Aiken-Rhett House
Built around 1820 for Charleston merchant John Robinson and vastly expanded by Governor William Aiken Jr. in the 1830s and 1850s, the house stayed in the Aiken-Rhett family for 142 years before becoming a museum, preserved "as-found" with its original wallpaper, plaster, and furnishings left in elegant decay. That arrested, time-frozen quality has long fed its reputation as one of Charleston's most haunted homes. Visitors and docents describe footsteps in empty upper halls, doors that open on their own, and a lonely woman seen gliding through the rooms, often tied to the restless spirit of Elizabeth Rhett. The most repeated tale dates to the late 1980s, when two architects working in the house glanced into a ballroom mirror and saw the reflection of a weeping woman who was not there. Sorrowful presences are also reported in the surviving enslaved-laborers' quarters out back.
📍 48 Elizabeth Street, Charleston, SC 29403, Charleston, SC · Get directions