The family and I were on the grounds of the North Carolina State Capitol two weeks ago for a festival. Our daughter Hallie ran into some friends from school and I chatted with their father while they played.
“Look up there, ” he told his kids. “That’s one of the most haunted buildings you’ll find.”
Naturally that got my attention. I asked him what he knew about the place.
“I do commercial painting jobs,” he said. “We were repainting the inside of the dome one night when we smelled this cigar smoke out of nowhere. We heard noises in the rest of the building, too.”
I laughed and told him I’d experienced the same thing on my Capitol ghost-hunting trip.
Don’t believe in ghosts and want to see for yourself? Attend the Capitol’s Scare on the Square event on the night of October 25th. From 5:30 to 9:30 PM there will be tours of the grounds and building, complete with actors portraying famous North Carolina personalities. Inside the Capitol you might also experience the phantom cigar smoke for yourself!
I hope the activity this night is as good as (and hopefully better than) the stuff I experienced. I also wonder how a large crowd might change the atmosphere; if the ghost or ghosts will feel like performing. Another concern is that with so many people wandering the building, its next to impossible to rule out a “living” cause for a noise.
While we’ve got a lot going on that day (its Travis’s birthday), I hope to get back to the Capitol and say hello again to the ghost of Zeb Vance.