Ahead of National Ghost Hunting Day, here is a look at Volusia County's most haunted spots
Everyone knows that Oct. 31 is the day for trick-or-treating, dressing up in your favorite costume and enjoying Halloween festivities.
But a lesser-known date, Sept. 30, marks the National Ghost Hunting Day, which gives ghost hunters and haunted house enthusiasts a day to celebrate their spooky passion.
A recent survey by airportparkingreservations.com revealed which states in the U.S. are most obsessed with all things related to haunted places and ghost stories.
And while Florida did not rank very high (22), that doesn’t mean there aren’t stories and places in the state, even here in Volusia County, that can get us into the Halloween spirit as the holiday approaches.
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Here are some of the haunted places and ghost stories in Volusia we know about:
Hotel Cassadaga
Located in the small town of Cassadaga near Lake Helen, the Hotel Cassadaga is the main point of attraction at the historic Southern Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp, established in the 19th century.
The area is known as the “psychic capital of the world.”
The hotel was built in the 1920s and to this day offers psychic and medium readings, lectures on subjects like astrology, numerology and palmistry, and even seances to those “wishing to receive messages from deceased loved ones and communication with higher realms,” according to the hotel’s website.
According to haunted-places-to-go.com, the hotel is haunted by a spirit who went by the name of Arthur. It is said he died at the hotel in the 1930s and to this day the smell of his cigars and favorite drink, gin, still linger in the halls.
The hotel even encourages guests to bring their cameras, as many have captured "unbelievable pictures of spirit energies in and around the hotel.”
Hotel Cassadaga is located at 355 Cassadaga Road. For information, visit hotelcassadaga.com or call 386-228-2323.
Lilian Place Heritage Center
This Victorian-style home on the beachside of Daytona Beach on Peninsula Drive is said to be the city’s oldest (built in the 1880s), and a place where “history comes alive.”
Today, it is run by the county's Heritage Preservation Trust and offers tours and different events.
“Ghostly sightings have been reported at Lilian Place over the years,” according to the Lilian Place website. “The most frequent tales of visitation involve a mysterious woman in a white dress who has been named Lucile by Daytona Beach residents. Most recently she has made it known her name is really Lucy.”
That answer came in a "History, Spirits, and Legends paranormal investigation," at the center, when "the spirit was asked through the use of divining dowsing rods if her name was Lucy or Lucille," said Shari Lessmiller, president of the Lilian Place Center and who conducts paranormal investigations at Lilian Place.
"She indicated 'yes' to Lucy," Lessmiller said. "However, since then we have found possibly two spirits ... One Lucy and one Lucille."
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Lilian Place Heritage Center is located at 1000 S. Peninsula Drive. For information, visit lilianplacehc.org or call 386-256-4810.
Daytona Playhouse
While the Daytona Playhouse on Jessamine Boulevard hosts plays and other theatrical events, it also has a haunting history.
The two-story building was once a house built in the early decades of the 20th century.
According to hauntedhouses.com, it became the Daytona Playhouse in 1950s, and since then it has been said to be haunted by the spirits of its former occupants.
One of them include a couple, a man and a woman, who met tragic ends. While she drowned in the Halifax River consumed with depression, he died in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s.
Even the Daytona Beach Paranormal Research Group “has recorded some hard evidence, gathered between September and October of 2009 that something is there,” with “audio and electronic anomalies” recorded, according to the website.
The Daytona Playhouse is located at 100 Jessamine Blvd.
The I-4 ‘dead zone’
The quarter-mile stretch of Interstate 4 between Orlando and Daytona Beach leading onto the St. Johns River Bridge over Lake Monroe has earned a notorious reputation that’s not solely due to traffic issues.
Although the area has seen a high number of car crashes over the years (440 crashes reported between 1999 and 2006, according to what Florida Highway Patrol told WKMG-Channel 6 in a 2007 report), drivers have also seen other sinister signs as they passed by.
They include sudden drops in phone reception, static on their CB radios, and the occasional apparition, zigzagging ball of light, phantom trucker or ghostly hitchhiker.
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On the day the segment opened in 1963, a shrimp truck jackknifed and crashed right above a certain spot, killing the driver and starting the legend.
Also on that spot, four German immigrants who perished in the yellow fever epidemic in Florida in 1887 are reportedly buried underneath the concrete just before the highway stretches across the river.
C. A. Bridges contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: National Ghost Hunting Day is Saturday, here's where to go in Florida
