Sealed 1873 C&O Railway tunnel beneath Jefferson Park where an October 2, 1925 collapse entombed a steam locomotive and the bodies of at least two laborers, anchoring the local Richmond Vampire legend.
Jefferson Park (western portal near N 19th St & E Marshall St), Richmond, VA 23223
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Public park, free to visit. Tunnel itself is sealed; viewing is from above only.
Access
Limited Access
Grass and dirt paths in Jefferson Park; sloped terrain over the buried portal.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1873 · 1873 Chesapeake & Ohio Railway tunnel under Church Hill · October 2, 1925 collapse killed engineer, fireman, and at least two laborers · Locomotive and two unrecovered workers remain entombed · Both portals sealed with concrete; western portal beneath Jefferson Park · Centennial commemoration October 2, 2025
The Church Hill Tunnel was begun in 1871 and completed in 1873 by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, carrying rail traffic east-to-west beneath Church Hill on its way from the James River to Richmond's downtown freight yards. From the start the tunnel was plagued by water seepage and unstable clay overburden; multiple partial collapses during construction killed several workers, and operational use of the tunnel was abandoned around 1902 once the C&O bypassed it with a new James River viaduct route.
In 1925 the railroad re-opened the tunnel to repair and re-line it for renewed service. On the afternoon of October 2, 1925, a work train was inside the western portion of the tunnel when a section of the roof—approximately 200 feet long—gave way. The collapse pinned the locomotive and ten flat cars, killed engineer Thomas Joseph Mason at his post, and ruptured the locomotive's boiler. Fireman Benjamin F. Mosby, shirtless in the cab, was hit by superheated steam that scalded the skin from much of his body; he managed to crawl out of the tunnel but died of his injuries at Grace Hospital later that day. At least two laborers—identified in railroad records as Richard Lewis and 'H. Smith'—were buried under the collapse and never recovered. Contemporary newspaper accounts initially listed as many as six African American laborers as missing before the count was revised downward.
A nine-day rescue effort dug shafts down through Jefferson Park to reach the trapped train. After the engineer's body was retrieved and continued roof collapse made further work impossible, the railroad abandoned the recovery, packed the tunnel with sand, and sealed both portals with concrete plugs. The trapped locomotive and the bodies of the two laborers remain interred beneath Church Hill to this day.
The western portal is below Jefferson Park, accessible only as a viewing point from the surface; the eastern portal is in a private rail yard. The site is documented by Wikipedia, the Library of Virginia, the Encyclopedia Virginia network, and a Richmond Story House walking audio tour, and was commemorated at its centennial on October 2, 2025.
Sources
According to Richmond Ghosts, Atlas Obscura, and Haunts of Richmond, visitors to Jefferson Park describe disembodied screams, faint train whistles, and a brooding presence concentrated above the buried western portal. Local lore frames these as the still-trapped voices of Richard Lewis and 'H. Smith,' the two African American laborers whose bodies were never recovered from the 1925 collapse.
The site is also the geographic anchor of the Richmond Vampire urban legend, which dates back to the 1925 collapse. As documented by Wikipedia, WTVR, and the David Castleton 'Serpent's Pen' blog, the legend claims that after the cave-in a blood-covered creature with jagged teeth was seen crouching over a victim and fled the tunnel toward Hollywood Cemetery, where it disappeared into the hillside mausoleum of W.W. Pool (a real mausoleum dated 1913, 2.2 miles away). The verifiable person behind the legend is fireman Benjamin F. Mosby (1896-1925), the 28-year-old C&O fireman whose horrific burn injuries—skin hanging in sheets, teeth shattered by the explosion—gave rise to the vampire description as he stumbled out of the tunnel. The composite legend tying Mosby to the W.W. Pool mausoleum did not appear in print until 2001 and was popularized by the 2007 book 'Haunted Richmond: The Shadows of Shockoe.'
The lore involves African American laborers whose deaths were treated as expendable by railroad records of the era; we frame this contextually rather than sensationally. Their names—Richard Lewis and the man recorded only as 'H. Smith'—deserve to be spoken alongside the more famous Mosby narrative.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Walk the grass and dirt slopes of Jefferson Park above the sealed western portal of the Church Hill Tunnel. Interpretive markers and audio tours from Richmond Story House cover the 1925 collapse and rescue effort.
Featured stop on Haunts of Richmond and Richmond Ghosts evening walking tours covering the 1925 collapse, the trapped laborers, and the Richmond Vampire legend.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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