Doorknobs turn, doors open and close, and a rush of air follows as if someone is walking through. Plates and other dining ware carefully placed on a table or sideboard, often reappear on an opposite side of the room while a back is turned or no one is watching. When questioned about the eerie energy looming within, owners connect the activity to the long and rich history of their homes. They recount the lore and rumors mixed with the facts, and suggest these curious happenings could be the result of lingering human drama, contained and held against the normal course of nature. This theory takes into account the decades of human emotion and tribulation absorbed into the homes' walls over time.
Contractors also believe that past energy flowing through the houses is trapped within the walls.
Work performed on the houses exacerbates the other world events, releasing the stored energy as what we interpret to be supernatural forces. Changes in temperature, vibrations, drifting shadows, as well as a variety of -other movements and activity erupt during plaster work and structural repair. Each restoration stirs a rising of sinuous activity left from the past and draws it into the present. Such rational explanations, however, do not account for the super natural activity reported by guests staying at one of Charleston's most famous mansions, The Battery Carriage House Inn at 20 South Battery, where one apparition stands apart from the others as a singularly arresting sight. While most Charleston ghosts comport themselves with the refined behavior and appearance of the people and city they inhabit, this wraith is as menacing as he is ugly.