Talk of the Town is a new Alexandria Gazette Packet feature. Questions, comments, or suggestions can be e-mailed to C TRAGEDY OF
[email protected]. LAURA SCHAFER 107 North Fairfax Street Walk into Candi’s Candies today and you are met by the effervescent Candida Kreb, proprietress of a candy store overlooking Market Square. She’s not alone. The ghost of Laura Schafer has haunted the building ever since that fateful evening when her kerosene oil lamp burst into flames. In adjacent Ramsay Alley, despon- dent fiance Charles Tennesson made his way into a liquor store THE WANDERER wonders why he feels and shot himself in the head so creeped out walking the streets of after toasting “Here’s to me and Old Town in October. He decided to consult his friend, you. God save us.” Kreb and MICHAEL LEE POPE, author of “GHOSTS IN ALEXANDRIA”. others have witnessed some Here are the highlights of what Mike said. Happy hauntings... strange things at this house on Photos courtesy of Louise Krafft, North Fairfax Street. Alexandria Library Special Collections, Library of Congress. B LEGEND OF THE FEMALE STRANGER 134 North Royal Street Who is the Female Stranger? Generations have struggled with answering that question, posed by a famous tombstone in St. Paul’s Cemetery. City Historian Michael Miller says the identity of the man who paid for the famous tombstone was known H CITY HALL simply as Clermont, an 301 King Street English widow with a Look out, City Council. A devil-bat is haunting City Hall. It lives in penchant for bailing on E YATES GARDENS the belfry designed by Washington architect Benjamin Henry the tab.