Who Wants to Buy a Ghost? The Sale of The Hermitage

My friend, currently residing in the Lowcountry, has been posting stunning photos on Facebook, making me fantasize about spending some summer months there, either writing another book or composing music. The area has a captivating romance with its unique seafood traditions and historic antebellum heritage. I imagined saying that with the southern drawl of a proper Southern lady.

However, I strictly refer to the culture, lifestyle, and architecture of the Southern United States before the Civil War (approximately 1812 to 1861), known for grand plantation estates, opulent wealth, and romanticized traditions. I do not support the system of chattel slavery that supported its agrarian economy.

Lowcountry is the southern and eastern coastal region of South Carolina. It encompasses the coastal plain below the state's Fall Line, focusing on the southernmost coastal counties like Beaufort, Charleston, Colleton, and Jasper. The area is characterized by tidal marshes, barrier islands, and swamps with oak trees and Spanish moss. Its culture is closely tied to the Gullah Geechee, a distinct African American community descended from enslaved West and Central Africans. They preserved their unique heritage, creole language, and traditions due to the geographic isolation of the Sea Islands, a chain of over 100 low-lying barrier and tidal islands stretching about 300 miles along the Atlantic coast of the southeastern United States, spanning South Carolina, Georgia, and northern Florida.

This morning, he posted about a nearby property recently listed for sale. It is a 3-bedroom, 4-bath, 3,856 sq ft single-family home built in 1849. They are asking a modest $1,850,000 for it, after reducing the price by $135K.

The remarkable 19th-century home, in classic condition, is the oldest in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Known as The Hermitage, it was once the home of Alice Flagg (1834–1849). Originally, it was the summer residence of rice planter and Methodist minister James Lynch Belin (pronounced Blane). Belin, who had no children, gave the property to his nephew, Allard Belin Flagg II, at least a decade before his own death in 1859. Belin also transferred Wachesaw Plantation to Flagg, who managed its rice fields while practicing medicine.

The house was relocated from a nearby saltwater creekfront area to its current location less than half a mile away, now nestled on nearly four acres, under century-old moss-draped Live Oaks and bordered in the front by a well-maintained spring-fed freshwater pond stocked with bass and bream. The front porch, walkway, and chimney brick are known to be from ship ballast from England. Each brick was carefully moved in 1990, along with the house. A portrait of Alice Flagg and a purse of hers will be included with this home.

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But why would such a beautiful historic home, originally listed for sale on December 15, 2025, with an initial price of $2,400,000, remain unsold even after a price reduction to $1,850,000? It is because this particular house is famously linked to one of coastal South Carolina's most enduring local ghost legends.

Halloween is approaching, and I'm always eager for a good ghost story, so shall we begin?

Alice Belin Flagg was the sister of Dr. Allard Belin Flagg II, who acted as a father figure after their father, died in 1838. According to legend, when Alice was fifteen or sixteen, she fell in love with a man her brother deemed beneath the family’s social status—a humble lumberman. Their romance flourished in secret, as Alice’s family, especially her controlling brother, disapproved of the match. Despite their objections, Alice accepted a simple engagement ring from her beloved, wearing it on a ribbon around her neck to keep it hidden.

When her brother discovered the secret, he was enraged. Determined to end the relationship, he sent Alice away to a boarding school in Charleston. Heartbroken and isolated, Alice soon fell gravely ill, likely from malaria or another common fever in the region at the time. As her brother was a doctor, he went to Charleston to bring her back to the Hermitage and provide medical care. The story claims that Alice slipped into a comatose state at some point either during the ride back to Murrells Inlet or shortly thereafter. While caring for his gravely ill sister, Dr. Flagg noticed a ring tied around her neck, apparently from her forbidden beau. He removed the ring from her neck and tossed it into the creek. When Alice awoke, she clutched at her neck only to find her cherished ring was gone. Sadly, Alice soon succumbed to the disease and died at the Hermitage. The story claims her spirit haunts the home and its grounds, searching for the ring.

Visitors to her grave often leave tokens, particularly rings, as a sign of respect and remembrance. Some claim to have seen her ghost—a figure in a white dress, sometimes clutching her chest where the ring once lay.

Alice’s ghost story can be traced to the 1940s. According to the book "Shared Traditions: Southern History and Folk Culture" by Charles W. Joyner, writer and folklorist Genevieve Willcox Chandler, who lived in the Hermitage as a child, published accounts of stories and legends from the Waccamaw Neck in the 1941 Federal Writers Project State Guide Series. The story of Alice is not mentioned in the volume. Chandler herself claims the ghost tale was concocted by her brother, Allston Moore Willcox, to frighten their out-of-town cousins during their visits to the Hermitage. The story first appeared in print in 1946 when Julian Stevenson Bolick, who learned it from the Willcox family, included it in his book, "Waccamaw Plantations." Since then, the story has evolved and adapted over the years.