Craigmiles crypt stains, St Luke's Episcopal Church; Cleveland TN

The Red Streaks on the White Mausoleum

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Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Please welcome guest blogger Timothy W. Hooker, an English instructor at Cleveland State Community College in Tennessee. Tim’s most recent book is a memoir, “Sushi Tuesday” (2010) from his long running blog of the same name. Tim has also written a novel, a play, and a short story collection.  Since 1996 he’s penned the creative non-fiction column, “Out of Pocket,” for the Cleveland Daily Banner.

I don’t know if “haunted” is the right word to describe it. But, it is a special place, with “unexplained” aspects.

The “It” is the mausoleum at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland, Tennessee.

Growing up in Cleveland, I always knew in my gut that I’d end up going there. It wasn’t a rational decision. My family was Southern Baptist and I often heard jokes about “Whiskey-palians” and how “where there are four, there’s always a fifth.” But, that didn’t deter me. There was simply something about the little French Gothic church downtown with the wall around it and a mausoleum in the back that compelled me.

I had to go.

So, when I mustered up the courage to break ranks with the family and start going there, I found a place of worship that was wrapped in intrigue and mystery. Come to find out, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church was originally called St. Alban’s, when it was formed as a mission in 1867. Then, there came the fateful day that would change the congregation forever.

The Craigmiles family was a prominent family in Cleveland. You can still see their name atop the old opera building that still sits facing the Bradley County Courthouse. They made their fortune selling food and other materials to both sides during the American Civil War.

St. Lukes Episcopal Church, Cleveland, TN. Nina Craigmiles mausoleum on the right.
St. Lukes Episcopal Church, Cleveland, TN. Nina Craigmiles mausoleum on the right.

One day, the patriarch of the family, John Craigmiles, took his favorite granddaughter, Nina, for a carriage ride. When they came to a railroad crossing, they didn’t stop. The ensuing train wreck killed little Nina, only seven years old.

It was on October 18th, 1871– St. Luke’s Day.

Grief-stricken, the family paid for a brand-new church to be built, in honor of Nina Craigmiles, complete with a white marble mausoleum behind the church, where she and other family members rest to this day. And, when the church was consecrated, John Craigmiles threw away the only key to the front door. It was to be God’s House, open forever to God’s People.

But, the story doesn’t end there. Behind the pulpit is an alcove known as Nina’s Niche, but it is traditionally filled with flowers. When the church was designed, the family commissioned a bust of Nina to be sculpted of white Italian marble and placed in the niche. The sculptor completed the job, but the bust never made it to Cleveland, Tennessee. The sculptor shipped the bust to America aboard the HMS Titanic.

Other bits of fame surround the church. Tennessee Williams’ grandfather was the rector at St. Luke’s and the playwright spent his childhood summers there. New Criticism’s iconic John Crowe Ransom’s cousin, James Ransom, attended there.

Still, the church’s most unlikely claim to fame comes from the red streaks on the white mausoleum. They’re simply not supposed to be there. They are not the painted remains of some adolescent vandalism. They defy chemical analysis. They are not a property of white Italian marble. But, they’re there– blood red streaks around the door and mantel of the crypt devoted to a little girl whose grandfather tried to race a train and lost.

Sources: www.stlukescleveland.org/about.htm
www.fabuloustravel.com/usa/article/391/21961

More articles on haunted places:

Eerie Night In A Haunted House(Opens in a new browser tab)

The three restless spirits of Sarah, Will, and Clem (Opens in a new browser tab)

None dared stop overnight at the Betts house(Opens in a new browser tab)

7 comments

  1. My husband is a descendant of Dr. Gideon Blackburn Thompson, father of Mrs. John (Myra Adelia Thompson)Craigmiles. Dr. Thompson (not Nina’s father John Craigmiles)was the one driving the buggy on that fateful day in Cleveland when the train killed his granddaughter, little Nina Craigmiles. She was riding with him as he was making his rounds as a doctor; it was raining and the horse rared up when hearing the train coming, and Nina was tragically thrown onto the tracks. Her parents and grandparents never fully recovered from the loss of Nina, the apple of her father’s eye and that of Cleveland. Consequently, her parents ordered the finest Italian marbel to build a mausoleum for her. We have been there several times, but don’t understand why myths say that it is “blood” staining the marble. Please let Little Nina rest in peace.

  2. Jan. 1, 2013

    I am a descendant of the Thompson family in Cleveland, Tenn. My great father was C. C. Thompson was an uncle of Nina Craigmiles. I am a geologist and have a comment to make about the red stained marble used in Nina’s mausoleum. I have seen the mausoleum a couple of times. Marble originates from limestone deposited in warm shallow water. Those red streaks may represent impurities deposited with the original rock – the limestone – that were oxidized when the sediment was exposed; hence the rusty color.

    Just a suggestion.

  3. I, too, am a descendant of Myra Adelia Thompson Craigmiles, and fully support the story version as related by Ms. McMurray above. I have visited both the church and the mausoleum, and in fact will be headed that way in about ten days to do further genealogical research.

  4. Robert Mickie I would love to know what you find. I have always been drawn to the mausoleum and I have no idea why. I remember going there all the time as a little girl. I used to walk up to the door and look inside and talk to Nina and I remember feeling so sad for her and her family.

  5. I enjoyed seeing what family members above wrote. I live in Cleveland Tn and have been by there many times but I have yet to go to it other than seeing it from the street. I myself am and believe in the supernatural but as stated think it was in the stone itself i.e. iron or whatever but they say they have replaced the stones which makes me wonder if there is some iron behind the stones causing it. I am going there and actually visit and check into it more this week and also would like to know what may be under the foundation of it.

  6. This has been my favorite Cleveland folklore all my life. I was born and raised here and I’ve heard that story a lot since I was little.

  7. I have a old painting of the graigmiles hall found this page doing research on the photo love the history of it all I enjoyed the reading

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