TLDR
Built on the site of the Welch family's 1798 mansion, this 1912 Charleston theater is haunted by John Welch and his daughter Molly, who died of pneumonia at age eight in 1840. Molly appears in the front row of the balcony during performances, while her father plays tricks on staff and checks out arriving patrons from the shadows.
The Full Story
When an actor or actress takes the stage at the Capitol Plaza Theater, a small girl sometimes appears in the front row of the balcony. She sits quietly, watches the performance, and disappears before anyone can get a closer look. Her name is Molly Welch. She died of pneumonia in 1840. She was eight years old.
Molly's father, John Welch, also shows up. He's less shy about it. John has been spotted during performances as a well-dressed figure standing in the shadows near the back of the house, watching the show like a patron who arrived late and didn't want to make a fuss. He likes to play tricks on the living (moving props, relocating tools, messing with lights) but the temperament is more prankster than poltergeist. He seems protective of the theater and the people in it.
The Welch family mansion stood on this exact plot of land starting in 1798. A wealthy Welch businessman built it, and for 110 years it was the family home. John raised his children there from the 1830s through the 1860s. Molly was his youngest. After her death, the family held on to the property through the Civil War and beyond, but around 1908, they sold to developers. The mansion came down. The theater went up.
The Capitol Plaza Theatre opened in 1912 as an elegant vaudeville venue. A Wurlitzer pipe organ and projector room were added after new owners took over in 1919. The building is a three-story Classical Revival structure, eclectic enough to earn a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. For decades it was Charleston's cultural anchor.
A fire collapsed the auditorium roof in 1923. Workers during the reconstruction reported tools relocating overnight, voices in the burned-out shell, and pockets of icy air in rooms that should have been warm with summer heat.
The theater hit hard times in the 1980s (competition from multiplexes, downtown decline) and closed in 1982. A group of 28 local investors bought and reopened it in 1985 as a performing arts center. In 1991, the building was donated to West Virginia State College (now University) and renamed the Capitol Center. The 800-seat auditorium now serves WVSU's drama, film, and music programs.
The Welch family apparently didn't care about the ownership change. Students and faculty still report lights turning on and off, the sensation of being watched from empty seats, and the cold spot near the theater entrance that some attribute to John checking out the patrons. Molly remains in the balcony.
US Ghost Adventures includes the theater on its Charleston walking tour. Tour director Samantha Gensch has said they don't make stories up or add fluff. "We believe that real history can be scary enough." In the case of the Capitol Plaza, she's right. A family lost their youngest daughter in a house that stood here for a century before it was torn down, and two of them decided the replacement building was close enough to home.
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