Ghosthunting Florida. Dave Lapham
Titles in the America’s Haunted Road Trip Series:
Ghosthunting Kentucky
Ghosthunting Illinois
Ghosthunting Maryland
Ghosthunting New Jersey
Ghosthunting New York City
Ghosthunting Ohio
Ghosthunting Pennsylvania
Ghosthunting Texas
Ghosthunting Virginia
Also of interest:
Cincinnati Haunted Handbook
Haunted Hoosier Trails
More Haunted Hoosier Trails
Ghosthunting Florida
COPYRIGHT © 2010 by Dave Lapham
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any fashion, print, facsimile, or electronic, or by any method yet to be developed, without the express permission of the copyright holder.
Published by Clerisy Press
Distributed by Publishers Group West
Printed in the United States of America
First edition, first printing
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lapham, Dave, 1939–
Ghosthunting Florida / Dave Lapham.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-1-57860-450-0
ISBN-10: 1-57860-450-8
1. Haunted places—Florida. 2. Ghosts—Florida. I. Title.
BF1472.U6L373 2010
133.109759—dc22
2010020569
Editor: John Kachuba
Cover design: Scott McGrew
Cover and interior photos provided by Dave Lapham
unless otherwise credited.
Clerisy Press
PO Box 8874
Cincinnati, OH 45208-0874
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Welcome to America’s Haunted Road Trip
Introduction
THE KEYS AND THE SOUTH
1 La Concha Key West
2 Hard Rock Café Key West
3 Captain Tony’s Saloon Key West
4 Audubon House & Tropical Gardens Key West
Spotlight on Chokoloskee
5 Marrero’s Guest Mansion Key West
Spotlight on the Everglades
6 Historic Biltmore Hotel of Coral Gables Miami
Spotlight on Miami River Inn
7 The Colony Hotel & Cabaña Club Delray Beach
8 Riddle House West Palm Beach
Spotlight on Coral Castle
9 Arcadia’s Old Opera House & Museum Arcadia
WEST CENTRAL
10 Redhawk Ranch Wimauma
Spotlight on Indian Spring Cemetery
11 King Corona Cigars Café & Bar Ybor City
12 Don CeSar Beach Resort Hotel St. Petersburg Beach
Spolight on Island Hotel
13 Tampa Theatre Tampa
14 May-Stringer House Brooksville
15 A Antique Mall Reddick
EAST CENTRAL
16 Orange County Regional History Center Orlando
17 Longwood Village Inn Longwood
Spotlight on Cassadaga
18 Page Jackson Cemetery Sanford
Spotlight on Lake Mary
19 Pinewood Cemetery Daytona Beach
Spotlight on Ponce Inlet Lighthouse
NORTH
20 The Spanish Military Hospital St. Augustine
21 Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum St. Augustine
Spotlight on Wellborn
22 Homestead Restaurant Jacksonville Beach
23 The Amelia Island Williams House Fernandina Beach
24 Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park Olustee
THE PANHANDLE
25 Palmer House Monticello
26 Knott House Museum Tallahassee
27 Leaf Theatre Quincy
28 Coombs House Inn Apalachicola
29 Pensacola Victorian Bed-and-Breakfast Pensacola
Spotlight on Old Christ Church
30 Seville Quarter Pensacola
31 Pensacola Lighthouse Pensacola
Ghosthunting Travel Guide
Ghostly Resources
More Florida Haunts
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Welcome to America’s Haunted Road Trip
DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS?
If you are like 52 percent of Americans (according to a recent Harris Poll), you do believe that ghosts walk among us. Perhaps you have heard your name called in a dark and empty house. It could be that you have awoken to the sound of footsteps outside your bedroom door, only to find no one there. It is possible that you saw your grandmother sitting in her favorite rocker chair, the same grandmother who had passed away several years before. Maybe you took a photo of a crumbling, deserted farmhouse and discovered strange mists and orbs in the photo, anomalies that were not visible to your naked eye.
If you have experienced similar paranormal events, then you know that ghosts exist. Even if you have not yet experienced these things, you are curious about the paranormal world, the spirit realm. If you weren’t, you would not now be reading this Preface to the latest book in the America’s Haunted Road Trip series from Clerisy Press.
Over the last several years, I have investigated haunted locations across the country and with each new site, I found myself becoming more fascinated with ghosts. What are they? How do they manifest themselves? Why are they here? These are just a few of the questions I have been asking. No doubt, you have been asking the same questions.
The books in the America’s Haunted Road Trip series can help you find the answers to your questions about ghosts. We’ve gathered together some of America’s top ghost writers (no pun intended) and researchers and asked them to write about their states’ favorite haunts. Each location that they write about is open to the public so that you can visit them for yourself and try out your ghosthunting skills. In addition to telling you about their often hair-raising