Ghost Stories of Franconia

As we enter autumn you can start to feel a chill in the air that’s not just from your iced pumpkin coffees. October is a spooky time of year when we pay homage to the spirit realm all around us. Franconia has its share of haunted historic houses and unexplainable ghost stories that we would share with you.
 
One of our favorite ghost stories comes from the Broders family, who during the 19th century owned vast tracts of land stretching from Edison High School all the way past Backlick Road and the Springfield Plaza shopping center. The family patriarch, John Broders, built the family manor house called “Oak Grove” in 1825 where the Sunrise Assisted Living facility now stands next to Springfield Mall. Family legend says that if you should be driving past the family cemetery, you might see the wraith of John Broders rolling a keg of flaming whiskey through the cemetery and down to the creek through the Springfield Forest neighborhood. Exactly how many whiskeys you need to drink before the barrel starts flaming remains up for debate.

The late Edith Sprouse, a pre-eminent local historian, worked to develop a register of ghost sightings by interviewing several Washington Post reporters. Edith was drawn to the story of the Stoneybrooke house on South Kings Highway that was built by Commodore Walter Brooke, leader of the Virginia Navy during the American Revolution. The man who was the resident caretaker there has said they hear doors that won’t stay closed or open and they’ve heard lots of strange noises. Before Stoneybrooke was turned into a community center, the people who lived there said that they saw a coach and a team of white horses going around the driveway when it was foggy, and park employees still say to this day that there are strange, ghostly noises emanating at night from Stoneybrooke.

Ed Eichelberger, the first county caretaker for Stoneybrooke, reported that summer interns and one full landscaping crew stayed here about a year before the county remodeled this place. “I guess they had a rough time of it really. Mr. Queary, the foreman who was staying here, was using the library as a bedroom. The interns were staying in the basement where the big stone fireplace is located. Children’s toys would be thrown across the room. Things fall off the dresser, pick ‘em up, and put ‘em back on, and ten minutes later they’re back on the floor again.”
 
“Well, I understood that the interns after a while wouldn’t stay here, it spooked them too bad. Also, I guess these spirits or ghosts, whatever they may be, really gave Mr. Queary a hard time, because he finally had to give it up. He couldn’t stay here any longer.”
Belvale is another beautiful home on Telegraph Road, built in 1763 and still standing in the Lake Deveraux neighborhood. It belonged to George Johnston, who was George Washington’s attorney. So, of course, George Washington went there from time to time. George Johnston was also a close friend of Patrick Henry. They were political friends, and they discussed the situation during the upheaval of our nation’s birth. Belvale had its ghosts too. The ghost is supposed to be of George Washington sitting in the library, on a sofa reading a book.

Legend also has it that a duel took place on the property over an argument about seating at a formal dinner. One of the guests was killed in the duel and buried under a cedar tree. His ghost appears at the grave in the cedar grove on the second night of each month. Whatever the source of the spirits in the house, “everyone in the neighborhood knew of the ghost,” according to a 1964 newsletter in the Fairfax County Library. A little farther down the road toward the Hayfield neighborhood the Nevitt family reported several sightings, also in the fog, of a horseman with a beautiful girl riding behind him – only the horseman has no head. He was eloping with this girl, and in his great haste, he careened right into the fork of a tree. That decapitated him.

The most recent local sighting we could verify was the report of two jellyfish UFOs seen over the skies of Franconia in the summer of 2003. As reported in the Washington Post, “a husband and wife were traveling east on the Franconia-Springfield Parkway, and just passing the subway station. They noticed two strange cloud-like formations in the sky, and they were very noticeable, being that the sky was a rather cloudless blue. At first, they thought they were hot air balloons but then they noticed that the UFOs were somewhat thick in consistency since both were casting a shadow on the ground. The shape of these UFOs were identical to each other, their tops were circular in shape, as domes, and both had trails at their base, similar to tentacles from a jellyfish. They did not seem to move from their positions, static as they floated above.”

The Museum is looking for other scary, strange or bizarre stories about people and places in the Franconia Historical Area. Please send us a letter or an e-mail. We are also very interested in any stories, pictures, newspaper articles, documents and artifacts/items pertaining to Franconia History. We scan documents and pictures and return them to owners promptly. Artifacts/items do not have to be permanently donated to the museum but can be loaned for display. Please contact us and share what you know.            

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FRANCONIA REMEMBERS
This is one of the Franconia Museum’s occasional articles highlighting the area history.  If you would like for a friend to receive these FREE articles, contact us at franconiamuseum@yahoo.com. Memberships also are encouraged so we can continue our work. The Museum is located in the Franconia Government Center, currently located at 6121 Franconia Road, Alexandria, Virginia 22310. The hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. The Museum is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization as approved by the Internal Revenue Service

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