A chill settles over German Street as a crowd gathers outside Panagiota’s Greek Restaurant. The fading daylight gives way to the soft glow of streetlamps, and the night begins with a grim image —the basement once filled, legend says, with the bodies of fallen Civil War soldiers stacked to the ceiling.
For Meredith Moore, founder and owner of Small Town Ghost Tours, this story is more than local folklore. It is part of the history she has spent years uncovering, and in some cases, personally feeling.
“I went to Shepherd [University] in the 1980s and had my first paranormal experience in Gardiner Hall,” Moore said. “Over the years, I’ve had many more while living here. That’s really what inspired me to start sharing these stories.”
A graduate of Shepherd University, Moore began leading ghost tours in nearby Sharpsburg in 2008 before expanding her company to Shepherdstown in 2013. What began as a one-time event for the town’s BooFest quickly became a staple attraction for visitors and locals alike.
Her approach is part history lesson, part spiritual experience. The tour winds through the historic streets and hidden corners of Shepherdstown, some stops backed by town records, others by eyewitness accounts and psychic readings.
“I talk about the history at each stop, but I also share what people have experienced there,” she explained. “Sometimes those stories come from townspeople, and sometimes they come from my own encounters.”
One of the most memorable stops is the quiet garden between Knutti Hall and White Hall, where Moore says she can sense a presence behind her as she speaks. Visitors hear of a woman in a white gown, her face half burned, said to appear near the old campus buildings.
“It’s rare for people to actually experience something on a tour,” Moore said. “But that garden is different. I can feel the spirit standing behind me, listening.”
From there, the group makes its way past Mecklenburg Chapel’s graveyard, the Old Shepherdstown Hotel and The Little House, where stories of a young boy’s apparition linger. The tour ends outside On Wings of Dreams, a metaphysical shop where the spirit of Sister B., a devout Catholic nun, is said to roam.
Each story, Moore said, is a balance between verified history and local legend. “I do a lot of research,” she said. “I look into when buildings were constructed, talk to townspeople, even consult a psychic medium. I want the stories to feel true, to honor the spirits and the history behind them.”
An anonymous tour-goer described the experience as something between curiosity and awe. “I didn’t expect to get chills,” they said. “I came in as a total skeptic, but by the end, I wasn’t so sure. There’s something about hearing those stories in the exact spots where they happened, it makes you feel connected to the past in a really eerie way.”
That feeling, Moore said, is what keeps her sharing these tales year after year. “I want people to leave the tour with their eyes open, to see that maybe there’s more around us than what we can explain,” she said. “Even skeptics can walk away believing in something they didn’t before.”
As the group disperses into the cool night, the streets of Shepherdstown fall quiet again. For a town steeped in centuries of history, its stories are far from over —echoing softly in the spaces between old brick walls, moonlit gardens and the imagination of those willing to listen.
For more information or to book a tour, visit Small Town Ghost Tours.
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