HAUNTED PLACES

Baldwin Hill
Livingston, AL

Birmingham Public Library Archives
Birmingham, AL

Brown Hall
Athens, AL

Burrelson House
Decatur, AL

Cedarhurst Mansion
Huntsville, AL

Cleveland House
Suggsville, AL

Founders Hall
Athens, AL

Gainswood
Demopolis, AL

King House
Montevallo, AL

Leehaven
Coatopa, AL

Main Residence Hall
Montevallo, AL

Marengo
Lowndesboro, AL

McCandeless Hall
Athens, AL

Palmer Hall
Montevallo, AL

Pickens County Courthouse
Carrollton, AL

Reynolds Hall
Montevallo, AL

Sloss Furnaces
Birmingham, AL

Sturtivant Hall
Selma, AL

UNA Bookstore
Florence, AL

Upchurch House
Livingston, AL

The King House
University of Montevallo
By Dr. Frank McCoy

The legend is that Edmund King came into this area in the 1820’s when Indians, of course, occupied the place, and he carved, quite literally, a homestead on top of a hill.  And then he built what was certainly the most magnificent house in the county, and possibly in the entire state.  For example, when you walk in the front door, you will notice the ripple glass in the walls, which a 19th century sort of architectural touch.

The story is that King was a wealthy man, and his ghost will show up periodically in one of the upstairs windows, where you can see him counting his money. A t times, he will lose money or can’t figure out why his books won’t balance, and the he starts roaming the inside of the house, and people see him walking past the windows.  Then he will go outside, and. Of course, it’s dark outside, so he carries a lantern and a shovel.  And he’s really looking at a building just behind the King House, where there was once an orchard.  Supposedly, he buried his gold in the orchard so that Sherman’s army coming through wouldn’t get it.

My first encounter with the ghost actually was a realistic one.  It was my first year here—1976—and I was hired to come here by President Kermit Johnson, who had already retired from being a principal and superintendent in Birmingham.  He seemed to be really old to me back then.  The students would tell you that they had seen the house’s ghost, and we decided to stake out the place.  My office was in Brock Hall right across the street.  And we decided to wait after nightfall to see if we could se ehim.  And sure enough, we looked up one night, and we saw this shadowy figure walking around outside of the house, and everywhere this figure went, it suddenly got very dark.  He went to another place, and it got very dark again.  The third time it got dark, I realized it was the president.  Kermit Johnson was going around turning off all the lights to keep the utility down.  The lights were on the ground, and he had to bend over.

The students still tell the story, but there is an interesting phenomenon that you will find at small colleges.  Back in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, there were much closer connections between students and faculty.  That connection came because they didn’t know that we didn’t know everything, so what developed was the faculty perpetuated many of the ghost stories on this campus.  They would have the students at their homes, and what are you going to talk to an 18-year-old about over dinner?  You are not going to talk about math or science or art history; you’re going to talk about campus life, and there are few things more interesting that talking about ghosts, so it became almost traditional that faculty would tell students about the ghosts, and some faculty would really embellish those stories.  This is not done so much anymore because there are fewer students living on campus.  Back in 1976, almost all students lived on campus.  Now there is probably only one third of the student body on campus.  In 1976, the faculty was required to live within a few blocks of the institution.  Today, many of them live within a half hour drive of the place.  So many of those student/faculty relationships have not been continued.

 

Last updated 07/24/01