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South — Local folklore filings

Local folklore in Florida

27 Florida dossiers ride on local folklore — stories circulating in community tradition with no single telling to point at. The archive files them because the community does: passed along, retold, claimed by the county rather than the page. Provenance here is a chorus, not a signature.

27 dossiers1 county covered85% open to visitorsSt. Augustine Lighthouse — deepest file

Also filed local folklore:California44 Virginia44 Michigan42 Louisiana40 Ohio38 Texas38 New York36 Pennsylvania34

Other Florida shelves:documented legends35 anecdotal reports18 investigation claims8 media-reported hauntings3

High confidence

St. Augustine Lighthouse

St. Augustine, Florida

The museum presents lighthouse ghost stories and investigation experiences.

4 claims · 3 legends→

Historic Settlement

Koreshan Unity Settlement

Estero, Florida

Surviving members transferred settlement land to Florida in 1961.

3 claims · 2 legends→

Sculpture Garden

Coral Castle

Homestead, Florida

Ed Leedskalnin single-handedly quarried and moved 1,100 tons of oolite—how is still argued.

3 claims · 2 legends→

Historic Mansion

Villa Paula

1926 Cuban-consulate mansion with a scent-of-roses ghost.

3 claims · 2 legends→

Tolomato Cemetery

St. Augustine, Florida

18th-century Minorcan cemetery—site of the 1877 death of a young boy playing in a vault.

3 claims · 2 legends→

Don CeSar

St. Pete Beach, Florida

The pink palace of St. Pete Beach—Gatsby-era resort with a founder’s ghost.

3 claims · 2 legends→

Casa Monica

St. Augustine, Florida

The 1888 Moorish hotel—Flagler’s neighbor, revived.

2 claims · 2 legends→

Cathedral Basilica

St. Augustine, Florida

The 1797 cathedral—America’s oldest Catholic parish.

2 claims · 2 legends→

Key West Cemetery

Key West, Florida

"I told you I was sick"—the 1847 cemetery at the island’s heart.

2 claims · 2 legends→

Fort Zachary Taylor

Key West, Florida

The 1866 fort that held the Union at the Confederacy’s edge.

2 claims · 2 legends→

Curry Mansion

Key West, Florida

The 1899 mansion of Florida’s first millionaire—still a family home.

2 claims · 2 legends→

Edison and Ford Estates

Fort Myers, Florida

The neighbors’ winter estates—Edison and Ford’s Florida.

2 claims · 2 legends→

The Vinoy Resort

St. Petersburg, Florida

St. Pete’s pink 1925 resort—the salesman who leapt and the spirits of the Roaring Twenties.

2 claims · 1 legend→

Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse

Jupiter, Florida

The 1860 inlet light—Civil War darkening and a keeper’s ghost.

2 claims · 1 legend→

Fort Pickens

Pensacola Beach, Florida

NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.

1 claim · 1 legend→

Indian Key Historic State Park

Islamorada, Florida

Island ruins preserve an early nineteenth-century salvage settlement.

1 claim · 1 legend→

Egmont Key

St. Petersburg, Florida

The US Army detained Seminole people here before forced removal in 1858.

1 claim · 1 legend→

Fort Former Prison

Fort Jefferson

Key West, Florida

Unfinished island fort used as a Civil War military prison.

1 claim · 1 legend→

Historic House Museum

Stranahan House

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

1901 trading post—Fort Lauderdale’s oldest building and its most haunted.

1 claim · 1 legend→

Cultural Center

Thomas Center

Gainesville, Florida

1910 hotel-turned-cultural-center with a Red Room ghost.

1 claim · 1 legend→

Bok Tower Gardens

Lake Wales, Florida

1929 carillon tower on Iron Mountain—Edward Bok’s birdsong sanctuary.

1 claim · 1 legend→

Historic Mansion

Ca’ d’Zan (Ringling)

Sarasota, Florida

John Ringling’s Venetian-Gothic palace on Sarasota Bay.

1 claim · 1 legend→

Fort Matanzas

St. Augustine, Florida

1742 coquina fort guarding the inlet where 245 Frenchmen were massacred.

1 claim · 1 legend→

Fort Clinch

Fernandina Beach, Florida

1847 Third System fort guarding the Amelia River—never finished, never tested.

1 claim · 1 legend→

Lightner Museum

St. Augustine, Florida

Flagler’s 1888 Alcazar Hotel turned museum—haunted by a woman in white.

1 claim · 1 legend→

Huguenot Cemetery

St. Augustine, Florida

1821 yellow-fever cemetery at the city gate.

1 claim · 1 legend→

Vizcaya

James Deering’s 1916 Italianate palace on Biscayne Bay.

1 claim · 1 legend→

Full Florida record → state index· Every local folklore filing → evidence shelf

Record last amended October 2, 2026 · shelves recounted with the archive