For more than a century, an old pillar stood on a street corner in downtown Augusta, Georgia.
It wasn’t particularly impressive.
About ten feet tall.
Made of brick and covered in concrete.
Most people could have walked past without giving it much thought.
But if you knew the story…
you didn’t touch it.
According to an old Augusta legend, the pillar carried a curse.
Anyone foolish enough to touch it might die.
Anyone who tried to move or destroy it faced something even worse.
The story began with a wandering preacher who supposedly came to Augusta in the nineteenth century and asked to preach at the city’s busy market.
He was refused.
Before leaving, he made a terrifying prediction.
A great wind would destroy the market.
Only one pillar would remain standing.
And anyone who ever tried to remove that pillar…
would die.
Then, in February 1878, a tornado tore through Augusta.
The market was destroyed.
And one pillar survived.
After that, the old preacher’s warning didn’t sound quite so ridiculous.
And the people of Augusta had a new reason to leave the pillar alone.
What Was the Haunted Pillar of Augusta?
The Haunted Pillar of Augusta was the last surviving column associated with the city’s old Lower Market.
The market stood around the intersection of Broad and Fifth Streets and had long been an important center of local trade. An earlier market structure burned in 1829 and was rebuilt.
Then came the storm.
During the early morning hours of February 8, 1878, a powerful tornado tore through Augusta.
Buildings were damaged.
Homes were destroyed.
People were killed.
And the Lower Market was left in ruins. Contemporary reporting described broken timbers and masonry scattered across the site.
But one column became forever associated with what happened that night.
The pillar.
Eventually it was relocated to the corner of Fifth and Broad Streets.
And as the years passed, Augusta began telling a much stranger story about why that particular piece of the old market had survived.
The Preacher Who Cursed the Market
Like most good legends, the details change depending on who’s telling it.
But the basic story remains remarkably simple.
Sometime before the tornado, a traveling preacher—or “exhorter,” as some versions call him—came to the Lower Market.
He wanted to preach.
For one reason or another, he wasn’t allowed to.
Perhaps the merchants didn’t want him disrupting business.
Perhaps people simply didn’t want to hear what he had to say.
Whatever happened, the preacher wasn’t happy.
Before leaving, he supposedly warned Augusta that a great wind would destroy the market.
But that wasn’t all.
One pillar would remain.
And anyone who attempted to remove it afterward would be struck dead.
Then came February 1878.
The wind arrived.
The market fell.
And the legend says…
the pillar remained.
Imagine remembering the preacher’s words after that.
Maybe you’d laughed when you heard them.
Maybe you’d forgotten them completely.
But now you’re standing among the wreckage of the market.
Most of the building is gone.
And there it is.
The pillar he supposedly said would survive.
Would you touch it?
The Tornado That Changed Everything
The tornado that struck Augusta wasn’t part of the legend.
That really happened.
It tore through the city in the early morning hours and devastated the market.
One account places the tornado at approximately 1:10 a.m. and describes a destructive path through Augusta. Two people were reportedly killed during the storm.
There is even an eerie story that the market’s bell rang once just before the destruction began.
Then the building came apart.
For anyone who knew the preacher’s supposed prediction, the destruction must have seemed horribly familiar.
A great wind.
A destroyed market.
A surviving pillar.
Three parts of the warning.
And only one remained unanswered.
What would happen to the person who tried to move it?
The Curse of the Haunted Pillar of Augusta
As decades passed, the warning attached to the pillar grew darker.
It was no longer simply that whoever removed it would die.
Eventually, some versions warned that you shouldn’t even touch it.
Death might follow.
The curse became part of Augusta folklore, passed from one generation to another.
Children dared one another to touch it.
Visitors came to see it.
Some people posed beside it.
Others apparently preferred to keep their hands to themselves.
And stories began circulating about people who had challenged the curse.
Workers.
Drivers.
People supposedly sent to move or repair the pillar.
Depending on the version, those who interfered with it met with accidents, sudden deaths, or other terrible misfortune.
The details changed.
The warning didn’t.
Leave the pillar alone.
What Happened to People Who Tried to Move It?
This is where the stories surrounding the Haunted Pillar of Augusta become especially dark.
Over the years, local folklore claimed that attempts to move or destroy the pillar ended badly.
One tale tells of a man who tried to pull it down with heavy equipment.
Another version claims workers involved with the pillar later died in strange accidents.
