HAVE YOU HAD A PARANORMAL EXPERIENCE AT THIS LOCATION?
Please Share Your Experiences
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History
Located in St Francisville, near Baton Rouge, the original plantation was built by General David Bradford in 1794 - he moved his family to the site in 1799 from Pennsylvania. At this point the plantation was called Laurel Grove.
Over the next 250 years the estate and house were passed through many different families and caretakers and went through a renovation nearly doubling the size of the original house. As well there many tragedies including deaths by Yellow Fever and the murder of William Winter on the front steps by an unknown gunman in 1871.
It was during the renovations that the name was changed to Myrtles.
By the 1950s the land had been split up by various heirs but the house was owned by Majorie Munson who began to notice odd things happening in the house. She is thought to have started the legend that the house was haunted.
Since this time all of the owners have accepted the haunting and Myrtles began to be featured in books and magazine articles.
The current owners John and Teeta Moss now run an 18 room bed and breakfast in the house.
Historical and Mystery tours can also be booked.
Legends of the Myrtles Plantation
The home is said to be home to 12 ghosts and it is rumored that 10 murders occurred in the house although only the murder of William Winter can be verified (see above). It is listed as one of America’s most haunted homes and fully embraces its ghosts.
The Legend of Chloe
From 1830 – 1834 the plantation was owned by Clark and Sara Woodruff and their family. They had a household slave named Chloe who is the speculation of 3 rumors. Either she was forced into being Mr Woodruff’s mistress or she was secretly in love with him, and finally it has been said that she was listening to Mr Woodruff’s business meetings through a keyhole.
Either way her one of her ears was cut off and from that point on she wore a green turban to hide her disfigurement. In our opinion eavesdropping seems the most probable explanation as her ear was cut off a common punishment of the time.
At some point later - either for revenge, or to win the affection of Mr Woodruff by healing the family - Chloe baked a birthday cake for one of the children filled oleander leaves which are poisonous. The cake was meant only to make the family sick but ended up killing Sara and her 2 daughters.
Chloe was hung by the other slaves either in punishment or to avoid punishment themselves for harboring Chloe. To this day the room that poisoning happened was never used for dining again; it is now called the game room now.
Now there are more than a few historical issues with this legend. Historically, Sara had a son and a daughter not 2 daughters. Sara is recorded as dying from yellow fever not poisoning and both of her children outlived her by more than a year.
Despite this there have been sightings of a ghost wearing a green turban. This ghost may be an example of a tulpa – so many people have believed in the legend that the ghost of Chloe became an actual part of reality. Apparently, the original story was the ghost of an older woman in a green bonnet instead of young slave in a green turban.
Chloe is often heard with the sound of children crying or is seen peeking over the edge of beds waking up sleeping guests.
Further Legends
The house was supposedly built on Aboriginal Burial Grounds and the ghost of a young Aboriginal woman has been seen
In the US Civil War Union soldiers invaded the home and were killed leaving a blood stain on the floor that cannot be removed.
There is a mirror in the house which was not covered (as tradition would dictate) when Sara and the children died and their souls are trapped within for eternity. As proof of this hand prints are sometimes seen in the mirror.
There also the ghost of a girl who died 1868 while being treated by a voodoo practitioner. She appears in the room that she died in and sometimes is seen practicing voodoo over sleeping guests.
The ghost of William Winter (see history above) who staggers and crawls up the staircase only to stop on the 17th step – this is apparently where he died after crawling to his wife after being shot.
There also a legend of a 9 year old blonde girl who was skipping and humming her way through the house when she looked in a mirror and was shot by someone. The mirror caught her soul and there she waits until she can avenge herself on her killer. There have been sightings of the girl skipping down the stairs or kneeling and crying in the mirror.
Admittedly, there are a lot of holes in each of the legends of the Myrtles Plantation but it also has nearly 75 years of paranormal activity so who really haunts the plantation and what really happened there?