groups have sprung up everywhere, often armed with 21st-century detection devices. TV programs such as “Ghost Whisperer” and “Ghost Hunters” have heightened the interest, and I wouldn’t be surprised to one day see a real estate ad containing the phrase “ghost included.”

Moreover, ghosts and history often go together. If you think you might have a ghost, the logical next step is to find out who it is (or was).

“We get calls like that every now and then,” Schneider said.

Her approach to the ghost walk can best be described as “interactive.”

“We do it in different neighborhoods every year,” she said, “so we go to the people in that neighborhood and say: ‘We want to do a ghost walk here. Do you have any ghosts?”

The answer is always “yes.” This year’s walk will take place on Rivermont Avenue, and the ghosts have come out of the woodwork (so to speak).

The house at 2135 Rivermont Ave. is supposedly enlivened by the presence of the spirit of a small girl wearing a white nightgown and a top hat (ghosts, apparently, have no fashion sense). The remains of the packet boat John Marshall in Riverside Park occasionally generate mysterious voices. The current Virginia School for the Arts, once Garland-Rodes School, is said to be haunted by Civil War soldiers whose deployment is eternal.

At the Graves House (2102 Rivermont), doors have opened and closed mysteriously, the copy machine prints for no reason (come to think of it, so does the one in our office), and one of the rooms in the rear is always cold, even in the summer.

“That cool temperature is one of the main ways you can tell the presence of a ghost,” said Judy Harvey, who has been a tour guide for the local ghost walk ever since it started.

Harvey also volunteers at the Old City Cemetery, which seems appropriate. Even more appropriate is this year’s sponsor — the Tharpe Funeral Home and Crematory.

The walk returns to Rivermont this year after visits to Diamond, Garland and Federal hills.

“This is not a ‘boo!’, someone jumping out of the bushes walk,” Schneider said. “The focus is primarily historical.”

Ghosts, after all, are notoriously reclusive, and chances are slim that one would choose to appear to a group of 20 or 25 mortals.

“Basically, we tell ghost stories,” said Harvey, who plans to dress in Victorian garb for her guide assignments on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. “It would be great to see a ghost, but we haven’t so far.”