The St. Augustine Lighthouse is considered one of the most haunted places in Florida, with its chilling tales of ghosts and tragedy.

 

In 1871 Hezekiah Pittee arrived with his family to oversee the construction of the new lighthouse. Just as any child would do, the Pittee children turned the construction site into a playground, inviting the children of the workers into their fun. 

 

In 1873 only the foundation and 42 feet of the 165 foot tower was completed. A railway cart moved the supplies from the ships docked at Salt Run, to the building site.

 

Riding the cart down to the water was a favorite pastime of the children, they used the cart as a Victorian era rollercoaster, riding the cart to the water and bringing it back up to the site to ride again. Only a wooden board at the end of the rail stopped the cart from tipping over into the water. 

 

On July 10th 1873, the three Pittee sisters, Marry (15), Eliza (13) and Carrie (4), along with an unknown African-American girl (10), whose father may have worked on the site were riding in the cart as normal.  The wooden board that stopped the cart from going into the water was not in place. 

 

The cart carrying the girls flipped into the water, trapping the girls underneath.  A Mr. Dan Sessions, a young African-American worker, witnessed the tragic event and raced to the water.  When he reached the cart using all of his strength, he lifted it up from atop the girls.   By this time, three of the four girls had drowned, the only survivor was the youngest, Carrie.

 

In the days after the accident, the construction site as well as the town shut down for the funeral of the three girls.

 

A number of occurrences have been witnessed by visitors, reporting feeling cold spots and temperature changes, a heavy energy and being touched or even shoved by an unseen force.  Objects moving or chairs being overturned, doors and windows opening and closing on their own, and shadowy figures.  Music boxes have been known to turn on by themselves.

 

The girls seem to be playful spirits. Enjoying playing hide and seek and sometimes including unsuspecting people. One night in the dark lighthouse tower, a lone staff member was closing up for the night. He heard giggling at the top of the tower and thinking that he had left someone on top of the tower, he returned to find it empty.  

As he began to head back down, he heared the same giggles below.  Descending the stairs, he once again found no one there.

 

Was it just the wind, or was he in the midst of a game of hide and seek?

 

Another evening, a female guest on the dark of the moon tour was standing on the first step of the metal lighthouse staircase, when she took her first step to climb the tower, she found her shoelace tied to the staircase. Whether it was a ghost or companion playing a trick. 

 

The girls sometimes appear to people in fully formed apparitions. Once a guest was exploring the nearby maritime hammock trails and came upon a young girl in Victorian outfit sitting on a bench, reading a book.  As she began to ask the girl a question, another group came up from the opposite direction,   The woman looked away for only a moment and turned back to find the little girl on the bench gone.

 

In a similar instance, a woman on a ghost tour approached a woman to compliment her daughter’s behavior on the tour. Confused,  the woman said she had no daughter.   The woman then told her that a little girl had been standing by her side most of the evening, but there were no children on the tour that evening.

 

Others have spotted Eliza floating about the grounds.Wearing the same blue dress, she died in.

 

Peter Rasmussen’s spirit, the lighthouse keeper, who worked from 1901-1926, is believed to reside in the keeper’s house. 

He has been envisioned in a full body apparition, dressed in white and often there is a scent of his cherry tobacco pipe.  

 

Visitors frequently report sightings of Joseph’s  Andreu,  a keeper who tragically fell to his death while painting, and the restless spirits of two young sisters who met an untimely end on the property.

 

Over the years, seven people have died on the grounds, including three lighthouse keepers and their wives, some of these deaths are not connected to specific hauntings, but add to the overall history of the site.

 

Many who have visited and worked here, say it’s super creepy.  Like all hauntings, the spirits that roamed the grounds of the St Augustine Lighthouse didn’t just appear from nothing,  over the 150 years that the structure has stood, many people have come and gone, lived and died, and a few even remained.

 

The sightings that have been recorded, have roots that go deep into the history of the lighthouse,  much as which is now known to us.  

 

The lighthouse is open to the public for tours of the grounds during the days, but ghost tours are the best option for visitors wanting to explore the lighthouse at night.  

Daytime admission to the lighthouse is $15.  The nighttime Dark of the Moon tour, where the only light source are glow sticks, and visitors go up into the tower, is $30 for adults and $25 for children, 12 and under.

 

Whether you are a believer or not, it’s all in good fun right off Route 1.