Residents can join Brown Library Program Assistant Terry Rollins on June 7 for a Historic Washington Ghost Walk, highlighting sites that are historically deemed as haunted.

Rollins said the 90-minute ghost walks, conducted monthly from April to Halloween, are an opportunity for anyone to hear historically-researched stories and visit historical sites over a one-mile trek through Washington Historic District. Those wishing to participate should meet at Harding Square at the end of Market Street, thirty minutes before the walk and purchase tickets for $10 per person. The walks start promptly at 8 p.m.

There are 12 sites that Rollins visits to tell stories during the walk. He stops outside each site and tells the story, and sometimes, Rollins said, participants capture eerie images during the walk.

“There have been times where ghosts have let us know of their presence in subtle ways,” Rollins said. “Often, folks will take photos and you can clearly see orbs of light or apparitions walking with us or coming out of the buildings.”

Rhonda Lucas Donald, a professional storyteller who used to live in Washington, researched the script for the walk. However, Rollins, who has headed up the program for the last two years, tells the stories to participants.

“Washington, in my opinion, is an incredibly haunted city,” Rollins said. “Everything covered in the Ghost Walk is based on historical record.”

Rollins said every walk follows the same script, but he improvises according to his audience. It covers the three centuries of Washington’s history, from the colonial period to present day.

“We have the flexibility within the ghost walk to highlight different parts of the script,” Rollins said.

Some of those hauntings include one of the stops — the old Beaufort County Courthouse, Rollins said. At a site where a murder trial occurred in the 1850s, the murderer still, to this day, haunts the building.

“There have been numerous reports of his presence there,” Rollins said. “We know the ghost is a malevolent ghost. There have been folks associated with professional ghost hunting organizations and they have said the presence in the courthouse is an evil spirit.”

Another stop along the walk includes St. Peter’s Church Cemetery where three different stories are told, Rollins said. One story involves a little girl, Carrie Foreman, who died in the 1880s at her grandparent’s general store on the outskirts of town and was laid to rest at the cemetery — in a yellow dress.

Rollins said the little girl still haunts several places in town, including the site where the general store was once located and the cemetery. There have been head-on collisions and several car accident reports over the years of a little girl in a yellow dress darting across the highway. No such little girl has been found after any of these accidents or sightings.

Rollins enjoys presenting the walks to the public as well as giving participants a good show, he said. On nights that aren’t too cold, Rollins dons a Victorian-era outfit with a walking staff and a lantern, adding to the historical “awe factor” of the walks.

“Most everyone are still kids inside,” Rollins said. “They want to be scared, they want to feel that “boo” experience and the information that we present lives up to that because the stories are so powerful. People come away with a sense of awe or a little bit of fright. That’s what I enjoy — people come away believing a ghostly presence is a possibility.”