South Carolina

Charleston

Battery Carriage House Inn

Built in 1843 during Charleston's golden age, "No 20" was the childhood summer home of the owner's grandmother who grew up in the 1890's. She spent her winter months at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, which has been in the owner's family since the 1670's.

Built in Charleston's wealthiest days, 1843, by Samuel Stevens, a factor. In 1859, John F. Blacklock, another wealth factor, moved from his famous home at 18 Bull Street to 20 South Battery and lived there until 1870. The whole area was bombarded throughout the War. After the war the ballroom, library and mansard roof were added. Renovations of 1870 designed by John Henry Devereaux, one of Charleston's most famous post-bellum architects.

Andrew Simonds reportedly left some funds in Liverpool during the War and after the War, this enterprising Charlestonian was a founder and president of First National Bank of Charleston and the Imperial Fertilizer Company. His family lived at 20 South Battery for 45 years. Mr. Hastie's grandmother, Sara Calhoun Simonds, grew up at the house. As a child she fell through the ballroom skylight, but landed in a chandelier and was saved. Simonds used his home for extensive business and political entertainment.

Now the carriage house is a charming bed and breakfast and home to many unexplainable incidents reported by guests who stay here. The first reports came in 1992 shortly after the current owner purchased the property having been sold to a cousin in 1912. Family history may explain the “gentleman ghost” who was a young man whose family owned this house earlier in the century. He was a sensitive and cultivated college student who for no reason known to anyone one day jumped off the roof and killed himself. Many reports of ghost followed and include the following.

The “headless torso” is somewhat misnamed because the figure encountered probably had a head, but the observer simply did not see it. We have no idea who this might be, but from the sound of the clothing, it was a person from an earlier time. Since the house was built in 1843, it could be from the Civil War period. The Battery was an active artillery installation during the siege of Charleston, and all the houses around here were abandoned and experienced damage during the four- year bombardment.

One night a woman guest awoke from her sleep between the hours of 2 and 3. Looking up to the door she saw one of the interior shutters on the door window moving up and down. First it was the top shutter. After a few moments, the two bottom shutter starting moving at the same time. Then the two top shutters. A shadow moved over just the top two sets without casting a shadow over the bottom two. Next, the bottom left shutter went dark, then the bottom right, and then the top left, leaving only the top right open. After this, she got out of bed and turned on the bathroom light so the room would not be completely dark if the last set was closed. She woke a few more times that night and the upper right set remained open.

In the morning she mentioned it to her husband and he had surprisingly seen something as well. Prior to the shutters moving, her husband had turned over in bed and looked into the mirror. To do this he had to sit up and he doesn't recall what prompted him. In the mirror he saw a “frosty” apparition of a human face. He could make out the eyes, nose and mouth, but could not tell the gender. After a few seconds, the face disappeared and he fell back asleep. Neither of them knew the Inn was haunted before this.

In Room 10, a couple came to Charleston to celebrate our third wedding anniversary. She wrote, “ We chose to stay at the Battery Carriage House Inn for several reasons, one of which was the story of the headless torso in room 8. We were immediately taken with the charm of the Inn and the surrounding grounds. We were booked into room 10.

After being at the inn for one night and being totally pampered by the experience, my husband went down to the front desk to ask some questions about local attractions. I remained in the room and was relaxing on the bed enjoying the cozy robe provided in the room. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a shadow going by the window so I turned to look. The shadow was clearly that of a man, slender in build and about 5’ 11” to 6 feet tall. The shadow passed in the room by the bed where I was lying and settled onto the closet door that adjoins the main house before fading into the door. I assumed it was my husband coming back to our room. I had also smelled the scent of a freshly bathed person (not a modern day after shave or cologne smell but a clean soap smell) as the shadow passed by me. Again, I assumed it was my husband getting ready to enter the room. After a few moments when he did not come into the room, I got up and went to the door to see if he was enjoying the view of the courtyard. He was still not there. I still did not give much thought to the occurrence but did feel it was somewhat odd.

When my husband did come back to the room I told him about the occurrence. He went back outside to see if indeed someone walking on the porch back to the room would create a shadow in the room. It did not. At this point we both began to wonder if something unique had happened to me. We went into town to do some touring. One of the stops we made was at the Old Exchange. While in the gift shop we picked up a book called The Ghosts of Charleston written by Edward B. Macy and Julian T. Buxton III. As we were looking through the book, we came upon the Gentleman Ghost of the Battery Carriage House Inn. I can tell you we both were speechless when we read of the account. I had chills all over me. I truly feel that I was visited by the gentleman ghost at the Battery Carriage House Inn.

“We want to thank you for a lovely night in Charleston. We stayed in room 8 on August 9th and wanted to first tell you how lovely and hospitable your staff was and how much we loved the atmosphere and gardens of your Inn. As soon as we pulled up, we felt transformed back in time to a way of life that was slow to take in.

