The Haunted Dunleith Historic Inn, Natchez: The Woman With the Harp

Dunleith is the Natchez mansion people recognize from postcards: a white Greek Revival house completely surrounded by 26 Tuscan columns, with iron railings on both galleries, set in about 40 acres of parkland in the middle of town. It is a National Historic Landmark, often described as the only antebellum house in Mississippi fully surrounded by columns, and it has been an inn since 1976.

Its ghost story is a gentle one. Guests and visitors report the sound of a harp, and some say they have seen a woman playing it. Who she is depends on who is telling the story, but she has been part of Dunleith’s reputation for years.

The ghost of Dunleith

The harp player

The most common report at Dunleith is music: the sound of a harp being played somewhere in the house when there is no harp and no harpist. OnlyInYourState says patrons have reported hearing a harp played by a female apparition, and some guests describe a woman who fades when they look closer. The inn’s own website does not mention ghosts, so the story lives in Mississippi haunted round-ups and guest accounts.

Who is she?

Nobody knows for sure. One version says she is a daughter of the house who died young after moving in with her second husband. Another links her loosely to the Routh family, whose earlier house on this site burned in 1855. Neither version comes with names or dates that can be checked, and our original guide said it best: nobody truly knows who the harp-playing ghost is, only that she is said to be there regularly.

Tragedy and a fire

Dunleith’s history gives the stories their setting. The first house on the site, Routhland, was destroyed when lightning struck it and set it on fire in 1855. The present mansion was built on the same ground the following year. Like many Natchez houses, it also saw the deaths and losses of several families over its first century. Guests who hear the harp often connect it to that history, though nothing ties any one death to the music.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• The main house: Where the harp is heard and the woman has been seen.
• The galleries: Walk the colonnade at night; this is where the music is said to drift out.
• The grounds: The site of Routhland, the house that burned in 1855.

History of Dunleith Historic Inn

The land at Dunleith was first home to Routhland, a plantation house built in the 1790s by Job Routh. The property passed to his daughter, Mary Routh. In 1855 lightning struck Routhland and the house burned.

Mary’s husband, General Charles G. Dahlgren, rebuilt on the site, and the present Greek Revival mansion went up in about 1856. It is a house encircled by 26 Tuscan columns of brick and stucco, with wrought iron railings on both porches and first-floor windows that roll up to become doorways, an idea also used at Monticello. In 1858 the property was bought by Alfred Vidal Davis for $30,000, and he gave it the name Dunleith. It was sold again in 1866, held for a time by a local bank and bought in 1886 by John Neibert Carpenter, whose family kept it until 1976.

The estate kept its outbuildings, which is rare in Natchez: a carriage house, a dairy barn, a poultry house and a three-story brick courtyard building that once held the kitchen, the laundry and the quarters of the enslaved people who worked here. The main house has 12 rooms and sits on about 40 acres.

Dunleith was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1974. It opened as a historic house museum and inn in 1976. Hollywood has used it too: parts of Raintree County (1957) and the 1974 Tom Sawyer were filmed here. In February 2019, after its owner’s bankruptcy, the property was auctioned on the courthouse steps and taken over by United Mississippi Bank. In November 2019 the New Orleans hotel group The J Collection bought it, repaired the main house and its columns, and reopened it. Today it has 22 rooms across the main house, the Courtyard Lodge and the Dairy Barn, and the Castle Restaurant and Pub in the old carriage house serves dinner daily and brunch at weekends.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Ask for a room in the main house if you want to be where the harp is reported.
• Eat at the Castle, the restaurant and pub in the old carriage house, which serves dinner daily and brunch at weekends. Reservations are taken through OpenTable.
• Walk the full ring of columns after dark; it is the best way to see the house.
• Explore the outbuildings and grounds, including the old courtyard building and dairy barn.
• Natchez is compact: Monmouth and Linden, two more haunted inns, are a short drive away.
• Book early for the Natchez spring pilgrimage, when the city’s historic homes open for tours.

More haunted hotels nearby

• Monmouth Historic Inn, Natchez: General Quitman’s 1818 mansion, where he is said to check on guests
• Linden, Natchez: a c. 1785 house with a phantom carriage in the drive
• The Duff Green Mansion, Vicksburg: a Civil War hospital turned inn
• Haunted hotels in Mississippi

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.

• Dunleith Historic Inn: official site
• Wikipedia: Dunleith
• Biz New Orleans: Major New Orleans hotel group buys historic Mississippi home
• Country Roads Magazine: Visit Dunleith, Natchez
• Visit Natchez: Dunleith Historic Inn
• OnlyInYourState: Natchez ghost stories

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