An 1843 Wilmington house on the site of the city's former Gallows Hill, now private offices, with long-told reports of period-clothed figures, 'HELP' appearing in window condensation, and an entity called 'George.'
514 Market St, Wilmington, NC 28401
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Exterior viewing from the public sidewalk is free. Building interior is private commercial space and not open to visitors.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved sidewalk along Market Street
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1843 · Former Gallows Hill · Mid-19th Century Architecture · Dr. William Price Residence
The parcel at the intersection of Market Street and what is now 5th Avenue was used as Wilmington's public execution ground — Gallows Hill — during the late colonial and early-republic period. Local histories and the published lore associated with the site estimate that no fewer than 150 men were executed at or near the hill, with many of the unclaimed bodies interred on the property after execution.
Dr. William Price purchased the parcel and built the present house in 1843. The house remained in the Price family and later passed to the Gause family, giving the building its compound name. Over the late 19th and 20th centuries the building served as a private residence and a series of commercial occupants.
The Price-Gause House today functions as private commercial office space. Visitors are limited to exterior viewing from the Market Street sidewalk. The building is not part of any public-tour ticket and the owners do not run scheduled paranormal investigations; the site is included on Wilmington walking-tour routes only as an exterior stop.
The building has been a recurring subject in regional ghost coverage, including the Queen City Ghosts and Drugstore Divas guides and the Cape Fear Unearthed podcast episode 'Ghosts of Gallows Hill.'
Sources
The Price-Gause House has been a fixture in Wilmington ghost-tour itineraries for decades and is documented as one of Wilmington's most haunted homes across multiple independent guides — Queen City Ghosts, Drugstore Divas, Charlotte Ghost Tours, the Occult World encyclopedia entry, the What-When-How haunted-places digest, and the Haunted History blog. Across these sources, the most consistently reported phenomenon is the appearance of period-clothed figures watching from the upstairs windows after dark. The figures have been described by passersby and tour guides moving past the property along Market Street.
The lore also includes the word 'HELP' appearing in condensation on the upstairs office window — a phenomenon described as recurring across multiple unrelated occupant generations. Inside the building, occupants have reported the smell of pipe tobacco when no one is smoking, kitchen items relocating overnight, metal clanking sounds in interior rooms, and heavy stomping on the stairs from unseen sources. An entity informally called 'George' is described in tour storytelling as a friendly resident presence said to greet people passing the house — a name reportedly given by employees of the architectural firm that has occupied the building.
Ghost-hunting teams cited in the Queen City Ghosts and Drugstore Divas features have reported EMF spikes and cold spots, with the most consistent reports concentrated in the side yard along the eastern wall of the building — the area in which the unclaimed bodies of executed men are believed to have been buried during the property's Gallows Hill period.
HauntBound notes that the executions and unmarked burials that anchor this lore involve historical violence; the storytelling should treat the men buried at the site with dignity rather than as background color. The Cape Fear Unearthed podcast episode 'Ghosts of Gallows Hill' provides a more historically grounded treatment of the site than most tour-circuit retellings.
Because the building functions as private commercial offices, HauntBound publishes it only as an exterior-viewing stop from the public Market Street sidewalk; visitors should not approach the building, its side yard, or its rear property.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
View the 1843 Price-Gause House from the public Market Street sidewalk. The building functions as private offices and is not open to visitors; the side yard and rear property are private. Guided ghost-tour operators in downtown Wilmington include the house as an exterior stop on walking tours.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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