Unforgettable Happenings in Alabama

Alabama is the "Heart of Dixie". It is the state that introduced the Mardi Gras to the western world. The celebration is held on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent begins.Lucas Tavern is part of a group of historical buildings, called Old Alabama Town located in Old North Hull Square, in the Old North Hull Historic District in Montgomery, Alabama.

Lucas Tavern is a building with a main tavern room, a kitchen, an eating area and bedrooms. It was fully restored by 1979. It has become the Visitor’s Reception Center and the home of the offices of the Historic District, an organization that runs this living museum of historical buildings. The back door of the tavern opens onto a square of historical buildings. All the buildings are equipped with furnishings of the past. The third building from the tavern is an 1890 one room school house, complete with a pot bellied stove, an old pine school teacher’s desk, a kerosene lamp, pupils’ desks, an abacus, children’s writing slates and various books. Guides are dressed in period costumes.

The former owner and hostess of Lucas Tavern was Eliza Lucas. Lucas Tavern was a place for travelers to spend the night in clean beds and enjoy a hot meal during the 1820 – 1840 era. Travelers like General Lafayette, who stayed there in 1825 enjoyed such Tavern fare as was offered then including chicken, ham, five vegetables, pudding and sauce, sweet pies, preserved fruit and desserts of strawberries and plums, along with wine and brandy. Eliza was hard working and raised her family here as well. Her determination made the Tavern a great success. In the 1840s it became a private home for over 100 years. The building was abandoned in the 1960s but the Landmarks Foundation rescued it in 1978 and moved it to its present spot. The restoration of Lucas Tavern was completed in 1980.

The spirit of Eliza Lucas became active in 1980 when restoration was completed and offices were set up in the old bedrooms. She began visiting the other buildings as well. Eliza Lucas spirit is that of a 5 ft. 3 in. woman, dressed in a Victorian dress, waving cordially and smiling at people as they pass by. Her favorite place to stand is in the doorway of the Tavern. One Saturday morning in 1985 a man came into the Tavern wanting to meet Eliza whom he had encountered just inside the doorway not realizing she was an entity.

At a meeting late one afternoon, which took place in front of the fireplace in the main Tavern room a controversial matter was being discussed. One committee member became quite upset and angry trying to get their point across. Suddenly a great puff of smoke and ashes blasted from the fireplace, covering the angry person with a coat of soot. The assumption was that Eliza didn’t approve of the hostile tone in which this person spoke and didn’t agree with their opinion.

Staff members are also reprimanded. During a lunchtime break two staff members were discussing the Historical District just a might too critically. Suddenly the door to their room began to slide off its hinges and hit the floor with a thud. Eliza also take objects and put them in different places. She likes to rearrange, straighten up or put things into disarray.

Eliza also visits the other historical building materializing in front of both staff and visitors. Her special place is the school room. Late in the afternoon in August of 1986 an amateur photographer talked the staff into letting him take pictures of the museum after closing. He chose the school room first as it would soon be too dark to take pictures in natural light. Walking toward the school room he thought it would have been great to have one of the staff pose as a model, as if she were the teacher. He entered the building and closed the door. Much to his surprise there was what he took to be a guide standing in the room dressed in 19th century Victorian costume. She was standing by a window, studying a McGuffy Reader used by school children. The photographer took several pictures of this guide when suddenly his tripod hit the leg of a desk making a loud noise. This startled the woman making her want to leave. He begged her to go and sit at the teacher’s desk so he could photograph some more. She didn’t reply but went to a picture of George Washington which was hanging on the wall and stood under it. Then she looked at the photographer, smiled at him and waved slowly and deliberately. He noticed something strange in her eyes. She didn’t react to him as a person, but looked directly at his face, making eye contact. Despite it being a warm August day the photographer felt chilled. Then the woman floated through the wall under Washington’s picture and disappeared. The next day he returned and talked to a guide on duty in the Visitor’s Center about what had happened and he learned about Eliza Lucas. As he was about to leave he found the McGuffy Reader from the school room laying at his feet which wasn’t there a moment ago. After developing the film taken of Eliza in the school room he saw that the pictures were blank, except for a bright golden light which was seen in every place where Eliza had been standing in each picture.

