George Wythe House
Built in the early 1750s for George Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and law teacher to Thomas Jefferson, this Georgian house served as George Washington's headquarters before the siege of Yorktown. Its best-known ghost is Lady Ann Skipwith, a frequent guest of the Wythes. Legend says that after a bitter quarrel with her husband at a Governor's Palace ball, she fled to the Wythe House, losing a red shoe along the way, and died soon after. Visitors report a closet door swinging open in her former bedroom, the scent of lavender, and the sound of footsteps, one shod and one bare. The popular dare is to kneel and say, 'Lady Skipwith, I found your red shoe,' to summon her. Historically, Ann Skipwith died months later in childbirth, not by suicide, so the lore embellishes the record.
📍 101 Palace Green St, Williamsburg, VA 23185, Williamsburg, VA · Get directions