The Duke Mansion

Built in 1915 as Lynwood Mansion and later expanded by industrialist James Buchanan Duke, this Myers Park estate is now a nonprofit B&B and wedding venue on the National Register of Historic Places.

Former owner Jon Avery made a tragic promise to a young woman writer who came to document the property. They fell in love, but Avery's wife was ill in a mental institution, making marriage impossible. He promised to meet her in the garden one year later, "dead or alive." When she returned at 11:50 PM, Avery emerged from the house but didn't seem to notice her. When she grabbed his arm, her hand passed right through him. In her mind, she heard: "Dead or alive." His ghost still keeps that appointment in the gardens.