A darkness shrouds South Carolina’s capital city, the region’s extensive history riddled with death and built on the corpses of countless victims. Hear their haunted tales tonight with Soda City Ghosts.
Book NowEmbark on a Columbia ghost tour to uncover the city’s restless undead, forced forever to roam the realm of the living and revisit their tragic ends.
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A stretch of roads in Downtown Columbia, the Vista District ties the present to the past through its supernatural inhabitants. Step into the ethereal realm and connect with the spirits trapped within Soda City’s artistic vibe.
What do a deadly love triangle and the Civil War have in common? Not much, save that both are responsible for the specters that still roam the Trinity Episcopal Church Cemetery. Hear how tragedy breeds paranormal activity first-hand on the grounds of the 19th-century church.
Most cities have a Lady in White, and Columbia’s is this ethereal beauty trapped on the Gervais Street Bridge. A split second is all it took to rip her from the world and turn her into a timeless lost soul. Some claim she’s even seeking an escape as a hitchhiker, unknowingly tormenting the living.
A jealous soul driven mad by love. The echoes of an old asylum. A gubernatorial race gone sour. Columbia’s spirits are derived from many sources, some more shocking and disturbing than others. Venture on a hair-raising Columbia ghost tour to unveil the negative energy manifesting angered apparitions and horrifying haunts.
An entire stretch of Columbia’s downtown district belongs to the ghosts of the past. Vista District is a bustling part of the city today, but it’s also home to some of the most haunted spots in Columbia. Join Soda City ghosts in the spiritually charged district where floorboards creek, hair stands on end, and the remnants of yesteryear aren’t shy about their presence.Â
From the residual haunting of a janitor trapped in a mundane routine with no end in sight to the unexplainable sounds and unexplained activity of a local eatery, Vista District is a gold mine of ghostly experiences. Feel the chill of the restless spirits that haunt blocks of the iconic district.
Keep an eye out for shadows moving in the corner of your vision, and listen for the sounds of the past breaking through the spectral plane. Soda City Ghosts introduces you to the many hauntings of Vista District, but always be ready for an unexpected appearance from beyond.
Visit Columbia’s Most Haunted Locations, Including:
Crossing over the Congaree River, the Gervais Street Bridge is near an active source of ghostly energy. Water is believed to be a conduit for the departed, allowing them to return on a whim without draining their spectral spark. That’s why it may be so easy for the infamous Lady in White to manifest on the iconic Columbia Bridge.Â
While many iterations of the Lady in White involve a jilted lover or abandoned bride, that’s less the case for this unfortunate soul. Though a focal point of the Civil War, all it took was for the unnamed woman to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Escaping a terrible home life, she made it to the bridge before being tragically struck down.
Listen as Soda City Ghosts traces the seemingly random path the Lady in White takes as she meanders the bridge in search of a return to the life stolen from her. She may not be the only haunt on the bridge, either, as accounts of hitchhikers are shared from hapless travelers unlucky enough to give the spirit a ride.
A building doesn’t have to be the site of a tragedy or a strong emotional connection to be home to wandering spirits. Join Soda City Ghosts for an introduction to the residual hauntings of the Dupre Building.
The building’s long history means a lot of bodies have passed through. Having been part of the often-emotional automotive industry and having survived the Great Depression, the Dupre Building’s haunts are believed to be a product of years worth of pent-up energy.Â
Footsteps echo through empty halls, and the sound of locked doors opening and closing ring throughout the old stately building. It’s a harmless reminder of the past, startling but not terrifying. The same can’t be said for some of the neighboring buildings, like the hotel with the wailing ghost and the ominous Grey Man. Uncover these haunted histories and more on a heart-pounding ghost tour of Columbia.
