May-Stringer House (Hernando Historical Museum)

The story

John L. May put down the original four-room homestead here in 1855, but it was Dr. Sheldon Stringer who later expanded it into a four-story, 14-room Victorian 'Painted Lady.' Sitting high on a Brooksville hill 45 miles north of Tampa, the house doubles as the Hernando Historical Museum and acts as a massive catch-all for local relic-hoarding, cramming over 11,000 artifacts into its rooms. You'll navigate narrow hallways packed with everything from Victorian hair art and period clothing to an authentic 1880s doctor's office loaded with antique surgical equipment.

The house's dark reputation centers on three-year-old Jessie Mae, who died here in 1897, years after her mother passed away in childbirth on the property. Guests climbing into the top-floor attic routinely report hearing disembodied child cries cutting through the silence, accompanied by phantom hand touches against their wrists or shoulders. Rather than downplaying the local legend, the museum leans directly into it, allowing ghost hunting groups to wander the dark stairwells with EMF meters and audio recorders after hours.

Even without the specters, the history stored inside has a genuine edge. In July 2026, the house was evacuated and cordoned off when staff inspecting Dr. Stringer's antique medical collection discovered a vintage medicine bottle that had degraded into volatile, wartime explosive material—requiring the Hernando County bomb squad to safely detonate it. It is the rare historic site where the physical artifacts on display are as unpredictable as the spirits allegedly wandering the hallways.