old town common, is currently occupied by a boutique, an acupuncturist, a massage therapist, and a life coach. It has long also been occupied by a ghost various residents have dubbed “Charlotte,” who seems to become excited whenever new merchandise is brought into whatever store is at that time doing business in the building. On such days, she has sometimes been heard clattering noisily down the stairs, as if to get a look at the new items. She has also been known to have rearranged new inventory at night when the store is closed, presumably to display it in a manner more becoming to her own taste. And, perhaps even more mysteriously, she has been known to leave behind a single flower, which proprietors have found when they opened up the next morning.
At 302 Mill Street is the building built in the 1860s that was long known as Leary’s Lumber and Hardware Store, and which supplied the town and the surrounding area with general merchandise. Old Mrs. Leary is reputed to have not liked noisy children much—but then who does?—and to have frequently chased them off and tried to keep the area around her store quiet. People have reported seeing her, typically after the store is closed, standing behind the original sales counter that is still set up inside the store’s front window. Some claim to have seen her shaking her finger at unruly passersby. Today, the corner store is occupied by four different shops, among them two art galleries.
Since 1997, the old wood-frame building at 307 Mill Street has been occupied by Brambles, a store that specializes in artsy home and garden accessories. It has apparently been occupied since long before that by a female ghost who has been spotted by some people carrying a lighted candle. She has also been known, especially during the winter, to leave a lighted candle sitting on the counter during the night, which the store owners have found burning when they arrived to open up in the morning.
Seven businesses are currently located in the building at 309 Mill Street, including an artists’ cooperative, an art gallery, a jewelry store, a number of engineering or construction firms, and a law office. It was once a successful funeral parlor that served the needs of a two-county area. Local legends say severe flooding once smashed open the store front and washed out a number of coffins—with or without bodies in them is somewhat unclear—and swept them downstream, which could certainly contribute to some ongoing spiritual agitation. At least one ghost is believed to haunt the property, and some people believe it is the former undertaker, clad in the formal dark frock coat of his trade, looking back in on his former establishment. Among other things, people have reported hearing footsteps in parts of the building when it is empty of living occupants.
Seven shops also occupy the building at 313 Mill Street, near its far end, including Miller’s Lighthouse, which has been located there for more than thirty years. It was built around 1888 with bricks brought over from England that were used as ballast in ships that made port at Occoquan. From around the turn of the 19th century, its lower level was used as a general store, and upper areas served as a home for the owner and his family. No one seems to know the name of the ghost that currently occupies the site, but store owners have reported hearing strange whispered voices; finding display cases standing open when they should have been locked; and having merchandise moved around—and, in a few instances, even thrown across the room in the presence of customers! Business owners have also reported finding sooty footprints in a part of the building that had contained a coal bunker when it was built.
Constructed around 1760, the building at 406 Mill Street is believed to be the oldest extant home in Occoquan, and currently houses a hair stylist. Not much is known about the female ghost occupying the building, but she has been seen a number of times over the years (although her coiffure is likely outdated, and perhaps she is only seeking a new look).
MOVING A BLOCK INLAND from Mill Street up to 201 Union Street brings one to “The Courtyard,” an L-shaped building constructed with bricks baked at a kiln on the other side of the river (the remains of which still exist at Occoquan Park). It was the site of the town well, and today houses five businesses, including a candy shop and an ice cream store. It is not known whether or not the resident ghost has a sweet tooth, but it seems certain that he likes his quiet, because the owners always find their wind chimes mysteriously torn down.
A block down Poplar Alley at 204 Washington Street is a wood-framed building constructed in 1910 that currently houses an antique shop. It is reputed to harbor several ghosts, some of which have even been seen during the day, according to various witnesses.
Beyond the publicly accessible places in Occoquan, there are also a great many historical private homes that have long had a reputation for being haunted. There are so many, in fact, and Occoquan is such a small town—about one-fifth of a square mile in area with a living population of only about eight hundred—that one has to wonder if it might not have one of the highest haunting indices in the state. The inhabitants of the town seem to have established a good working relationship with their ghostly cohabitants, however, and to consider them one of the many elements that give the little waterfront village its charm.
CHAPTER 6
Rippon Lodge
WOODBRIDGE
Many tragic stories are told of Rippon Lodge. More than one murder is said to have been committed there. A victim of a fatal duel bled to death on the parlor floor. This house is said to be haunted in such a ghostly and sinister fashion that no one will occupy it, and the public road has changed its course to avoid the neighborhood.
—Manassas Journal, May 19, 1911
WHILE IT HAD A PRESENCE ominous enough to be commented on in newspapers a century ago, Rippon Lodge has since become somewhat more obscure, if not actually less menacing. Although I had read about it in Marguerite DuPont Lee’s excellent and florid Virginia Ghosts (and lived only fourteen miles from it for seventeen years), I was not even sure it still existed until the day I visited it for the first time in June 2008.
Rippon Lodge is today, in fact, believed to be the oldest house extant in Prince William County. Built in the 1720s by planter Richard Blackburn, it sits on a hillside overlooking Neabsco Creek, the waters of which flow into the nearby Potomac River. Its prosperous owner built his home along the King’s Highway—roughly corresponding to modern-day Route 1—a critical roadway that stretched from Newport, Rhode Island, to Yorktown, Virginia, and connected the original thirteen colonies (and played a critical role in the Revolutionary War, being used as the route taken by the American troops who defeated the British at Yorktown). Blackburn named it for Ripon, in North Yorkshire, England, the city where he was born (variant spellings being much more prevalent in the 18th century than they are today). According to some sources, it is referred to as a lodge because it was also used as a Masonic meeting place.
Established as the seat of a cotton and tobacco plantation, the somewhat modest home overlooked about 21,000 acres of land and, despite its proximity to the colonial seaport town of Dumfries, had its own port on Neabsco Creek. Clustered about the wooded ridgeline above the house are the ancient graves of some of its earliest inhabitants, many of them now marked only with worn and illegible stones or grassy mounds, including those of Blackburn and some of his family’s slaves.
Blackburn bequeathed the property to his son, Colonel Thomas Blackburn, who had less allegiance to the home country than his father and during the Revolutionary War served as an aide to George Washington, who was himself a frequent guest at the estate. Another visitor to the lodge during this era was militia Captain Bernard J. Hooe, who in April 1810 fought a duel with James Kemp just across the Potomac in Maryland. Hooe was critically injured in the fight and brought back across the river to Rippon Lodge, where he died soon after.
Rippon Lodge was a modest home overlooking