Some stories even say people were struck by lightning—exactly the fate associated with the preacher’s original warning. Augusta’s historical plaque recorded the tradition that anyone who pulled the pillar down would be “struck dead by lightning.”
The stories became so closely attached to the landmark that an Augusta University archival description of a 1970s photograph noted the local belief that whenever someone tried to move the pillar, someone was seriously injured or killed.
Maybe that explains why the pillar remained such an unsettling sight.
It wasn’t hidden inside an abandoned house.
It wasn’t buried in a forgotten cemetery.
It stood beside an ordinary city street.
Cars passed it.
People walked by.
And everyone who knew the legend understood the rule.
Don’t mess with it.
The Haunted Pillar Didn’t Always Stay Standing
Strangely enough, the pillar’s history didn’t end with the tornado.
Over the decades, it was damaged more than once.
Stories and records describe it being struck by vehicles, knocked down, repaired, and relocated.
One account says a car destroyed it in 1935.
Then, on Friday the 13th in June 1958, an oversized bale of cotton reportedly struck the pillar and knocked it down again.
It was rebuilt once more, this time several feet from its previous location.
And still the legend survived.
Perhaps that’s the strangest thing about cursed objects.
Sometimes destroying the object doesn’t destroy the story.
You rebuild it.
You put it back.
And the warning returns with it.
Don’t touch the pillar.
Would You Touch the Haunted Pillar?
By the twentieth century, the pillar had become a local attraction.
People knew the story.
Tourists stopped to see it.
And inevitably, some wanted to test the curse for themselves.
It became the perfect dare.
Stand beside the pillar.
Reach out.
Put your hand against the concrete.
Nothing happens.
At least…
not immediately.
That’s the problem with a curse like this.
If the legend says touching something will kill you, how long do you have to wait before deciding you’re safe?
An hour?
A day?
A month?
And what happens the next time something goes wrong?
You slip on the stairs.
Your car skids on a wet road.
Lightning cracks across the sky while you’re outside.
Maybe you laugh about the pillar.
Or maybe you remember exactly what you did.
You touched it.
Another Dark Story About the Pillar
The preacher isn’t the only figure connected with the curse.
Another version of the legend links the pillar to the horrors of slavery, with stories claiming enslaved people were chained or whipped there and that a curse was placed upon it.
Those stories became part of later Haunted Pillar folklore, although the preacher’s warning remains the version most commonly associated with the landmark.
Either way, the legend transformed the pillar into something more than a piece of an old building.
People weren’t looking at brick and concrete.
They were looking at something that had supposedly survived a disaster exactly as predicted.
Something generations of Augustans had been warned not to disturb.
And something that seemed remarkably difficult to get rid of.
Until 2016.
The Day the Haunted Pillar Finally Fell
On December 17, 2016, the Haunted Pillar’s long story took another unexpected turn.
Two vehicles collided at the intersection of Fifth and Broad Streets.
One of them, a Ford Taurus, crashed into the pillar.
The old landmark came down.
After more than a century of warnings about what would happen to anyone who destroyed it…
someone finally had.
The pillar was reduced to rubble.
And naturally, anyone who knew the legend had one question.
What happened to the driver?
According to local news coverage, there were no reported injuries from the crash. The driver who hit the haunted pillar even said he believed it may have saved his life by stopping his car before it struck a building.
Which creates a wonderfully strange ending to the story.
A pillar supposedly cursed to kill anyone who destroyed it…
may instead have protected the man who finally knocked it down.
Did Destroying the Haunted Pillar End the Curse?
The original pillar is gone.
For years after the crash, the corner where it once stood remained empty, although there were discussions about restoring the landmark.
But the legend didn’t disappear with it.
People still tell the story.
They still remember the preacher.
The tornado.
The lone pillar.
The warnings about touching it.
The people supposedly injured or killed after interfering with it.
Maybe that’s because the most powerful part of the Haunted Pillar was never the concrete itself.
It was the question people asked whenever they stood beside it.
Do you believe the curse enough to keep your hands off?
And perhaps there’s another question now.
If a cursed object is destroyed…
where does the curse go?
Other Cursed Things You Should Never Touch
The Devil’s Tree
In New Jersey stands another ordinary-looking object surrounded by a very unpleasant reputation.
The Devil’s Tree is associated with stories of murder, curses, and terrible consequences for anyone who tries to damage it.
