The Ghost of Percy Bayliss: Who Still Walks Above Sanford's Old Fire Station?

Downtown Sanford has no shortage of old buildings.

But at 109 South Palmetto Avenue, one building carries a story darker than most.

Built in 1887, the Hester-Shepard Block became Sanford's first fire station and, over the years, also housed city offices, police facilities, a courtroom and a jail. The building originally stood three stories tall before its deteriorating third floor was removed in 1928.

And in 1923, the ground behind it became the scene of something Sanford would never repeat.

The execution of Percy Bayliss

Percy Bayliss was 24 years old when he arrived in Sanford from Louisiana in September 1922.

Only days later, Seminole County deputy Cleveland Jacobs was pursuing a man suspected of stealing clothing when Jacobs was shot and killed.

That man was identified as Bayliss.

Historical reporting preserved by the Sanford Herald says Bayliss was convicted of Jacobs' murder on January 16, 1923 and sentenced to hang.

On March 30, 1923, the sentence was carried out in downtown Sanford.

The gallows stood directly behind the old fire station.

It remains the only known legal hanging in Seminole County.

But according to local lore, Percy may never have completely left.

Footsteps from a floor that no longer exists

Years later, a resident of the old fire station, Barbara Farrell, reported hearing what sounded like someone pacing above her at night.

There's one particularly eerie detail.

The building's third floor—the area once containing jail and other municipal space—had been removed decades earlier.

More recent visitors staying on the renovated second floor have also reported unexplained noises and an unsettling feeling that they were in danger. The Orange County Regional History Center includes these accounts among the documented haunting lore of downtown Sanford.

Are those sounds really connected to Percy Bayliss?

There's no way to know.

But the execution behind the building isn't folklore. Neither is the murder that brought Bayliss there.

Those parts really happened.

And more than a century after the gallows came down, people are still telling stories about footsteps inside Sanford's old fire station.

Maybe old buildings just make noise.

Or maybe Percy is still pacing.

Explore more haunted places and strange stories around Central Florida on the Bone & Palm map.

By Mara | Bone & Palm Society