What does a former attorney do for fun?
She takes people on walking tours of the spooky and supernatural still lingering in the city of Chattanooga.
After practicing law for 20 years, Amy Petulla decided it was time to step outside of the courthouse and step into the paranormal, opening Chattanooga Ghost Tours in 2007.
“My kids and I always loved taking ghost tours,” she said. “It’s a great way to find out about a city and its history.”
Petulla hit the library and did some research.
“To see if there were enough ghosts here in Chattanooga to make it worth people’s while,” she said. “Turns out there is an abundance of ghosts here.”
Folks can pick a walking tour that best suits their interests. The most popular is their Murder and Mayhem tour. It’s open to all ages and is an easy one-mile walk.
The tour’s award-winning guides will stop at various locations where documented accounts of paranormal experiences have occurred.
Chattanooga Ghost Tours offer a deluxe version of the tour as well, with a stop inside the Bar & Billiards room at the famously haunted Read House Hotel.
Petulla said they’ve introduced a new deluxe tour that is open to adults 21 and over. This tour includes a stop inside the Dragon Lounge. The bar offers cannabis infused drinks as well as virgin drinks and snacks. The lounge is reportedly haunted with mischievous spirits.
The guides on the Cemetery Ghost Hunt tour are equipped with various paranormal investigation tools to share with their guests. This allows them to be a ghost hunter for the evening. People can also bring their own equipment. This tour is for ages 18 and up.
Her company also offers a combined tour and ghost hunt open to ages three and up. A K2 electromagnetic field meter is issued to groups of 2-4 people. Guests will be given the opportunity to try to take ghost photos and use the equipment.
Some of the haunted stops along the murder and mayhem tour include:
Read House Hotel
Petulla said there are multiple spirits at the Read House. The most well-known is the lady that haunts room 311 – Annalisa Netherly.
Netherly, a woman of the night, was viciously murdered in room 311. Some say her client beheaded her. Others say it was her jealous lover. Many guests have reported strange phenomena happening in the room. Guests who have stayed in Room 311 say they have felt Annalisa’s presence, and some say they have even seen her.
Petulla said there is also the spirit of a little girl at the Read House who possibly died of illness. She has been seen by several people and one guest captured her ghostly image in a photo.
Petulla said author and psychic, Mark Elliott Fults mentioned another ghost at the Read House named Martha Brown Hulett. She’s a spirit who doesn’t like cigarette smoke.
“You don’t hear about her as much anymore,” she said. “It used to be a really big thing. Back in the day, when they had a smoking floor, they had to move it from the third floor to the fifth floor because they had so many problems with people keeping their cigarettes lit. It’s not because she doesn’t like smoke, it’s just…If she can’t smoke, by golly nobody can smoke.”
Underground Chattanooga
While doing her research Petulla learned about the floods that inundated Chattanooga, killing hundreds of people. To prevent another catastrophe, city engineers rebuilt Chattanooga above the old streets. This led to the creation of underground tunnels, which are reportedly haunted with the ghosts who perished in the floods. Her tour offers guests a unique view of one such location after the city closed off another.
“The city put up fence, then locked the fence, then they built a wall on the back side and about a month ago, they blew the whole thing up,” she said. “So, what they’ve done is released them (ghosts) all to the whole downtown.”
Citizen and Confederate Cemeteries adjacent to the UTC Campus
Guides and guest of the cemetery tour have described seeing the ghost of a woman who just vanishes in front of their eyes.
“They said it looked like she was wearing a see-through shroud with nothing underneath it,” Petulla said. “She comes walking towards them and seems to have no awareness that they are there. Her face is totally blank. She walks right through the middle of them…and poof, she disappeared.”
She said someone captured the disappearance on video. She watched it frame by frame and has no explanation about what or who it could be.
Newell Sanitorium
Petulla said one of the most active spots on the tour is the site for the former Sanitorium building, which is currently vacant and condemned.
“We started doing research since we were getting a lot of activity,” she said.
She was able to speak with staff of the hospital next door and learned there is a tunnel that runs between the two buildings.
“Some of the staff said they wouldn’t go into the tunnels,” she said. “Others talked about hearing a child crying. People heard noises or footsteps even though no one was in there. We figured there are some ghosts there from when it was a sanitorium. We do get a lot of activity there.”
She said guests have caught ghostly images, seen movement inside the building, and get that uneasy feeling at that location.
The weather right now is perfect for a night out walking among the ghosts and learn a little history while you’re at it.
For more information about Chattanooga Ghost Tours and to book online visit: https://chattanoogaghosttours.com/