Tucked between dozens of Colonial-era houses on Duke of Gloucester Street, the two-story brick Ludwell-Paradise house stands eerily vacant.
With red trim around the windows and stately 18th-century architecture, the house is more than meets the eye. Since previous owner Lucy Ludwell died in the early 1800s, residents and visitors have reported hearing the sound of water running in the upstairs bathroom, despite the home being vacant.
Bonnie Florek — the owner of tour company Spooks and Legends and a Lucy Ludwell character actor — says the wealthy Ludwell woman loved to bathe frequently before eventually being committed to a mental asylum in Williamsburg.
Today, Ludwell’s ghost story is one of many told in the Historic Triangle — a host of companies share the haunted history of Williamsburg, offering tours through the area and retelling the stories to residents and guests alike. Each tour group offers their own unique elements such as role-playing characters, costumes, ghost-detecting equipment and access to areas usually closed to the public.
Spooks and Legends, Ghost of Williamsburg, Colonial Ghosts, and Colonial Williamsburg all operate year-round ghost tours throughout Williamsburg. The tours’ stories are all rooted in the area’s rich history, Florek said.
“[The characters] are real people from the 18th century who lived in Williamsburg during the 18th century before the Revolution,” said Florek, referencing the characters herself and other tour guides dress up to play.
When Florek plays Ludwell’s character, she tells a tale of tragedy.
Ludwell was married to John Paradise and lived most of her married life in London, England. After Paradise died, she returned to their second home in Williamsburg and lived an eccentric lifestyle, convinced she was royalty, according to a Colonial Williamsburg website.
Ludwell’s home is not the only stop on the Spooks and Legends tour. To document their experiences while on the tour, the guide tells guests to make “sketches,” which are their version of pictures.
The guides also answer questions in colonial speech and act confused when asked about modern technology and customs.
Dress to impress
Spooks and Legends tour guides may dress up in costume, but other tour companies also dress for the occasion. Colonial Williamsburg’s guides tell their stories while in 1600s-era garb as well, carrying candlelit lanterns as they lead guests through the historic area.
Colonial Williamsburg offers the Official Colonial Williamsburg Ghost Walk, Ghosts Amongst Us and, starting Oct. 5, the Official Colonial Williamsburg Ghost Walk, Junior.
The tours are offered in two formats, a fictional tour and a tour based off experiences reported by Colonial Williamsburg interpreters and employees. Tours include the infamous Peyton Randolph house, believed to be one of the most haunted places in America.
Colonial Williamsburg’s tours take guests into buildings and courtyards where the hauntings are said to take place. No other tour groups are allowed on those areas, said Leigh Jameson, creative lead of Colonial Williamsburg’s Ghost Walks.
Hi-tech ghost talk
Some tours have started to introduce modern technology into their repertoire, which are used to communicate with spirits from centuries ago.
The oldest ghost tour company, 28-year-old Ghosts of Williamsburg, and Colonial Ghosts, a national company that also offers tours in New York City, both offer electromagnetic field detectors (EMFs) for guests to use.
The detectors are small rectangular boxes, similar to television remotes, that indicate when there is a change in the surrounding electromagnetic field, according to the Ghosts of Williamsburg website.
When a change occurs, green, yellow and red lights flash to show the strength of the change. Green means little or no activity, yellow means moderate activity, and red means high activity, the website says.
The meters also make a small electronic whirring sound that changes pitch with the electromagnetic levels.
During a Ghosts of Williamsburg extreme tour in July, several of the detectors in the tour group went off and started flashing lights. The group was on one of Colonial Williamsburg’s side streets, near the public Gaol.
Tourgoers buzzed with excitement as some people tried to get closer to the detector and others increased their distance.
The guide calmed the group and explained what the EMF going off meant. He instructed the guests to take pictures as the person holding the EMF walked in different directions, trying to make the lights flash quicker. When the lights flashed, the spirit was in that direction.
All the guests took out their cameras and phones to snap photos in the area that the detector indicated, trying to capture a ghost on film.
Keeping it traditional
The technology of putting on a different costume can change the entire vibe of the tour as much as a piece of modern ghost hunting technology.
Keeping the ghost stories authentic also means digging through local archives and talking to Colonial Williamsburg employees who have had paranormal experiences in the historical area.
Jameson researches many of the stories told on Colonial Williamsburg’s ghost tours.
Multiple ghost tours tell the haunting story of Lady Skipwith and the Wythe House, which — like many of the tours’ stories — is deeply rooted in local history.
It is said that Lady Skipwith and her husband came to Williamsburg to attend a gala put on by the Williamsburg governor. She wore a long blue dress and red slippers to the party, according to tour guides.
During the party, Lady Skipwith could not find her husband and searched the whole house for him until she found him in one of the back rooms with her sister. She was embarrassed and furious, so she sprinted out of the gala and down the road.
As she ran she lost one of her shoes, but was too distracted to pick it up. She ran back to the Wythe house, where she and her husband had been staying, locking herself in the bedroom.
Legend has it that if you knock on the Wythe house door and say, “Lady Anne Skipwith, I have your slipper” you can hear the sound of footsteps running down the stairs and occasionally the doorknob will shake as if someone is trying to open the door.
Jameson said that several families from out of town express to her their shock and excitement when hearing all the stories that Jameson tells throughout the tour. She also said guests often ask questions that lead her to share more information.
Jameson loves presenting information that is surprising to guests, she said. The tour aims to tell true tales of unexplained experiences, and often the stories have connections to not only the 18th century — which guests expect — but the Civil War and even World War I, which they don’t necessarily expect.
“I love being able to present history to guests that they weren’t expecting,” Jameson said.
