THE STORY
Reported Haunting
An old Middleton Place tradition describes a gentle female apparition wandering the garden paths during the years when the estate lay damaged and neglected after the Civil War. According to the story, the mysterious woman seemed to mourn the ruined gardens and eventually ceased appearing after they were restored.
Middleton Place is a National Historic Landmark on the Ashley River and the former home of the Middleton family, including Declaration of Independence signer Arthur Middleton. The estate suffered severe destruction during the Civil War and was further damaged by the 1886 Charleston earthquake. An older Lowcountry ghost tradition preserved by author Margaret Rhett Martin describes a mysterious female figure who walked the ruined garden paths during the long period when Middleton Place remained devastated. The apparition was characterized as gentle and sorrowful, as though mourning the loss of the once-famous gardens. According to the tradition, sightings ended after the gardens were eventually restored. Unlike many haunting stories centered on a violent death, the Middleton Place legend is primarily a tale of a residual or mourning presence associated with the landscape itself.