Center Hill Manson

In January Mark and I spent an evening on a "ghost watch" at Center Hill Mansion, in Petersburg Virginia.  Center Hill Mansion, built in 1823, is today a museum for the once grand home to Robert Bolling IV.  The mansion is a wonderful example of what we expect to see of most southern homes built during that era.  Visited by Abraham Lincoln and William Howard Taft the former home is steeped with history and interesting facts. 

Rumor has it that one of the residence of the home would hear ghosts of civil war soldiers climbing the stairs on one particular night of the year.  It became such a wide spread rumor that today on January 24 (the date the soldiers could be heard) the home is opened up for the evening to the public for a ghost watch.  I wouldn't say that I am a big fan of waiting around for ghosts but I am a fan of visiting beautiful old southern homes so we joined in with about 15 other people on a guided tour of the home.  There were other tour groups but they kept each group small and kept the tour down to about 30 minutes.  After the tour visitors were welcome to stick around and then come back in at the "ghostly hour" where they cut out the lights and waited to see if they could hear or see anything...Mark and I opted to take the tour then leave because IF there WAS a ghost I would NEVER sleep again :)

The home was beautiful in spite of the fact it is in desparate need of some repair.  It needs a good painting and there were obvious spots were there has been water damage...very sad.  Like most of the homes we have toured we couldn't take pictures inside...sigh!

The once grand entrance



The night of the tour they put
out luminaries to light the paths

We enjoyed the tour and the history lesson.  I never did hear if anyone heard or saw anything unusual...but then again I'm not sure I want to hear if they did!  Yep I'm a chicken when it comes to that kinda stuff.