Haunted Pillar
Encyclopedia
The Haunted Pillar is all that remains of a farmer's market that once stood at Fifth and Broad Street
s in downtown Augusta, Georgia
. The market stood from 1830 until February 7, 1878, when it was destroyed in a tornado
.
According to local legend an attempt to move, destroy the pillar, or even touch it will result in death.
According to one story, a preacher who was denied the right to preach there, "... threatened that a great wind would destroy the place except for one pillar and that whoever tried to remove this remaining pillar would be struck dead," according to a person interviewed by The Augusta Chronicle http://chronicle.augusta.com/history/pillar.html.
The market was located directly in the middle of Broad Street, and once it was removed Augustans were reluctant to build there again. "Now that the Market House is in ruins, we think it may be opportune to suggest that it never be rebuilt upon the same spot. It was, at best, an unsightly edifice and marred the grand boulevard upon which it was mistakenly located," said an article in The Augusta Chronicle a week after the market was destroyed.
Broad Street Historic District (Augusta, Georgia)
The Broad Street Historic District in Augusta, Georgia is a historic district that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It includes 158 contributing buildings....
s in downtown Augusta, Georgia
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta is a consolidated city in the U.S. state of Georgia, located along the Savannah River. As of the 2010 census, the Augusta–Richmond County population was 195,844 not counting the unconsolidated cities of Hephzibah and Blythe.Augusta is the principal city of the Augusta-Richmond County...
. The market stood from 1830 until February 7, 1878, when it was destroyed in a tornado
Tornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...
.
According to local legend an attempt to move, destroy the pillar, or even touch it will result in death.
According to one story, a preacher who was denied the right to preach there, "... threatened that a great wind would destroy the place except for one pillar and that whoever tried to remove this remaining pillar would be struck dead," according to a person interviewed by The Augusta Chronicle http://chronicle.augusta.com/history/pillar.html.
The market was located directly in the middle of Broad Street, and once it was removed Augustans were reluctant to build there again. "Now that the Market House is in ruins, we think it may be opportune to suggest that it never be rebuilt upon the same spot. It was, at best, an unsightly edifice and marred the grand boulevard upon which it was mistakenly located," said an article in The Augusta Chronicle a week after the market was destroyed.
See also
- Broad Street Historic District (Augusta, Georgia)Broad Street Historic District (Augusta, Georgia)The Broad Street Historic District in Augusta, Georgia is a historic district that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It includes 158 contributing buildings....
- History of Augusta, GeorgiaHistory of Augusta, GeorgiaAugusta, Georgia was founded in 1735 as part of the British colony of Georgia, under the supervision of colony founder James Oglethorpe. It was the colony's second established town, after Savannah...
External links
- "Bite this, Haunted Pillar" The Metro Spirit
- "Curse blamed on angry preacher" The Augusta Chronicle
- The Asylum Eclectica: A Peculiar Pillar — includes photos