HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
A landmark Raleigh building joined in the 1950s to the 1907 H. J. Brown Coffin House next door, which Ghost Guild's Nelson Nauss says was later a morgue and a bank; now Chef Ashley Christensen's wood-fire restaurant, with active Ghost Guild paranormal investigations.
105 West Hargett Street, Raleigh, NC 27601
Research updated May 2026
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
1907 H. J. Brown Coffin House building, joined in the 1950s with the ca. 1920 building at 105 W Hargett Street · Ghost Guild-attributed earlier uses: coffin house, morgue, bank · Spanish-flu-era body storage in basement (per Ghost Guild) · Flagship Ashley Christensen Restaurants location
The restaurant's address, 105 West Hargett Street, is part of a landmark parcel that the City of Raleigh's records describe as two joined buildings: the ca. 1920 Ideal Cleaning Company building at 105 West Hargett Street and the 1907 H. J. Brown Coffin House building next door at 200 South Salisbury Street, connected in the 1950s. Ghost Guild Executive Director Nelson Nauss has told ABC11 that the coffin-house building was later used as a morgue and a bank, and that bodies were stacked in the basement during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic; these statements are quoted in ABC11's coverage 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, in a landmark building joined in the 1950s to the 1907 H. J. Brown Coffin House building next door. Ghost Guild investigators describe the basement, which Ghost Guild's Nelson Nauss says was used as a morgue during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, as the building's most active area.
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