ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 1, 1996 TAG: 9608010089
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALESSANDRA SOLER/STAFF WRITER
For hundreds of years, people living in small towns across the country have told hair-raising tales of pale, shadowy apparitions throwing belongings across a room or the strange rattling of chains and stagecoaches. Lexington residents are no exception.
Many say their city's history - which dates back to the late 1700s - and rumors surrounding the disembodied spirits of Civil War generals who died nearby make it a perfect setting for ghostly activity.
"It's a real neat area to live in," said Linda Hall, a ghost buff who has lived in Lexington since 1971. "There are so many old houses where there have been murders and suicides, and it's interesting to hear the stories behind them."
Sherry and Mark Cline of Rockbridge Baths have turned Lexington's eerie ghost stories into a business, proving people are still intrigued by the supernatural.
"Everybody seems to like a good ghost story," said Mark Cline, owner of Enchanted Castle in Natural Bridge. "It comes from when you were a kid sitting around a campfire and goes all the way through to when you were an adult watching the movie `Ghost.'''
Since May 31, the Clines have been escorting phantom aficionados on candlelight ghost tours, visiting the dark and ominous Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery and wandering through the back streets of Lexington's most haunted venues, many of which are more than 100 years old.
The idea to start the business came four years ago when the Clines went on a Jack the Ripper tour during their honeymoon in London.
"When we were riding across England to go to France, we were in the same coach as Jeffrey Dahmer's lawyer," Mark Cline said. "So you see, I cross paths with all kinds of crazy things on my journeys."
"I'm not asking you whether or not you believe in ghosts," said Marshal McAden, the tour guide on a recent ghost walk through Lexington. "I'm asking you to suspend your imagination as we travel back in time to hear the moans of soldiers and to listen to the cries of slaves and Native Americans."
Holding a lantern and a wooden staff decorated with wishbones and other charms intended to ward off evil spirits, McAden led the tour of 13 people, most of them out-of-towners, to "The Castle," the old stone museum of the Rockbridge Historical Society. Co-guide Mark Daughtrey, dressed in a black Victorian cape and matching top hat, took over there. He told the story of Phil Nunn, a hopeless romantic who lived on the top floor of the building in the 1890s. Legend has it that Phil, a local delivery boy, was robbed of his life savings when his fiancee left town and never came back. His spirit supposedly stares out of the upstairs window at the changing moon and waits for his sweetheart to return. Periodically, he shuts off the electric street lamp across the way that blocks his view.
Eight-year-old Brooke Turnbull of Towson, Md., seemed intrigued by the flickering street light. "How does the light keep turning on and off?" she asked her mother. "Did he do that when he was alive or dead?"
Her 10-year-old sister, Heather, on the other hand, was more interested in hearing about the evil spirits that prowled the cemeteries.
"That was the scariest part of the whole thing," she said. "The rain made it even scarier."
McAden guided the tour group through a narrow alleyway that led to a courtyard just behind the Rockbridge County Courthouse, where he said Lexington's last hanging took place. Surrounding the courtyard are offices, once apartment buildings, now occupied by attorneys and called Lawyers' Row.
He pointed out apartment No. 13, where a Washington and Lee University student once lived. Every night, the story goes, the boy would sit on the steps of a dimly lit staircase and play his violin while his dog listened at his feet. Legend has it that today, years after the dog and his master have passed away, "Old Faithful's" spirit still returns to hear the soft music.
"Some people have said that out of the corner of your eye you can see the terrier darting up the steps," McAden revealed. "And on some nights, you can even see a paw print."
The Clines used the stories collected in "The Gentle Ghosts" by Anne McCorkle Knox of Lexington as the historical basis for the tours, selecting sites that were close to one another and within the 1.3-mile radius of the tour. (The book is available at the Rockbridge Regional Library.)
Knox had missed some tales, however.
"When people found out that we were giving the ghost tours, they started coming to us with all kinds of stories," Sherry Cline said.
One of the most popular ghost stories, included in Knox's book, tells of a "frail, lovely girl, combing her hair behind the panes of the tiny west window" of the Vanderslice-Roberson house on Jefferson Street. She is one of four ghosts living in the appropriately titled "House of Four Ghosts," along with the spirit of an old lady and two former slaves. Jack Roberson, who has lived in the house for 70 years, said "none of the ghosts is malevolent, and two are actually protective spirits."
Claudia Stanley, who recently moved to Lexington, said she knew nothing of haunted houses in the area. "I think it's neat, just learning the history of the city," she said.
"I'm sure some of the stories are true, but people see only what they want to see," said Scotti Cole of North Carolina, who drove through Lexington and decided to stay the night for the tour. "It's great entertainment, though."
Through Oct 31, 75-minute ghost tours begin at 8:30 p.m. at the Lexington Visitor Center, 106 E. Washington St. Tickets are $7, $5 for kids 4 to 10, and free for children 3 and under. Available at Shear Timing Hair Salon, 17 South Randolph St., Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. Call (540) 348-1080 for group rates or to make reservations for seances.
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN SPEARMAN/Staff. 1. Tour guide Mark Daughtrey makesby CNBa spooky figure with his Victorian-style cape and top hat. 2.
Daughtrey (left) conducts a tour in front of Robert E. Lee Episcopal
Church on the Washington & Lee campus. 3. Marshal McAden (above)
leads tours with an evocatively decorated wooden staff. 4. Guide
Mark Daughtrey (top) peers over a tour group marching up a Lexington
street. color.