The Myrtles Plantation
Built circa 1796 by David Bradford as Laurel Grove, the West Feliciana Parish plantation house operates as a bed and breakfast and tour site. Its fame rests on the Chloe legend—an enslaved woman said to have poisoned a birthday cake—which researchers have been unable to tie to any contemporaneous record, and on the documented 1871 shooting of owner William Winter on the front porch.
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Is The Myrtles Plantation haunted?
The record holds 5 claims, 4 legends, 3 named entities — filed as reported, not verified. The heaviest filing is classed documented legend. The archive documents the claim; it takes no position on the ghost.
The record — long form
The house was built by a fugitive. David Bradford — judge, businessman, and a leader of the Whiskey Rebellion — fled Pennsylvania one step ahead of a treason charge and arrived by boat at Bayou Sara in 1796. Spanish Louisiana took him in; the following year Baron de Carondelet granted him roughly 650 acres, and Bradford raised the plantation house the register then knew as Richland. He died there in 1808, pardoned and prosperous.
His widow sold the place to their son-in-law, attorney Clark Woodruff, in 1826; Woodruff sold to Ruffin Gray Stirling in 1834, and it was Stirling who renamed the house for the myrtles in the yard. Two centuries later it trades as one of America's most haunted homes — a bed-and-breakfast where guests book rooms hoping the stories are true. The file is more interesting than the slogan, because the Myrtles is the archive's clearest case of a real murder and an invented one sharing a roof.
The documented record
The verified violence at the Myrtles is a short list with one entry. In 1871, attorney William Drew Winter — who had married Stirling's daughter Sarah and managed the estate — was shot on the front porch, by a man the record tentatively names as E. S. Webber. Winter made it partway up the stairs before he died. Tour lore fixes the spot at the seventeenth step; what the record can confirm is the shooting itself, which is more than most plantation legends offer: a real man, a real year, a real porch.
Winter's ghost is consequently the one the house can almost afford to believe in. He is said to climb the stairs at night, still trying for the bedroom he never reached.
Chloe, who may never have existed
Then there is Chloe — the enslaved woman said to have lost an ear for eavesdropping, hidden the wound under a green turban, and served the Woodruffs a birthday cake laced with oleander, killing Sara and two daughters before fellow slaves hanged her and consigned her body to the Mississippi. It is the tour's centerpiece, and the explanation for the mirror whose handprints no cleaning removes.
It is also unsupported. The federal census records five enslaved people on the property in 1820 and thirty-two in 1830 — none named Chloe or Cloe in any document yet surfaced. The deaths the legend requires did not happen as told: Sara, James, and Cornelia Woodruff died of yellow fever, and Mary Octavia lived to adulthood. The legend's power is real; its body count is not. The file keeps both facts side by side — the story people tell, and the absence of the evidence it would need.
How the haunting was made
The written record preserves the construction sequence. The first ghost account in print is Clarence John Laughlin's Ghosts Along the Mississippi in 1948; a 1960 state tourism publication upgraded the house to at least one ghost. In the 1980s the National Enquirer crowned it America's Most Haunted House, a later owner's photograph produced the famous image said to show Chloe in the breezeway, and Frances Kermeen's book fixed the whole narrative in hardcover.
The Myrtles earns its place in the atlas not because it is America's most haunted home but because it documents how one gets manufactured: one verified killing, one magnificent unverifiable legend, and a hospitality industry that learned to sell both at the same price. Reading the dossier straight — documented spine first, legend layer second — is a better education in folklore than the tour gives at the door.
The Myrtles Plantation is a historic home and former antebellum plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana, United States built in 1796 by General David Bradford. In the early history of the property, it was worked by enslaved people. It is reportedly a haunted place, and has been featured in television. The Myrtles Plantation has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978.
Myrtles PlantationThe long record
- 1796Built
Historic Plantation constructed
- 1796History
The house was built circa 1796 by David Bradford and originally called Laurel Grove. The Myrtles Plantation's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer beneath whatever lore attaches. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. The detail is preserved in 'Myrtles Plantation'. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.
- 1871Crime
Winter shooting
The record of claims
Explore Louisiana retells the Chloe poisoning legend — the enslaved woman said to have poisoned the Woodruff family with oleander cake — while flagging that her historical identity and the deaths require verification. Historians find no record of her; the legend is nonetheless the South's most famous plantation ghost story.
Louisiana Life traced a 1968 ghost account at the Myrtles to a French governess — an alternative apparition that predates the Chloe narrative in the written record. It matters because it shows the haunting legend existed before Chloe did, suggesting the famous story may be a later graft onto an older legend.
The article finds Chloe’s identity unproved and distinguishes story variants.
The signature Myrtles legend describes Chloe, an enslaved woman who supposedly poisoned a birthday cake and was hanged for it — the story the plantation's entire haunted reputation rests on. Its shakiness is documented: no period record of Chloe exists, and the 'victims' didn't die of poison. The record never found her.
