After watching Larry the Cable Guy make a complete ass of himself on a recent episode of Only in America with Larry the Cable Guy titled ‘America After Dark’ by joining a paranormal investigation of a Virginia plantation, I decided to find and share the story behind the plantation visited.
Enter Endview Plantation, built in 1769, which began life as Harwood Plantation, built by William Harwood. Built in the Georgian style of architecture, the house sits on what was once the Great Warwick Road (now Virginia State Route 238) which connected the colonial capital of Williamsburg to the town of Hampton. The house sits atop a small knoll with a spring at the base and is surrounded by prime farm land. The abundance of fresh game and water attracted local Native American tribes (Powhatan Confederation) for 1,200 years prior to the settlement at Jamestown.
During the Revolutionary War, Endview was a resting place for General Thomas Nelson, Jr‘s troops heading for Yorktown. Though we don’t know what use it had during the War of 1812, there is evidence the home was put to military use again then. During the Peninsula Campaign of the Civil War, the plantation was used as a hospital, being owned at the time by Dr Humphrey Harwood Curtis, Jr, one of two doctors in the area.
Today, Endview Plantation is owned by the City of Newport News and is home to “The Civil War at Endview: A Living History Museum”. Military reenactments also take place on the property, including those honouring the 225th anniversary of the Seige of Yorktown.
Paranormal enthusiasts believe that the plantation house is haunted by General Magruder. A woman, believed to be Dr Curtis’ wife Mariah, has also been seen crossing the road toward the house during the reenactments. The curtains in a former nursery open on their own after being closed for the night and a fireplace mantle in one downstairs room has carvings on it from the wounded soldiers which gives people an uneasy feeling when they get too close. And of course the plantation graveyard is full of activity as well.
Endview Plantation (Wikipedia)
Endview Plantation
Greater Williamsburg Chamber & Tourist Alliance
Stories Behind VA’s Haunts
The Witching Hour 
Interesting place, would love to see it. 🙂
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I lived there as a child in the late 80’s. There was a white woman in the house, we believed her to be one of the 2 graves in the front. She was amazing and the only truly good entity I have ever known. My sister and I would fall asleep to the sound of wooden heeled boots walking around the house, a soldier ever on patrol. The only creepy place was not the cemetery out back but the woods surrounding the property. I have many more stories but they are personal to my family.
If i could live there again i would, its the safest I have ever felt in any home. Its a truly unique place but people need to respect the woman in white, she is a sweet woman who doesn’t need to be gawked at or bothered. She loved us and watched over us. Every ghost story I have heard about the property on the Internet is wrong, made up by people who have no idea about the spirits that dwell there, it was a place of suffering and joy. There is a few soldiers but no general, theres a white woman but it is the woman who died with her child.
Im blessed to have lived in an amazing place like that. Our old friends and my family are the reason its on the historical registry, the land lord was a selfish man who refused to work on the up keep of the house. When we moved its the least we could do for that magical place.
But please heed my words ghost hunters, let the white woman be, out of respect. She doesn’t deserve to be pestered in the name of “science” or proof of the supernatural. There are plenty of other places in Virginia to ghost hunt.
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