An otherwise innocuous flour mill rooted in the prosperous history of Soda City, the Adluh Flour Mill is far more than it seems. It still produces flour as it did after its construction at the turn of the 20th century, but the shadows cast by the moonlight hide something sinister. Something dark. Something potentially vengeful.Â
Follow Soda City Ghosts on a trek through the haunted history of the Adluh Flour Mill. Hear stories that touch on voodoo, a dedicated employee, and his mysterious cart that has remained unmovable since his death as Soda City Ghosts uncovers the unexplained activity experienced by current mill employees.Â
There’s an especially dark spot in the mill’s history – one that may have forever trapped an old mill boss in its shadows. Was it voodoo practiced by the former employee that made the mill boss disappear suddenly? Find out for yourself on this bone-chilling Columbia ghost tour.
A former mill converted into a building full of historical treasures, the South Carolina State Museum is a unique spectacle. The pair of specters said to haunt its exhibits only enhance the appeal, especially for those who want a brush with the other side. Venture with Soda City Ghosts along a timeline by a devastating demise that forever altered the building’s energy.
Seven years after its construction, a young boy met a grizzly end in an elevator accident. The gruesome scene imprinted itself on the mill, the boy’s energy embedded in the building. Shadows and strange noises have been reported by many, a testament to how active his shadowy spirit is.
The boy isn’t alone in his haunting, though, as the museum also boasts a Lady in Black. A relative newcomer to the venue, this mysterious visitor has no known link to the mill and was only first spotted after the museum opened. Could the conversion from mill to museum have disturbed a resting specter? A haunting conclusion lies with Soda City Ghosts.
Columbia’s history is long, extensive, and, most importantly, marked by a mob of ghosts ranging from harmless residuals to startling spirits. For ghosts and spectral activity, one doesn’t have to look farther than the Babcock Building, formerly the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum. Audio remnants of the old asylum still ring throughout the building, as if the specter who died in the facility is actively trying to break through to our realm.
The University of South Carolina is also not without its own pockets of negative energy, residual specters, and haunting apparitions. Footsteps with no visible source, chilled rooms, and lurking shadows of the past peering in on the modern world are just a sampling of the ghostly experiences students of USC can expect when becoming a Trojan.
On the corner of Sumter and Greene streets, just across from the Coker Life Sciences Building, the Longstreet Theatre hosts the university’s theatrical productions. It wasn’t always a place where creativity thrived, though, and the specters of its former life as a Civil War hospital and morgue serve as a reminder of the blood spilled in Columbia.
Across town, just east of Inchon Lake, sits Fort Jackson, another of Columbia’s infamously haunted venues. Charged by the emotionally taxing life of military personnel, the fort is already a hotspot for otherworldly activity. It may be that energy that attracted the spirit of the young soldier said to have taken her life in a restroom or the mysterious shadowy figure watching over the soldiers of B Company 369th AG Barracks.
There are many haunted spots across Columbia – learn about them and more on a nighttime ghost tour with Soda City Ghosts!
* This is a walking tour and we do not enter privately-owned buildings or private property *
When it comes to Civil War stories, Columbia isn’t short on them. In fact, there are many throughout the city that show Union and Confederate tactics for history buffs. These tales also coincide with many of the hauntings found throughout Columbia, such as the theater that was once used as a temporary morgue for fallen soldiers.
Columbia’s Vista District is a two-fold experience. It’s a historic slice of Columbia that captures the old-school charm coupled with the specters of its intriguing past. The downtown district is a wonder to walk down without the ghost stories, but seeing it through the lens of a ghost tour casts a spooky aura over every historical building.
There’s something about a ghost story from the Southern United States. It’s elevated to a higher degree of frightening, often because of the setting or the very localized circumstances. For example, the disappearance of a flour mill boss with potential connections to voodoo practices is almost as Southern as a ghost story can get. All that’s missing is the distressed Southern belle and a plantation.Â
Columbia’s historic sites are worth a visit at any point throughout the day. However, there’s something fun about seeing them through the eyes of a historian and then returning later to view them as a hotspot for paranormal activity. You get to see two sides of an important site, somewhere that made history or had an important role in Columbia’s evolution from a simple settlement to a bustling city.
Columbia’s history is a mixed bag of events that spawned the ghosts that haunt it today. From the brutal elevator incident at the South Carolina State Museum to the sordid love triangle that ended in attempted murder and an air of violence. A Columbia ghost tour has its moments that even cater to the true crime crowd.
