The scariest spots in Lake County: A haunted tea room, a spooky courthouse and more

TAVARES — Ain’t no haints in Lake County? Tell that to the folks whose flesh creeps when they hear screams along a darkened road, or hear things go bump in the night in the historic buildings.

Ghosts and goblins don’t just show up on Halloween, if you can believe the persistent stories of hauntings in this area.

Rolling Acres Road in Lady Lake

Take Rolling Acres Road, for example, where it dead ends (shudder) in Lady Lake. Go as far south on the road as far away as you can get from the busy Villages area.

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Legend has it that a woman named Julia was murdered in that area, and now her spirit roams the woods at night. People say you can hear her scream.

Charlie Carlson has put together a collection of eerie tales in a book entitled “Weird Florida,” and invites people to submit comments on his website, www.weirdus.com.

“You won’t hear anything unless you park your car and turn off the engine, then roll down your windows and you can hear sounds like banshees in the woods," writes a man named Tim. “I used to live in Fruitland Park, and I know a bunch of kids that had unusual experiences on that road. One dude went out there and said that they saw a woman dressed in white, or glowing, and it was if you could see through her.”

Legend has it that she was shot by a jealous lover.

Others have reported seeing a dark figure, like the grim reaper.

A ghost train in Leesburg's Sunnyside area?

Another legendary spot is in the Sunnyside area of Leesburg. Once a rural area with more orange trees and woods than people, it also featured railroad tracks.

Some claimed to have seen the light from a ghost train coming down the tracks.

It has nothing to do, apparently, with the fact that one of the main roads in the area is named Sleepy Hollow. That road was built years later.

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving is about a headless horseman who haunts schoolteacher Ichabod Crane.

The Windsor Rose Tea Room in Mount Dora

If you like teatime (not tee time) English style, the place to be is the Windsor Rose Tea Room in Mount Dora.

There have been occasional sightings of a woman dressed in period costume, glasses sliding across tabletops and other paranormal activities, according to Grizzard Real Estate’s website, Central Florida's Most Haunted Real Estate and Spookiest Places (eragrizzard.com).

“It’s true,” says Tea Room owner Marsha Goodale. “I’ve only seen her body from the waist up. The rest is not there.”

Sometimes when she comes to work the next morning pictures have been rearranged. Once, a picture flew off the wall and crashed on the floor.

“Someone, a ghost, touched me once,” she said.

Without fail, everyone who has ever worked in the restaurant has heard their name called.

Goodale tries to downplay the ghost stories.

“I’m trying to run a business. I don’t have time to tell ghost stories,” she said.

Three paranormal ghost hunter groups have come in to probe for weird happenings. It’s always active when they come, Goodale said.

The source of the activity?

“Sometimes when you acquire an object and it has a spirit attached to it, it comes with the object,” she said.

Sometimes the spirit of a little boy comes in and goes to the bathroom, she said. Legend has it that before the Tea Room even existed in the building, a crying mother came inside, sat in a chair, and said that her little boy had been hit by a car in front of the building.

“We think that is the boy.”

The historic Lake County Courthouse in Tavares

But the scariest place of all is the historic courthouse on Main Street in Tavares.

Built in 1924, not only was it the courthouse but it was also the jail and headquarters of Sheriff Willis McCall, who ruled with a reign of terror for decades. There have been three new courthouses built since then. The historic courthouse replaced the original, wooden structure when it burned.

Bob Grenier, the former curator of the county museum on the first floor, and office manager Lois Parker have reported hearing numerous ghostly encounters late at night when they were working.

“They’re coming out to socialize,” Grenier said in a Daily Commercial story in 2017. He described them as “friendly.”

You can hear footsteps on the mezzanine and stairs, elevators go up and down, water fountains are turned on, and things were moved when he left a room.

Is there proof?

In March of that year, Grenier hired a photographer to take a nighttime picture of the building during a gala for the Historic Society. He didn’t think anything about it at first.

Later, when he left to visit his sister in Indianapolis, he showed her the picture.

“Who’s this?” she asked, pointing to a woman standing in a corner window on the fifth floor. There, dressed in 1930s or 1940s garb, was the figure of a woman.

“I never noticed it before,” he said.

That part of the courthouse is now occupied by some officers within the sheriff’s department, and it is under lock and key.

It used to be the courtroom area.

Legend has it that a woman jumped to her death from that very spot.

Grenier called her “Sally.” You can see her features clearly if the photograph is blown up.

The photograph also showed people milling around on the fourth floor. No one was supposed to be there either, Grenier said.

Their images are not as clearly defined but you can see arms and legs, faces and other details.

Lights were also on within rooms of the second floor.

A sheriff’s deputy said ghost hunters from a TV show armed with electronic devices detected paranormal activity on the fifth floor.

One woman, who did not want her name publicized, said she was working alone on the fourth floor on a Saturday night when her computer screen started waving lines and lights were flashing.

“I hadn’t touched it,” she said. “Then, in my periphery, I saw a black figure walk right through the wall. I got up and got out.”

Parker said she once heard a sound that was “something between a moan and a screech.”

“I never heard anything like it before and I hope I never hear it again. It sent chills down my spine,” she said.

The scariest place in the building, however, is the basement.

He describes the spirits down there was “rowdy.”

“I won’t go down there at night,” he said.

But the oddest sound of all was heard only once. It was a slamming sound, and Grenier couldn’t figure it out at first.

“It was a gallows sound," he said. "The last hanging was right outside.”

This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: Lake County, Florida has its share of haunted buildings and places