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The
Kehoe House
The kehoe House is entirely brick and all the ornamentation on the outside of the
house is cast iron, built to be fireproof. It was built by a man who owned an iron foundry, both for
the safety of his family and to show off his work to potential clients.
Mr. Kehoe died in 1900 but his widow outlived him by many years. Legend has
it that upon her death, she requested that her family take her to the Catholic Cemetery
located east of town in the most elaborate carriage they could find. The Kehoes
didn't pay her any attention and when she died they put her coffin in the back of
an old wooden cart to take to the cemetery. They say she jumped right back
into the house and has been there ever since. A lady in white haunts the hallways
of the house.
After the death of Mrs. Kehoe, her family moved two squares south to the suburbs
of the Victorian District and the house became a mortuary. For 65 years this
was the Goette Funeral Home. The morgue, or embalming room, was located in
the basement.
Along the President Street side of the house you will notice that a section of the
granite border has been removed, and that's where they slid the coffins in and out
of the basement. The bodies were put in the coffins and taken up the back
stairs to the front parlor. Guests having breakfast in the B&B today are
dining in what was once the Viewing Room.
The Mortuary closed in 1972 and a syndicate of men, including Joe Namath and Terry
Bradshaw, purchased the Kehoe House, intending to turn it into a gentlemen's club
much like the Playboy chain. Instead, it sat vacant for the next twenty years
until the present owner bought it and turned it into an historic inn, one of the
finest in the South, and definitely one of the most haunted.
In the fall of 2004, a visitor and his wife were staying on the second floor in
the room on the front right just above the parlor. They had been in the room
for two nights and were having a great time watching the ghost tour groups from
their window. On the second night the last tour came by and he and his wife
went to bed. At 12:01 a.m. both were awakened by a bloodcurdling scream.
They heard a woman shriek and fall down the stairs right outside their door.
They jumped out of bed and ran out into the hallway. The couple in the adjoining
room (Mrs. Kehoe's room) also ran out into the hall. All four of them had
heard the woman scream and fall, but they saw no one.
There are lots of ghosts in this house. A family lived upstairs when it was
a mortuary; they had the entire upper floor and many spoke of seeing a nurse.
It seems this nurse has been seen by members of the Kehoe family, the undertakers,
as well as people who stay in the inn today.
At the top of the beautiful mahogan staircase are four bedroom doors. The
nurse seems to favor two of those doors. She is a very large woman with a
peaked cap. Everyone comments how starched she is. No one knows who
she is or who her patients were, but as far as they can tell she's been on duty
for almost eighty years and if she encounters you at the top of the stairs, she
will shush you.
There have been many sightings of the woman in white. Visit Kehoe House and
let us know if you meet her.
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