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. Some say she was 414 Franklin Street Latrobe. Lurking over all the city’s official business, the devil-bat is a a Napoleonic princess Here’s a ghost with an identify problem. Was this Revolutionary War wily creature and one that is fiercely protective of its turf. forced into exile by war. solider leading the Yates sisters to hidden clues about the history buried in Others say they were an the back yard? Ghost historian Ruth Lincoln Kaye thinks so. incestuous couple expelled She disagrees with those who say the Spring Gardens tavern was located from their hometown several blocks away near the cemetery. under fierce social ostracism. D THREE FALLING GHOSTS 121 North Fairfax Street Two turtle doves couldn’t even figure this one out. Why did people keep falling off the balcony of the Braddock House Hotel? First it was an insane Union G solider. Then it was a wood turner named Samuel Markell. The third and most shocking fall from grace was that of Patrick Buckley, celebrated “boy guide” of historic sites in Old Town. G VAULT AT COLROSS B D 1111 Oronoco Street The old plantation house on F CIVIL WAR H STORIES Oronoco Street is long-lost, but C its sad tale perseveres. This is the 480 King Street F A GHOST OF home of Thomson Mason, a The old Marshall House is no A SPOOK former mayor of Alexandria and longer around, but stories of the A 210 Prince Street the grandson of George Mason. Civil War rivalry between Union The identity of this Prince It’s also the location of the tragic Colonel Elmer Ellsworth and Street specter is a mystery deaths of two children who are Confederate stalwart James W. wrapped in an enigma wrapped said to haunt the block. People Jackson survive. This was a time in a ... well, let’s just say it who lived in the old house say when Union soldiers burned down remains unsolved. Some say the they the vault refused to be the Alexandria Gazette building and ghost is Michael Swope, a locked for more than three days. trashed Christ Church’s cemetery. Revolutionary War hero from Some say the ghosts of Jackson and Pennsylvania. Others say the Ellsworth are still roaming about ghost John Dixon, a wealthy the Hotel Monaco. E Alexandria merchant who was © Google Map data executed as a spy. 20 ❖ Alexandria Gazette Packet ❖ October 28 - November 3, 2010 www.ConnectionNewspapers.com.