Hauntings in Gainesville: A Non-Believer’s Guide to the Paranormal

As we get closer to the spookiest time of the year, I think it’s time to explore some of the myths (and maybe even realities) of our local area.

Disclaimer: This information below is in no way meant disprove or tarnish the reputations of these places or the people involved. It is not my intention to discourage anyone from visiting these sites. I only wish to keep the mythology and lore of these haunted spots alive by sharing them, and keep it interesting with my experience. With that being said, let’s talk about ghosts and demons.

Devils’ Millhopper

The myth: A chief’s daughter was stolen by a demon/the devil and opened a pit to hell to thwart her rescuers.

The story goes that the Timucuan Chief Potano would not give away daughter Sicuri for marriage; as no one was deemed worthy of her.

The ancient demon Hiti—who was once a great warrior, but was cursed by the gods— vowed revenge upon the Timucuan people and decided to steal Sicuri.

Disguising himself, Hiti lured Sicuri out of the camp. Once Potano awoke, he found a bracelet of human teeth, a common sign of Hiti encounters. Potano sent many warriors after Sicuri, who realized too late that she was taken by the demon. Hiti summoned a giant alligator to thwart the pursuing warriors, but it was speared by Potano.

Knowing he was trapped, Hiti opened a pit around the warriors, they fell into the pit and were lost.

Now the myth splits depending on who is telling it. One story ends there, with the rivers and streams flowing into the sinkhole being of the warriors and the Chief for the loss of his daughter.

The other telling has Sicuri breaking her bondage and spearing Hiti through the heart and thrusting him into the pit, where he turned to stone. The rivers and streams flowing into the pit are Sicuri and her father’s tears about the loss of most of the men in the tribe and the rebuilding process.

The story that was adopted by local religious folk and preachers has a pit opened up by the Devil himself to swallow sinners—hence the apt name, Devil’s Millhopper.

Verdict: Beautiful spot with tons of gorgeous natural features. Myths are myths and if you want to believe that an ancient demon summoned a giant alligator, then that will only add to the spook factor of this place.

Note: The stairs/boardwalk down the actual sinkhole are being repaired after Hurricane Irma and will not be completed until the first quarter of 2019. So if you’re looking for scary spots this Halloween, you’ll have to wait on this one. There is a nature trail around the sinkhole that is still beautiful and within sight of the pit to hell.

Beaty Towers

The myth: A woman tragically committed suicide off the top of one of the towers.

These rather ominous and towering twins of the Gainesville skyline have a disturbing bit of rumor circling in their midst.

There’s a strongly winder tale of a young woman, most likely a University of Florida student, who cast herself from the very top of one of these imposing structures.

Residents today still claim to see her wandering the halls; with some reporting things being moved around their dorms without any explanation, or objects missing entirely. Strange sounds and an ever-pressing feeling of dread when ascending floors also seem to plague the residents.

One resident named Savannah, who lived in the western tower, shared her story online:

“One of the nights when my roommate and I were almost asleep in our beds, we heard a rustling noise coming from the end of my roommates bed. It sounded like someone had a plastic bag in their hands and was vigorously crumbling it and tossing it around. We both thought we were just hearing things at first so we both disregarded the sound until it happened two more times. I then screamed for our roommate in the other room to come check it out. We always left our door locked so it couldn’t have been one of our other roommates kidding with us. It seemed too powerful and loud of a sound for it to be a rodent in a bag.” (via hauntedplaces.org)

Now, as far as I know, no evidence has ever appeared proving this haunting, so where did this start? The answer may come from an unexpected place: the late, great musician and Gainesville native Tom Petty.

The song “American Girl,” arguably one of Petty’s biggest hits, features the lyrics:

“It was kind of cold that night she stood alone on her balcony. She could hear the cars roll by out on 441 like waves crashin’ in the beach, and for one desperate moment there he crept back in her memory. God, it’s so painful, something that’s so close and still so far out of reach.”

Verdict: Like most ghost stories, this rumor is discredited. Petty stated that the song is not about Gainesville at all and that the rumor is entirely false. Sorry, everybody.

But ghost stories are always fun and keep places relevant. Sadly, I think the only thing scary about Beaty Towers is the elevators never running properly and surrounding yourself with the type of people who pull the fire alarm at 3 a.m. because it’s “funny.”

The Hippodrome Theatre

The myth: A man was wrongly executed and his mother arrived too late, haunting the place ever since.

This classic Gainesville feature has a storied history and the ghost story begins far earlier than when the theatre was established in 1973. The structure was built in 1911 as a government building, housing both the post office and courthouse.

The story tells of a young man named Clement Boyle, who was accused of a crime he did or did not commit. Upon hearing the news that her son was about to be hanged, his mother Lucinda traveled thousands of miles to bring evidence of his innocence. She arrived one day after her son was hanged in the courtyard and her sorrow has been felt in the halls ever since.

I spoke with Bob Robins, the production/facility manager and lighting designer at the Hippodrome. Since he’s a man of many hats, I tried not to keep him for too long, but we chatted briefly about his experiences in the building and why theaters seem to always have an air of superstition about them.

Everyone has heard of the standard theatre tropes of saying “break a leg” or not saying “Macbeth.” But there’s also the tradition of the ghost light. Of course, every playhouse you visit will have it’s own superstitious activities and haunted areas.

Robins believes theaters are such dwelling grounds for ghost stories because of all the different people that have passed through the building and left some sort of ethereal mark.

He was kind enough to share with me one of his own personal experiences in the Hippodrome. It occurred with the voice of a man that Gainesville and the theatre know quite well.

Robins and another of his colleagues claimed to hear the voice of former theatre superstar and great man, Rusty Sallings. Shortly after Sallings passed away in 2016, Robins and another claimed to hear the man’s voice speaking to them. However brief it was, they both heard the same thing.

If Rusty Salling is still keeping an eye on the theatre and its participants, then they are certainly better for it.

Robins showed me a couple of the spots where there is the most paranormal activity and told of the time when a real paranormal investigation team stayed in the basement with all of their fancy tools and those fancy tools showed all the definite signs of the paranormal.

Verdict: Of the places on this list, this is your best bet at actually experiencing something…odd. From chills to voices and eerie feelings, more than a few people have their own tales to tell of the haunted Hippodrome of Gainesville, Florida.

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