👻 Special Halloween Edition: We’re keeping our usual sections brief to create space to tell South Tampa’s top four ghost stories and the history behind their hauntings. To our surprise, we even found evidence debunking one popular tale…

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Manatees gather in warm water once Tampa Bay drops to 68°F or below, which usually happens in the coming weeks. TECO’s Manatee Viewing Center in Apollo Beach reopens on Nov. 1, celebrating its 40th anniversary, daily from 10 AM–5 PM. Free admission. You’ll find the most manatees there on the coldest winter days.

🎥 Take a quick look at more creepy photos of these haunted places in our latest social media video.

The Biglow-Helms mansion at 4807 Bayshore Boulevard has had many lives. Brooklyn-born businessman and former Tampa City Council president Silas Biglow built it in 1908— and died inside it in 1913 👻. His widow sold it to a surgeon, who turned the home into Bayside Hospital, complete with a morgue 💀. When Tampa Municipal Hospital, now Tampa General, opened on the newly built Davis Islands in 1927, the hospital house became the surgeon’s family home. His nephew, artist Jack Wilson, reportedly lived there too, until he died in his studio in 1965 👻.

After the surgeon’s widow died in 1974, the mansion was abandoned and swallowed by nature, as seen in these genuinely creepy photos. Through the 1980s, teenagers dared to explore it and transients sheltered in dark rooms. Stories spread of screams in the dead of night and of paranormal activity attributed to the many who died inside. Today, the beautifully restored buildings house the Faces of Tampa med spa… faces from the past?

Britton Plaza’s movie theater opened in 1956, and according to a longtime employee, some guests may have never left. On two different occasions, he said staff watched through an auditorium door’s small window as the last patron walked toward them. They waited, but nobody came out. When they went inside, they found the auditorium empty 👻.

He also told of a woman named Edith who reportedly died in the downstairs ladies’ restroom in 1988. While working alone around 2–3 AM, he heard those toilets flushing by themselves 🤔.

Another employee saw a figure walk down a hallway, then vanish. Once, in the projection room, she thought someone was standing beside her, but when she turned, the tiny room was empty.

Watch their accounts and see Britton Cinema as it looked when it was still a movie theater in 2008.

The Academy of the Holy Names on Bayshore Boulevard is Tampa’s oldest school, founded inside a blacksmith’s shop in 1881 by two Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. After moving several times, the Academy opened its iconic Bayshore building in 1929, where it remains today. According to stories shared on HauntedPlaces.org, some Sisters may still roam its halls 👻.

A student heard whispers behind her on the fourth floor; then turned to find no one there as the temperature dropped. Another student recalled Sister Mary Glavin saying she saw a nun in a habit in a fifth-floor hallway. When she did a double-take, the nun was gone. A guidance counselor reportedly heard lockers opening and closing in the empty hallway outside her office.

Other accounts describe unexplained tapping sounds, passing shadows, music briefly switching to different genres, and a mysterious little girl who appears in the library. Could so many students and staff be mistaken?

Legend says the Falk Theatre on Kennedy Boulevard has a resident ghost: Bessie Snavely, a 1930s actress who discovered her husband’s affair with a fellow actress and hanged herself in her dressing room, still wearing her red dress.

Cast members still tread carefully around her ghost. In 2024, the University of Tampa’s student newspaper, The Minaret, reported a production’s leading man leaves a dozen red roses outside Bessie’s attic dressing room to appease her and ensure a successful run 🌹. And actresses don’t dare wear a bright red dress because that color belongs to Bessie 💃.

But the school’s Reference Librarian, Art Bagley, found the real Bessie Snavely: a business administration student who graduated in 1943 at approximately age 55. He also found a fictional interview with her “ghost” in The Minaret in 1977. Our own investigation uncovered her 1956 children’s book cover (above) that shows she was a published author and retired school teacher of 33 years. It seems Bessie’s greatest talent was telling stories!

➡️ Know another South Tampa ghost story? Please reply to let us know!

In light of today’s edition, do you believe in ghosts?

Hyde Park: Where even the dogs shop at luxury boutiques.

➡ A.I. came up with the joke, and a human refined the wording. Was it accurate?

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Your Local Writer & Founder: Danielle is a lover of food, craft cocktails, wine, travel, nature, and history. After living in Ohio, Dallas, New Zealand, and 37 countries as a digital nomad, Danielle decided South Tampa was the best place to settle in 2022. She blends a world’s worth of experiences with local expertise as a Meetup event organizer and marketing director to ensure The Scroll is always worth your read!