Visitors have reportedly kicked it, struck it, and attempted to cut it.
According to the legend, those who disrespect the tree may discover that something follows them home.
Busby’s Stoop Chair
An old wooden chair in England became infamous for a curse supposedly placed upon it by convicted murderer Thomas Busby.
According to legend, anyone who sits in Busby’s Stoop Chair risks dying soon afterward.
After enough frightening stories became associated with it, the chair was eventually hung on a wall where no one could accidentally sit down.
Sometimes the safest way to deal with a cursed object is simple.
Don’t touch it.
The Crying Boy Paintings
During the 1980s, stories spread across Britain about homes destroyed by fire where one object supposedly survived untouched:
a print of a crying child.
The Crying Boy paintings became associated with a curse, and frightened owners began getting rid of them.
But like Augusta’s pillar, the paintings gained their reputation because they supposedly survived destruction that should have consumed them.
The Dybbuk Box
The Dybbuk Box is a wine cabinet associated with stories of nightmares, illness, strange smells, and terrible misfortune.
Each new owner supposedly experienced disturbing events after bringing it home.
Eventually, the box became one of the world’s best-known cursed objects.
And its legend carries the same warning found in so many stories about cursed things:
Some objects are better left alone.
The Black Angel of Oakland Cemetery
In an Iowa cemetery stands a dark bronze angel surrounded by warnings.
According to legend, the Black Angel of Oakland Cemetery isn’t a monument you should touch casually. Some versions claim anyone who kisses the statue will die, while others warn that touching it can bring terrible luck—or worse.
Over the years, the angel’s darkened appearance has only added to its reputation.
Like Augusta’s Haunted Pillar, it leaves visitors with a simple choice.
You can tell yourself it’s only an old monument.
Or you can keep your hands to yourself.
After all, what exactly do you gain by testing a curse?
Final Thoughts
For generations, the Haunted Pillar stood at the corner of Fifth and Broad Streets.
People drove past it on their way to work.
Children heard stories about it.
Tourists stopped to take photographs.
Some touched it.
Others refused.
And behind all of it was the same old story.
A preacher came to Augusta.
He was turned away.
He warned that a great wind would destroy the market.
He said one pillar would survive.
And he warned people never to remove it.
Then the tornado came.
The market disappeared.
And the pillar remained.
More than a century later, a car finally knocked it down.
Maybe that should have ended the legend.
Instead, it gave the Haunted Pillar one last strange chapter.
Because the man who destroyed it didn’t die.
He walked away believing the pillar had saved him.
So perhaps the curse ended that morning.
Perhaps it had disappeared long before.
Or perhaps curses don’t always work the way people expect.
Either way, if the Haunted Pillar ever rises again on that Augusta street corner…
I still wouldn’t touch it.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Haunted Pillar of Augusta
What Was the Haunted Pillar of Augusta?
The Haunted Pillar of Augusta was a roughly ten-foot-tall column associated with the old Lower Market in downtown Augusta, Georgia. After a tornado destroyed the market in 1878, the surviving column became the center of a local curse legend.
What Was the Haunted Pillar Curse?
According to the best-known version of the legend, a wandering preacher predicted that a great wind would destroy the market but leave one pillar standing. He warned that anyone who attempted to remove the surviving pillar would die. Over time, the legend expanded until even touching the pillar was considered dangerous.
Did a Tornado Really Destroy the Augusta Market?
Yes. A tornado struck Augusta in February 1878 and destroyed the Lower Market. Historical accounts and the site’s marker record the event.
What Happened to the Haunted Pillar?
The Haunted Pillar was destroyed in December 2016 after a vehicle involved in a collision crashed into it at Fifth and Broad Streets.
Did the Driver Who Destroyed the Haunted Pillar Die?
No. Local news reported no injuries from the crash. The driver who struck the pillar said he believed the structure actually prevented his car from hitting a nearby building.
Can You Still Visit the Haunted Pillar?
The original pillar no longer stands at the intersection. A historical marker now tells the story of Augusta’s old Market House and the Haunted Pillar.
About the Author
Karen Cody is the creator of Urban Legends, Mystery, and Myth, a blog exploring eerie folklore, strange history, and the mysteries behind the world’s most chilling stories. From haunted places and supernatural creatures to ghost stories, horror films, and modern myths, she examines the legends—both ancient and modern—that continue to fascinate and frighten us.
© 2026 Karen Cody. All rights reserved.