GATLINBURG, Tenn. (WATE) — The ghost of a bride who was stood up at the altar around the 1930s continues to reportedly haunt ‘The Greenbrier Restaurant’ located down the way from Gatlinburg’s main drag.
“Back in the ‘30s the building itself was used for passersbyers, I guess as a lodge,” Rachel Saults, general manager of The Greenbrier Restaurant, said.
Saults said there is one guest who never checked out. She was a bride, named Lydia.
“On the day of their wedding, she went to the altar and he never showed,” said Saults. “Well, she was heartbroken, she came back to the lodge, she took a rope upstairs to the second floor and then threw it over the beam, right here, and hung herself.” Saults even added that guests of the restaurant can still see the rope burns in the middle of the beam as it hangs above the restaurant’s bar.
While Lydia took her own life after believing she was stood up on her wedding day, her fiancé just couldn’t get there: “A couple days later he was actually found to be mauled by an animal,” Saults said of the legend.
While the couple is long gone, people can sometimes still see and hear Lydia on the property.
“Her cries were heard, especially workers when they were working on the building,” said Saults. “I guess it was her cry of love is what they described it as.”
Saults also talked about the sightings. “I’ve even had some customers say they’ve seen a woman on the stairs, and I’ll turn around and there’s nobody there.”
Just recently, a medium stopped by the restaurant for a reading, delivering a strong message to management: “She was like, ‘Well, the beam,’ and we were like, ‘Yeah,’ and she was like, ‘She’s not a fan,'” said Saults of the reading for the staff. “Even though she is a good spirit and has never messed with us, but I guess that’s something she’s not a fan of.”
For now, they plan to keep showing it off as it hangs over their bar. After all, Lydia is not the only ghost they have to worry about.
“Down below us, at the very bottom of the hill is one of Gatlinburg’s first pools,” Saults began. “Well, it’s not anymore, they actually filled it up with concrete, but at the time I guess a little boy had an accident and had drowned there.” Saults explained the little boy now hangs out at the restaurant, too.
She said some of the customers have felt his presence under the bar and the recent medium who visited said he liked to play under the staircase. The restaurant staff recently placed a set of jacks under the stairs, at the medium’s directions, in case the boy wanted something to play with.
Saults also said the medium mentioned an older man who sits in the back corner of the restaurant. “He’s grumpy and he doesn’t like it when it’s loud,” she said with a laugh.
As for those who may be a little scared of this ghostly gang, Saults said not to be.
“I definitely don’t think she is an evil spirit; I actually think she is pretty friendly,” she said. “We may do some things that upset her, especially with how popular the restaurant now is, that she gets, I guess, maybe disturbed and people do bother her, but we definitely try to give her her privacy as much as we can and honor her.”
The Greenbrier has seasonal drinks named after Lydia. There is also a rotating seasonal menu at the restaurant. The Greenbrier Restaurant is located at 370 Newman Road in Gatlinburg. Reservations are needed for the dining room, but the bar area is first-come, first-serve.
Another place people can spot Lydia, the White Oak Flats Cemetery just behind Gatlinburg’s main strip. Rumors are people can see Lydia there from time to time because that is supposedly where her fiancé is buried.
