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

Sturtivant
by Pat Tate

The house in 1852-1853. It took two architects to build it. It took two and a half years. His wife’s family only lived here about 11 years and in 1864 Mr. John McGee Parkham purchased the home for $65,000, and he lived there with his wife very happily for the next four years. Mr. Parkham was dealing in cotton futures, and money [in the bank where he worked] was lost, and the Federal Authorities were in Selma at the time. He was arrested and they took him and put him in a Confederate prison down in Cahaba. From what I’ve read, people felt that he was so distraught over being arrested because he was a fine man. His father had died early, and he had taken care of his mother. And had done really well at the bank He even got to be president. So when he was arrested, it devastated him. And some people think that he had planned to commit suicide, and when all of this happened [his arrest], it saved him from that. Eventually, the bank did recoup all of that money.

Well, friends in Selma felt that he had been wronged. What he did was not a criminal act. It was just a sign of the times. So they got together, and somebody and went down and talked to one of the guards and bribed him to leave his cell door open. And while he was racing to one of the boats that was waiting for him on the river, one of the guards shot him and killed him. Well, Mrs. Parkham had to turn around and sell the house for $12,000. It was a very, very sad time for the family. We really don’t know where the family went. There is not record of them.

John McGee Parkham is buried in the old Live Oak Cemetery. We have heard stories that he was buried in a scuppernong orchard in the back, but that’s not true. There’s also a story that they never found his body. But they did find his body.

The story that we’ve heard [about the haunting of Sturtivant Hall] is that Mr. Parkham loved this house and felt that he had been wronged. And people have said they have seen him or the little girls looking out the window. But mainly what we hear is somebody walking around upstairs. Or the doors will open and close. Then we say, "Good evening, Mr. Parkham." We don’t know if he’s coming or going. We speak politely to him. Anytime we have a crowd of people, the doors will open. One time both doors opened. One time we saw signs upstairs that someone had been lying on the bed. Several years ago, one of the maids spread a blanket very carefully on the bed, and the next morning, it looked like someone had been lying on it.

He is mostly sighted upstairs. And several times people say that have seen little flashes of light. We have had a lot of students who have sighted him up in the cupola, too. He has not been seen outside of the house. A year ago, we were having a "battle ball" here for the re-enactment of the Battle of Selma, and they always had guards posted in the study so that children would not go upstairs, which were off-limits. Well, I noticed that one of the guards was missing, so when he came back, I questioned him, and he said that he had three people tell him that they had seen children upstairs looking out the window. And he had gone up to check, and there were not children.

And several, several years ago--oh, I would say in the late 50’s, one of the commanders out at Maxwell Air Base came out here to meet somebody, and they looked up and saw children. They said they heard noises too. And when they came in with their key, they went upstairs, and there was no one.

I have never been frightened here. Even going upstairs doesn’t bother me.

Most school children have learned about the ghost stories from Kathryn Tucker Windham, She’s a big storyteller, and she’s been here a lot and she goes to the schools quite a bit. Mr. Parkham’s in her book 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey. He’s
"The Ruined Banker."

There are no likenesses of Mr. Parkham in the house.

The Orkin man came here one time. The ladies [tour guides] were downstairs, and he was upstairs spraying, and he came running down. He left all his equipment up there. He said that he was never coming back because someone had pushed him on those stairs. We never saw him again.

We probably have 16-18,000 visitors here each year.

This is the room where the little girls have been seen looking out the room. We have heard tourists who have seen Mr. Parkham here. The rocking chair will move a little bit, like someone is sitting in it. But several months ago, we had a group of young people standing in the hall. And we had a tremendous painting sitting on an easel. And nobody was standing near it, and it just jumped off and broke into a hundred pieces. The children could not be convinced that it was not Mr. Parkham who had knocked it off.

Adolf [an elderly black man] worked here when they first starting working on Sturtivant Hall in the 1950’s, cleaning it up and painting it. He told the story that his grandfather plowed in the garden after the Parkhams left. And Adolf’s grandfather said that the mule would come to sudden place and would rare all up and would not go forward. And that [Adolf claimed] was where Mr. Parkham had been buried. And he was convinced that he was there. And when he worked here, he would never, never go out in that garden.

The story has always come to us that Mr. Parkham loved this home and he felt so wronged that he just came back here to live and has lived here ever since.

 

Last updated 07/24/01