One of Beaufort’s most well-known and celebrated old homes is The Castle, also known as the Joseph Johnson House over on Craven Street in downtown’s Point Neighborhood.
Used as a military hospital by Union Troops in before construction on the home was 100 percent completed, the magnificent house was built in the late 1850s by Dr. Joseph Johnson and sits today as one of our most photographed historic spots.
The home was built of brick and covered in a faded plaster. It boasts an impressive seventy-nine windows to ventilate twenty-three rooms, and eight fireplaces were necessary to create enough warmth in the winter months.
The front veranda of the home boasts six massive columns which are uninterrupted, stretching two stories high, using a Greek Revival Style of architecture. Water from the Beaufort River flows alongside the property, creating a moat effect and giving the home its nickname: “The Castle.”
The Johnson family moved into the house in 1861 and Beaufort quickly fell to Union forces later that same year. During the rest of the Civil War, the house was used as a hospital and an outbuilding behind it was used as a morgue, and also the hiding place for some of Johnson’s valuables. Anticipating occupation by Yankee forces, Johnson buried the family silver and china beneath the floor of the outbuilding. After the war, he paid $2000 in back taxes to reclaim his house during the Direct Tax Sales that followed all across the south.
The home is also rumored to be haunted in one of Beaufort’s most legendary tales.
Its legend centers around the ghost of a dwarf named Gauche, who was a jester brought to the area by the French explorer Jean Ribaut in 1562.
Gauche’s apparition has been seen by folks as far back as Dr. Johnson himself, both inside and outside of the home. Dr. Johnson’s daughter Lily played tea party with the ghost many times as a child, and visitors to The Castle have seen him while on tours.
The ghost has been known to tap out messages in 16th-century French, move furniture, open and close doors and leave his red handprints on windows.
When he’s around, some say, you can hear the ringing of the bells on his costume. In one coded conversation, Gauche revealed that his spirit remains in the castle because it reminds him of his former home in England.
Also of note, the wedding scene from the movie Forces of Nature was filmed in the front yard of the home back in 1998. The movie starred Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock.
Descendants of the Johnson family retained ownership of the Castle until 1981.
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