Margie Blalock has always talked to those in the ether. The resident of Ninety Six never shared the spirits she witnessed because kids either didn’t believe her or made fun of her psychic abilities. When she became an adult, and perhaps due to the proliferation of ghost tales on TV and in literature, Margie embraced her talents and began writing what would become eight books on the paranormal. With her Hourglass Tours, Margie introduces visitors to the cities of the Old 96 District and shares everything from history and shopping to spirits who may bump up in the night.
One of her favorite places to explore—and showcase to others—is the historic city of Abbeville.
Theatrical Ghosts
I met Margie in full 19th century costume at the Abbeville Welcome Center/Chamber of Commerce, an old bank building that’s apparently haunted. Folks have seen things moving on their on accord, Margie told me.
Across Court Square lies the majestic Opera House. At the turn of the 20th century, performing acts traveled through South Carolina by train from New York to Richmond and on to Atlanta. To enhance those acts to stop at Abbeville’s depot, the opera house was built in 1904 with three floors, box seats and the largest free-standing brick wall in South Carolina at the back of the stage.
Unusual things keep happening at the Opera House, such as lights flickering on and off, items moving and odd noises. Opera House and Event Director Emily Bledsoe witnessed a door close on its own.
There are two stories aimed at addressing the unexplained of the Abbeville Opera House. One follows the untimely death of an actress who arrived in Abbeville for a production of “Ben Hur” in 1914 and fell ill. Her understudy was to go on that night while she recuperated at the Belmont Inn across the street, then known as the Eureka Hotel.
“She got enough energy to catch the last act of the show from the third-floor balcony and gave the actors on stage a standing ovation,” Margie tells me. “She later died in the hotel.”
The actress who expired in Abbeville can’t help returning to watch the Opera House shows. Modern actors on stage have routinely caught a woman in an early 20th century dress applauding them from the third floor, which is not open to the public anymore.
The 75-foot brick wall at the back of the stage contains the energy of a bricklayer who fell to his death. Cold spots occur, curtains wave, props are moved on their own and lights turn on and off around the stage and the basement below. The Paranormal Society of Savannah conducted an investigation in the basement in March 2023 and received numerous hits on their paranormal equipment.
“So much evidence was found down there,” Margie says.
There’s also an African-American man dressed in work clothes who’s mostly seen in the upstairs women’s room. Just don’t label his movements among women too quickly.
“At one time that room could have been something else,” Margie says.
The Belmont Inn
Across the street, the Eureka Hotel housed both the traveling performing troupes and audience members who visited Abbeville for the Opera House shows. Today, the Belmont Inn is “reputedly the most haunted place in Abbeville,” Margie says.
There are numerous apparitions at the century-old hotel, most notably the former bellman known as Abraham. He’s a kind spirit who just wants to check on his guests, roaming the halls at night and jiggling doorknobs to make sure guest doors are locked. On my recent stay at the Belmont, my doorknob indeed rattled in the night.
Another active spirit is May Bell, who rules the kitchen. Hotel staff have seen items fly across the room, including the ice scoop by the ice machine.
And then there’s the “wandering widow,” a woman in a long black dress who haunts the check-in area, and a female named Lydia.
The ghost stories are true, owner Jim Petty told me on a previous visit. “But the ghosts here are all positive. There’s no negative energy.”
City Apparitions
And that’s just two hot spots of paranormal energy in a town dating back to 1758, when a group of French Huguenots arrived and named it for founder John de la Howe’s hometown in northern France. Before the Europeans made their way to South Carolina, Cherokees inhabited the area. Revolutionary War hero Gen. Andrew Pickens called Abbeville home.
The town is best known as the “Birthplace and Deathbed of the Confederacy.” South Carolina succeeded from the Union in Abbeville on Nov. 22, 1860, on what is known as Secession Hill, and in 1865, Jefferson Davis and his cabinet decided to dissolve the Confederacy at the city’s Burt-Stark Mansion. The latter’s matron, Mary Stark Davis, lived to be 102 and “she’s still there,” Margie says, felt or seen in just about every room of the house.
On the courthouse square, one might hear the murmuring of men, their spirits unsettled over the lynching of an African-American businessman. Or perhaps one will spot Miss Penny, an African-American woman with perfect complexion and a twinkle in her eye carrying a small black leather change purse. The most unusual is a massive black horse who glows blue beneath the street lights, seen trotting through the square. Visitors may even encounter disembodied footsteps while enjoying ice cream at the Rough House.
And then there’s the series of tunnels that run beneath the town. Theories of why there are tunnels range from hiding contraband and from war to the train holding supplies there until tariffs were paid.
For instance, the McGowan-Barksdale-Bundy House is known to locals as the “General’s House” for Confederate Brigadier Gen. Samuel McGowan and World War II Gen. William E. Barksdale resided here. McGowan may still live on at the Queen Anne mansion—a man’s image has been spotted—but a psychic relayed to Margie of a vision in the root celler, one she believed related to one of the city’s tunnels. She saw a small blond girl and a protective African-American man named John in what appeared to be the duo seeking refuge in a tunnel below the home.
“Abbeville is full of so much history and mystery,” Margie says. “I would put Abbeville up against Savannah and Charleston.”
Abbeville is just one town of many in the Old 96 District where spirits remain. Visitors may read about Greenwood’s ghosts in her book, “Ghost Stories of Uptown Greenwood: The History and Mystery of the South Carolina Lakelands” under her maiden name Marjorie Lanelle.
For more ghost stories in Abbeville, check out Lisa Sokoloswki’s blog post or check out Old 96 District’s “Most Haunted.”
Cheré Coen is a travel and food writer living in Marietta, Ga., and the author of the Weird, Wacky & Wild South blog (weirdsouth.com). She also writes the Viola Valentine paranormal mystery series under the pen name of Cherie Claire.
