War of the Rosegardens
Revolutionary ghost may be able to solve a modern-day dispute.
The story of Spring Gardens is one of the city's well known ghost stories, chronicled in a number of ghost story anthologies and featured in a 1950s-era painting by Babs Van Swearingen. It's also at the heart of a debate about the history of the property, one that is making headlines now that the house is for sale.
Perhaps the ghost has a message for us. According to Alexandria historian Ruth Lincoln Kaye, the ghost of a Revolutionary War solider led the Yates girls to the back yard where they found a ghost building in a green mist. The next morning, the girls returned to the same spot. But the building was gone, searching the ground, they found the foundation of an old building that had one been a stable.
Perhaps, Kaye suggests, the ghost was leading us to a clue. Is that old stable an outbuilding that was once used at Spring Gardens? Or is it simply part of the Yates family garden business that was later located here? What do you think?
