The story goes like this: During Carolina Theatre’s five decades of operation in uptown, strange things would happen during rehearsals, shows, and film screenings. Meticulously placed lights would move and malfunction; props would scatter. Bangs and clangs resonated from the empty projection room. Yet all you had to do was yell, “Knock it off, Fred!” and the troubles usually ceased. Thankful, actors and technicians would ask for a blessing or bid farewell when they left.
Uptown ghost tours stop at 220 N. Tryon St. to relate the tale of the naughty specter in the white Oxford shirt that’s taken up occupancy in the 93-year-old venue, which closed in 1978 and has been under renovation since 2017. Stephanie Burt Williams’ Ghost Stories of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, a popular 2003 volume for locals interested in the paranormal, made Fred one of uptown’s most famous phantoms.
But for more than 30 years, few people had a chance to encounter him. Then, in 2012, the City Council agreed to sell the theater to Foundation For the Carolinas for $1, which three years later announced its plans to renovate the historic structure into its offices and a civic space for town halls, arts and entertainment, and more inside the new Belk Place campus. They aim to finish work in early 2022, and the renovation has meant new people roaming the hallways and basements. They’ve seen things, heard things, that go beyond even the legends.
It turns out that Fred isn’t the only spirit that haunts Carolina Theatre.
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