Opelika Spring Villa
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Southern Blend
John Rittmann
I am a big horror junkie, I’ll admit. I enjoy all of the trappings of a good scare, and this is absolutely my season. There are certain things about our home that adds to a sense of fear. My column on Jack Cole Road captured the fact that we are always just a few miles away from being surrounded by black woods that feel like they are out to get us. Last week, I wanted to write more on visiting a place with a dark, miserable history and being surrounded by it. This week, we discuss murder.
The Spring Villa plantation is the site of a house built over 150 years ago. While today it stands only 10 minutes from the heart of Opelika, I imagine what it must have been like a century in the past, a fairly short time after settlers had arrived in the area.
This home has been preserved as an example of Gothic revival architecture that is unrivaled in the state. It was built by William Penn Yonge, and it is the site of his murder in 1879. Well, actually it was built by Horace King, who had previously been his father-in-law’s slave.
Many reports from this time indicate that Mr. Yonge was a cruel man. The son of a British or Irish immigrant, historical records indicate he had made it rich during the California Gold Rush and came to Alabama to build a home for his family, as well as manage his business, Chewacla Lime Works.
Comfortable living wasn’t enough for Mr. Yonge – he demanded opulence, and he worked his slaves hard and abusively to keep the grounds and home perfectly. This would lead to his demise. Reports vary as to the role of slavery in his home.
Almost all of the sources I’ve reviewed indicate that he was cruel to his slaves up until his death and that he was murdered by one of his slaves in 1879. Here’s the thing – slavery was abolished in 1865. If the reports are true, he had kept his workers enslaved for more than a decade past the time they were freed.
To quote “Southern Spirit Guide,” “The large Gothic gables give the house a villainous and haunted appearance. During the 1930s, when this estate was used as a 4-H camp, campers would be taken into this house at night where they heard the legend of this house. That legend centers on the small, closet-like staircase that claustrophobically rises to the second floor, from living quarters to sleeping quarters, mirroring the trajectory of the soul. In this cramped staircase a vengeful slave supposedly hid in the small niche and leapt out one evening as his master, William Yonge, ascended the staircase. The slave stabbed the master he hated and fled, leaving Yonge to bleed out on the thirteenth stair.”
I’ve found some reports from around the Opelika area that suggest this did not happen, though those are all sourced to one individual, while there is no official record of his death, and the history of the murder precede the detractor’s reports. This suggests to me that the killing likely did occur there in the home.
Reports of hauntings have followed this home through history. It’s not hard to see why – the quiet, opulent grounds decayed and aged as only crickets are to be heard. The doors creaking open, and the home shared by killer and victim filling one’s senses with no respite. The silence itself would be deafening.
Can you see yourself walking the darkened halls of this strange home, gazing upon the same architecture that once held the eyes of Mr. Yonge? Perhaps feeling a chill down your spine as you stand on the same thirteenth step?
I don’t think you’d be able to take your eyes off of that closet staircase.