Ghosts of South Florida: Richmond Naval Base and South Beach

8/27/2023

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
Two true ghost stories submitted to Miami Ghost Chronicles.

Blimp at Richmond Naval Air Station

Richmond Naval Air Station
Richmond, was a blimp base hastily constructed in the early months of World War II. It was home to 25 K series blimps, three hangars, and 3,000 men. The hangars were 16 stories tall, built of Douglas fir brought in by train.

The blimps protected ship convoys in the Florida Straits, and Richmond Naval Station was the headquarters for the fight against Nazi U-boats operating in the Caribbean. The homes at Richmond Heights were built on part of the original parcel of land where the base was situated.

The following story was sent to Miami Ghost Chronicles in 2010:

Pure Oil Co. gas station in the Richmond Heights subdivision in Miami, Florida. 1959. (Source - Florida Memory)

Hi this happened when I was 18, I had picked up my niece's coloring
book, I'd walked maybe five steps and it slipped from my hands, and
while I saw it fall it disappeared into nothing, this happened in Richmond
Heights.

Another instance was when me and my family were sitting in the living
room watching television when the power failed and we saw at least five
mist-like entities swirling around in a circle (this was at another home in
the same area).

There was a story about the house in which a wife killed her husband,
and there were bullet holes still in the ceiling.

In another house where my parents lived, one night my parents argued
and my mother went to sleep on the living room couch. In the middle of
the night she heard someone going through the drawers in the kitchen.
When she went to look she saw a transparent old man riffling through the utensils. She went back to bed with my dad after this. Later on she found that an old man who was paralyzed had lived there before, and was found dead. It wasn't clear what he had died from, whether it was starvation or if he was just sick.

Miami Beach postcard c.1950s

Haunted South Beach
This story was sent to Miami Ghost Chronicles on 7-21-2011:

My wife and me are from West Palm Beach and had our honeymoon 11 years ago, we stayed in the Mayfair back than and decided for our 11th anniversary to stay in South Beach since we have never visited.

The elevator there is probably the oldest, a metal door, new or old I don't know but when you get inside it has the old folding metal gate that slams awful hard before the door shuts, and fits 2 people comfortably; my wife never saw an elevator so old. Just for the record we were not drinking when these events occurred. After getting out of the elevator and walking, I believe on the 2nd floor, we walked to the last room on the left, we opened the door after using our card to get in.

My wife went in first, me right behind. she walked approximately 4 feet and stopped, did not say anything and turned slowly to my right sort of towards the side and than the back of me while waiting closer to the door. I walked to the same place she was standing and stood for about 3-5 seconds not saying a word, after I slowly turned and walked to the door. I asked her if she felt something and she said she felt the same thing before I told her how I felt.

After we slowly walked out of the room she said she felt like the floor was giving out and felt a strange feeling like the room was moving. I felt like the room was spinning like when you had too many drinks, I did feel warm but I think it was because the air wasn't on but I remember thinking the ceiling fan going. I felt like there was a presence in the room but did not see anything but didn't particularly look for anything, I just wanted to get out, my stomach felt nauseous when I was in the room.

I told the man at the front desk that he probably would think I was crazy for asking if there were ghosts in that room or hotel, he said he just started working there a month earlier, I asked the girl sitting people outside since she told me she worked there for several years, she said yes but I don't know if she said that to be polite and after I explained the story, she said I don't know. She might not have understood since she might have been from Spanish culture and didn't understand English. We than left.

We stayed at a hotel on 14th and Collins and we were not happy with the amenities so during our walk that evening which would be April 12, 2002 we decided to head south from the Carlyle Hotel. We visited a few hotels and when we came to the Cxxxxy Hotel, I told my wife, let's check this hotel out since I knew someone at work who stays here all the time, several times a year since her sister owns a shop in the area. When we walked in everything seemed nice and on the dark side in general.