Newberry SC Ghosts

This web page is all about the Ghosts of Newberry S.C. and the old graveyard located on Boundary Street in Newberry. The graveyard is located in the 1400 block of Boundary Street directly across the street from the Boundary Street Elementry School.

People who live in the Newberry Area will tell you that this area of Newberry is one of the most haunted areas in all of Newberry. It is a fact that the school was built on top of part of the old graveyard.

You can no longer see the graves in the Ball Field from the ground but if you look carefully in this shot from the air you can see the graves clearly there in the Ball Field. They are also under the School there.

During the Summer and Fall of 2001 me and my girlfriend lived in the garage apartment you can see to the right of the big house down the drive way. It was one of the most haunted places that I have ever lived and if you don't believe in Ghosts and you could live there you would.

Shortly after moving in we began to experience strange and unusual things. The first thing I noticed was we would hear the sound of a trap door falling open and the sound of the body falling. We later found out that executions had in fact taken place on the property in the mid and late 1800's. Around Noon each day when you would be inside the garage apartment you would hear the execution take place.

One night my girlfriend was in the bathroom taking a shower when she felt a hand on her back like it was washing her back. She at first thought I was reaching around the curtain but she freaked out when she discovered she was the only one in the bathroom alive. Another night we were laying on the bed and she got up to go down the little hall that led to the bathroom and the front of the apartment and she walked into someone in the hallway and they pushed her. She freaked slap out and I jumped up when she said someone is in this house with us. I searched the apartment and of course no one was in there with us. And both locks on the front door leading down to the ground were securly locked. You could lay there in bed in the back bedroom at night and watch orbs of light come in one window float around the room and go out another window. The windows were down at this time. One evening my girlfriend was gone out of town and just before dark I was laying on the bed in the bedroom when I looked up and saw the form of a man standing there watching me from just inside the hall way. I jumped up and said what the hell are you doing or something to that effect and the man vanished. After that we moved to a air mattress in the living room floor where there was less activity. It appeared the most activity was in the bedroom and bathroom.

The Apartment which as I said you can see the front of down the drive way in the above video was less than a half mile from the graveyard where the photos and videos on this page were taken.

There is said to be a ghost of a bride that people see in her wedding dress walking around the cemetery and setting on the brick wall of the above falling in crypt. She is said to have died before her wedding and she was buried in her wedding dress. Many people over the years have reported seeing her. She has been seen by many setting on the brick wall there crying.

In 1882, the newly built Newberry Opera House housed, on the first floor, two stores, a fire station, a city council chamber, a clerk's office, and a police station. The second floor held a performance hall and stage. Touring companies of New York plays, minstrel and variety shows, famed vocalists and lecturers, magicians, novelty acts and boxing exhibitions appeared on its stage. Meetings, dances, college commencement exercises, and musicals were also held there. In the early 1900s it became especially popular because silent "moving pictures" were shown there. Slowly moving pictures replaced stage shows and in the 1920s the floor was remodeled as a movie theater. The building functioned as a movie theater until 1952.

After the movie theater closed in 1952, some people thought the building should be torn down, while others believed it was an important historical building. Eventually the supporters won and in 1970 the Opera House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In the 1990s the city government gave up its space on the first floor, making it possible for the entire building to be renovated and returned to its original use as an opera house and community arts center.

The theater now has 427 theater seats that are historic reproductions, a stage, and a horseshoe-shaped balcony. Since its reopening, performances at the Newberry Opera House have included operas, musicals, jazz concerts, vocal and other performances. You can check with the Newberry Opera House and attend a performance there now. There is a brand new Hampton Inn now built there on the edge of the town sguare of Newberry. Below is a photo of it

In 2006-2007, Newberry College is celebrating its 150th anniversary of service and educational leadership to the Newberry community, South Carolina, and to the Lutheran Church.

Newberry's heritage began in 1828 at the annual meeting of the Lutheran Synod in South Carolina and Adjacent States--nearly 30 years before it was chartered as a college by the State of South Carolina. At that 1828 meeting the Rev. John Bachman, President of the Synod, recommended the establishment of a seminary to train Lutheran ministers. The following year the Synod followed his advice and voted to establish a seminary and classical academy.

The new seminary-academy opened its doors in February 183l, near Pomaria, South Carolina (about 15 miles from the College's present location); it moved to neighboring Lexington, South Carolina in 1834 and remained there for more than 20 years.

In 1854 the Synod voted to make the institution a degree-granting college, in 1855 to move it to Newberry, and in 1856--just before the granting of the charter--to name it Newberry College. A preparatory department opened in 1858, and the College and Seminary began operation in February 1859.

It prospered until the Civil War when nearly all faculty and students were called into military service. At the end of the war, the only college building was occupied by federal troops. In 1868, as a result of the physical condition of the building, the military occupation, and the depletion of the endowment funds, the College faced a severe financial crisis. St. John's Lutheran church in Walhalla, South Carolina, in the extreme northwestern corner of the state, offered the College a new home and the offer was accepted. In 1877 through the efforts of Newberry residents, the College returned to its original site in Newberry, where it has prospered since.

The College has maintained its association with the Lutheran Church. Today Newberry is affiliated with the South Carolina, Southeastern, Florida-Bahamas, and Caribbean Synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

As you read above the College at Newberry also has its share of ghost from the lady who haunts the Bell Tower to two confederate soldiers who walk around on the grounds. Windows and doors across the entire campus open and close on their own and there are dorm rooms where the cover will be jerked off of you if you are sleeping there.

At one time the tomb in the below video contained the coffin of a young girl sealed in a white dress. She died of Scarlett Fever and was buried in a white dress in a sealed glass coffin. The coffin was sealed so she would never decay. When the graveyard fell into such a bad state of disrepair the coffin was moved to a near by musem where it is stored but not on public view.

And over the years the little girl was seen many times playing around the tomb and on the grass near by. At times it has been reported that she has been heard crying and when people have approached her to see what is the matter she just simply vanishes.

All Videos and Photos on this page are the property of Thomas Byers aka Crazyhorsesghost and were produced by him. Any inquirys should be directed to thomasbyers+ghosts@gmail.com Thank You