Missouri Governor's Mansion

The official residence of Missouri's governor since 1871, a Renaissance Revival mansion overlooking the Missouri River. The mansion has hosted governors and their families for over 150 years and is a National Historic Landmark.

The Missouri Governor's Mansion in Jefferson City, built in 1871 with labor provided by inmates from the nearby state penitentiary, has served as the official residence of Missouri's governors for over 150 years. Behind its stately Renaissance Revival facade, the mansion harbors a ghost story rooted in genuine tragedy -- the death of a nine-year-old girl whose spirit has reportedly never stopped playing in the rooms where she spent her final days.

Carrie Crittenden was the daughter of Governor Thomas Theodore Crittenden, who served from 1881 to 1885. In 1883, while living in the mansion with her family, young Carrie contracted diphtheria -- a devastating bacterial infection that was frequently fatal in the era before antibiotics and vaccines. Despite the best medical care available to the governor's household, Carrie died in the mansion, becoming one of the youngest and most heartbreaking casualties of life in Missouri's most prominent residence.

For a century after Carrie's death, occasional reports of unexplained sounds and ghostly sightings filtered out of the mansion, but the most dramatic encounter occurred in 1983, during the tenure of Governor Kit Bond. A maintenance worker was performing routine repairs in the upper floors of the mansion when he encountered a young girl playing in one of the upstairs rooms. Assuming she was a visitor's child or a member of the household, he went about his work, occasionally exchanging glances with the child throughout the day. It was only later that the worker learned no children were living in the mansion at the time. When he realized he had been keeping company with a ghost for an entire workday, the man panicked, fled the house, and flatly refused to return to finish the project.

Beyond Carrie's playful presence, other paranormal phenomena have been reported by mansion staff and residents over the decades. Objects move from their established positions without explanation. Disembodied voices are heard in empty rooms, some described as whispers and others as unsettling laughter with an almost demonic quality. The sound of phantom footsteps climbing the stairs or walking down hallways is particularly common, creating the impression of invisible residents going about their daily routines.

The connection between the mansion and the penitentiary adds another layer to the building's supernatural atmosphere. The convict laborers who built the mansion endured harsh conditions, and some paranormal researchers speculate that the suffering embedded in the construction process may contribute to the overall spiritual energy of the building. Tour guides note that the mansion's attic, where Carrie is most often encountered, carries a particularly charged atmosphere -- as if the space between the living world and whatever lies beyond is thinner there than elsewhere in the historic residence.