Mansion House (King House), Montevallo, AL: History and Ghost Lore

Mansion House, also called King House, Kingswood and Nabors Hall, is an 1823 Federal-style brick house on the campus of the University of Montevallo in Montevallo, Alabama. It was the plantation home of Edmund King, and stories that his ghost walks the orchard and counts money upstairs go back to the early 1900s. Some of the oldest tellings were recorded in 1913 from elderly formerly enslaved residents of Montevallo. This guide covers the history, the ghost lore, what the record can and cannot support, and how to see the house today.

A short history of Mansion House

Edmund King was a Virginian who came to Alabama by way of Georgia about 1817. A university-published history says he was drawn to the area then called Wilson’s Hill by its soil, timber, springs and two navigable rivers, the Coosa and the Cahaba. He became a planter and merchant, made iron hollowware, and promoted the railroad that reached Montevallo from Selma in 1853. In 1851 he gave the lot on which Reynolds Hall now stands for an academy. The same history says the house, built in 1823 of brick made from local clay by King’s own workers, was the most elegant home in central Alabama and the first in the area with imported glass windows. King and the people he enslaved lived and worked there, and the house was the social center of the community.

King died on June 28, 1863. After his children scattered, the property passed to others, and in 1908 the Alabama Girls Technical Institute, the forerunner of the University of Montevallo, bought the house and about 43 acres from Mrs. Frank Nabors. Over the years it served as a classroom building, an office, an infirmary, a home economics practice house, a summer home for male students and a financial aid office. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 14, 1972, under the name Mansion House. A restoration in 1973 and 1974 returned the house to its Federal appearance, and the university now uses it as an official guest house.

The ghost lore of Mansion House

Early rumors and the 1913 interviews

The university’s Archiving Montevallo project dates rumors that King’s ghost roamed the house to the early 1900s. Accounts from that period mention sounds of someone moving in an empty room and the counting of change when no one was there. In 1913 two students collected ghost stories from three elderly formerly enslaved residents of Montevallo, known in print only as Uncle Ben, Aunt Julia and Uncle Frank. They were published in the college yearbook as Hant Philosophy.

Uncle Frank, who had been enslaved by King and worked in the house, said King’s spirit stayed because he feared someone would find the money he had hidden. He described a clink, like the counting of coins, coming from an upstairs room, which his mistress put down to banging shutters. Aunt Julia, who said she did not believe in ghosts, passed along what people told her: lights moving between the family graveyard behind the house and the building, which was then the college infirmary, and the ghost of King looking for his hidden money.

A lantern, a shovel and a bedroom window

Later tellings add detail. In 1982 Kathryn Tucker Windham retold the stories in a chapter called The Ghosts at Montevallo’s Mansion House, in her collection Jeffrey’s Latest 13: More Alabama Ghosts. A 2021 article in the university’s student newspaper says King’s ghost is reported carrying a lantern and a shovel at night outside the house, supposedly looking for gold coins he buried in the orchard during the Civil War. Others report a dim light and a figure in an upper window, sometimes opening the curtains and smiling, with the sound of someone walking slowly in the room where King spent his last years. The student article says the sounds stop when someone touches the bedroom door, and that bobbing lights have been reported over the headstones in the family cemetery.

A ghost-lore website adds two more details: King’s ghost floating across the second-floor bedroom, and a large figure in a white robe that supposedly rose from beneath a dining-room table during a wedding reception and drifted out an open window in front of the guests.

How Edmund King died

Even his death is part of the lore. A lengthy obituary in a Baptist newspaper says King died of digestive trouble after two years of declining health. Another account says a falling limb from a tree in his orchard killed him instantly. In 1913 the formerly enslaved storytellers said he fell from a peach tree, which the Montevallo Legacy Project reads as a pointed joke, since the story gives a wealthy enslaver a humble end. He is buried in the King family cemetery, which still stands on campus.

