The Ghost of a Girl Named Howard

The Weedon House was built in 1817 and sits at the center of Huntsville, Alabama's historic district.  It is surrounded by constitution village and other historic structures.  It is a classic example of Federalist style architecture and was home to Howard Weedon, one of Huntsville's more renknowned female artists. Ms. Weedon was famous for her lovely and touching paintings of African Americans.  In an era when most African Americans were depicted as either animals or fools, she captured the spirit of her subjects and gave them life and humanity.  Her painting were even used as models for some of the characters in Gone with the Wind.  When Huntsville was occupied by Union forces in 1862, the Union Army requisitioned Weeden House and used it for its officers quarters.  After the war, Howard Weedon and her sister Kate lived out their lives in Weedon House.  There, Howard was able to paint and live her dreams of creation as a starving artist.  Ms. Weedon lived and died in Weedon house.  Some say she still stays there.  Weedon House now belongs to the city of Huntsville and is open for tours.

My mother got to visit the Weedon House this week.  She interviewed to be the director of the museum that now occupies the house.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her because she has a passion for history and old houses and she would do an amazing job tending to this old house.  While she was there, she saw water damage on the walls and those interviewing her explained that the walls always weep there.   They aren't sure why and they haven't been able to stop the weeping.   Those that believe in ghosts site this as the most conclusive evidence of a haunting a Weedon House.  The walls there always weep and no one knows why.  The weeping isn't the only sign of haunting in the old house.  The old grandfather clock in the foyer is said to continue chiming even though the clock has no working parts and phantoms have been seen lingering in the upstairs window.   I hope my mother gets her job at the Weedon House, maybe I can learn more about the ghosts there and maybe I can find the secrets behind its weeping walls.

Dead Man's Bridge

Ditto's Landing used to be a thriving port town.  It is now a ghost town.  It really isn't even that.  It has vanished completely.  In 1807 James Ditto started to ferry people across the Tennessee River from what is now Ditto's Landing.  This business grew and by 1827, the town of Whitesburg was born as a thriving port town.  Hundreds of tons of cotton went through Whitesburg every year.  They went up and down the river.   By 1907, the town was dead.  It was killed by trains and faster modes of transportation.  What is left at Ditto's Landing isn't much. It is still a pretty place.  The old Whitesburg Bridge still stands gracing the landscape.

The Whitesburg Bridge has had more than its share of tragedy.  In 1916 David Owen ran for the office of Judge.  He ran against Judge Lawler.   By some strange circumstances,   David Owen met Judge Lawler on the Whitesburg Bridge and shot him.  This would be the first of a series of strange deaths on the now quiet bridge.  The Sheriff then shot himself on the bridge.  His son shot himself on the bridge and a well known Lawyer shot himself on the bridge.  For whatever reason, the bridge seems cursed by death.

Today, you wouldn't have known that the bridge was haunted.  It was a quiet day and fisherman dangled their lines into the serene water beneath the bridge.   At night, they say the ghosts of the men who died at this bridge still walk.  You can hear their screams in the dark and a few fishermen even claim to have seen the ghosts of dead man's bridge.  Even in daylight, I caught a few peculiarities on film while photographing the bridge.  Strange lights appeared in many of my photographs.  The picture below shows my son standing next to one of a dozen strange lights I photographed on the bridge.