TOP 10: The Spookiest REAL Places To Visit In Tuscaloosa

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Halloween is less than a week away and in keeping with the holiday spirit, Tuscaloosa Patch set out to rank the 10 spookiest real-life places in Tuscaloosa.

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Some are tourism spots, while others are a little more tucked away. However, we hope this will provide a quick glimpse into our local history, along with some facts and tales to keep you up at night. It's important to note some of these stories have academic backing, while others have persisted through the years due to stories taking on lives of their own.

And let us know what you think about our rankings. Did we miss one? Was there a story you'd like to share? Email me at ryan.phillips@tuscaloosapatch.com with the subject line "Ghost Stories" for a chance to get a shoutout on Patch!

So turn down the lights, put the kids to bed and let's get started ...

10. The Jemison Van De Graaff Mansion

This imposing 15,400-square-foot downtown mansion was first the home of prominent Tuscaloosa businessman Robert Jemison, Jr. Past accounts of paranormal activity include the appearance of a young girl by the main staircase, in addition to the sounds of footsteps and music throughout the house. One well-documented tale that has taken on its own life involves a wall mirror being hurled at a woman as she was preparing for her wedding at the mansion.

Located on the corner of Main Avenue in Historic Downtown Northport, there have been admittedly few, if any, documented instances of paranormal activity reported in recent years that this journalist can confirm. But as a native who grew up here, this reporter also remembers back to when The Globe restaurant occupied the space and carried with it a spooky reputation for pictures on the walls following you with their eyes.

No. 8. The Old Tuscaloosa Jail

The "Old Jail" as it is now referred to, which sits across from Capitol Park in downtown Tuscaloosa, was at the center of several high-profile lynchings during the Jim Crow days that followed the Civil War. There's a historical marker that was placed by the Equal Justice Initiative several years ago in front of the Old Tuscaloosa Jail to commemorate the lives lost to senseless, racially-motivated violence. Through the years, I've heard of paranormal instances in its vicinity, especially with respect to the park across the street, but would be fascinated to know more if anyone out there has a story.

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No. 7. Reese Phifer Hall (University of Alabama)

Located on the campus of the University of Alabama, where it houses the College of Communication and Information Sciences, students and faculty alike have reported strange activity during odd hours, such as hearing footsteps and voices when no one was around. One professor, whom I won't name, even told one of my classes that he felt like he was nearly pushed from his office window by some unseen force. Many attribute this to the ghost of Clarence Cason, a UA professor who took his own life in his office in 1935 and is said to now haunt the old building, which can be confusing to navigate due to its odd design.

No. 6. The Little Round House

An architectural relic from the University of Alabama's days as a military school, the small white building was first constructed as a guard shack. Past historians have cited legends claiming that, after the Union sacked Tuscaloosa in 1865 and burned much of the campus down, a few remaining cadets of the school would lure Union soldiers to the small building to kill them. The ghosts of said cadets supposedly haunt the building. It now serves as a display memorial for all honor societies on the UA campus.

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No.5. The Gorgas House

Another University of Alabama haunt, this pre-Civil War era mansion was one of the few buildings to survive the 1865 Union attack that saw most of the original campus destroyed. Used as a hospital and residence, among other things, there have been several UA employees and students report paranormal goings-on inside the house. Among these stories told to Patch, one focused on a cushioned prayer kneeler owned by Amelia Gorgas, who was a devout Episcopalian. According to UA Museum staff at the house, employees have noticed different degrees of imprints on the worn cushion throughout the day, as if Amelia had returned to say her prayers. Tours are currently available at the Gorgas House, which is gussied up in the Halloween spirit to provide the perfect atmosphere for the holidays.

No. 4. Half Shell Oyster House (Formerly Brown's Corner)

The only location on this list that has been in the news recently for paranormal activity, the former location of Brown's Corner was the focus of an online paranormal investigation show this past spring. While it is unclear if the ghost hunt yielded anything conclusive in the way of evidence for an afterlife, it certainly grabbed the attention and imagination of locals when it was announced in March.

No. 3. The Drish House

The historic Drish House on 17th Street has been many things during its existence, ranging from a stately plantation home to a garage and mechanic shop. It was also one of the original 13 stories mentioned in Kathryn Tucker Windham's 1969 classic "13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey." Built in the 1830s by Dr. John Drish, the ghostly stories find their genesis in the planter and slave owner's untimely death by falling drunk from the staircase. His young, grief-stricken wife supposedly kept vigil with candles in the main tower following his funeral. Over the years, countless stories have been told of flickering lights seen at the top of the tower, with some famously mistaking the lights for a large fire.

No. 2. Bryce Hospital

The first state-sponsored mental health facility in the state of Alabama, The Alabama Insane Hospital was first opened 1852 and would later bear this name of its first superintendent, Dr. Peter Bryce. While its early years saw the hospital praised for its techniques in the burgeoning field of mental health, overcrowding and poor funding would eventually give way to squalid conditions once compared to a concentration camp by former Gov. Lurleen B. Wallace. In the years since the original facility closed, it has been the target of numerous paranormal investigations and a wealth of stories. As a young reporter at Planet Weekly years ago, I can recall one paranormal investigator telling about one such ghost hunt where a person on their crew ran screaming out of the building after feeling like they had been attacked. Once outside, he said it looked like fingernails had been dragged across the person's face. The former hospital building has been largely torn down, with renovations underway to the main hall.

1. Old Bryce Hospital Cemetery

Few locations are as hallowed and more easily overlooked in Tuscaloosa than the large swath of land just off Jack Warner Parkway that was once the main cemetery for Bryce Hospital. The first burials date back to 1861. Even the site's historical marker acknowledges that while only a few headstones remain, thousands of people are estimated to have been buried on the bluff overlooking the Black Warrior River. Some graves were exhumed and moved during recent expansion, yet still leaving so much uncertainty beneath the surface. Some names do appear on scattered headstones that dot the green field, but the majority simply show a crudely inscribed number, as most people buried there were patients and wards of the state.

In a far corner of the cemetery, deep in the woods, are several headstones bearing numbers that are tied off with pink ribbons to signify someone keeping watch over the graves. To a good enough eye, though, headstones can be seen here and there, forgotten under thick brush. They are all close enough to McFarland Boulevard that one can see and hear traffic as it comes over the Woolsey Finnell Bridge into Tuscaloosa.

As one of my heroes — the late newspaperman Ben Windham — so beautifully wrote in 2002:

'No one knows who is buried where in large tracts of the Bryce cemetery, particularly in the segment north of the parkway. Monuments stand here and there in the rolling field along the banks of the Black Warrior River. But the ground is stubbled with bits and pieces of broken stones.

Scores of people who died at Bryce, which opened in 1861, were buried under a small marker inscribed with only a number. Their graves stretch beyond the open field into the shadowlands of privet, hardwood and pine.'

Here are some of the images from the cemetery today ...

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