Mid-19th-century Greek Revival and Italianate home now part of the Lyndon House Arts Center, with reports of a figure in 19th-century formal dress attributed to Dr. Edward Lyndon or to Lonnie Spalding, killed by a wagon in 1895.
293 Hoyt Street, Athens, GA 30601
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public admission. Donations supported. Check the Lyndon House Arts Center website for current hours and tour availability.
Access
Limited Access
Mid-19th-century historic home with original staircases between floors; the broader Lyndon House Arts Center complex is more accessible.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1845 · Mid-19th-Century Greek Revival and Italianate Home · National Register of Historic Places (1976) · Anchor of the Lyndon House Arts Center
The Ware-Lyndon House at 293 Hoyt Street in Athens is the historic core of the Lyndon House Arts Center complex. Wikipedia and the Athens-Clarke County government cite a build date of circa 1850, with the broader Athens architectural community placing initial construction in the mid-1840s.
Edward R. Ware, the property's first documented owner, sold the home to Edward S. Lyndon in 1880. The City of Athens purchased the property in 1939 and undertook a major restoration in 1960. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
Since 1973 the property has served as a community arts center. The Lyndon House Arts Center, with its grand opening as a renamed facility in May 1999, offers five galleries of dance, visual arts, theatre, music, and education programming, and the historic Ware-Lyndon House continues to operate as a docent-interpreted house museum within the complex.
Sources
According to the Visit Athens GA tourism office's haunted-Athens guide and the Atlanta Ghosts walking-tour write-up, the Ware-Lyndon House is one of the most frequently visited stops on Athens ghost tours. Tour guides and arts-center staff describe a recurring figure on the upper landing and in the front parlor wearing black pants, black shoes, a vest, a white shirt, and a tie — early-evening formal attire for a man of the late 19th century.
Two identities are commonly given. The first is Dr. Edward S. Lyndon, who purchased the home in 1880; he was a Civil War-era surgeon and prominent Athens medical figure. The second is Lonnie Spalding, an Athens-area man who was killed by a horse-drawn wagon in 1895 while rushing home to his wife, who was in labor.
The reported phenomena include footsteps on the central staircase, doors moving on their own in unoccupied second-floor rooms, and a sense of a presence at the head of the stairs. Visit Athens GA's listing mentions a man pacing on a landing in period clothing. The lore is well-circulated in Athens ghost-walk programming, although a formal published paranormal investigation with documented evidence has not entered the major American paranormal literature.
Notable Entities
Tour the restored mid-19th-century Greek Revival and Italianate home that serves as the historic anchor of the Lyndon House Arts Center complex, with five galleries of dance, visual arts, theatre, music, and education programming.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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