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 St Augustine Lighthouse, St Augustine, Fla
N 29° 53.132 W 081° 17.316
17R E 472133 N 3306136
Florida's oldest lighthouse and unoffically most haunted.
Waymark Code: WM302F
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 01/18/2008
Views: 169
The St Augustine Lighthouse and surrounding buildings have a long history of paranormal activity. Allegedly, visitors and workers have seen moving shadows, heard voices and unexplained sounds, and seen the figures of two little girls standing on the lighthouse catwalk (who purportedly were daughters of Hezekiah Pittee, Superintendent of Lighthouse Construction, during the 1870s. The girls drowned in a tragic accident during the building of the tower). Other reports are of a woman seen on the lighthouse stairway or walking in the yard outside the buildings, and the figure of a man who roams the basement.
Stories like these have led The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) to the scene where they shot an episode of the SciFi Channel show Ghost Hunters. During said episode, TAPS allegedly captured a few mysterious incidents on video in the lighthouse such as a disembodied voice of a woman crying "help me" and a shadowy figure was recorded on video moving about the stairs above them.
Due to the success of the first investigation, TAPS later returned for a follow-up investigation, and expierenced similar incidents for the second time.
The facts as they are known:
Many people have lived here and some have died on-site. Below are the only deaths in the records.
* A Lightkeeper never fell from the current tower. John Carrera died in 1853 at the first lighthouse. Joseph Andreu, did fall from the first lighthouse and die in 1859. (After her husband's death the town rallied around Maria Andreu and she became the Head Keeper.)
* William Harn died of consumption (tuberculosis) on April 1, 1889 while still Head Keeper. (Kate Harn, William's wife, became the Second Assistant keeper after her husband's death.)
* Head Keeper Rantia's wife died here on Sept. 21, 1894. At this time, we do not know how she died.
* Three young girls did die during the construction of the lighthouse. There were the daughters of the superintendent of construction of the tower - Hezekiah Pittee. Since the construction was taking so long, Pittee moved his family down from Maine. They lived in a house on-site. There was also a rail car, handcart or some type of vehicle that went from the light station to the ocean. The workers used this to bring the supplies from the beach to the work site. The children, Pittee had five, used to ride on it for fun. On July 10, 1873, something happened and five children fell into the water. Workers were able to save a boy and a girl. Two of Pittee's daughters, Mary (15) and Eliza (13), and a young black girl, either a servant or the daughter of a worker, drowned.
* As far as we know, no one ever hung him/herself here. There is a story that some passing mariner hung himself in the house in the 1930s. We have no proof that this happened.
Public access?:
This is a publically accessible museum.
Website about the location and/or story: [Web Link]
Visting hours: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:
Please submit a photo(s) taken by you of your visit to the location (non-copyrighted photos only). GPS photos are also accepted with the location in the background, and old vacation photos are accepted. Photos you took of paranormal activity are great. If you are not able to provide a photo, then please describe your visit or give a story about the visit
Tell your story if you saw, felt, or smelled anything unusual. Post pictures of what you saw.
Add any information you may have about the location. If your information is important about the location, please contact the waymark owner to see if it can be added to the description.
Be careful and do not enter areas which are off limits or look dangerous. No waymark is worth harm. Use your 6th sense, because sometimes there are unseen things which are telling you to stay out.
Use care when using your camera flash so you do not disrupt any possible nearby residents. Time lapse can be the best tool on your camera in many circumstances.
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