In the spirit of the Halloween season, we’re digging into the haunting side of history behind some of Polk County’s landmarks. Think you know all there is to know about these iconic spots? You’ll have to read on to find out — if you dare.
The Polk Theatre
This historic venue is reportedly home to three ghosts ranging from different time periods in the theater’s past. Get to know their stories, along with the many accounts of bone-chilling behavior that have occurred in the venue’s walls.
Florida Southern College
The hauntings on the campus of Florida Southern College are widely known in Lakeland, with the most notorious accounts about the Annie Pfeiffer Chapel + Buckner Theatre. According to rumor, the chapel’s choir screen wasn’t put in correctly and Frank Lloyd Wright’s apparition has been seen staring over it. At the Buckner Theatre, students have claimed to have seen doors shutting randomly or phantom hands in the curtains.
The Stanford Inn Bed & Breakfast
Though now permanently closed, it was once believed that a “noisy” apparition of the former owner inhabited this B&B featured in the 1991 film, “My Girl.” Doors would also allegedly close on their own, and disembodied footsteps had been heard on the staircase. The building is now home to Hope House, a home for expectant mothers.
Old Polk County Courthouse
Built in 1909 on the foundations of the original courthouse, the history of the Old Polk County Courthouse in Bartow dates back to the early 1880s. Haunted claims at this location include screams from the basement, apparitions on the second floor rotunda, a “Lady in White” on the second floor, and cold spots on the first floor.
Camilla Hall at Webber International University
Supposedly, a shadowy human figure lurks around the second floor of one of the girls-only dormitories at the university in Babson Park. According to rumors, only one student has ever seen the figure’s face right before he vanished before her eyes.
Reader submissions
We asked our readers which spots around Lakeland they felt could be haunted, and oh did they deliver some terrifying tales.
- “There’s a ‘house’ off of Clarendon Avenue (south of North Crystal Lake Drive) that’s been engulfed in foliage since I was a kid in the 1970s. Supposedly a light comes on every night at midnight for one minute, then flashes for 30 seconds afterwards.” — Reader E. Dubs
- “The old airport hangars at Tigertown are haunted by World War II veterans who were killed in action.” — Reader Gail D.
- “Deceased former firefighters come back to hang out around the old firehouse on Memorial Boulevard.” — Anonymous Reader
- “Harry’s Seafood Bar and Grille. The tunnels that supposedly run underneath the building and employees that have ‘unfinished business’, [it all gives] a general sense of [being haunted].” — Reader Michelle B.
