By Staff
Oct. 13, 2001
King's Tavern was built in the 1760s and is one of the oldest buildings in Mississippi.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, it served as a mail run and tavern where travelers on the Natchez Trace sought refuge. Like many frontier outposts, it was the scene of fights between drunken guests who settled their arguments with guns and knives.
Today, the tavern is a restaurant and lounge.
Generations of owners, servers and patrons have had paranormal experiences in the restaurant. One ghost is believed to be that of a woman named Madeline, mistress to Richard King, who bought the tavern in 1789.
Three skeletons were discovered under the tavern in 1930 when sewer lines were being installed. Later, when a chimney partially collapsed near where the skeletons had been found, a jewel encrusted Spanish dagger gave rise to the theory that Madeline had been stabbed with the dagger and buried under the tavern.
One of the owners, Yvonne Scott, said that when the restaurant first opened under her management, there were no hot water pipes upstairs. While she was discussing the plumbing with a friend, hot water started running out of a dead pipe.
Employees report other strange happenings, such as doors swinging open and shut for no apparent reason, chains on the restaurant's walls moving by themselves, tiny footprints made by water left in strange places and the sound of a baby crying resonating through the restaurant's walls.
Source www.kingstavern.com