Waiters, chefs, even folks staying at the Mills House hotel across the street had reported seeing an old woman in a black dress wandering late at night through the rooms at Poogan's Porch, a handsome Victorian house tucked among French Quarter palms.
Ball, who had explained away little things for two decades, was skeptical. In fact, she was still skeptical as she closed up the empty bar on a cold evening in December 1999. That was the night a bar stool just flew across the room, right in front of her.
She believes now.
"It's not that I didn't believe those people. I just wasn't a firm believer in those sorts of things," Ball said.
The story of the ghost of spinster Zoe St. Amand will represent Charleston on an upcoming episode of the Travel Channel's "Top Ten" travel series.
The show features a different theme every week and counts down the best places to fit their bill.
Charleston will be featured in a segment titled "Ghostly Getaways," which will, of course, air at the end of October.
"Zoe," as they call her around Poogan's, is a classic ghost: grew up introverted after her mother died when she was 6, became a spinster and a teacher and lived with her sister in the old house until she died in 1954.
The house was a storage building for the Mills House for years, and Poogan's opened in the mid-1970s. Zoe has been around ever since, opening doors, setting off the alarm, spooking the dog.
Edward Macy, a tour guide and co-author of the book "Ghosts of Charleston," said Zoe is one of the most popular ghosts among tourists and locals because she turns up fairly regularly - well, regular for a spectre.
Chuck Ball, co-owner of the restaurant, said Zoe will appear every few days for a week and then might not reappear for months.
"It is one of the most often seen ghosts," Macy said.
You might think a ghost would be good for business - exposure on a travel show, nice advertising in a ghost book, occasional story in the newspaper - but Chuck Ball said it's about a wash.
While some people will drop in to eat just because the place might be haunted, "I think some people are afraid of this place," he said.
The restaurant folk say there is no cause for alarm. She's a fairly gentle spirit, a comforting presence. Until there's some construction at the restaurant. The bar stool incident occurred when they were renovating the kitchen floor, a task that involved jackhammers.
Keith Tracy, Ball's stepfather, had a particularly harrowing run-in while working on plumbing at the house in the wee hours of one morning.
Tracy heard banging around in the bar, where he'd left his coffee cup. He thought Ball had come in. When he came back, his coffee was half-gone, and there were lipstick stains on the cup.
On Tuesday afternoon, the camera crew recorded that tale after listening as chef Isaac Vanderhorst, sitting in the dark bar, recalled the morning when old Zoe brushed up against him while he was digging in the refrigerator.
"I was so afraid, I would not go back in there until somebody else got here," Vanderhorst said.
Somebody, that is, besides Zoe.
Haunted Charleston SC Restaurant Makes TV Appearance
For 20 years, people told Bobbie Ball that a ghost haunted her Queen Street restaurant - but she'd never seen a thing.[Original headline: Restaurant's ghost in TV show's spotlight]
Post and Couirier, Charleston / SC | Brian Hicks - July 18 2001
