1907 downtown Raleigh building — formerly a coffin house, morgue, and bank — now Chef Ashley Christensen's wood-fire restaurant, with active Ghost Guild paranormal investigations.
105 West Hargett Street, Raleigh, NC 27601
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Death & Taxes is an upscale wood-fire dining concept from Chef Ashley Christensen. Reservations recommended; check OpenTable or the restaurant's site for hours and current menu.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Level downtown commercial-building entry; main dining is on the ground floor
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1907 · 1907 downtown Raleigh commercial building · Documented earlier uses: coffin house, morgue, bank · Spanish-flu-era body storage in basement (per Ghost Guild) · Flagship Ashley Christensen Restaurants location
The building at 105 West Hargett Street was constructed in 1907 in Raleigh's downtown commercial core. According to multiple regional press accounts and the Ghost Guild's public statements, the building's earlier uses include a coffin house — where, during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, bodies were reportedly stacked in the basement awaiting burial — a morgue, and a bank. These uses are widely cited in published interviews with Ghost Guild Executive Director Nelson Nauss and in Midtown Magazine's 'Capital City Ghosts' feature.
Chef Ashley Christensen, a James Beard Foundation award winner, opened Death & Taxes in the building. The restaurant focuses specifically on wood-fire technique and is one of Christensen's flagship downtown concepts. The space occupies the ground floor; the basement, which figures heavily in the building's earlier-use history, is generally back-of-house.
Death & Taxes has become one of the anchor fine-dining destinations in downtown Raleigh, and the building's combined culinary and historical reputation has made it a recurring stop on local ghost-tour itineraries.
Sources
Death & Taxes was the subject of an on-the-record investigation by The Ghost Guild, Raleigh's local paranormal research nonprofit. Per ABC11's coverage of the September 17, 2023 investigation, investigators documented periodic loud slap-like sounds on chairs in multiple areas of the building, with the basement consistently described as the most active area.
Ghost Guild Executive Director Nelson Nauss, speaking on the record to ABC11 and Midtown Magazine's 'Capital City Ghosts' piece, has publicly described the building's coffin-house history — specifically the 1918 Spanish flu era when bodies were stacked in the basement awaiting burial — as the historical anchor for the activity reported there. The Ghost Guild's own location page for Death & Taxes reiterates the investigation findings.
Staff accounts repeated in the regional reporting describe phantom footsteps and the sound of what one witness described as a full conversation between a young girl and a man, audible when the dining room is closed and quiet.
Death & Taxes is unusual among Raleigh haunted-location entries in that it has been the subject of a publicly reported, named investigation by a registered local research nonprofit, with primary witnesses willing to be quoted on the record. The lore here is reasonably well-corroborated by Raleigh standards.
Media Appearances
Dine at Chef Ashley Christensen's Death & Taxes inside a 1907 commercial building locally documented as a former coffin house, morgue, and bank. The basement — historically used during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic — is the area Ghost Guild investigators describe as the most active.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Raleigh, NC
The Pine State Creamery is a 1928 Moderne-style former dairy plant in Raleigh's Glenwood South neighborhood. Encouraged by the State College Agricultural Extension Service at the end of World War I, the building operated as a dairy farmers' cooperative until its bankruptcy in 1995. The corner structure on Tucker Street and Glenwood Avenue is anchored by a distinctive three-story tower. Adaptive reuse turned the building into a food-and-beverage hub housing successive restaurants and bars including Xoco and, currently, Ark Royal Tiki Bar.
Wilmington, NC
Michael's on the Waterfront occupies a 19th-century building at 5 South Water Street in Wilmington, North Carolina, on the city's downtown waterfront. According to local tour operators and the Wilmington tourism board, the building's earlier life included use as the Blue Post Bar, identified in waterfront folklore as a 19th-century brothel and drinking establishment.
Charlotte, NC
The building at 401 West 9th Street was built in 1897 as the Crowell-Berryhill Store, a fixture corner-store in Charlotte's Fourth Ward in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Ernest Wiley Berryhill, who passed away in 1931, operated the store as one of the partners. Alexander Michael's Restaurant opened in the building in January 1983 and continues to operate as a neighborhood tavern.