My husband,could feel the ghost’s presence and was constantly being awakened by a feeling of someone hovering over him. He was the skeptic and I the believer. I took lots of photos and got quite a lot of reflective lights dancing around, as well as orbs. I went outside after Bo fell asleep to take photos around the property and room and when I downloaded my pictures, I saw something in one taken from the courtyard looking up at the door our room. It is an outline in light of a torso. You can see where the neck is and shoulders and body, even the body looks dimensional and shaded. It looked like what was explained to us as what we saw, just an upper man’s torso. Maybe it was condensation or a shadow, but there were other pictures taken and there was nothing around to make that shape. I will print out some copies and send them to you, as well as the orbs and lights flashing around the room. Some may be easily explained, but the torso outline is quite coincidental to what people have seen floating out the door.

One other thing, about 2 a.m., my husband woke up, scared to death by a loud crackling sound that he described like a wooden chair being smashed against the wall, or even perhaps, the toilet seat, that would not stay up, being crashed down. He jumped up and woke me up and got up to look around, since the noise he said definitely came from in the room and not thunder.

Another guest wrote, "My family spent the evening of Wednesday July 6, 2005 at your Inn. We had seen the television specials regarding the gentleman who liked women, and so my daughter and I reserved room 10. When I made the reservations, the girl on the desk told me about another ghost in room 8. We reserved that one for my husband.

Upon checking in, we took a video camera into room 10. I had hoped to video the gentleman coming later in the night. My husband made a taunt that if there were any ghosts in the room there was no need to be scared of a camera.

Later in the evening when my daughter and I were prepared for bed, I set the camera in the window-sill, opposite the front door to record the door and the bed. I turned the camera on and climbed into bed. We watched TV for a while then turned off the lights and went to bed. The camera had two hours of video tape. The only light was from the television. When we turned the television off, the only light in the room was the nightlight in the bathroom, which gave no light whatsoever to the bedroom.

We saw and heard nothing during the night, which was disappointing to my daughter and myself. I was reviewing the tape before we left, and I noticed blurring but I thought nothing of it. I packed the camera and drove home to Florida.

When we got home and unpacked before going to bed we rewound the tape and watched it from the beginning. Almost the moment I turned the camera on there is something going on. As you know a stationary camera will focus only when something passes between the camera lens and the subject being recorded. Perhaps it was the taunt of my husband, but something is continually in front of the camera lens, blurring the picture, for almost the entire two- hour video. At one point the picture is so distorted you cannot tell that you are looking at two women in bed watching television.

When the lights are off and the room is dark, the bottom of the bed and the bed clothes seem to glow, then it gets dark and later the glowing happens again, several times. It also appears like several orbs are circling the room. Later there is tapping and it sounds like someone tapping directly on the microphone of the camera. Then if you listen carefully you can hear what appears to be faint labored breathing.

This does not disturb us, for we wanted to see a ghost. We did not see exactly what we went for but I believe we have evidence of one on video.

Another letter came from guests of room 10. “I had a very strange experience the first night at the Inn. Right from the start I had the feeling that I was being observed. Even while I was unpacking my bags I could almost swear someone was behind me. Anyway, as the night progressed I was feeling more and more nervous. I read some passages from my Bible, hoping that would calm me down. I picked the 23rd Psalm and I read it aloud about 10 times. I put particular emphasis where it says “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will feel no evil”. During the time I started reciting the psalm, the whole feeling of the room changed. It went from a really weird feeling to one of extreme negativity. I had to quit reading the Bible because the whole feeling of the room went from bad to worse. Needless to say, I even slept with my Bible, but I got very little sleep that first night. I sincerely thought that if I feel asleep, all hell was going to break loose!

The next morning I was walking down the balcony to the stairs around 7:00 a.m. and as I rounded the corner to the stairs, I distinctly heard heavy footsteps coming towards me on the stairs, and as I thought it might be another guest, I turned to say good morning but as I turned around the footsteps stopped, so I waited for about 4 seconds and then as I turned back towards the stairs and started down them. I distinctly saw someone come around the corner, and when I turned to greet them but there was no one there. Looking back I truly believe that something or someone followed me out of the room. But at the time I just shrugged it off as seeing my first ghost at your Inn. Well, the second night went just fine. Room 10 and I had a silent pact, that everything would be fine as long as I didn’t start reciting my bible out loud.

I know from past experiences that ghosts use doors, hallways and stairways to go from the past to the future. Also they seem to be drawn to attics and they don’t like to be disturbed. I do have to ask you, was there ever a door to the main house where the TV console now sits? I believe there was one once. If so, then that is where the “Gentleman Ghost” comes through the wall.

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