“Mark my Grave!” “Mark my Grave!”
In honor of Halloween we thought you might be interested in knowing where an actual ghost is often seen in Gatlinburg.
This is the Greenbrier Restaurant in Gatlinburg, originally built as the Greenbrier Lodge.
The ghost often seen is Lydia, a former resident of the lodge who was engaged to be married to a handsome, young, local man.
On her wedding day, Lydia dressed in her long white wedding dress and went into town to meet her lover at the church. After several hours it became apparent that Lydia had been left at the altar.
So she returned to the lodge where she climbed the stairs to the second floor landing, threw a rope over the rafter and hung herself. Several days after Lydia’s death, her betrothed was found dead in the Smokies …mauled by a mountain cat.
The locals said Lydia’s spirit could not rest because of her unfulfilled love and she had taken the form of a cat to seize revenge. Today, the ghost of Lydia haunts the Greenbrier Restaurant, and her spirit is often seen on the stairs of the second floor landing.
Guests who eat here claim to see her small sad figure wandering around. Others claim to feel her chilling presence.
A caretaker who lived at the lodge several years ago was kept awake at night by Lydia’s pitiful cries of “Mark my grave. Mark my grave.” After many sleepless nights listening to her cries, the caretaker could take it no longer.
He knew the spot where she supposedly was buried, so in the dark of the night he went down the hill below the lodge to mark her grave. He never heard her cries again though she continues to wander through the lodge.
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