Jemison–Van de Graaff Mansion (old Friedman Library)

This Italianate mansion at 1305 Greensboro Avenue was built before the Civil War for Robert Jemison Jr. Victor Hugh Friedman later gave the house to the county, and from 1958 until 1979 it served as Tuscaloosa's public library, known as the Friedman Library. It has since been restored as a historic house used for tours and events. Visitors describe different feelings in different parts of it: a watchful, almost protective presence in the round room, and something colder on the stairs up to the turret, which some say tries to push them off balance. Others describe the sense of someone standing at the main room's window, looking out and waiting. A presence is reported in the basement too, where local telling has it that soldiers once hid in tunnels beneath the house.