Ginger's Place

With silhouettes in its windows and a festive atmosphere inside its walls, Ginger’s Place stands as one of Jacksonville Beach’s oldest and longest-running bars. Having such a long and storied history, it comes as no surprise that rumors and tales of hauntings would surface over the years. 

But was there any truth to these rumors, or were the only spirits at Ginger’s Place found in the bottles behind the bar? P.O.I. went in to find out.

Ginger’s Place is named after its former owner, Ginger Payson, a performer in burlesque and underwater mermaid shows all along the East Coast. Along with her husband Ziggy, Ginger owned and ran the bar until her death at age 79 in 2003. The bar is still in the loving care of Ginger’s family, however, and Ginger’s granddaughter, Samantha (Sam) Robenolt, was our main contact for this outing.

According to Sam, strange occurrences had been going on at Ginger’s Place since her grandmother’s passing, but became even more prevalent after preparations for renovation were made several years ago. "One of our Bartenders, she is no longer with us, Rhonda, a woman go through the kitchen and described [Ginger] exactly how she was, what she wore and her hair and all" Sam told us.  During the renovations, the mannequins that stood in the upstairs windows and greeted passersby were removed, and replaced with painted silhouettes. "These mannequins were special to Ginger", Sam told us, as she would use them to hold pieces of her wardrobe.

Since this time, there have been reports of people having their legs tapped (something Ginger used to do to gain people’s attention), a sign on the bar being displaced regularly, and patrons seeing full-bodied apparitions that meet Ginger’s description. Samantha also told P.O.I. that people have reported experiences with a male spirit, which she believes could be her grandfather Ziggy or a one-time bar patron who was found dead after leaving Ginger’s one night.

With Sam and our good friend Al as guests, Feanix, Sean, Cynder, Drew, and Ashley went to Ginger’s Place on Saturday, January 8, 2011. After taking in the boisterous and salt-of-the earth crowd (and a little bit of karaoke), we interviewed a few of the bar’s staff members and long-time patrons.

The first time Michael came was 2008, He felt like he was hugged and welcome. Felt a presence. Witnessed "if you're open to it you'll feel it, if not, people will think you are crazy""its all positive, nothing aggressive". He then told us of his experience with the ID board behind the tip jar. "There is no way that thing could have fell without knocking over the tip jar"  "we thought it was Ginger". 

Lawrence moved to Jacksonville Beach in Dec of 2000. "There is one thing I Like and its Casper the Friendly Ghost" as he told us of witnessing the mannequin upstairs moving. "There are good spirits that haunt this place" as he proclaimed his love for the establishment. "The G-Spot is the place to be"

Following our interviews, Sam cleared the bar and we were underway. We took a quick tour of the bar, stockroom, and upstairs areas, setting up digital voice recorders at hotspots along the way to try and capture some EVPs. We also went into the main office, where Sam shared some EVPs she had captured several months earlier. While we remained skeptical, these EVPs did give us reason for pause.

Once we were done in the office, we set up our night vision cameras in the bar and proceeded to reenact scenarios we learned about in the interview process that had resulted in seemingly paranormal occurrences, such as the sign behind the bar being flung to the ground and people being touched or grabbed. While these reenactments did not result in any noticeable physical contact, they did result in some startling EVP finds, which we are still in the process of going over.

While in the bar area, Feanix utilized some of our new equipment, the grid laser and ghost box. Results from the grid laser were minimal, but the ghost box did garner some response, including a “yes” when asked if the bar’s spirits were happy Sam was present. Not long after this, we started hearing a banging sound coming from the women’s restroom. These sounds were debunked when further review of the bathroom revealed a loose board near the window that was being moved by the wind. Similarly, we were able to debunk a strange whistling sound as wind coming through a small opening near a vent. We were less successful in trying to find the source of the footsteps we heard going up and down the stairs.

As our night concluded just before sunset, we bid a fond farewell to our gracious host Sam and made our way back to headquarters. Overall, we were unable to come to a conclusion as to the legitimacy of haunting claims at Ginger’s Place. While our on-site experiences were limited to strange feelings and a few unexplained noises, the initial reviews of our digital recorders and cameras have already yielded some interesting results. Check back soon for more info!