Finding Florida's Phantoms

A Ghostly Travellogue by Kathleen Walls

Book Review by Lydia C. Filzen

Enjoy a good ghost story? Want to go sightseeing with the hope of catching a glimpse of a spectral body? Does your idea of a good time include investigating haunted lighthouses, inns, cemeteries and other historical spots? This entertaining guidebook will beckon you in the right direction.

In Finding Florida's Phantoms, Ms. Walls takes the reader on a guided tour of the entire state of Florida, with each chapter devoted to a particular area. In northeast Florida, Amelia Island, Jacksonville and the Beaches, St. Augustine, and the Lake City/Gainesville area are well represented. In each area she explores sites believed by residents to be haunted. The author makes no attempt to validate the ghostly tales, simply recounts them as told to her by local folks.

The Florida Theatre in downtown Jacksonville is reputed to house the spirit of one of the original technicians from the 1920's. "Doc" has been sighted and was actually investigated by a parapsychologist. He reportedly turns lights on and off in the balcony, and has been helpful on at least one occasion. According to Sandra Floyd, director of rental operations, on one occasion rowdy children touring the theatre were playing with the projectors. "Mrs. Floyd told them that the ghost does not want them to do that and he will become upset and turn the lights off if they continued. The children were unconvinced, and the lights actually did go out in that area."

The popular Stonewood Grill on Baymeadows Avenue in Jacksonville has had its share of strange occurrences. "The disturbances began almost as soon as it opened… the staff began hearing noises. The fire came on under pans that had been turned off." Once a levitating sign spooked the night manager. The site has never been a cemetery and no one has died in the restaurant; it is a new building. However, rowdy patrons used to party at a bar next door. Several people reportedly got knifed there and the owner committed suicide inside the building. According to Ms. Walls, "Perhaps some of those wild spirits are still looking for a little excitement."

The Olustee Civil War battlefield park near Lake City has had its share of sightings. "Photographs taken at the re-enactment several years ago showed ‘orbs' over the battlefield. Several visitors also physically saw the strange glowing lights there. They seem to reoccur annually at the re-enactments."

Down the east coast, in Rockledge, Ashley's restaurant is perhaps haunted by at least three spirits. One of them, a young woman, was found murdered and mutilated with stab wounds in November of 1934. Since then, a woman's screams have been heard coming from the restaurant, the same place where a psychic claims to have envisioned a woman being chased down the stairs and stabbed by a male pursuer.

Many other ghost tales are recounted in this paperback, along with a written tour of selected points of interest, bed and breakfasts and restaurants throughout the state. If you like your touring and dining seasoned with the supernatural, this book is definitely for you.

Freelance writer Kathleen Walls is a St. Augustine, Florida resident. Her other books include companion volume "Georgia's Ghostly Getaways," "Kudzu," a historical novel, "Manhunt – The Eric Rudolph Story" and "Last Step," a novel of drugs and murder set in Jacksonville, Florida.

Finding Florida's Phantoms, ISBN0-9742161-9-4 can be purchased at bookstores or on line through www.katywalls.com.