Unsettling Tales
Step inside at your own risk, for it is believed that haunting spirits inhabit these historic homes.The Spirit of St. Louis
The first time Sue McCollum entered the stately brick mansion that was built in 1907, it was hardly love at first sight. It was more like fright at first sight. While touring a third-floor storage room, she had the unsettling feeling she was being watched. When she pulled open a large drawer, she found an old lion's head rug that startled and frightened her. Running downstairs, she was determined never to live in the creepy St. Louis mansion.She eventually changed her mind, though, and six months later she and her family decided to buy the house. It was during conversation with a dinner guest that she learned her house was haunted. Someone had given her a book by Craig Unger entitle Blue Blood, which told the story of the girl who grew up in the house. Her name was Rebecca West, and she was a New York socialite who became estranged from her father, Adam West. She decided that it is Adam West who roams the rooms of her home, brokenhearted over the loss of his daughter's closeness. He is never malicious, usually giving people in the home the sense they are being watched. He seems to enjoy her children, and she said the feeling of safety in the home is much stronger than any feeling of danger.
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Extensive restorations to this Jacksonville, Fla. home, built in 1905, uncovered a false wall and doorway that had no room behind it, only a plaque that said, "Frank's room."
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Border CrossingA friendly spirit shares the home of Lee Bracken and Michael Drawdy of Jacksonville, Fla. Built in 1905, the home was once used as the Swedish consulate and later became a boarding house. During renovations to the home, the two uncovered a false wall with a doorway leading nowhere. The plaque on the mysterious door read "Frank's room," and they believe when they opened that door during construction, they released Frank’s spirit. Frank took getting used to, but the two men feel he is benign. Once, Frank opened all the windows in the house while the men were out--windows that had been painted or nailed shut. Bracken says he even felt a hand on his back when trying to close all the windows, and assumed Frank was trying to let him know he didn't want them closed. Research has led the two to believe that Frank used to be a border in the home. He died unexpectedly and remains in the last place he lived. Ghost Writer
Cindy Baldwin of Cody, Wyo., decided to welcome the ghost of her 1904 Victorian home into her family. She learned that her home had been built by the town’s trickster, novelist Caroline Lockhart, and found one of her books, The Lady Doc, hiding in a dining- room cabinet as she was unpacking the moving boxes. The book had stirred up a ruckus when it was written because it focused on the illicit relationship between two of the town’s leading citizens. Lockhart had made a career of exposing the skeletons hiding in people’s closets, and her spirit has apparently stayed on in the house to continue her pranks. Those pranks include turning on the water or moving towels around at night. She even picks up after the Baldwin's girls. While living, Lockhart had been a reporter on the East Coast, writing about corruption and had a brief career as a stage actress. In Cody, she was editor of the newspaper and also operated a bar from the home’s front parlor. Baldwin and her guests say they can sometimes hear the ghostly clinking of glasses. A Family of Phantoms
A modern-day Addams family has had to make room for a phantom family on their 20-acre estate in Gautier, Miss., as the house definitely seems to be haunted. A painter who created a mural in the front hall before the family moved in told owners Kay and Joe Adams that she would not work alone in the house anymore because always felt as if someone else was there. Visitors to the lovely white mansion invariably report noises and footsteps in the guest bedroom--a room in which Kay and her husband never sleep. A "live" door in the home swings open and shut by itself at odd times, and a teenage girl with dark hair walks the halls and watches visitors as they sleep. The Adamses suspect the spirits in the home are that of Henry Gautier, a rich lumber merchant who built the home after the Civil War, and one of his teenage daughters. Gautier’s granddaughter, who lives next door to the estate, reported that her family held only warm memories of the home and the 50 years spent in it. Kay Adams suspects her ghostly guests, who seem to be content, are simply not ready to leave the family home they loved so much. A Haunting Habit
Jared Joseph lived in his 1876 home in Springfield, Mass., for three months before he heard the voices calling his name. At first he was the only one who heard them, but eventually, all his family, friends and visitors heard the voices, too.The voices didn't start until Joseph found two skeleton keys in the basement during renovation. The keys opened a number of doors in the house, and Joseph believes that when he opened each of these doors, the home’s spirits were released. Strange events began occurring. A puppy left in the kitchen was found on top of a high dining-room table, through a closed door, and Joseph has seen the shadow of a nun in the upstairs hall. One night he even thought he saw a man standing outside his backdoor, just as the clock struck 12. Researching the home, Joseph learned that it had been used by the Rev. Samuel Buckingham and that in the '40s, the home was rented by three nuns. Learning this, he assumed his ghosts were none he had to fear. Although his mother won’t sleep in the guest room because she as if she's being watched, the family has grown comfortable with the holy trespassers. Crushed Spirits
The Prohibition stopped Capt. John Hoyt, one of North Carolina's most accomplished vintners, from indulging in his passion for making wine, but death doesn't seem to have stopped his entertaining. Marg Dente and Gail Kinney are convinced their 1890s Queen Anne-style bed-and-breakfast has a permanent guest in the form of the Civil War captain who built the house. In spite of opening doors, voices calling and pipe smoke in the air that announce the captain's presence, the pair feel completely at home. A lavish entertainer, the captain loved to make his own wine from the 100-year-old grape vines on the home's properties. In 1910, Prohibition moved into North Carolina and shut down the captain's winery. Three days later, he died. Dente and Kinney believe that the cause of death was a broken heart. Visitors to the bed-and-breakfast claim they hear the sounds of partying in the middle of the night. Dente and Kinney assume that the captain is just at it again.
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