THE CRYING CHILD OF BROOKSVILLE: Inside the May-Stringer House

By Staff Reports

🌙 FLORIDA AFTER DARK — On a hill in Brooksville stands a four-story Victorian “painted lady” with seven gables and more than 10,000 artifacts inside. It is a museum of Hernando County history. It is also called one of the most haunted houses in Florida.

The May-Stringer House began in 1855 as a four-room home built by John L. May. John died of tuberculosis just three years later. His widow Marena remarried, and in 1869 she died weeks after giving birth to a daughter, Jessie Mae. Jessie herself died in the house at three years old, in 1872. Members of the family are believed to be buried in a small cemetery on the grounds — a cemetery that has never been fully confirmed.

In 1903, Dr. Sheldon Stringer bought the house and expanded it into the 14-room Queen Anne mansion visitors see today, treating patients there as well. The Hernando Historical Museum Association took over in the 1980s; the house joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 and now runs as the Hernando Heritage Museum — including ghost tours and paranormal investigations.

What do visitors report? Cold spots. Moving shadows. Objects that shift. And most famously, the sound of a small child — laughing in empty rooms, sometimes crying for her mother. Investigators say Jessie Mae is still in the nursery, waiting for a mother who died before she could know her.

Join the conversation: Haunted houses with real family tragedies hit differently. Have you visited the May-Stringer? Florida After Dark wants your stories: send them to tips@floridachatter.com and yours could be our next feature.

Sources: Wikipedia / National Register of Historic Places (1997); Hernando Heritage Museum; Atlas Obscura.

Photo: Ebyabe, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5).