To this day Eliza enjoys meeting the tourists who come to visit.

The St. James Hotel is located in the heart of Selma’s revitalized historic district on the banks of the Alabama River with a great view of the city of Selma itself. This is the only surviving ante-bellum riverfront hotel in Selma. It was built in 1837 making it one of the oldest hotels in Alabama. The hotel was completely renovated in 1997 restoring its old Southern and historic charm. There are 42 guestrooms and suites, many with great views of the Alabama River or the majestic courtyard. Four Riverview suites have private wrought iron balconies, whirlpool tubs and gas-burning fireplaces.

The St. James Hotel has two restaurants The Troop House for traditional Southern cooking and the St. James Drinking Room which offers contemporary music and a wide-screen TV. There are two room for special events and the elegant Brantly Ballroom opens up onto the Alabama River Terrace and can accommodate up to 200 people.

This hotel was originally called The Brantly and operated under this name for the first 50 years. During the Civil War it became the headquarters of the Union forces during the Battle of Selma and became the home of Union occupation force in what was left of the city afterwards. Unfortunately most of the city was burned because it had a lot of Confederate arsenals and factories. This hotel was spared. After the war it was run and operated by Benjamin Sterling Tower an African American who was the first black man ever elected to Congress. In 1881 taking a break from robbing people the famous outlaws Frank and Jesse James and their gang came for a holiday to Selma. They stayed at the Brantly and took a liking to the place. During this time the hotel was more of a tavern but one could rent a room on a longtime basis, like an apartment.

Around 1892 the hotel went downhill and hit hard financial times and its doors closed for 100 years. In the 1900s a group of investors and the community of Selma began its restoration which was completed in 1997 and the St. James Hotel became the highlight of the old historic section.

According to the Library of Congress there are at least three known entities which enjoy this hotel: Jesse James a male apparition dressed in 1800 cowboy gear complete with spurs has been seen coming out of the upstairs guest rooms 214, 314 and 315. He has been spotted in the bar and employees have seen him sitting at his favorite corner table to the left of the bar. His girlfriend Lucinda. A picture of her hangs downstairs. She has been described as a tall, beautiful woman with black hair. A scent of lavender is around her. She floats about the hotel stopping to look at the living. A phantom dog has been heard running around the upstairs, barking. Thought to be the companion of Jesse James.

In the Inner Courtyard area odd, unexplainable sounds have been heard and the sound of barking dogs when none are around. Apparitions have been seen by psychics standing around the courtyard, dressed in 1800s clothing. They socialize, unaware of the living.

A new cook was staying in room 304 until he could find an apartment. He observed flashes of light repeatedly coming through the window. The curtains would move by themselves. A psychic had a conversation with an angry apparition. He was angry because he had died before he got to finish what he was doing. In the bar area an entity started to clang together glasses behind the bar. This stopped when an employee yelled for the spirit to stop doing that.

In the St. James Drinking Room an apparition of an older man wearing a hat has been seen sitting on a bench. In the Brantly Ballroom a disembodied male voice has been heard by the manager and some employees while walking through the room. A psychic research team did some EVP recording in this room. They asked, "Is anyone there?" When playing back the tape, a scratchy voice of an older man replied, "Well, that’s a stupid question."

The Alabama Foundation For Paranormal Research has conducted some investigations, including recording some EVP’s and found evidence of entities in the hotel. Time for a relaxing vacation in Selma, Alabama.

Strange events have been reported by individuals and passers by since 1865 at the McConnio Cemetery in Monroe County, Evergreen Alabama. Phantoms of Union soldiers have been seen riding their horses across the graveyard and ghostly parades of troops march in lines with bandages wrapped around their heads. Men in Civil War uniforms wander throughout the area. Even people visiting the McConnio Cemetery who have no knowledge of its ghostly past witness strange vanishing apparitions of soldiers killed in battle. By Rasma Raisters