Buried Under Beaufort

So on the OTHER end of Craven street…

That’s right, not the end where The Castle resides, but the end of the street where it meets Church Street in downtown Beaufort. Past the rows of centuries-old homes where a recent mayor of Beaufort - who is not, in fact, a ghost - lived. Past the Arsenal and the Harriet Tubman statue and the Robert Smalls bust. Past the law firm where a former SC Lieutenant governor practiced alongside a current state senator.

We’re talking about the penultimate block on that street - the next to last - the landing place of the Rhett House Inn, built circa 1820. And while the current owners of the Inn, renovated and opened in 1987, definitely do their best to provide southern hospitality in a historic environment…much like their friends at The Castle on the other end of the long street, they might have inherited a guest who never checked out…

This is Buried Under Beaufort: The Rhett House Spirit.

It’s the 1980s and you’re a teenager looking to take your girlfriend around town for a date. You get in your DeLorean DMC-12, head to TCBY, pick up a couple of milkshakes and drive out to … well where else but an old Spanish-American War fort that frankly looks like the inside of a spaceship and is known for never having fired a single shot.

And what are you doing there?

Well you’re looking for an orb of light said to be the ghost of a US Soldier. But you see this story isn’t just about a ghost. It’s about an incident that has its fingers in a lovers’ quarrel, race relations, illegal moonshine and a court-martial.

This is episode 2 of Buried Under Beaufort: The Land’s End Light!

The year is 1859. James Buchanan, arguably the worst president in US history and by all visible accounts a very irritable gentleman, is still in office, though the Lincoln-Douglas debates are all the rage for the upcoming election of 1860. Not that you care too much about what goes on in Washington, as here in Beaufort, you’re preparing to build your dream home. You’re a physician, after all, and you deserve the best builders and materials the lowcountry has to offer.

What you don’t know when you’ve purchased the piece of land right on the Beaufort River, is that it comes with its own permanent guest.

Sure, you can lay out all the architecture aspects of the house you want, including columned-porches and an exterior kitchen…but what do you do when the house plans don’t include a 4 foot French ghost…?

This is Buried Under Beaufort, The Castle edition.

Welcome to a new podcast we’re calling Buried Under Beaufort, where we’ll unpack some of the ghost stories famous … and yes infamous … to the region of Beaufort South Carolina. Yes, Beaufort is home to A LOT of stories. From Gauche, the 17th century dwarf who haunts a castle, to the legend of a confederate soldier who was killed, possibly beheaded, and now haunts one of the Sea Islands by carrying around a light throughout the night, we certainly know how to spin a tale.