History: Telling Charleston’s Most Chilling Tales

When I step inside the grim, yawning maw of Charleston’s Old City Jail on Magazine Street, eerie feels tame. How about hair-standing-on-the-back-of my-neck terrified? It’s not just the building’s dark, painful history, or the fact that the hallways are intentionally dark to recreate conditions from the 1800s. It’s something harder to describe: an unsettling energy I can feel in my bones clawing at me from inside the walls.

Don’t get me wrong—I’m a huge fan of haunted Charleston. I’m drawn to that sixth sense I get every time I walk these war-torn streets, knowing what unfolded here long before. When you can feel something bad happened. At the Old City Jail, that sensation is boosted tenfold.

Thankfully, I have tour guide Andrew Kuhn to light my way. Unlike some of his guests, Kuhn isn’t frightened; in fact, he’s grown accustomed to the many “benefits” his job with Bulldog Tours affords him, including occasional paranormal activity.

For anyone visiting Charleston, a moonlit walk along its streets isn’t complete unless narrated by a Bulldog Tours guide. Even locals equate Bulldog with the quintessential tour company, perfect for visitors and local Charlestonians alike. And this year, as America celebrates its 250th anniversary, Bulldog Tours celebrates 25 years in business. Kuhn, as tour guide manager, has worked there for ten.

But his work didn’t begin at Bulldog Tours. After some encouragement from a friend, Kuhn earned his tour guide license and initially tested the waters with local carriage tour companies.  Discovering a love for this type of work, he eventually found his way to Bulldog.

Ever since it was established in 1670 as “Charles Towne,” the City of Charleston has experienced innumerable tragedies, disasters, and deaths, leading to its high ranking among America’s most haunted cities. And to Kuhn, this is a moniker the city earns on a regular basis.

“When people think of haunted Charleston, they usually think about the Old City Jail, the Old Exchange, and the plethora of burial grounds permeating our city,” he says. While Kuhn has experienced countless instances of paranormal activity himself, he says no location offers guaranteed phenomenon; it often depends on the person.

“I may never have experiences in a particular graveyard, while other guides experience the most phenomenon there, so it really depends on the specific people on the tour and the energy they have with them,” he adds.

Managing expectations for ghost tours is a challenge. Bulldog Tours sees true believers, skeptics, and even people expecting actors to jump out and scare them.

Kuhn has had his fair share of supernatural encounters, but a few stand out above the rest. In one of Charleston’s Victorian-era cemeteries, he recalls locking the gate after a tour when a couple from the group approached him. The wife, a self-described empath, told him she had sensed a spirit named Edward following the tour group at some point during the evening. According to her, Edward identified himself as a former cemetery caretaker who was less than pleased that visitors were still wandering the grounds so late at night.

“I looked over at the gate, into the cemetery, and asked her if Edward was still watching us, and she replied, ‘No, they are ALL watching us!’ That gave me chills, especially when you know how many thousands of people are buried in this city.”

The Old City Jail is another hotspot for paranormal activity. Built on land that once served as a potter’s field—a public burial ground for the city’s poor and unidentified dead—the site already carries a heavy history. Add to that its connection to notorious highway robbers John and Lavinia Fisher, who were once held there, and it’s easy to understand why many consider the jail one of Charleston’s most active haunted locations, Kuhn says.

Amazingly, after the jail closed, it operated as a variety of businesses ranging from an art school and office space to even a kindergarten!

For thrill-seekers in search of their next Lowcountry scare, Kuhn points to a handful of sites where ghostly encounters are most often reported: the Old City Jail, the U.S.S. Yorktown, White Point Garden, the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon, Fort Sumter, and Fort Johnson.

“All of these places are steeped in Charleston’s history,” he says. “When you look at everything that has happened there over the years, it makes sense that they would be among the city’s most active paranormal hotspots.”

Bulldog Tours consistently wins numerous local awards for “Best Tour Company,” and Kuhn says this is due to a variety of factors including the quality of their tour guides, their leadership, and the support they receive from the community.

“One of our core missions is giving back to the places that make Charleston’s history so compelling,” he said. “A portion of every ticket sold goes directly toward preservation and restoration efforts, helping ensure these historic sites remain standing for future generations to experience and enjoy.”

Bulldog Tours also offers history and food tours in addition to ghost tours. To view its diverse group of available tours, visit bulldogtours.com.