Poplar Grove Plantation Ghost Hunt, Wilmington, NC

Poplar Grove Plantation Ghost Hunts

Where the Foy Family’s Restless Spirits Still Roam the Halls of One of North Carolina’s Most Haunted Plantations

Standing among towering white poplars and ancient live oaks along the coastal highway north of Wilmington, Poplar Grove Plantation has watched over the North Carolina lowcountry since the 1850s.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the three-story Greek Revival manor house was built entirely from materials sourced on the property — its heart pine floors, black walnut staircase, and horsehair plaster walls constructed by the skilled hands of enslaved craftsmen.

Today, it stands as a monument to a complex and layered past — and as one of the most paranormally active locations in the American South.

A Family’s Legacy of Tragedy

The story of Poplar Grove begins with the Foy family, who purchased the land in 1795 and held it for six generations until 1971. Under Joseph Mumford Foy, the plantation became one of North Carolina’s earliest and most productive peanut farms, eventually encompassing over 2,000 acres and 59 enslaved workers by 1860.

But it is the family’s tragedies that have left the deepest imprint on the property.

Joseph Mumford Foy was a staunch Unionist who openly opposed secession. His eldest son, David Hiram Foy, defied his father’s wishes and enlisted with the Confederate Army.

David never saw battle. He contracted typhus and was brought home to die in the very rooms where he had grown up. His father had intended David to be the next master of Poplar Grove — instead, he buried him. To this day, David’s heavy footsteps are reported pacing through the front office where the plantation’s business was once conducted, as though he is still trying to fulfil the role that was stolen from him.

Then there is Nora, the wife of one of the later Foy sons, who endured a grief almost beyond comprehension — she bore four children, and every one of them died within days of being born. Her restless presence is said to drift through the upstairs rooms and hallways of the manor house, still searching, still mourning.

Beyond the manor, the old tenant houses carry their own haunting energy. These weathered structures — once home to enslaved workers and later to tenant farming families who remained at Poplar Grove through two World Wars — have produced reports of shadowy figures, disembodied voices, and an unmistakable sense of being watched.

Paranormal Phenomena

Poplar Grove Plantation has been investigated by paranormal teams for decades, and the range of reported activity is remarkable:

• Heavy footsteps pacing through the front office, attributed to the spirit of David Foy
• A mournful female presence sensed on the upper floors, believed to be Nora
• Shadow figures and apparitions seen in the tenant houses and outbuildings
• Unexplained voices captured on EVP recordings throughout the manor house
• Objects moving and doors opening of their own accord
• Intense cold spots in rooms that each contain one of the manor’s twelve original fireplaces
• Orbs and anomalous light phenomena photographed on the grounds and in the tenant quarters

The plantation itself maintains a “Scroll of the Dead” — a documented record of the spirits believed to reside on the property — a testament to just how active this location truly is.

Your Immersive Ghost Hunt Experience

Our exclusive investigation grants you unprecedented after-dark access to this extraordinary location. You will explore the candlelit manor house with its twelve fireplace-warmed rooms, the original smokehouse and kitchen shed, the carriage house, and the surviving tenant house — all set against acres of dark, atmospheric grounds where the boundaries between past and present feel impossibly thin.

Will you hear David’s restless footsteps echoing through the office? Will you sense Nora’s presence drifting through the upstairs bedrooms? Or will you encounter something in the old tenant quarters that no one has documented before?

Poplar Grove Plantation sits within the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, a landscape rich with history, tradition, and spiritual significance. The energy here runs deep — through generations of lives lived, lost, and, it seems, never fully surrendered.

What Your Experience Includes:

• A full night of ghost hunting with the Haunted Rooms America team,
• Exclusive after-hours access to the manor house, outbuildings, tenant quarters, and grounds,
• Group vigils guided by our experienced team of investigators,
• Solo exploration opportunities for the truly brave,
• Use of traditional and professional-grade ghost hunting equipment,
• Free time to conduct your own investigations at the end of the night,
• Complimentary snacks and refreshments to keep your energy up throughout the night.

Six generations of the Foy family called Poplar Grove home. Some of them are still here. Are you brave enough to meet them?

*Space is limited for this exclusive investigation. Reserve your spot today to ensure your chance to investigate one of North Carolina’s most actively haunted historic plantations.*

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TICKETS ARE EXTREMELY LIMITED