Sturdivant Hall — the banker's ghost haunts Selma, Alabama

Sturdivant Hall in Selma, Alabama, is a neoclassical antebellum mansion built in 1853 that is considered one of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in the Southeast. The mansion's ghost is believed to be John McGee Parkman, the second owner, who purchased the house after the Civil War. Parkman was a wealthy banker who was accused of cotton fraud and embezzlement and was imprisoned in Castle Morgan, a Confederate military prison that had been converted to hold civilian inmates. Parkman reportedly died while attempting to escape, either drowning in the nearby river or being shot by guards — accounts vary. Since his death, his ghost has been reported at Sturdivant Hall. The most frequently described phenomenon is the appearance of a man in 19th-century formal attire standing at the window of an upstairs bedroom, visible from the street below. Inside the house, which now operates as a museum, staff have reported hearing footsteps on the grand staircase, doors that open and close on their own, and the sound of a man pacing in the upstairs parlor. Some visitors have described feeling an agitated, anxious presence, consistent with the story of a man wrongfully imprisoned who died trying to escape back to his home.