What the record can and cannot support

The house, King’s life, the 1908 purchase and the 1973 restoration are documented by the National Register nomination and by university and local history publications. The ghost stories are much later than King’s death. The earliest evidence of them found in this research is from the early 1900s, about forty years after he died. The 1913 interviews are valuable because they are recorded in the storytellers’ own voices, but they reached print through two college students writing in dialect, and it is impossible to tell how much was reshaped. The Montevallo Legacy Project argues that these tales used humor and indirection to comment on wealth built on slavery.

Several details do not fit the record. The student newspaper itself notes that King died before Union troops used the house as headquarters, which makes a story of burying gold to hide it from soldiers unlikely. The 1913 version has King hiding money before he went off to war, but the Montevallo Legacy Project notes that he never went to war. The cause of his death is disputed. Windham’s 1982 retelling changes who is skeptical and who is superstitious, which shows how the stories shift with the teller. None of the sources read documents any hidden money being found.

Visiting Mansion House

The King House stands on the University of Montevallo campus, whose main address is 75 College Drive, Montevallo, Alabama 35115. It is not run as a regular public museum. On October 25, 2026 the university’s policy on use of its properties (01:020) listed King House among the spaces that are not public university space, alongside residences and administrative offices, and Wikipedia describes it as a guest house for university visitors. The pages read list no public hours, admission fee or interior tours, and the university’s self-guided campus tour in the version read does not describe King House.

Practical tips

• Campus visits: the admissions office offers campus visits every Monday through Friday at 10am and 2pm, and the office is in Reynolds Hall on Reynolds Circle. The phone is 205-665-6030. Whether a visit includes King House or its interior was not confirmed, so ask when you book.
• Self-guided tour: the university publishes a self-guided campus tour, with parking in front of Reynolds Hall on Highland Street. King House was not described in the version read.
• Interior access: call the university’s main number, 205-665-6000, before you plan on going inside, since the house is a guest house.
• Ghost walks: the Montevallo Legacy Project says the King House stories are recounted in popular ghost tours. No current dates were found.

FAQ

Is Mansion House the same as King House?

Yes. The house is called Mansion House, King House, Kingswood and Nabors Hall in different sources. The National Register lists it as Mansion House.

Is Mansion House haunted?

According to local lore, the ghost of Edmund King carries a lantern through the orchard, counts coins upstairs and looks for hidden gold. The stories date to the early 1900s and no hidden money has been documented.

Can you tour the King House?

Not as a regular public museum. The university uses it as a guest house, and no public hours or admission were listed in the sources read.

Where is Mansion House?

On the University of Montevallo campus in Montevallo, Alabama.

Who built the King House?

Edmund King, a Virginia-born planter and merchant, built it in 1823 with his own workers.

More haunted houses: For other Southern houses with ghost traditions, see Gaineswood in Demopolis, Alabama, Captain Mulls House in Hollygrove, Arkansas and The Bell House.

Sources

• Montevallo Historical Society: King House (2023): house history, King’s life, the 1908 purchase and the 1973 restoration, reprinted from university-published histories.
• Wikipedia: Edmund King House: location, architecture and National Register listing.
• Archiving Montevallo: King House: early 1900s ghost rumors in the university’s archive.
• The Montevallo Legacy Project: The Ghosts of King House, part one, part two and part three: the 1913 interviews, Windham’s 1982 retelling and King’s death.
• The Alabamian: The Ghost of King House (2021): the lantern, shovel, bedroom window and cemetery lights, plus the note on Union troops.
• Nightbringer.se: The haunted America: a ghost-lore page with a short Mansion House entry, used for the wedding reception story.
• University of Montevallo: Campus visits: tour times and contact details, read October 25, 2026.
• University of Montevallo: Policy 01:020, Use of University Properties: the definition of public university space, which excludes King House.

Top image: King House (Mansion House) at the University of Montevallo, Montevallo, Alabama. Photo by Rivers Langley; SaveRivers via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (resized).