HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
+ 1 further entry on record
The Gainesville library was built over a demolished antebellum hotel and a relocated family cemetery—staff called in paranormal investigators after 'Miss Elizabeth' began turning lights on and off, moving chairs, and riding the elevator alone
127 Main Street SW, Gainesville, GA 30501
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public library; no admission charge
Access
Wheelchair OK
Public library with elevator access and fully accessible interior
Equipment
Photos OK
Built on site of former Wheeler Hotel, downtown Gainesville landmark · Antebellum Brown Family Cemetery relocated to Alta Vista Cemetery in 1920s · Paranormal investigators enlisted by library staff to document activity · Cited among five Gainesville locations with documented recurring haunting reports
The site at 127 Main Street SW in Gainesville has layered history beneath the current library building. The Wheeler Hotel stood on this ground as a downtown fixture before its eventual demolition. Predating the hotel, the property also contained the Brown Family Cemetery, an antebellum private burial ground. In the 1920s, as the site was developed, the Brown Family Cemetery's remains were relocated to Alta Vista Cemetery — a common practice in Georgia's developing downtowns, though relocation was not always complete or fully documented.
The library was constructed on the cleared site and became part of the Hall County Library System. Library staff at the main branch began experiencing unexplained activity and collectively named the apparent entity 'Miss Elizabeth.' The Gainesville Times documented the specific behaviors attributed to her: lights turning on and off without any person present near the switches, alarms activating without cause, chairs moving in the stacks area, faucets turning on in restrooms, and the elevator operating between floors without any passenger.
The range and specificity of the reports — affecting multiple independent systems across the building — prompted library staff to enlist paranormal investigators, an institutional response that is relatively unusual and gives this case more documentary weight than informal staff accounts alone.
The Gainesville Times included the library among five Gainesville locations with documented recurring haunting histories, and local ghost tour accounts reference the Wheeler Hotel connection as the most likely explanatory anchor for the activity.
Sources
Miss Elizabeth's presence at the Hall County Library is one of the more institutionally corroborated haunting accounts in northeast Georgia. The behaviors attributed to her span multiple independent building systems: lights and alarms that activate without traceable cause, furniture displacement in the stacks area, restroom faucets turning on when the room is empty, and most distinctively, the elevator operating between floors without any occupant activating it.
The elevator phenomenon in particular is notable because it is verifiable — elevator cars in a functioning library don't move between floors without being called or occupied, and repeated unexplained activations would be documented by maintenance records. Staff accounts indicate the elevator movements were consistent enough that investigators took them seriously.
The Gainesville Times coverage of 'local ghost hangouts' named the library explicitly and described the Miss Elizabeth accounts in detail. The subsequent follow-up article placing it among five Gainesville locations with recurring documented reports gave it additional journalistic corroboration. The Wheeler Hotel and the Brown Family Cemetery relocation together provide the historical substrate for the activity in the local narrative — the combination of a hospitality building where many transient people lived and died, and a burial ground whose relocation may have been incomplete.
Notable Entities
The Hall County Library System's main branch occupies the site of the former Wheeler Hotel and an antebellum Brown Family Cemetery, with bodies relocated to Alta Vista Cemetery in the 1920s. The building's history is accessible through the library's local history collection. Staff accounts of Miss Elizabeth are part of Gainesville's documented haunted heritage.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Tifton, GA
Established in 1976 as Georgia's official state museum of agriculture, the Agrirama preserves 35+ authentic structures relocated from across South Georgia and reassembled on a 95-acre site in Tifton. The museum documents the daily rhythms of rural Georgia life from the Reconstruction era through the early twentieth century.
Milledgeville, GA
Georgia College & State University occupies a campus in Milledgeville, Georgia's antebellum state capital. The Old Governor's Mansion on campus housed ten Georgia governors from 1839 to 1868 before becoming part of the college. Sanford Hall, a campus residence hall, became the site of a 1952 tragedy when student Betty Jean Cook died there.
Augusta, GA
Nicholas Ware, a former Augusta mayor who later served in the U.S. Senate, commissioned this Federal-style mansion at 506 Telfair Street in 1818 at a cost of $40,000—approximately $12 million in current terms—earning it the nickname 'Ware's Folly' for its extravagance. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 (reference #73000641). The building has housed the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art since 1937, when it was founded as the Augusta Art Club by Olivia Herbert; it was later renamed in memory of Herbert's daughter Gertrude Herbert Dunn.