This Louisiana Plantation Has Stood For Over 200 Years And So Have Its Ghosts

Louisiana plantations are beautiful. Oak trees draped in moss.

Grand staircases. Antique furniture.

But this one has something extra. Ghosts that have been around as long as the building itself. Two centuries of history, some of it dark, and the spirits reportedly never left.

Visitors report cold spots in rooms that should be warm. Whispers in empty hallways.

A woman in white standing at a second floor window. I took the tour during the day, thinking sunlight would make it less creepy. It did not.

The guide told stories in a normal voice, but the silence between stories felt heavy. Louisiana has a lot of haunted places.

This plantation feels less like a museum and more like something still alive.

The 200-Year-Old Plantation With a Past That Still Breathes

General David Bradford built this house in 1796, and he called it Laurel Grove. It sat quietly on a stretch of Louisiana land that had already seen centuries of story before a single nail was driven.

The home was later renamed The Myrtles in 1834 by Ruffin Gray Stirling, inspired by the crepe myrtle trees that lined the property with their papery bark and bursts of color.

Today, the plantation is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a recognition it earned in 1978. That designation matters because it means the building has been preserved with care, keeping its original architectural details intact.

The crown molding alone is enough to stop you mid-step, carved intricately by hands whose names history did not record.

Enslaved people worked this land, and their presence is woven into every layer of the property’s story. The Myrtles does not shy away from that history.

Tours acknowledge it directly, which makes the experience feel honest rather than just theatrical. It is a place that holds joy and sorrow in equal measure, and somehow that balance is exactly what makes it so unforgettable to visit.

Chloe, The Ghost in the Green Turban

Of all the legends attached to The Myrtles, the story of Chloe is the one most people arrive already knowing. She is the plantation’s most famous ghost, described as an enslaved woman who wore a green turban to hide an injury.

According to the legend, she was caught eavesdropping and punished harshly, which set off a chain of events that ended in tragedy for multiple people.

Stories say she poisoned a cake with oleander leaves, intending to make the family ill rather than cause permanent harm. The wife of Clark Woodruff and two of her children reportedly died.

What followed for Chloe, according to legend, was swift and brutal at the hands of other enslaved people who feared retaliation.

A photograph taken in 1992 allegedly captured her apparition near the house, and that image has circulated for decades among paranormal enthusiasts. Visitors frequently report seeing a figure in a green turban near the grounds, particularly at dusk.

Historical records confirm the deaths of Woodruff family members but leave parts of Chloe’s story open to interpretation. That gap between legend and record is part of what makes her presence feel so haunting and so human at the same time.

The Mirror That Refuses to Let Go

Most mirrors just show you yourself. The one inside The Myrtles allegedly shows you something else entirely.

This large parlor mirror is considered by many paranormal investigators to be among the most haunted objects in the United States, and seeing it in person makes that claim feel less dramatic than you might expect.

The story behind the mirror connects to Sara Mathilda Woodruff and her children, who died from yellow fever. According to tradition, mirrors in a home should be covered after a death to prevent the spirit from becoming trapped inside.

The mirror in the parlor was reportedly never covered, and legend holds that Sara and her children remain within it.

Visitors have described seeing faces pressed against the glass from the inside, and small handprints appear on the surface that cannot be wiped away. I stood in front of it during a tour and found myself leaning in closer than I intended.

The glass has a quality to it that is hard to describe, slightly cloudy in patches, with a depth that makes you feel like something is looking back. Whether that is imagination or something else, the mirror earns every bit of its reputation.

William Winter and the Staircase That Still Echoes

The only murder at The Myrtles that historical records actually confirm happened in 1871, and it happened fast. William Winter was shot on the front porch, and by most accounts, he managed to stagger inside and climb the stairs before he died.

The legend says he made it to the 17th step, and that is where his life ended.

What makes this story stick is not the drama of the shooting but what people claim to hear afterward. Guests staying overnight have reported the sound of heavy footsteps climbing the staircase late at night, stopping at what would be the 17th step, then going silent.

That detail is specific enough to be unsettling, especially when you hear it at two in the morning from a room nearby.

The staircase itself is beautiful in the way that old Southern homes do staircases well, wide and wooden with a banister worn smooth by generations of hands. During the day, it feels grand.

