The Haunted Brothel

“The Pink House” at 17 Chalmers Street was built in the early 1700s, and is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Charleston, SC. It has endured over 300 years of wars, infernos, hurricanes, and even a massive earthquake in 1886.

The Pink House was a tavern & brothel, and was frequented by Pirates looking to spend their coin. Chalmers street was the active red light district in Charles Towne. If an enslaved woman was Mulatto - mixed race, white and black - she was a target for human trafficking, as many white men felt more comfortable paying for a lighter skinned prostitute.

Many Mulatto girls lost their lives on Chalmers street, and some of those deaths occurred at the Pink House. Some in the Gullah-Geechee tradition maintain that Chalmers - and particularly the Pink House - is the paranormal gateway for many Boo Hag spirits.

A Boo Hag, according to the Gullah, is an inhuman entity that comes up from hell in pursuit of a valuable commodity: Female Skin. Hiding in the trees, the Hag spots a woman with epidermis she desires, and travels through the trees, following her home. The spirit then enters the house, slips through the keyhole of the target’s bedroom, and mounts the unsuspecting slumberer, putting them into a magical trance.

The next step is to take out scissor-like hands and carefully slice the skin off of the body.

The Boo Hag puts on the skin, then goes out…

… to the club.

Yes, the club. That Boo Hag wants to party all night, in your skin.

The party, however, cannot rock on till the break of dawn. The Hag must return to your body and sew your skin back on you seamlessly before the sun comes up. She borrowed your skin, that’s all. It was a rental.

When you wake up, something is wrong. You feel … hungover.

Thus, an old expression in Charleston for when you inexplicably feel hungover is: “I was ridden by the Hag!”

Visit and learn about haunted sites like the Pink House by booking a tour with us!