Ghosts believed to be roaming the aisles of Guerin's Pharmacy in Summerville
Oct 31, 2024
SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCBD) – Guerin's Pharmacy is not only South Carolina's oldest pharmacy, but it is also Summerville's longest-running business dating back to 1871.
A place that will take you back in time, inside the drugstore spirits are believed to be wandering through its aisles.
"You can sense, you just know somebody’s watching you, you know, somebody’s near you," said owner Barbara Dunning.
A firm believer, Dunning also admits that she talks to the ghosts. She doesn't believe the spirits are malicious or mischievous, but rather curious.
"Really I don’t think it’s scary. It’s very comforting to know that somebody is here sometimes at night when I’m by myself," shared Dunning.
Although she does not know for sure who haunts the historic building, Dunning has an idea of who the ghosts could be.
In Charleston, pirates and patriots are believed to still haunt the Old Exchange Building & Provost Dungeon
"I have seen a gentleman in the back in the pharmacy area, and I don’t know if that’s my great uncle or not. I know what he looked like, and I remember him, but I’m not sure because you see him out of the side of your eye and then when you look, there’s really nothing there, and but, you know something was there," explained Dunning.
She isn't the only person who has had a paranormal experience while working at the pharmacy.
"Our employee Sheila, she’s out today, but she’s been here for five years and recently she’s been seeing some things. She saw a cat. I said we don’t have a cat, and the other day she saw a lady walk through that was more modern and in a more 1980s dress or something," said Dunning.
Dunning shared that she sometimes hears loud noises start to creek while she's alone in the pharmacy at night doing paperwork.
"I think the noise upstairs, the primary noise that we hear down here, it sounds like somebody is dragging something and after the Civil War, the story goes that Dr. Guerin, the first doctor here and if you were coming home from war and were walking and needed a place to stay, you could go upstairs and stay. That’s where the ex-soldiers going home could stay overnight and I don’t know, it could be one of them," explained Dunning.
Believed to be roaming the aisles after hours, she makes sure to give the spirits their space.
"I’ll start talking to him and I’ll say okay, I’ll be out in 15 minutes. Then you can have the whole building to yourself," shared Dunning.
Dunning said if you are walking outside South Main Street on the corner of Hutchinson Square to keep in mind: "If you come by here and there's lights on upstairs it might be me, it might be the ghost."