Ferry Plantation House

The Ferry Plantation House (also historically known as Old Donation Farm, Ferry Farm, and Walke Manor House) in Virginia Beach occupies a site with layered colonial and 19th‑century history. The location is associated with Savill Gaskin's 1642 Lynnhaven River ferry service and with plantation-era agriculture; the standing Federal‑style brick house commonly cited on the property is dated to about 1830 in travel and museum sources. The City of Virginia Beach acquired the property in 1996 and it operates as a historic house museum and event site, hosting public programming including annual reenactments of the 1706 ducking and trial of Grace Sherwood. Local folklore and heritage programming strongly link the site to Grace Sherwood, popularly described in secondary sources as “the first witch of Virginia Beach”; municipal timelines and local tour operators stage commemorations and interpretive events that foreground this association. Paranormal‑focused operators market ghost tours and themed events (for example, the “Stroll of Lost Souls”), indicating the site's role in the regional paranormal tourism economy. Paranormal investigators have claimed evidence at the Ferry Plantation. A transcript of PEEP Podcast Episode 119 recounts investigators reporting that "the EVP we've recorded at the Ferry Plantation included... full phrases and single syllables," though the provided excerpt is truncated and does not supply dates, audio examples, or independent corroboration. Beyond these investigator claims and the robust folkloric association with Grace Sherwood, the supplied sources do not present detailed, independently documented eyewitness reports (with dates and witnesses) of apparitions, physical interactions, or forensic evidence. Interpretations in the sources therefore range from folkloric and commemorative (reenactments and community memory) to promotional and investigative (ghost tours and EVP reports).