5 Richmond-area places where ghosts reportedly linger
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From uninvited wedding guests to a long-dead movie theater manager who never clocked out, Richmond's history is alive and well — perhaps a little too alive.
Why it matters: Halloween is upon us, so we're digging up local ghost stories that might make you believe in things that go bump in the night — or ghostly fingers brushing against your flesh.
Driving the scare: These aren't old ghost stories. They're accounts from locals who swear they've seen, heard or felt the unexplained.
- Here are five to haunt your weekend:
👰🏻♀️ The wedding crasher: Guests at Chesterfield's Magnolia Grange venue have spotted a woman in Victorian clothing silently watching weddings from the second-floor landing, per the county.
- Some have even complimented the venue on its costumed staff. The problem? Nobody was wearing a costume.
- And she's not alone: A visiting medium reported seeing a brooding man in black downstairs, believed to be William Winfrey, who built the house in 1822 and was murdered two decades later.
📸 The boy in the photograph: Visitors to Chesterfield's Castlewood have reported hearing children's laughter and footsteps upstairs — even when nobody's there, the county says.
- Lore links the hauntings to a former owner's son who died after his clothes caught fire from candles on a Christmas tree.
- Even creepier: A Petersburg Progress-Index photographer reportedly captured a child's face reflected in a display case. Nobody noticed it until the film was developed.
☕️ The brunch guest from beyond: If you've ever brunched at Helen's in the Fan, you might have shared a meal with someone who's been dead nearly 60 years.
- Helen Donati — daughter of the family that opened the restaurant in 1935 — died in 1967, but the current owners say she's never really left, per Richmond Magazine.
- They've reported flying coffee pots and mugs, plus a woman floating into a booth. Food Network even named Helen's the state's most haunted restaurant.
🎬 The manager who never clocked out: Robert Coulter ran Carytown's Byrd Theatre for 43 years, until 1971. Apparently, even death couldn't keep him away.
- Employees have reported spotting an elderly man in his favorite balcony seat, only for him to vanish when approached, per Richmond Family mag.
- And he too has company: A little girl's ghost reportedly haunts the women's restroom, and paranormal investigators claim to have recorded her laughter.
🏫 The school that won't stay quiet: Classes ended years ago at Goochland's former Central High School, but apparently not everyone got the memo.
- A county employee told VPM she's heard footsteps, voices and furniture moving in empty classrooms — and watched a closet door close on its own.
The bottom line: Richmond has no shortage of ghosts — including an unsettling number of creepy children. Sweet dreams.