The Haunted Wells Theatre
Posted: 10.17.2024 | Updated: 10.17.2024
Virginia Beach is Virginia’s largest city. It’s a beautiful, exciting town with ocean views, boardwalk shopping, naval yards, and delicious eats.
It’s also filled with ghosts.
The Wells Theatre has stood for over a hundred years in Virginia Beach and is a staple of local drama in the town. Names like Fred Astaire and Will Rogers have passed through its doors. Of course, those two are long dead, but some of the theater’s performers and workers have never left the place, even after death.
Who haunts the Wells Theatre?
As might be expected from a theater, this place crawls with the ghosts of former actors and audience members. The Wells Theatre has a rich history and a cast of colorful characters that continue to be a part of the place.
Read on to learn more about the ghosts that haunt this theater, and book a ghost tour with Neptune Ghosts to learn more about the haunted history of Virginia Beach.
History of the Wells Theatre
The Wells Theatre was designed to capitalize on the vaudeville craze - the popular variety shows prominent during the early 20th century. Built in 1912, the Wells was one of forty different vaudeville theaters owned by the Wells brothers. The two brothers operated several vaudeville theaters across the Southern United States, and, by all accounts, they did pretty well for themselves as a result. In its early heyday, the Wells showcased dancers, plays, movies, and even burlesque shows.
This variety, essential to vaudeville, would go on to define the Wells Theatre in its history. It served many owners and wore many hats during its century of operation. After World War II, it hosted several movie marathons and served as the venue for many popular singers of the time. However, by the 1960s, the theaters, like much of Virginia Beach at the time, fell into a decline and shifted from showing cinematic masterpieces to hosting X-rated flicks and sultry dance shows. And that was just at the front of the house - behind the stage, the Wells was rumored to serve a different clientele as a gin house and a brothel.
However, its seedy era would not last forever. After the 60s had their heyday, the Wells Theatre experienced a resurgence. The Virginia Stage Company bought the place and moved in, and these days, it serves a more dramatic and high-class crowd. The theatre puts on plays that attract Broadway and off-Broadway talent and audiences. In 1986, the property was beautifully renovated and would now be unrecognizable to its 1960s audience.
It even has valet parking now!
The Cast of Ghosts
Since the very first day it opened its doors, the Wells Theatre has been plagued (or blessed, depending on your perspective) by a number of ghosts and ghouls. As might be expected by such a dramatic venue, the ghostly characters are as dramatic and colorful as the characters that the Wells actors portray on the stage.
He doesn’t have a name - or if he did, it’s lost to history - but one of the spectral residents is a man in a top hat who’s said to wander around the theatre late at night. Given his garb, perhaps he was a wealthy audience member or sponsor from back in the day who stuck around to continue patronizing the theater.
There’s also a “Woman in White.” She’s known for appearing one moment and disappearing the next. She’s been spotted by theater visitors, crew members, and other actors. Whether she was an actor or a visitor is anyone’s guess, but what is known is that items around the theater tend to disappear when she’s around. This ghost has a sense of humor because those same objects will often appear hours later in a different place!
There’s also a young boy nicknamed Boots who wanders the corridors of the theater after hours. His identity is unknown, but he gained the nickname due to the constant sound of squeaking accompanying his presence - thought to be the sound of his boots stomping on the floor. Thought to be a child who fell off one of the Wells balconies, he’s hard to spot and will typically flee from prying eyes more than “Top Hat” and the “Woman in White” do. Despite his shyness, he seems to be having a good time in death, as his laughter often pierces the gloom of the theater after it closes.
Ned the Sailor
However, despite all these mysterious ghosts, there is one that we actually have a name for - Ned the Sailor. Ned, while a sailor, also did some part-time work at the theater as a stagehand. His strength and knowledge of knots and ropes served him well as he worked the rigging and curtains of the stage.
While his skills served him well, his luck certainly didn’t - he fell to his death while working on the stage’s fly system, accidentally hanging himself in the rigging ropes.
Apparently, he was having far too good a time at the theater to move on from it after death. Known to be a prankster, his ghost delights in tormenting the actors and crews of the Wells Theatre to this day. Doors will lock behind them. Important props will disappear. It’s become a tradition for actors to shout, “Stop it, Ned!” when something goes wrong during a production. Because even when it’s not him, he’s usually planning something soon after!
Haunted Virginia Beach
So, there you have it - a perfect beach city hiding one of the more haunted places on the East Coast behind the doors of an unassuming theater. Like the Wells Theatre, Virginia Beach offers a lot of history behind its surface-level appearance. We invite you to book a ghost tour with Neptune Ghosts to learn more about Virginia Beach’s haunted history. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, and keep reading our blog for more real Virginia hauntings.
Sources:
https://www.vastage.org/wells-theatre
https://www.visitvirginiabeach.com/listing/virginia-stage-company-at-the-wells-theatre/169
https://medium.com/@CKimberlyToms/haunted-hampton-roads-df53a5b781d3
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