On one afternoon in 1977, a group of construction workers was moving bookshelves on the first floor of the Swift-Coles Historic Home in Bon Secour when they claimed to have seen an apparition.

What appeared to be a woman with her hair in a bun, a high collared white shirt, and a dark skirt was descending down the staircase, where she looked at the workers and asked "What are you doing with my library?" before disappearing.

Almost 50 years later, people are still trying to get in touch with the spirits who are believed to still haunt the home.

One of those groups is Southern Ghost Girls Tours, which, along with groups of guests, spent Halloween Eve trying to find ghosts with gear such as EMF monitoring devices, REM pods and spirit boxes.

Founded in 2018, travel across Alabama and other states such as Tennessee, Louisiana and Georgia, touring historic venues and hosting private events such as ghost hunts, murder mystery dinners and bar crawls, with a large portion of the proceeds benefiting the historic venues they visit and local charities.

Lesley Ann Hyde, owner and CEO of Southern Ghost Girls Tours, said out of the more than 100 places they have investigated, the Swift-Coles Historic Home is a favorite.

Hyde, who is from Birmingham, said she had her first ghost experience when she was six years old and considers herself a medium, having an ability to hear voices that tell her messages, a gift she says she has used for good, helping police departments solve missing persons cases.

"When you walk up, it's magical, and you really feel like it's a home. I don't know how to really explain it," Hyde said. "It's by the river, the Bon Secour River, and Mobile Bay is not too far from here. Water makes things energize, especially for ghost hunts. I love this place."

Originally built as a four-room cabin in 1882 by a local Creole fisherman named Thomas Gavin, the Swift-Coles Historic Home is a 16-room mansion built close to the Bon Secour River. The cabin was purchased by lumber baron Charles Augustus Swift in 1898, who expanded the house with his wife, Susan Platt Roberts Swift, and raised 11 children there.

The house remained in the family until 1976, when local entrepreneur Norman Nicholas Coles purchased it.

With deep roots in Baldwin County's history, the home has also had years of reported ghost sightings and hauntings, with the spirits of the Swift family, Civil War soldiers and even the spirits of the victims of gangster Al Copone, where legend has it that some of the bodies from his crimes in Chicago were disposed of in the local area.

After dinner, the Southern Ghost Girls took guests from room to room to try and communicate with the spirits that may be haunting the home. From the bedrooms of the Swift children to the dark hallways filled with artifacts from the home's past.

Whether it be believers or skeptics exploring the house, Hyde said she enjoys bringing people together to have fun during a time of division.

"The most joy I get out of this is bringing people together on a tour or an event and seeing the people that don't know each other. They come from all walks of life. They're strangers when they get to the event," Hyde said. "When they leave, they all know each other. I enjoy seeing them laugh, have a good time, socialize and that brings such joy to me. To bring people together like that to have fun."