Who is the Gray Lady at Frankfort’s Liberty Hall?
(LEX 18) — Throughout October, LEX 18 is taking you to some of Kentucky’s most haunted places.
Friday, it was Liberty Hall in Frankfort, where some say the Gray Lady ghost roams the halls more than two centuries after her death.
For more than 130 years, Liberty Hall was home to the influential senator John Brown and generations of his family. While they died long ago, someone remains in the Wilkinson Street house.
“I always think the legend of the Gray Lady is one of the oldest mainstream ghost stories told in Kentucky,” said Jessica Stavros, the executive director of Liberty Hall Historic Site.
The home hosted scores of socialites and politicians, but the Gray Lady is perhaps its best-known figure. Some claim she was captured on camera in a peculiar photo of the home’s staircase in 1965.
So, who was this mysterious woman?
According to Stavros, “The legend of the Gray Lady was Margaretta Varick, Margaretta Varick, the aunt of the lady of this house, Margaretta Brown. She traveled through Kentucky to visit her in 1817… and after three days, she passed away right here in this room.”
“As early as 1822, members of the family start to say they’ve seen old Aunt Varick in a ghostly form,” Stavros said.
Then, in the 1880s, Mary Mason Scott, or “Mame,” reported seeing a tall woman veiled in gray in the middle of the night. The sightings happened three nights in a row, and eventually, someone suggested the ghost could be Aunt Varick.
“Her legend speaks for itself,” said Liberty Hall’s marketing specialist Nicole Walter. “She is an energy here and is very well know, for good reason.”
Mame viewed the Gray Lady as a kind ghost, so what keeps her haunting the halls of Liberty? Some believe she may still be buried on the property. Other members of the Brown family were eventually reinterred in the Frankfort Cemetery, but there is no grave marker for Margaretta Varick.
This means she could still be roaming, searching for her final resting place…
If you want to see the Gray Lady for yourself, Friday, Oct. 13th is Ghosts in the Garden, an immersive, open-air scare event at Liberty Hall.
There are also two specialty tours at the end of the month. Visit Liberty Hall’s website for more information on the events and tickets Liberty Hall’s website.
To learn more about the history of the property, click here.
