An employee at Vaughan-Smitherman Museum reportedly made an unkind remark near William Rufus King's portrait, followed by a lamp globe dropping sharply into place. Other accounts mention footsteps, flickering lights, toilets flushing and an elevator moving unexpectedly. The building's former lives as school, hospital and courthouse give these staff and visitor stories a layered setting.
Judith Winston is the central figure in stories about the William Winston House. One account describes chairs shaking while a wedding was being prepared, then becoming still after someone invited Judith to attend. Other tales connect damp-looking walls with approaching storms or describe pale figures at windows.
Those interpretations belong to the haunting tradition, not verified causes of building conditions.