THE STORY
Reported Haunting
Medway Plantation is said to harbor several spirits, most famously an elderly gentleman believed to be early owner or builder Jan Van Arrsens, who is reportedly seen sitting before a fireplace smoking a pipe. A shadowy woman is also said to appear at a window as though waiting for someone to return.
Medway Plantation near Goose Creek is among South Carolina's oldest surviving plantation houses, with its origins traditionally dated to about 1686. Its distinctive architecture reflects the Dutch background of Jan Van Arrsens, who is associated with the property's earliest history. Medway also possesses a long-established ghost tradition. Visitors and residents have described an elderly gentleman calmly seated near a fireplace smoking a pipe, often identified in folklore as Van Arrsens himself. Another apparition is described as a shadowy woman sitting or standing near a window as if waiting for her husband to return. Accounts also refer generally to multiple unexplained presences moving through the old rooms. The estate is historically significant and privately controlled, and its ghost stories should be treated as traditional folklore rather than established fact.