An 1797 colonial home at Heritage Square, NRHP-listed and still used by the Fayetteville Woman's Club, where named witnesses reported seeing the ghost of Margaret Sandford in 2004 and 2008.
225 Dick Street, Fayetteville, NC 28301
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Heritage Square grounds and exterior are free to visit. Interior access for events and tours varies; contact the Heritage Square Historical Society for current availability.
Access
Limited Access
Historic multi-room 18th-century home with period stairs and uneven floors; grounds at grade
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1797 · National Register of Historic Places · Colonial Georgian Architecture · Union Army Barracks (Civil War) · Woman's Club of Fayetteville Stewardship
The Sandford House at Heritage Square in Fayetteville, North Carolina was constructed around 1797 in a Colonial Georgian style, featuring eight rooms divided by wide hallways and finished with elaborate mantles, doorways, and moldings. The builder and original occupant, the Sandford family, gave the home its name. The property sits on Dick Street in the historic core of downtown Fayetteville.
Over the following decades the building served a variety of civic and commercial uses. During the Civil War it functioned as a Union Army barracks, and later as a federal bank branch — roles that brought a stream of non-family occupants through the house and added layers of documented history to the structure. The complex at Heritage Square comprises three historic buildings: the Sandford House (1797), the Oval Ballroom (1818), and the Baker-Haigh-Nimocks House (1804).
The Woman's Club of Fayetteville acquired and began maintaining the property in 1946. The Heritage Square complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 6, 1973, with reference number 73001330. The Heritage Square Historical Society now administers the campus and makes it available for tours and private events.
The Sandford House remains one of the most intact examples of late 18th-century domestic architecture in Cumberland County, preserved with period-appropriate furnishings and interpreted through the lens of both colonial domestic life and the building's public career across two centuries.
Sources
The haunting claims at the Sandford House are more specifically documented than most North Carolina ghost lore, tied to named individuals and dated sightings rather than vague tradition. According to Queen City Ghosts and the North Carolina Haunted Houses registry, a trustee of the Woman's Club of Fayetteville reported seeing an apparition inside the house in 2004, and a club member reported a second encounter in 2008. Both accounts describe the figure as Margaret Sandford, a spirit associated with the home's founding family.
A second, older legend circulates around the building's sub-structure. Local tradition holds that a secret underground passage once ran from the cellar toward the Cape Fear River — a plausible feature given the building's proximity to the river and its mid-19th century use as a bank. The legend attaches to this passage the ghost of a young woman who searches the building for her sweetheart, allegedly murdered and interred somewhere along the route.
The passage story has not been independently verified in historical documentation, and no physical evidence of a tunnel has been publicly confirmed. The Sandford sightings, however, draw credibility from the specificity of their witnesses and the dates attached to them, making this one of the more directly sourced haunting claims in the Fayetteville area.
Notable Entities
Docent-led tour of the Sandford House and Heritage Square complex, covering the 1797 colonial home, the 1818 Oval Ballroom, and the 1804 Baker-Haigh-Nimocks House. Tour covers the Sandford family, the building's use as a federal bank and Union barracks during the Civil War, and the Woman's Club's stewardship since 1946.
Self-guided visit to the Heritage Square campus including the gardens and exterior of the three historic structures. Interpretive signage describes each building's history and architectural style.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Fayetteville, NC
The Kyle House is a brick Greek Revival / Italianate structure built around 1855 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1972. It sits within Fayetteville's historic residential district on Green Street and has served various civic and private functions since the mid-19th century.
Charles City, VA
Benjamin Harrison IV built the current mansion at Berkeley Plantation in 1726, making it the oldest three-story brick structure in Virginia. The plantation became the birthplace of President William Henry Harrison in 1773 and the ancestral seat of a family that produced a signer of the Declaration of Independence and two U.S. Presidents. During the Civil War, General McClellan used the mansion as his headquarters and the cellar held Confederate prisoners.
Indianapolis, IN
Hannah House is an 1858 Italianate mansion at 3801 Madison Avenue on the south side of Indianapolis, built by Alexander Hannah, an Indiana businessman who returned wealthy from the California Gold Rush. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.