Last Updated on May 1, 2024
The spirit of Memphis can be found in music. The Blues, soul, rock and roll. B.B. King and Elvis.
Other spirits exist here as well.
On the Backbeat Tour of Haunted Memphis, guides lead guests, like myself, on two-hour walking explorations of sites relating to Memphis’ darker side… vice, voodoo and ghosts.
Orpheum Theater
The Orpheum Theater, on the corner of South Main and Beale streets is Memphis’ most iconic building and haunted spot. It began life as the Grand Opera House in 1890 and was considered the classiest theater outside of New York City.
On October 16, 1923, it was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1927. When movies became popular in the 1940s, the Orpheum switched from vaudeville to the silver screen. But everything has its time and as television competed with movies, the theater fell into disrepair.
A group of concerned citizens formed the Memphis Development Foundation to save it. The theater was one of Memphis’ first buildings to be added to the National Register of Historic Places in the 1970s.
Its most famous ghost is Mary, a 12-year-old girl who was hit by either a carriage or a trolley in 1923 while crossing the street to catch a show. A ticket for seat C5 was found in her pocket upon her death. She was an avid Orpheum fan and even the devastating fire and numerous renovations never prompted her to leave. C5 is where she’s often seen dancing and enjoying a performance.
At least six other spirits reside in the Orpheum and though most are benign, one evil presence reportedly attempts to convince people to jump from the highest section of the seating area.
John Alexander Austin Home
The John Alexander Austin Home built in 1873 is the last original Victorian home in the South Main district. Spirit guests are Sarah and Ed who met here and fell in love but could not marry because Sarah was engaged to be married to a wealthy oil tycoon in Texas. Her family had fallen on hard times during the depression, and she felt she owed it to the family to marry this man.
Researchers later found a letter that Sarah sent Ed stating, “I know that we could not be together in this life, but I promise you I will find you in the next.”
Green Beetle
The Green Beetle officially opened in 1939, making it Memphis’ oldest tavern. Before it opened under this name, it was a speakeasy, and supposedly shot up by gangster Machine Gun Kelly. Its ghosts are believed to be two sailors who squabbled with a knife over a lady that both desired, resulting in both of their deaths.
Earnestine & Hazel’s
Earnestine & Hazel’s competes with the Orpheum as the most haunted spot in Memphis. It was built in the early 1900s as a pharmacy. Two sisters, Ernestine Mitchell and Hazel Jones, who worked as pharmacists and lived in a room upstairs got the idea that it would make a great hotel with a downstairs bar.
The owner sold the pharmacy to them for $1. They hired “ladies” to work in the hotel rooms they rented by the hour. It was a profitable business but left behind many spirits of the ladies, some of whom died here. At least one by her own hand.
The bar is still in operation and includes a jukebox that has a habit of playing songs that are not listed as selections.
Resurrection Men and Morris Cemetery
Memphis was founded in 1819 on the North Bluff to prevent flooding. The area we toured was once a separate city called South Memphis and the site of the Morris Cemetery. In 1850, Memphis and South Memphis merged to be the city of Memphis.
Two large medical universities were established, creating a need for cadavers to study. Their only legal source was executed convicts, which wasn’t enough, so a new trade began. The Resurrection Men bribed caretakers to mark new gravesites. The grave robbers then dug up the bodies and sold them to the universities. Many robbers were medical students who used the profits to pay their tuition.
As Memphis expanded, the land occupied by Morris Cemetery was needed for more businesses. As a result, in the 1860s, the city paid to have the bodies moved to Evergreen Cemetery.
As modernization began in the 1980s, a worker digging to install pipes, found a body. Construction halted and searches revealed several more bodies. The company that was supposed to move them, apparently just moved the headstones.
