West Virginia Independence Hall

A historic government building completed in 1860, designed by architect Ammi B. Young. Originally built as a federal custom house, post office, and courthouse, it became the birthplace of West Virginia when the Wheeling Conventions of 1861-1863 were held here, leading to the state's separation from Virginia.

West Virginia Independence Hall in Wheeling is the birthplace of the state itself and one of the most haunted public buildings in West Virginia. Built in 1859 as a federal customs house containing a courtroom, post office, and government offices, the imposing stone structure became the center of the Reorganized Government of Virginia during the Civil War. It was here that the Wheeling Conventions took place -- the historic assemblies that produced the new state of West Virginia, admitted to the Union in 1863. The building served as the seat of government for the nascent state, and the courtroom of Judge John Jay Jackson Jr. saw cases that sent men to the gallows at a nearby prison.

The paranormal activity at Independence Hall is concentrated on the second floor, particularly in the restoration room. Lois Nickerson, a longtime employee who worked at the hall for years, refused to enter a corner of the restoration room because she felt what she described as bad vibes emanating from the space. When a crew of psychic investigators visited the hall, their ghost-detecting equipment went crazy as they approached the door of the restoration room. Investigation revealed that there had once been a closet in the corner of the room -- a closet that no longer exists -- and it was that specific area that generated the strongest paranormal response.

Nickerson herself had a more personal relationship with the building's ghosts. She reportedly had conversations with a ghostly woman in the basement on several occasions, speaking with the apparition as though she were a colleague rather than a spirit. Nickerson was never afraid of her.

Other encounters have been far more alarming. A museum visitor exploring the second floor ran down the stairs in such a state of terror that he nearly crashed into a table before bolting outside. When questioned, the visitor reported that while in the restoration room, a man's hand had reached out and gone right through him. The sensation was so horrifying that the visitor never returned.

In the governor's office, a woman attempting to move the governor's chair at his desk suddenly sensed someone sitting in it -- an invisible presence so unmistakable that she abandoned her work and refused to return to the room. Employee Sue Beth Warren has heard footsteps in the hallway while preparing for tours when no one else was in the building. Bruce Cooley, another longtime employee, experienced an unexplained shove in the back while walking a second-floor hallway and on another occasion witnessed a fire extinguisher mysteriously fly off a wall with no apparent cause.

The building's elevator exhibits its own peculiar behavior, arriving from upstairs with its doors opening despite no one being on the upper floors. Some researchers believe a woman seen in the upper-floor hallways is searching for her husband, who was condemned to death in Judge Jackson's courtroom and subsequently hanged at the nearby prison.

West Virginia Independence Hall offers ghost walk tours with costumed guides who share the stories of the building's weird and unusual happenings. In a structure where the birth of a state was accompanied by the condemnation of men to death, and where the walls have absorbed more than 160 years of power, justice, and tragedy, the ghosts seem entirely at home.