South Carolina State House · Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (19th century) · University of South Carolina Historic District
Soda City Ghosts, US Ghost Adventures' Columbia brand, operates a nightly, roughly 1-hour, 1-mile walking tour meeting outside the historic Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 1100 Sumter St. The route covers the South Carolina State House, whose current building dates to an 1851 reconstruction disrupted by the Civil War; Trinity Episcopal Church Cemetery, built in the late 1800s and adjusted during the Civil War to protect the cathedral, resting place of poet Henry Timrod; and the South Carolinian Library, built as one of the nation's first freestanding library buildings and now part of the University of South Carolina.
Soda City Ghosts should not be confused with Soda City Tours (sodacitytours.com), an unrelated general sightseeing bus-tour company in Columbia run by owner Brian Cole; the similar names are a coincidence of local branding, not a chain relationship.
Sources
- https://usghostadventures.com/columbia-ghost-tour/
- https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g54184-d33255546-Reviews-Soda_City_Ghosts-Columbia_South_Carolina.html
- https://www.getyourguide.com/columbia-south-carolina-l101340/lanterns-and-lunacy-of-the-lost-cruel-columbia-ghost-tours-t956330/
- https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/experiences/south-carolina/exploring-the-haunted-heart-of-columbia-sc
ApparitionsUnexplained SoundsPhantom Footsteps
According to the operator, the South Carolina State House is haunted by the spirit of a construction worker killed during its troubled, Civil War-disrupted rebuilding, still said to make himself known to staff and visitors near the building's Civil War-era bullet-hole scars. Trinity Episcopal Church Cemetery is tied by the operator to spectral residents linked to a 19th-century love-triangle story and to Civil War casualties, alongside the documented grave of poet Henry Timrod. The South Carolinian Library is described as haunted by a former university president and mentor nicknamed 'The Colonel,' said to still be heard shuffling papers and felt watching over students and staff.
All of the above is the operator's own marketing and narrative framing, not documented history independently verified by HauntBound, and is included here only to describe what the tour covers. No specific individuals are named in connection with the State House or library hauntings.
