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MURFREESBORO – The Ghost Guild, Inc. and the Murfreesboro Historical Association (MHA) have entered into a partnership to explore the town’s history with an opportunity for members of the public to join them.

The Ghost Guild will research and investigate MHA properties in the fall of this year, starting with the Brady C. Jefcoat Museum of Americana. That museum is an enormous collection of more than 17,000 collectables, antiques, and oddities, some of which have a mysterious element to them. The Ghost Guild plans to examine reports of odd happenings at the museum to see what explanations they can find for these activities. Rumors of the collection objects having attached spirit energy or a ghostly caretaker in the 100-year-old building are spoken of in the community.

Brady C. Jefcoat spent 35 years collecting the items on display before he passed away in 2013. He gifted his collection to the Murfreesboro Historical Association with assurances that the entire collection would be displayed.

The Murfreesboro Historical Association is holding an online give-away, and a winner and their guest will join The Ghost Guild in a paranormal investigation of one of the association’s historic properties in early 2023. Entry for the give-away is online only, and a winner will be randomly selected on Dec. 16, 2022. The give-away is hosted by BetterWorld.org. All proceeds from the event go to the Murfreesboro Historical Association.

The MHA also has a self-guided smart phone based “Ghost, Legends, and Lore” tour that individuals can take at any time. Proceeds from these tours also go towards the MHA’s historic preservation programs.

The Brady C. Jefcoat Museum of Americana is open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays.

Part of the mission of the The Ghost Guild, a registered non-profit paranormal research organization made from Triangle area volunteers who share a love for history, science, and the unexplained, is to work closely with notable and historically significant organizations.

Murfreesboro native Al Parker, who created the MHA “Ghosts, Legends, and Lore Tour,” introduced MHA to The Ghost Guild after joining them for an investigation aboard the Battleship North Carolina in Wilmington.

“The Ghost Guild is not a typical ghost-hunting organization,” Parker noted. “Their research always starts with a respect for the location and its history.”

According to The Ghost Guild, “We seek locations of cultural and historical significance. Our investigations are science-based, meaning that we observe and gather data, form hypotheses, and imagine possible solutions to explain those observations before starting our experiments. It is especially important to us that we educate our audiences on the history we’ve uncovered, the science we’ve utilized, and the data we’ve documented. We don’t label things as ‘evidence’ when we share our data; we always ask our audience to make their own conclusions. For us, it is simply a mystery that remains to be solved.”

The Ghost Guild’s goal is to “assist in the preservation efforts of historical sites by bringing their history to life and opening the doors to a larger and untapped audience.”

Follow both MHA and the Ghost Guild on their Facebook pages to keep up with the activities of both organizations.