Panola Hall

Henry and Elizabeth Perry Tripp built Panola Hall, one of Georgia's finest Greek Revival landmarks, in 1854. Local legend holds that Sylvia, a young woman facing an unwanted marriage during the Civil War, tried to escape out an upstairs window and was killed when a trunk lid fell shut on her — though no record has ever confirmed her existence. Since the 1870s, residents and visitors describe a shy, dark-haired woman in a white hoop dress glimpsed in the second-floor hallway or bedroom, on the stairs, or looking out the living room window; she's considered a playful presence, known for opening and closing drawers and moving furniture. Sylvia has become enough of a local fixture that a nearby coffee shop, Sylvia's, is named for her.