St. Francisville - Myrtles Plantation
It was built in 1796 by General David Bradford. There have been ten murders in the house, plus at least one suicide. A frequent visitor is the ghost of Cleo, a former slave hung for murdering two little girls. General Bradford's son-in-law, Clarke Woodruff, cut off the black woman's ear for eavesdropping, and she took her revenge by mixing oleander into the children's birthday cake. Another ghostly guest is attorney William Winter, who lived here from 1860 to 1871. He was shot by a stranger on his front porch. The lawyer staggered into the house and made it up seventeen steps of the stairway before he collapsed and died. His ghost still plods up those seventeen stairs. Ghosts from the slave graveyard on the property still report for chores, and the ghosts of the two children poisoned by Cleo play on the verandah. One ghost, dressed in khaki pants, is said to meet visitors at the gate and tell them the plantation is closed. Jane Roberts, a psychic who investigated the house, said that walking into the parlor was like walking into a crowded cocktail party full of departed spirits. Frances Kerman, who now runs the former plantation as a bed-and-breakfast inn, says the ghosts have proved to her the reality of life after death.
The judge�s wife is seen in the staircase. The children in the rooms and the front lawn seen playing. The slave has been seen around the house and the owners claim to have picture of the slave ghost. There is also a strange hand print that appears on a mirror on the main floor, no matter how many time the glass is replaced.
A mother and her two daughters are seen and heard. A confederate soldier walks there, and there is a crying woman. A re-enactment of the murder on the stairwell can be heard. The piano plays by itself. There are footsteps when not a living soul is around. There are voices and doors open and close by themselves. People who sleep there have been grabbed by someone and had their legs rubbed in a massaging motion or have been tucked into bed so tight that they can hardly get free.
The Myrtles Plantation House was built in the late 18th century by Gen. David Bradford, a Revolutionary War officer. The spot the house was built on had served as a burial ground for the Bayou Goulas and Houmas Indian tribes. When the workers came across bones as they were laying the foundation, they were ordered by Bradford to stack and burn them. Gen. Bradford only once reported seeing a ghost, a naked Indian woman that was always crying. After he died a natural death, Gen. Bradford's house and plantation were passed on to his daughter and son-in-law, Judge Woodruff, who chose one of his house slaves, Chloe, to serve as his mistress. Chloe once caught the judge in a very compromising situation. Upset at what she had seen, Woodruff had Chloe's left hear cut off. To hide the awful scar, she began wearing a green turban and it became her trademark. To try to regain her good name with the Judge, Chloe laced a cake with oleander flowers. She hoped the judge's family would get sick and she would be able to nurse them back to health. Unfortunately, she used too much oleander and everyone except the judge died. When he found out what happened, Woodruff had Chloe hanged and left in the tree for several days. He would not allow her burial on the grounds and had her thrown into the Mississippi. Today, her angry spirit terrorizes the grounds.
An unseen woman is known to call the names of guests and occupants. When every light in the house is turned off there will be a ghostly visitation. It is haunted by the ghost of a slave girl who wears a green turban to cover her missing ear and a green gown. She travels through the rooms adjusting blankets and mosquito nets.
A French woman wanders the bedrooms searching for someone she never finds. The cries of a baby are heard coming from the room in which it died. Just minutes before a storm the figure of a young girl with long curly hair and wearing an ankle-length dress, floats to the outside of a window and cups her hands around her face as if trying to look in.
The grand piano on the first floor plays by itself, repeating the same chord. It will stop when approached and then start up again when the person exits the room. In the French bedroom a woman attired in a black 1940�s style skirt and a sweater dances to a piano harmonium. Sometimes she has a light around her head, like a halo. She�s short and floats a foot off the ground.
There�s a spot on the hall floor in the shape of a body that will won�t allow a mop to enter. A woman dressed in a white 1800�s dress walked through the front gate and the front door once without opening it.
The Game room, also called the fainting room, has a picture of a man that causes viewers to faint after looking at it. It once flew across the room and hit a former owner on the head. The man in the picture turns his smile to a frown whenever the lady of the house approaches. Pictures taken with an infrared camera showed a bloody hand on the wall next to the picture. Four people were murdered in that room.
The two-story, wood-frame plantation house is 3 miles north of St. Francisville on Hwy 61. Myrtles Plantation, P.O. Box 1100, St. Francisville, LA 70775. Phone: 504-635-6277.