Nestled among 300 acres in Franklin is one of the most unique homes in southern Kentucky. Octagon Hall is just as its name suggests—an eight-sided brick home. It played host to both Confederate and Union armies during the Civil War. It has a rich history of family loss and triumphs.
Oh, and it’s haunted.
“It’s extremely haunted,” said Barry Gaunt, Octagon Hall Museum’s assistant director and a longtime paranormal investigator. “You’ll see all kinds of different things. Shadow figures are known to be roaming all over the property … I’ve seen full-body apparitions. I think they like it there.”
Bethany Ford, who is part of the Kentucky-based Uncommon in the Commonwealth podcast team with a mission to investigate the paranormal and all things out of the ordinary, visited the house one hot evening in May 2020. She and other crew members embarked on the investigation with an open mind, but they left the next day convinced they had experienced something supernatural.
“I generally try not to go in with any expectations … It’ll open you up for bias,” she said. “When we first [went] in the house, we felt a cold breeze, got cold chills. Everybody noticed it.”
Ford said their cameras picked up unexplained shadows, even a full-body apparition of a Civil War soldier. In their YouTube video of that night, mysterious voices were picked up on special paranormal investigative equipment. “I was actually surprised [because] I didn’t expect it to be as active as it was,” Ford said. “Rooms would be darker than dark, even after our eyes were adjusted.”
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To attempt to understand the source of the paranormal activity, one must learn the history of Octagon Hall.
Andrew Jackson Caldwell, a mason, built the solid brick structure in 1847. Its back door faces directly west, while the front door faces directly east. Its windows are positioned to see all the countryside.
“There’s a lot of mystique to it. Plus, the octagon shape is probably one of the most revered shapes for the Masonic lodge,” Gaunt said. “The octagon shape does quite a lot of things as far as deflecting the wind, moving things off it. It also opens to all the breezes … and how the house is positioned gives you a great view. It wasn’t meant to be a strategic place, but it became very strategic [during the Civil War].”
In 1862, Union forces re-took Bowling Green, sending nearly 10,000 Confederate soldiers on the run, many of them severely injured or near death. Most stopped at Octagon Hall for one night before retreating into Tennessee. Union soldiers soon arrived and occupied the estate. However, Caldwell—a known Confederate sympathizer—was able to hide soldiers in various inconspicuous spaces throughout the house, thanks to those windows-turned-lookout posts.
Paranormal investigators believe that the soldiers who died on the property make up a number of the ghosts seen roaming the home’s corridors as well as its grounds. The spirits of the Caldwell slaves also have been known to communicate with visitors.
Another spirit making itself known is believed to be that of Mary Elizabeth Caldwell, the daughter of Andrew Caldwell and his first wife, Elizabeth. Young Mary died in 1851 after her dress caught fire in the basement kitchen. Gaunt said there’s debate over Mary’s age at the time of death. Records indicate she was 7, while ghost hunters report hearing a little girl in the house say, “I’m 11.”
For Ford and her team, that basement kitchen was perhaps the creepiest area of all. “I would not go back down in the basement because you could just feel it down there,” she said. “It was spooky and creepy, and you felt an overwhelming sense of dread.”
Aside from Mary’s communications, Gaunt said that folks have told him they hear friendly greetings from out of nowhere and even the occasional “get out!”
Like the Uncommon in the Commonwealth group, other visitors have captured unexplained images while taking photos inside and outside the house. “We have over 6,000 images from people who have toured the hall during the day and captured spirit activities in the photographs,” Gaunt said. “Some people bring recorders, and some people bring ghost-related items. We allow that.”
Expert ghost hunters and paranormal investigators conduct extensive research at Octagon Hall throughout the year. Groups from around the world visit, including teams from television outlets such as the Travel Channel, the A&E network, the Discovery Channel, and the History Channel.
For the curious, the skeptical, and anyone in between, Octagon Hall Museum holds its annual Haunted Novice Ghost Hunts. Every Friday and Saturday night in October, seasoned paranormal investigators lead a limited number of people on a tour throughout the house and grounds in search of ghostly activity. Tickets are $50 each. Gaunt said the hunts are the museum’s biggest income generator of the year, and the money raised goes directly toward keeping Octagon Hall Museum open and operating.
“We’re just a bunch of volunteers, and we don’t get paid for anything,” he said. “We enjoy it. It’s a beautiful home, and we want to continue to have the history out there.”
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In addition to the Haunted Novice Ghost Hunts, the museum is open Wednesdays-Saturdays year-round from 9-11 a.m. and 1-3:30 p.m. A $5 donation gets guests a brief introduction to the home’s history, and then they’re on their own to explore the three-story house and its historical content, primarily antiques from the mid-19th century.
IF YOU GO
Octagon Hall Museum
6040 Bowling Green Road
Franklin, 270.266.1294