Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domain1901 North Carolina Murder Site, Now a Private Residence
1901 Riverside Avenue, Elizabeth City, NC 27909
Research updated May 2026
Age
Private property; not a public attraction
Cost
Free
Drive-by viewing only. The house occasionally opens for the annual Elizabeth City Ghost Walk in October.
Access
Limited Access
Paved sidewalk
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1885 · 1901 Murder of Nell Cropsey · North Carolina Legal History · Cropsey Case · Queen Anne Architecture
The Cropsey family moved from Brooklyn to Elizabeth City, North Carolina, in 1898 in search of better farmland. They purchased a Queen Anne-style house on Riverside Avenue facing the Pasquotank River and named it Seven Pines for the trees on the lawn. The household included parents William and Mary Cropsey, their five children, and several extended family members.
On the night of November 20, 1901, the family hosted James 'Jim' Wilcox, who had been courting their daughter Ella Maud - known as Nell - for several years. Their relationship was visibly cooling, and the visit ended with Wilcox and Nell stepping onto the front porch together around eleven o'clock. Wilcox returned to his home alone. When Nell did not come back inside, the family raised an alarm. Pasquotank County mounted one of the largest searches in its history.
Nell's body was recovered from the river 37 days later, on December 27. The autopsy concluded she had died of a blow to the left temple before entering the water. Wilcox was tried for first-degree murder in March 1902 and convicted, but the North Carolina Supreme Court declared a mistrial. A second trial in 1903 produced a second-degree murder conviction and a 30-year sentence. Wilcox was paroled in 1918 after serving roughly fifteen years and died by suicide in 1934. He maintained his innocence to the end and reportedly told a Greensboro reporter the full story shortly before his death; the reporter's notes were destroyed without being read.
The Cropsey case has remained one of North Carolina's most-studied early 20th-century mysteries. The house at 1901 Riverside has remained a private residence through subsequent generations of owners. It occasionally appears on the Elizabeth City Ghost Walk, the annual October event that has run since 1996.
Sources
Successive owners of the Cropsey house, beginning decades after the 1901 case, have produced a consistent body of accounts. Lights cycle on and off in rooms with no one present. Doors that were latched are found open. Faucets in the kitchen and bathrooms turn themselves on, and unexplained drafts of cold air move through interior hallways.
The most-reported figure is a young woman in pale clothing who is observed crossing empty rooms or, more often, watching from a second-floor window. Passersby on the public sidewalk along Riverside Avenue have produced enough independent sightings of the upper-window figure to make it the property's signature account. A second figure - an older woman seen at a downstairs window with the bearing of someone watching for an arrival - is associated with Nell's mother Mary, who never recovered from her daughter's disappearance and the long search.
The Cropsey house's haunted reputation predates and survived the Shadowlands Index entry. It is treated as cultural history in Elizabeth City and is incorporated, with appropriate care, into the city's October Ghost Walk programming.
Notable Entities
View the Cropsey home from the public sidewalk on Riverside Avenue. The house, called Seven Pines in 1901, faces the Pasquotank River where Nell Cropsey's body was recovered. The home is a private residence; do not approach or trespass.
Each October, the Elizabeth City Ghost Walk - running annually since 1996 - includes the Cropsey house among its stops. Costumed interpreters tell the story of Nell's 1901 disappearance and the trial of Jim Wilcox. The walk visits multiple historic sites; check Visit Elizabeth City for current dates.
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