Secret Virginia Podcast Episode 16: Belle Grove Plantation

Spectral evidence of past trauma and death lingers at Belle Grove Plantation. From the murder of Hettie Ann Cooley to the 964 dead at the Battle of Cedar Creek, its 225-year-old stone manor looks out over the Shenandoah Valley like a memorial to the slain. Join our host, the mercurial Morella Belle, for Season 2 of the Secret Virginia Podcast, where we explore the hidden mysteries of the Old Dominion and its neighbors.

On the 26th of February 1861, as war clouds gathered and Virginians debated secession, a free woman of color employed by Benjamin Cooley, named Harriet Robinson, attacked and beat his wife Hettie Ann with an iron shovel in the kitchen of Belle Grove Manor House. Though its current caretakers are quick to deny any supernatural activity, for decades after Hettie’s murder residents witnessed an unusual white mist emerge from the basement fireplace, pass through the door, and float towards the smokehouse.

Today, Belle Grove Plantation in Virginia’s Frederick County is a National Historic Landmark owned and operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In 1864, it witnessed the Battle of Cedar Creek, in which 964 Union and Confederate soldiers died. Perhaps, on fog-shrouded mornings, you can catch a whiff of gunpowder, or a glimpse of something transparent stalking the grounds. #virginia #shenandoah #hauntedstories