Haunted places guide · West Point, Mississippi

Waverley Mansion, West Point: The Little Girl Who Calls for Her Mother

For almost 50 years Waverley stood empty in the Clay County woods, its rotunda open to students, vandals and ghost hunters. The family who brought it back said a child’s voice was there to greet them.

By The Haunted Rooms Team · Updated November 2026 · How we rate places

3.8/5Haunted Rooms Score
c. 1852Year completed
1913 to 1962Years the house stood empty

Our nearest ghost hunt: Lynchburg Jail, TNMeet the ghosts

A private home, open for Pilgrimage

Waverley is now the private home of Charlie and Dana Stephenson, who bought it in 2019. It is no longer open daily; the owners open it for tours during the Columbus Spring Pilgrimage each April. Please do not visit the grounds at other times.

Waverley sits on rising ground near the Tombigbee River, about ten miles east of West Point and between West Point and Columbus. Its white walls are topped by a large octagonal cupola with an observation walk, and inside, an open hall rises to the cupola around a self-supporting spiral staircase, so daylight reaches the ground floor. It is a National Historic Landmark and one of the most photographed houses in Mississippi.

It is also one of the state’s best-known haunted houses, mostly because of the stories told by Donna Snow, who spent three decades restoring it with her husband, Robert. This guide covers the house’s history, including the enslaved people whose labor built the plantation’s wealth, the ghost stories and how you can see it today.

Waverley at a glance

3.8/5
Haunted Rooms Score
Haunted reputation4
History5
Ghost hunter access2
Visit on a tour
  • Address 1852 Waverley Mansion Road, West Point, MS 39773
  • Built Commissioned by Col. George Hampton Young; completed about 1852
  • Most haunted spots The upstairs bedroom off the stairs, the rotunda balconies, the ballroom
  • Reported ghosts A little girl calling “Mama”, a Confederate soldier on horseback, party music
  • Visiting Private home; open during the Columbus Spring Pilgrimage in April
  • Ghost hunting None; private property

Our nearest ghost hunt: Lynchburg Jail, TN

History of Waverley

Colonel George Hampton Young came to Mississippi from Georgia and commissioned the house in the 1840s; it was finished around 1852 for Young, his wife Lucy and their ten children. It was the center of a large, largely self-sufficient cotton plantation with a brick kiln, sawmill, tannery, gristmill, cotton gin, commissary, orchards and gardens. Before the Civil War that operation ran on the forced labor of enslaved people, and a 20-foot ice house pit is one of the few traces left on the grounds.

The house saw no fighting in the war. Confederate cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forrest was a friend of the family, visited often and is said to have spent three weeks recovering from wounds here, and the cupola served as a lookout. After the war the plantation worked with hired laborers.

When the last of the Young sons, a bachelor known as Captain Billy, died in 1913, the heirs could not agree on what to do with the estate, and the house was left empty. A government photographer documented it in 1936. For nearly half a century, students from Mississippi State and the women’s college in Columbus came out at night, wrote on the walls and told ghost stories in the rotunda.

In 1962 Robert and Donna Snow, antique dealers from Philadelphia, Mississippi, bought the house with about 40 acres. With little money they did most of the work themselves, one room at a time, over some 30 years; wiring the whole house cost just over $700. They opened it for daily tours and the Columbus Pilgrimage, and peacocks returned to the lawns. Waverley was named a National Historic Landmark in the 1970s.

Donna Snow died in 1991 and Robert in March 2017, at 91, in his bedroom at Waverley. The family put the house on the market that year, and in 2019 it was bought by Charlie and Dana Stephenson, who have since replaced the roof, repaired plaster, added air conditioning and live there full time, opening it for the spring Pilgrimage.

The ghosts of Waverley

The little girl

The best-known story began during the Snows’ restoration. Donna Snow said she heard a young girl calling for her mother from the upper floors, and when she looked over the balcony no child was there, though the voice went on. She and other women said they heard it again, and some said they saw a small girl looking down from a balcony.

The girl’s activity is centered on a second-floor bedroom off the central staircase. The bed there stays made, the story goes, but hours after it is smoothed an impression of a small body appears on the cover. Mrs. Snow believed the child died of illness in the 1860s and was still searching for her mother; a tour guide told The Dispatch in 2013 that she was about a year and a half old and “isn’t threatening”. No record names her.

The rider in the fields

Robert Snow said he saw a Confederate soldier on horseback in the back fields. Other tellings place a soldier in the mirrors, standing behind visitors who look into the glass.

The party in the ballroom

Visitors and family members have described faint music, laughter and conversation from the grand hall and lower ballroom, as if a party were still going on. Southern Spirit Guide adds a later tale that Mrs. Snow herself has been seen smoking on the third-floor stairs.

Where to look

  • The upstairs bedroom off the stairs: where the child-sized impression is said to appear on a made bed.
  • The rotunda balconies: where the little girl is said to look down.
  • The grand hall and ballroom: for the sound of music and laughter.
  • The back fields: where Robert Snow said he saw a soldier on horseback.

Visiting Waverley

Waverley is a private home and is not open for daily tours any more. The owners open it during the Columbus Spring Pilgrimage, usually on several days in early April; tickets are sold through the Columbus visitor center and the Pilgrimage’s online store. Check the Pilgrimage schedule each year, as dates change.

Outside those dates, please do not drive onto the property. Nearby Columbus has more to see: Friendship Cemetery, where Decoration Day began in 1866, and historic houses with their own ghost stories.

  • Visiting Private home; open during the Columbus Spring Pilgrimage
  • Tours Pilgrimage tours in April; tickets from the Columbus visitors center
  • Ghost hunting Private home: no ghost hunts

Tips for your visit

  • Plan a visit around the Columbus Spring Pilgrimage in April and book early.
  • Ask the guide which bedroom the little girl is said to use.
  • Look up from the ground floor of the rotunda to the cupola; it is the reason to go.
  • Interior photography has not been allowed on past tours, so ask first.
  • Add Friendship Cemetery in Columbus to the same day.

Go ghost hunting nearby

Visiting a haunted place by day is one thing. Investigating one after dark is another. On a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt our team takes you through a historic building with professional ghost hunting equipment, runs EVP sessions and vigils, and gives you time to explore on your own. These are the nearest ones we run.

See all Mississippi ghost hunts

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Frequently asked questions

Is Waverley Mansion open to the public?

Not daily. Since 2019 it has been the private home of Charlie and Dana Stephenson, who open it for tours during the Columbus Spring Pilgrimage in April.

Who is the ghost at Waverley Mansion?

The best-known is a little girl heard calling for her mother, said to leave a small impression on a made bed upstairs. Donna Snow, who restored the house, first told the story. No record identifies the child.

Why was Waverley abandoned?

After the last Young son died in 1913, the heirs could not agree on dividing the estate, and the house stood empty until Robert and Donna Snow bought it in 1962.

Where is Waverley Mansion?

In eastern Clay County near the Tombigbee River, about ten miles east of West Point and between West Point and Columbus.

Is Waverley a plantation?

It was the center of a large cotton plantation worked by enslaved people before the Civil War. The house and about 34 acres remain.

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the official website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and investigators tell them, and we say where records contradict a story.

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About the authors

The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every place in our guides using official sites, historic registers, local archives and news coverage, and we report ghost stories as the stories they are. We review each guide regularly so you are not sent to a place that has closed, changed hands or banned visitors. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.