A tale of a woman being distraught from a failed love affair took her own life, and her spirit can be seen in a recently discovered photo sitting on the ledge from which she dove to her death on to Broad Street below.

Soon the Phantom Ghost Walking Tours of Downtown Texarkana presented by the Texarkana Museums System will begin, and with more and more research we find more and more fascinating stories of Texarkana in the archives of the Texarkana Museum.

Silvermoon on Broad was a recent renovation project in Downtown Texarkana. But many years before, the building housed the Silvermoon Hotel, and later a Saloon, and the Timberlake hardware store.

When it was the Silvermoon Hotel, an attractive, young and naïve woman, Augusta “Auggie” Smith, came to stay and perform at the Silvermoon Hotel. They had an exquisite baby grand piano and she was beginning her career as a classically trained musician using the stage name of "Josephine". People that knew her described her as warm and cheery. After a performance one night, a handsome young man by the name of Antoine introduced himself and claimed to be a French aristocrat. Auggie fell madly in love with Antoine and he returned her affections. They were quickly engaged, yet the woman really knew nothing about her fiances' past. He doted on her but always had excuses why he had no money. He wove a fanciful tale of how his money was in transit from France. Never did Auggie question his love, and she continued to support his lifestyle.

Antoine gave Auggie an enormous engagement ring and they quickly made plans to marry. When the wedding day arrived, Auggie carefully prepared herself and arrived at the church for the ceremony. She waited, and waited…but her lover never arrived. Distraught, the young woman ran through the muddy, unpaved city streets in her wedding gown back to the Silvermoon Hotel. She went upstairs and threw her diamond ring at the window, changed out of her wedding gown leaving it in a heap on her bedroom floor, and Auggie dressed in her common clothes, according to witnesses, climbed out of the second story window and sat on the ledge for a moment before standing and jumping headfirst to her death.

The runaway fiance was never seen in Texarkana again. His money never arrived, and he was most likely on to the next town to find another woman to victimize.

Here is where the questions really come in...

During the restoration of the building, Judge Josh Morris found a baby grand piano in the basement. It had fallen through the floors of the building and lay rotting away in the basement. A ring was also discovered outside the rear of the building. Judge Morris took it to a local jeweler only to discover the ring was fake. During the research of his property, Judge Morris discovered a disturbing photograph taken long after the building had been converted from a hotel into the Timberlake Hardware store. If you look closely at the photograph in question, there appears to be a ghostly figure near the second floor window where the woman purportedly jumped to her death.

Submitted by Josh Morris
Submitted by Josh Morris
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PRESENTED BY THE TEXARKANA MUSEUMS SYSTEM

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