The Hamilton-Turner Inn's stories are as layered as its mansard roof. Ghost City Tours, which visits it on its Beyond Good and Evil tour, retells a legend about Samuel Hamilton's art collection. Hamilton supposedly filled the mansion with art and posted an armed guard on the roof at night. One morning, the story goes, the guard was found shot in the back of the head, and the killer was never found. No one would take his place, so Hamilton stood watch himself until he fell ill and died in 1899. Ever since, people claim to see a man on the roof smoking a cigar, sometimes holding a rifle. Some think he's the murdered guard and others think he's Hamilton, still on patrol. Tour lore adds that in 1969, when the house stood empty, gunshots were heard from the kitchen.

Inside, the best-known sounds are billiard balls. According to a story quoted by Ghost City Tours, the Turner children were sent upstairs during their parents' parties. One night they rolled billiard balls down the stairs as an excuse to sneak a look at the adults, and a little girl leaned too far and fell to her death. Guests describe balls rolling across floors at night and children laughing in the halls. Others report a Civil War soldier walking the corridors and knocking on doors. Tour lore explains his presence in a house built after the war by claiming it stands on his grave. Rumors that Dr. Turner performed autopsies in his basement office round out the legend.