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Notes: FOX5 delves into the story of an Old Town haunting

By ALXnow.com

Good Friday morning, Alexandria!

☀️ Today’s weather: Expect sunny skies and a high of 67 degrees, accompanied by a north wind at 6 to 8 mph. As night falls on Friday, the sky will be clear and the temperature will drop to around 44 degrees, with the north wind easing to 3 to 5 mph.

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Halloween decorations at 119 Prince Street (staff photo by Vernon Miles)

Halloween is the best holiday and nobody celebrates it better than Alexandria.

FOX5 recently dove into Alexandria’s haunting history in a tour with a local guide.

“It’s a nationally designated historic district in Virginia where history and hauntings go hand in hand,” said FOX5’s Jacqueline Matter. “From the colonial homes to the centuries-old cobblestone streets, this town has seen it all: life, death and everything in between.”

The channel spoke to Jimmy Meritt, manager and guide at Alexandria Colonial Tours.

Meritt said he and his fellow guides have often seen spooky, spiritual incidents around Old Town. He said almost every guide he’s hired that doesn’t believe in ghosts winds up believing it by the end of their first month on the job.

Meritt said the stories of unnerving incidents in the city’s history, like murders and other deaths, are meticulously researched through police records and the Alexandria Gazette’s papers that go back to the 1800s.

“We have first and second-hand sources wherever possible,” Meritt said. “We also will have so many times where we’re in front of a house telling a story and somebody pops out and says ‘I’ve got something you can add to your story, something happened to me.'”

Meritt said one of his favorite ghost stories is about a disrupted wedding in 1868 at the site of what is today Dolci Gelati (107 N Fairfax Street). Alexandria Gazette archives say bride to-be, Laura Schafer, was involved in an accident involving a kerosene lamp. She was doused in burning fluid and fell down a set of stairs. She eventually tied from her injuries and, lot long after, her fiancé killed himself in a cobblestone alley next to the house.

“It would be lovely to believe they are reunited in the great beyond but it seems they have not been,” Meritt said. “The spirit of Laura Schafer still resides up in her room while we’ve had other instances of Charles Tennyson (the fiancé) in the basement.”

Meritt said the first reports of ghosts in the house start in 1990 with a report of pacing upstairs and a burning smell and those reports continued over the years.

“The devastating tale is just a taste of what Old Town has to offer,” Matter said. “From the doomed romances to violent murders, it’s clear that history never truly leaves.”

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About the Author

  • This is the staff byline for ALXnow, used by editors and other full-time staff. Launched in October 2019, ALXnow is the place for the latest news, views and things to do around Alexandria, Virginia.