Most haunted alleyway in North Carolina -- would you dare walk through at midnight?

The depths of Appalachia are full of ghost stories, mysteries and folklore. From the unexplained dancing lights of Brown Mountain to the eerie screams near Helen's Bridge – there are many places only the brave dare visit after midnight.

Among those tales is the legend of the most haunted street in all of North Carolina: Chicken Alley.

In recent decades, the small, side alleyway has served as a tapestry for spray-paint, with a rotation of artists and artwork displayed. If you look closely, the most recent mural holds clues to the alley's true history.

Many passersby today only know 'Chicken Alley' by the enormous painting of a glaring rooster, standing guard over blue, ghostly rows of plucked chickens hanging upside down. However, this haunted alleyway has a history that reaches deep into Asheville's agricultural roots – and, some say, a ghost story that spans more than a century.

The ghost of Chicken Alley in Asheville

At night, those who walk past the dark, historic alleyway claim to hear a rhythmic tapping from within – as if a phantom slowly walking past, clicking his silver-tipped cane on the cracked concrete. Some claim if you peer into the shadow walkway, you'll see a ghostly man wearing a long 1900s duster coat and a wide-brimmed hat. He's carrying an old-timey doctor's bag.

Old folk tales say Dr. Jamie Smith was murdered in that alleyway over a century ago. These tales tell of a time when this alleyway was in a seedy part of Asheville, full of bars and even brothels. Smith was a regular at a bar called Broadway Tavern, where violent brawls were a common occurrence. One night, he stepped in to help a man who had been injured in a fight – and he was stabbed through the heart by the attacker.

Although he was a physician – and could help heal others – no one was around who could help Dr. Smith. He stumbled desperately out the door and collapsed into the alleyway, dying in the dirt in a pool of his own blood.

Some believe his spirit remains there today, tied to the spot where he died.

Others believe his ghost is simply still waiting for the next round of drinks that he never got to enjoy.

Tracking the origins of an urban legend

The alleyway itself lends itself to ghost stories – a narrow side alley with creaking buildings and dancing shadows.

Silver and gray phantom faces peer at you from the darkness – part of the the mural that seems to come alive at night. One face even peeks out a nearby window of an antique-looking, heavy doorway. It's not surprising late-night passersby night think they see a phantom lurking deep down in that narrow darkness.

But is there any truth to the legend?

Many urban legends stem from a combination of a creepy or abandoned location, tied together with a ghost story that pulls at least a little from history.

However, any murder as gruesome as Dr. Smith's would have been likely recorded in newspapers, right? And any fire large enough to burn down an entire tavern should have also been documented, correct?

Digging through old newspapers from the early 1900s brought up no mention of a murder or a tavern fire. In fact, there seemed to be no recorded proof of a Broadway Tavern or even a Dr. Jamie Smith ever existing at all, at least according to available newspapers.

Speaking with other researchers about their findings yielded similar results.

However, there may be a glimmer of truth, found in a 1904 newspaper clipping from the Asheville Citizen-Times.

It describes the will of a man named James M. Smith, who seems to have owned a tavern in the general area described in the Chicken Alley legend. While there is no mention of how he died, and his name is not an exact match to Dr. Jamie Smith, the details are similar enough that this could be the historic counterpart for the tavern and doctor in the haunted legend.

The real history of Chicken Alley

Today, the name 'Chicken Alley' is a reference to the 10-foot-tall rooster and enormous chicken painted at the entranceway. However, mural artist Molly Must designed the mural to preserve the real history of the alley.

Old newspaper clippings show that as early as the 1950s and as late as the 1970s, a chicken processing company called Young Poultry and Egg Company was located on Lexington Avenue – with a back door that opened into Chicken Alley.

Ads in the Asheville Citizen-Times in the 1950s show the growth of the company, which had eggs, poulty and country hams across Buncombe County, from the Memorial Mission Hospital kitchen to the world famous Grove Park hotel. In 1955, a news article tells a heroic tale of Sam Young rushing to help a 9-year-old girl who lost control of a car when her mother forgot to turn it off before running inside Young's store.

Then, in 1979, the newspaper ran a notice of Sam Young dissolving his partnership with James M. Grudger.

According to the Mural Trail website, it was a surviving family member named Sandra Grudger who helped recall history and memories to share on the mural.

"Sandra's memories are a testament to the rich agricultural heritage of not just her bee-keeping, poultry-raising family, but also of South Lexington Avenue, where a Asheville farmers market and many farm-supply shops used to be," says the Mural Trail website.

Sandra can be seen in the mural itself as a young woman, holding a jar of honey. She helped create a poem, depicted on the mural, with the real history of Chicken Alley:

"This was the farmer's town

Up and down north Lexington

Real goods sold all around.

Yes we dealt in poultry

Three generations worked the shop

Near feed stores and the market."

She also described the life of Chicken Alley – real chickens squawking down the block, trying to take flight.

So did Asheville's town doctor once die in a pool of his own blood amid an alleyway of chickens – and does his ghost still haunt the historic site?

It's possible – but a century is a long time to haunt an alleyway full of chickens.

Share your favorite North Carolina ghost story

Do you know more about the history of Chicken Alley and Dr. Smith? Or have another North Carolina ghost story you'd like to see explored? Email WRAL's Hidden Historian at hleah@wral.com.