Asheville North Carolina
Reed House
Spirits love the restoration efforts and the pool table.
Scoffers beware; Spectral tempers will flair!
DESCRIPTION
Built on top of a low mountain, this immense, yet simple Victorian Mansion, at the top of a steep hill, overlooks the Biltmore House, the mansion used in the film, BEING THERE (1979), and was owned by George Vanderbilt. The Reed House was built in 1892 by one of George Vanderbilt’s lawyers, Samuel Harrison Reed, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Before it was a bed and breakfast, Reed House had been divided easily into 4 large, roomy apartments.
This pale yellow 2 story mansion has ten rooms in its two wings. On the outside, one can see a wrap around piazza and an elaborate turret perched between the two wings. Inside, there are 10 fireplaces, each surrounded by Italian tiles. Each of its five guest rooms has a fireplace, and a unique mantle and style. Reed House has a parlor and a small game room, complete with pool table, a library, a family room, a secret passageway, 4 upstairs guest rooms and two sets of steps. The front stairs were for family and guests, and a back set of steps was used by the servants.
MANIFESTATIONS
First Signs
In the 1970s, during the first night that the T family spent in their recently purchased Reed House, heavy footsteps were heard clumping up the back servant stairs late at night.
Mrs. T went to investigate, but found no one seen there. All her teenage children were sleeping.
For several years after this incident, these heavy footsteps were heard whenever someone new spent the night there.
When the back stairs were covered with carpet, only a soft thud would be heard, which didn’t wake anyone up.
Don’t Scoff or Else
At the T’s first Christmas party in their new home, their Christmas tree, which was set up firmly in the parlor, fell over for no reason after their guests laughed and scoffed at the family’s ghost stories.
Self-Moving Doors
Two of the upstairs guest bedrooms, The Circus Room and The Lavender Room have doors that open and close at will, like an unseen presence is going about their business.
Spectral Pool Games
Ghosts seem to pass the time by playing games of pool on the pool table in the game room. On numerous occasions, the sounds of someone striking the racked up balls which in turn hit each other have been clearly heard. These occurrences at first seemed to happen only when the house was empty except for one or two people.
Recently, the ghostly pool game activity has increased, and happens randomly during both the daytime and nighttime hours. It has become impossible to keep a set of racked balls from being split apart.
Sometimes a pool ball will mysteriously disappear and be found later in an odd place in the house.
STILL HAUNTED?
Definitely yes!
It is theorized that one of these amiable ghosts could be Samuel Reed himself, and perhaps some of his children. Out of nine children, only 4 made it to adulthood. Perhaps playing pool was a favorite family activity. Whoever these ghosts are, they seem happy to share their mansion with the living, perhaps pleased that the mansion is being renovated so beautifully.
LOCATION
The Reed House Bed and Breakfast is located two miles south of Asheville, North Carolina, on U.S. Highway 25.
The street address is: Reed House Bed and Breakfast Inn, 119 Dodge Avenue, Asheville, North Carolina 28803. It is open during the summer, spring and fall, but closed during the winter.
