Spirits lurking in Downtown Augusta historic house, according to paranormal investigators one even has a name

Friday, August, 23rd, 2019

AUGUSTA, Ga. ((WRDW/WAGT)) -- After several reports of possible ghosts at Ware's Folly, home to the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, one of the board members decided to call in some paranormal investigators. Investigators spent a few hours in the building and said they found a few spirits.

Executive Director for the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art Heather Williams said about a year and a half into working at The Institue she stories about spirits. Later on she began to experience some unusual activity herself.

She said, "We had one day where a book sort of flew off the shelf; it was a large three ring binder and it should've toppled off of the shelf if somebody had bumped it, but there was nobody there and it shot out and then dropped. That was the first time we ever had anything, that was a little off.

Another time, Williams and other staff members heard footsteps, and even called the police to check things out.

"The footsteps got closer and closer to where our stairs are and the stairs lead down to our offices and they're carpeted, and then we heard what sounded like a foot dragging on the carpet... It kind of freaked us out we grabbed our purses and we left we called the police and just asked them to do a walk through of the building," she said.

Turns out Heather may be working with a few spirits. About two months ago the institute called in Middle Georgia Paranormal Investigations. The investigators said they found a few spirits in the 200 year old house,

including one named Ian.

In a video of their findings you can hear an investigator say "Can you tell us your name" then a spirit replies with "Ian."

Investigators said another one told them to "Go away," and from the attic they said they heard another one sigh.

"Just the fact that there was anything at all was kind of cool," said Williams.

Now the staff hopes to make it something everyone can enjoy.

"I think what we're looking into doing is maybe having some kind of a late night dinner something that is [kind of] themed around the history of the building," she said, "We've [also] talked about costume parties and themes, historical parties."

The staff said they plan to have an event scheduled soon for October. We'll let you know when we have those details.