Image: As the sun began to set on Wednesday October 8th, members of the new graduate student cohort gathered outside of The Foundry in downtown Athens for an extra special night: a tour with Athens Haunted History. The study of ghosts in the historical imagination is still a burgeoning area of study but what exists is endlessly rich. Experts like Avery F. Gordon contends that a ghost is a “social figure” and that hauntings somewhat warp reality.[1] Tiya Miles expands on this scholarship with ghost tours in particular, finding that they offer a way to interact with grim aspects of our past.[2] With these thoughts in mind, we took to the town. Our tour definitely offered us a new way to look at our surroundings in Athens. At The Foundry, our tour guide, historian Jeff Clarke showed us the fingerprints left in the bricks by the enslaved laborers who built the original structure and how their memory still reverberates around the building. From there, we learned about Athens’ involvement in the Civil War through different stops along the route and how that past infiltrates the present through landmarks as small as steps. We even heard more about the origins of the University of Georgia within the details of the town’s supernatural folklore, leaving us with thoughts on how fragments of our everyday lives are informed by memories still haunting us. At the end of the night, the students on the tour had a lot to say: Do you believe in ghosts now? Caroline Alt: I am biased because I study ghosts and ghost stories in Southern folklore, but I do believe in ghosts. I believe in them as social phenomena and “real” in the general sense that if people believe in them, that makes them real. I also deeply believe in the emotional and environmental impacts of hauntings. Now…do I believe in actual-white-sheet-floating-saying-boo-spooky ghosts? Well I won’t say no. Erleen Ellis: I believe in the cultural idea of “ghost.” I believe the ghost stories hold an important place in spatial and cultural memory. Matthew Powell: No, not in the traditional sense. But the idea that was brought up about energy did make me think about it a bit more. Jeff made the argument that sensing a ghost was like sensing a bad vibe in a room or place, and there’s likely something to that, even if I don't think it's supernatural. People’s ability to pick up on vibes shouldn’t be discounted. Gabe King: I believe in ghosts as an honestly felt social phenomenon. I best understand them as negative parts of our history, as bad feelings from the past that continue to live in our thoughts, behaviors, and institutions. In other words, I’m unsure of the existence of ghosts in a literal sense, but I do believe we’re all haunted. What was your favorite part of the ghost tour? EE: My favorite part of the ghost tour was exploring the history of a side of Athens that I probably wouldn’t have gotten to know. I especially appreciated the hints at [communal] relationship building that the tour guide, Jeff, is involved in with the working people of the places he discussed. Often using their lived, working experiences to highlight ghostly encounters was an important part of the placed-based story crafting he’s engaged in. MP: My favorite part was maybe the beginning at The Foundry. Seeing the fingerprints and then hearing the stories from the staff and woman who’s worked there her whole life was interesting. It made me think about the ghosts of workers in my work. GK: I enjoyed the archival research and oral histories that our guide, Jeff, incorporated into the tour. The use of credible academic sources elevated the experience to an honest exploration of local history, rather than a cheap tourist attraction. They also lend a great deal of credibility to what might otherwise seem an unbelievable or non-scholastic topic. Liana Giannopoulos: I really enjoyed learning about the hidden history of different places in Athens. My favorite explanation of this hidden history was when Jeff pointed out a set of stairs that laid to a parking lot. To me they looked like ordinary stairs leading to a fairly typical and boring parking lot. However, Jeff told us this amazing story about an old house that the stairs used to lead to before the parking lot was built. I would never have taken a second look at those stairs and that parking lot, but now every time I pass it I remember a really cool story! They definitely aren't boring stairs anymore! After this tour, what do you think ghost stories can reveal about our history? MP: Ghosts are relevant to historical studies because, like any cultural artifact, they are windows into their time of origin. They’re also interesting as a topic of memory studies, with the confederate soldier tragedy being the best example. GK: I believe that ghost stories can reveal, to borrow Mark Fisher’s phrasing, the weird and the eerie dimensions of our history. They illuminate the parts of the past that are too sorrowful, too transgressive, too aberrant, or too puzzling to fit neatly within the boundaries of polite discourse. In this sense, ghost stories (or any metaphysical narrative) can allow us to confront the parts of ourselves that we would rather forget. LG: I think that ghost stories can absolutely reveal parts of our history because, as this tour demonstrated to me, ghost stories typically are based on real historical events. So, no matter what you believe about ghosts, there is always something to be learned from a good ghost story! Did you learn anything interesting about Athens history on this tour? CA: When I was organizing this tour I had a secret ulterior motive. I thought this tour would be a good way for us to familiarize ourselves with the place we’re calling home for the next several years. And I think I was right! We walked all over the town and our tour guide Jeff taught us all sorts of interesting histories about different buildings and streets we’ve been passing by the past few months. As for specifics, I’ve always been interested in the music history of Athens and now I know that a venue I like in town is apparently super haunted. MP: I learned a lot about a part of Athens that I wasn’t as familiar with, and was able to visualize it as it would have been maybe 100 years ago or so. I also learned many fun facts, like how the trolley system was initially horse-drawn. GK: As I am new to Athens, I learned many new things about the town. I especially enjoyed learning about the haunting at the Georgian Hotel, as I have eaten at the South Kitchen occasionally during my time here. Final Thoughts? LG: I also think that this was a really great cohort building activity, where I got to know some of my fellow grad students better! It was a very fun night, and Jeff was an outstanding tour guide! Over the course of the evening and into the night, our tour guide, historian Jeff Clarke, walked us through the history of Athens, describing the haunts that still linger in hallways of houses, reflect in windows, and drift through the warm fall air. As new residents of Athens, this tour served as more than just ghost stories, but an opportunity to really engage with the history of an endlessly interesting town. Happy Halloween! [1] Avery F. Gordon, Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1997), 8. [2] Tiya Miles. Tales from the Haunted South: Dark Tourism and Memories of Slavery from the Civil War Era (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2017), 10.
