HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
An 1835 Federal mansion that spent five years as a funeral home before ghost tour operators made it Augusta's most reliably haunted address
519 Greene St, Augusta, GA 30901
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free to view exterior; ghost tour admission charged separately by tour operator
Access
Limited Access
Historic multi-story building; stairs likely required for interior access
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1835 · 1835 Federal-style mansion built for Augusta merchant John Phinizy · Served as funeral home 1933–1938 · Former Elks Lodge building · Active ghost tour stop in Augusta's historic downtown
The building at 519 Greene Street was constructed in 1835 as the residence of John Phinizy, a prominent Augusta merchant active in the antebellum cotton trade. The Federal-style brick structure is characteristic of Augusta's mid-1830s residential architecture in the downtown corridor, a period when Greene Street developed as one of the city's most prestigious residential addresses.
The Phinizy family occupied the property through multiple generations before the mansion passed out of private residential use. The period most relevant to the building's paranormal reputation began in 1933, when the structure was converted for use as a funeral home — a function it served for five years until 1938. The proximity of embalming and preparation spaces, the regular presence of the deceased on the premises, and the transitional nature of the building's purpose during those years form the biographical spine of the ghost tour narrative.
After the funeral home operation closed in 1938, the building became the local Elks Club, a civic fraternal organization. This secondary institutional life eventually gave way to its current operation as a private event venue. The building's exterior Federal-style architecture has been maintained through these transitions, making it one of the more intact antebellum residential structures in downtown Augusta.
The venue is listed on the Georgia Historic Preservation Division's documentation of Augusta landmarks and appears in multiple ghost tour operator itineraries as one of the city's most active paranormal sites. The combination of antebellum construction, the 1933–1938 funeral home period, and its central downtown location have made it a standard stop on Augusta's expanding ghost tour circuit.
Sources
The paranormal claims attached to 519 Greene Street concentrate primarily on the funeral home period. The argument made by tour operators is straightforward: a building that served as a space for the preparation and viewing of the dead for five consecutive years retains something of that function in ways that outlast the physical operation. Whether that constitutes a theological claim or a psychological one, the accounts of activity inside the building are consistent across multiple operators and investigators.
Reported phenomena include footsteps on upper floors when no one is present in that section, light fixtures that flicker or dim without attributed electrical cause, and a broadly reported sense of being observed. The footsteps are the most commonly cited phenomenon and tend to be located in rooms that, during the funeral home years, would have been preparation or staging areas.
US Ghost Adventures, which operates regular evening tours through Augusta's historic district, lists Marion Hatcher Center among its documented stops with active accounts. The Apparitions of Augusta tour, referenced by Georgia's state tourism office, also includes the building in its itinerary — a level of official tourist infrastructure acknowledgment unusual for privately operated buildings of this type.
No formal paranormal investigation with published methodology has been conducted at the site based on available sources. The accounts remain at the level of consistent visitor and tour-guide report.
The 1835 Federal-style façade on Greene Street is visible from the public sidewalk. The building retains its original exterior proportions from the John Phinizy era and is situated in Augusta's historic Broad Street corridor, walkable from other downtown landmarks.
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This Augusta tour includes Marion Hatcher Center (Old Phinizy Residence) on its route.
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