this is about the "
Wedding cake"
house
Sorority
house haunted by heartbroken bride
By ANNA FERGUSON
Published , October 24, 2003, 06:00:01 AM EDT
The Carithers
House, a historic landmark located on the corner of Milledge Avenue and Baxter Street, is rumored to be haunted. The
house is now occupied by the sisters of Alpha Gamma Delta. (Renee Brock * The Red & Black)
There are two kinds of spirits that flow freely down Milledge Avenue.
Students need to be 21 to enjoy the first, but the second resides at the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority
house on the corner of Milledge Avenue and Baxter Street.
Before the
house was overrun by sorority sisters, it was home to several prestigious Athens families.
According to the documentation of the Historic Houses of Athens (Charlotte Thomas Machal, 1987), the southern mansion was built by William Winstead Thomas in 1896.
Thomas built the
house, which is often called the "
wedding cake house," as an engagement gift for his daughter, Isabel, and her fiance, Richard W. Johnson.
However, when Johnson stood up his bride-to-be at the altar, she hung herself in one of the rooms.
When the home's original owner died in 1904, the
house was sold to George Henry Hulme. It was later bought in 1913 by James Carither, but after his death it was purchased by a local sorority chapter.
Despite the many individuals who have come and gone from the
house, legend has it one individual stays put -- the tortured spirit of Isabel, the bride-never-to-be.
"I personally have never seen the ghost, but I know a lot of girls who have," said Amanda Ellis, a sophomore from Lake Arrowhead, Calif., who currently resides in the
house. "I really hope to encounter her one day before I graduate."
Girls at the
house who have seen the ghost report many different occurrences of Isabel sightings.
Some report that faucets have started running on their own, lights have turned on and off by themselves, doors have swung open without anyone near them and faces have appeared in windows.
"The door to my bedroom and my roommate's closet door randomly swing open on their own," said Sarah Reiser, a sophomore from Winchester, Va., who is an occupant of the room where Isabel allegedly hung herself. "I swear that the ghost who lives here is doing it. It really freaks me out."
The room is appropriately nicknamed "Engagement."
According to the Athens-Clarke County Information homepage, (
www.acc.gov), the
house, officially called the Thomas-Carithers
House, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was locally designated as a Historic Landmark on Jan. 8, 1991.
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