public

Heavily Investigated

Something in the Major Graham Mansion does not rest easy. Visitors report cold corridors that shift temperature without reason, and the feeling — persistent, particular — of being watched from rooms that should be empty. Martha Graham, the Major's wife, is said to have been imprisoned within these walls by her own husband; some say she never truly left. Children roll a ball across the floor of Clara's Room and wait, breathless, for the orphan girl's spirit to roll it back. More than a few swear she does.

Built in stages between 1840 and 1890, this 25-room, 11,000-square-foot antebellum fortress in Wythe County began when Squire David Graham purchased some 2,000 acres from the Crockett family in 1826. It takes its name from Major David Graham, a Confederate officer — a man the records show was rather unkind to his wife. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, it later passed through an eccentric book-collector and a preservationist owner. History, it seems, left the lights on.