Fields of the dead
The first resident of Charlotte built a house next to an old Indian trading route. He is buried in the oldest cemetery in the city, a stone’s throw from the site of his house. This cemetery has its ghosts, and they do not lack for company. Charlotte has the most graveyards per capita in the United States. If there is any connection between graveyards and ghosts, Charlotte must be a great place to take a ghost tour.
We have several more compelling reasons to join us on a spooky, entertaining, horrific, and fun walking tour of Uptown Charlotte’s ghosts and ghouls. We cover 8 haunted locations on our standard tour of around an hour. And an additional 4 sites on the extended tour, that adds another 30 minutes to the duration.
Our tour visits just this one graveyard, and even in this small, dark wooded cemetery, we were spoilt for choice for spooky stories of the unexplained to share with our guests. We will tell you about the devilish ancestors of the 11th President of the United States, James K. Polk, and about the signatories of the Mecklenberg Declaration of Independence who are also buried here. This disputed document is celebrated here every year in May. If it is accurate, it would have been one of the first declarations of its kind by a city.
Charlotte has an undercurrent of evil that is never far from any of the uptown landmarks. The theatre district is infested with the leftover energies of the passionate dead. The towering Bank of America headquarters sits on a site of spiritual unease. In its shadow is the site of the Battle of Charlotte, where good men lost their lives in the struggle for independence.
These souls and countless thousands more lay in various states of unrest in the dozens of cemeteries within Charlotte’s city limits. Join us to hear their stories that will bring alive the torrid, passionate story that has made Charlotte a city with a past that is waiting to be revealed.
All the world is a stage
Charlotte hosted the world premiere of ‘The Sound of Music,’ all its stars attended the red carpet gala event at the Carolina theatre, one of the most luxurious in the country at the time. Its French velvet curtains have drawn back to reveal movie premiers, musical performers, and hundreds of acts that are household names.
But in the Carolina Theatre today, if you think you are alone in the cheap seats down below, you may have a spectral audience from above. We have the full story on the mysterious white figure that has been seen in the circle seats.
Perhaps after an atmospheric and fun-filled spooky tour of the Uptown, you could take in a show. Some of the theatre’s ghosts occasionally interrupt the performances with flickering lights. Who knows what apparitions will appear outside these buildings on our nighttime tour of Charlotte’s ghosts.
Charlotte has seven theatres or performance spaces in just the uptown area. It’s been a magnet for stars for decades; Bob Hope, Ethel Barrymore, and Elvis Presley all took to the boards here in Charlotte. Theatres attract passionate performers and that passion leaves traces that we sometimes call ghosts. Another kind of place we see passion is churches. Charlotte has a profusion of Churches. There are over 700 houses of worship for every kind of denomination under the sun, including the home base for Billy Graham and his evangelical mega church.
Imagine then the combination of church and theatre, surely a hotspot for paranormal activity, and Charlotte has one. The McGlohon Theatre holds ghosts of singers from its first life as the First Baptist Church of Charlotte, and spirits of performers from its new life.