After dark, it feels like something is waiting at the top. Multiple guests in recent reviews mentioned hearing unexplained footsteps during their overnight stays, and the pattern is consistent enough to make even skeptics pause before heading upstairs alone.

The Ghost Tours That Actually Deliver

Some ghost tours feel like theater with a script and nothing more. The tours at The Myrtles feel different, and that difference comes down to the guides.

Every review from recent visitors points to the same thing: the people leading these tours genuinely know this property and clearly love sharing its story.

There are both daytime historic tours and evening ghost tours, and honestly, experiencing both gives you a fuller picture of the place. The daytime tour lets you appreciate the architecture and craftsmanship without distraction.

The evening tour layers the paranormal history on top of that foundation, which makes the stories land harder because you already know the rooms.

Guides like Rainy, Marissa, and Charles have been mentioned repeatedly by name in visitor feedback, which tells you something about how personal this experience feels. One visitor described a chandelier shaking in the dining room during a tour.

Another lost an earring inside the house and never found it, feeling it come off but never hearing it hit the floor. These are small moments, but they accumulate.

By the end of a ghost tour at The Myrtles, you will find yourself listening more carefully to every sound around you.

Staying the Night in a Genuinely Haunted Bed and Breakfast

Booking a room at The Myrtles is not like checking into a regular hotel, and that is entirely the point. The plantation operates as a bed and breakfast, offering rooms inside the main historic house as well as rustic cottages on the grounds.

Each space is filled with period antiques, four-poster beds, and claw-foot tubs that make the whole experience feel like a very comfortable step backward in time.

The Bradford room, the Caretaker’s Quarters, the garden rooms, and even a space known as the doll room have all been mentioned by guests who stayed and came back with stories. One couple reported being woken after three in the morning by what sounded like something metallic scraping across the floor.

Another guest’s husband felt a firm push to his chin strong enough to snap his head back. Neither of them had been expecting anything to happen.

Free breakfast is included with stays, and the on-site restaurant serves lunch and dinner for guests who want to linger. The grounds are pet-friendly and kid-friendly, which adds a surprisingly normal layer to a place with such an unusual reputation.

Staying overnight here is one of those experiences that is hard to fully explain until you have done it yourself.

The Grounds, the Cafe, and the Unexpected Charm of Daytime

Not everything about The Myrtles is shadowy and strange. During the day, the property is genuinely beautiful in a way that has nothing to do with ghost stories.

The grounds are well maintained, the crepe myrtle trees that gave the plantation its name still bloom across the property, and the wrap-around porch invites you to sit and do absolutely nothing for a while.

The on-site cafe, known as Elta Coffee, has earned its own loyal following among visitors. People have raved about the turkey bacon avocado on sourdough, chicken salad croissants, and iced lattes that hold up against anything you would find in a city coffee shop.

It is the kind of food that makes you glad you stopped rather than driving past.

There is also a gift shop, clean restrooms, and free parking, which sounds basic but matters when you are planning a day trip. Animals wander the property freely, including cats, chickens, and ducks, which gives the whole place a relaxed, lived-in energy that balances out the heavier history.

The old wells on site are worth seeking out, and the pond area is quiet enough to sit beside and think. Rosedown Plantation is just two miles away if you want to extend the day further.

Why The Myrtles Keeps Drawing People Back Year After Year

A place that has been standing since 1796 has had time to build up layers, and The Myrtles has more layers than most. It is a historic landmark, a working bed and breakfast, a paranormal destination, a Southern architecture showcase, and a place where people bring their kids for birthday trips and return four years later because the memory stayed with them.

The staff gets mentioned in nearly every visitor review, and not in a generic way. People remember specific names, specific moments of kindness, guides who stayed patient when tours ran late and groundskeepers who helped guests locked out of their rooms at midnight.

That kind of hospitality does not happen by accident. It says something real about how this place is run.

What keeps people coming back is harder to name than any single ghost story. It is something about the combination of beauty, history, mystery, and genuine warmth that The Myrtles holds all at once.

You can come as a skeptic and leave unsure of what you believe. You can come as a believer and feel completely at home.

Either way, you will almost certainly want to return. Address: 7747 US-61, St Francisville, Louisiana.