No contemporaneous record supports Chloe’s existence or the poisoning; the tale appears to be a mid-20th-century elaboration.
Guests at the Myrtles are told of the man who dies on the 17th step — attorney William Winter, shot on the porch in 1871, who climbed the stairs before collapsing. Unlike most plantation legends, Winter's shooting is documented; the staircase detail is the tour-guide embellishment on a real murder. The staircase embellishes a real murder.
Winter’s 1871 shooting is documented; the staircase detail is embellishment.
A mirror in the Myrtles is said to retain handprints and a face that no cleaning can remove — attributed to the poisoned Woodruff children in the Chloe legend. The mirror is the tour's photo-op finale, and the marks (whether silvering damage or something else) are genuinely visible to guests. The marks are genuinely visible.
Explore Louisiana retells the Chloe poisoning legend — the enslaved woman said to have poisoned the Woodruff family with oleander cake after her ear was cut off for eavesdropping — while flagging that Chloe's historical identity and the deaths require verification. Historians find no record of her; the legend is nonetheless the South's most famous plantation ghost story.
Louisiana Life traced a 1968 ghost account at the Myrtles to a French governess — an alternative apparition that predates the Chloe narrative in the written record. It matters because it shows the haunting legend existed before Chloe did, suggesting the famous story may be a later graft onto an older haunting.
Guests at the Myrtles are told of the man who dies on the 17th step — attorney William Winter, shot on the porch in 1871, who climbed the stairs before collapsing. Unlike most plantation legends, Winter's shooting is documented; the staircase detail is the tour-guide embellishment on a real murder. The staircase remains the tour's most-photographed spot.
A mirror in the Myrtles is said to retain handprints and a face that no cleaning can remove — attributed to the poisoned Woodruff children in the Chloe legend. The mirror is the tour's photo-op finale, and the marks (whether silvering damage or something else) are genuinely visible to guests. Guides stop the tour there on purpose.
Two accounts on file
HISTORIC_PLANTATION
PLANTATION
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Historic plantation in St. Francisville; research record.
Antebellum plantation home marketed as one of America’s most haunted houses.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Discovery pass. Precise location, historical chronology and current visitor conditions require independent enrichment. Confidence concerns provenance only.
Historical enrichment pass from encyclopedia/official records; paranormal claims remain source-attributed reports, not verified events.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Alleged entities
Chloe is the Myrtles' famous legend — the enslaved woman said to have poisoned the Woodruff family with oleander cake after her ear was cut off for eavesdropping. Explore Louisiana retells the legend while flagging that her historical identity requires verification: America's most famous plantation ghost may never have existed.
The Myrtles' unnamed French governess is the alternative apparition — the ghost Louisiana Life traced to a 1968 account, predating the Chloe narrative in the written record. She matters because she shows the haunting predates Chloe, suggesting the famous story is a later graft onto an older legend. The reports keep the address on the map.
William Winter — the attorney shot on the Myrtles' porch in 1871 — is the plantation's documented ghost: the man said to die again on the 17th step of the staircase. His murder is real; the staircase detail is the tour embellishment on a verified death. The seventeenth step is where the story ends. The claim holds its place in the ledger.
Documented history
The article identifies William Drew Winter’s 1871 shooting as the only verified murder at the property. The Myrtles Plantation's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer beneath whatever lore attaches. It enters the file through media reporting — documented coverage, not folklore. The detail is preserved in 'What’s the Truth Behind Haunted Louisiana?'. The date is part of the site's documented spine.
Media reportedLouisiana LifeThe house was built circa 1796 by David Bradford and originally called Laurel Grove. The Myrtles Plantation's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer beneath whatever lore attaches. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. The detail is preserved in 'Myrtles Plantation'. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.
Owner William Winter was shot on the front porch in 1871 and died shortly after; legend says he reached the stairs before dying. A documented history gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that spine. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. 'Myrtles Plantation' documents the entry. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.
Verified historyWikipediaDocumentary research has found no record of an enslaved woman named Chloe or of deaths matching the poisoned-cake story. A documented history gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that spine. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. The record appears in 'Myrtles Plantation'. The date is part of the site's documented spine.
Verified historyWikipedia
Investigations & appearances
Planning a visit
Visitor details change. Confirm with the site before travelling.
Sources on file
- 01Louisiana’s Haunted HistoryLouisiana Office of Tourism · tourism · A3
- 02What’s the Truth Behind Haunted Louisiana?Louisiana Life · local journalism · A3
- 03Myrtles PlantationWikipedia · encyclopedia · A4
- 04The Myrtles Plantation — officialThe Myrtles Plantation · official site · A2
- 05The Myrtles — official siteThe Myrtles · official site · A4
Field notes & open questions
Discovery pass. Precise location, historical chronology and current visitor conditions require independent enrichment. Confidence concerns provenance only.