Overview
The Woman's Club of Fayetteville, North Carolina, founded in the early 20th century, made its home at the Sandford House, one of the town's oldest surviving houses, built around 1797 and serving across two centuries as residence, bank and, in Civil War years, quarters touched by the town's occupation; the club preserved the house and its neighbouring heritage buildings as a centre for civic and social life. Its ghost lore is genteel to match: generations of members, staff and event guests have described a lady in old-fashioned dress on the staircase and upper hall, piano notes or voices from empty rooms, doors easing open, and cold drafts in the oldest wing, with the figure linked in club telling to a daughter of the house's early families — an identification that is tradition rather than record. The stories are told fondly at teas and tours rather than promoted. These accounts should be presented as club and visitor telling, unverified and affectionate, and current access confirmed with the club, since the house opens for events and by arrangement rather than as a museum.