The Moving Doll of Allaire House

My family house finally sold and I have been thinking about it a lot lately.  This is the blog post from my last trip to the house.  I will miss it.

For the last week, I've stayed in my family home.  My family home, The Newton-Allaire House, in Cheboygan, Michigan has served as my inspiration for many years. It has always been my favorite place, and, as a child, I would have prefered to stay in this ghostly mansion than take a trip to Disney World. The old mansion is filled with ghosts and ghost stories and if you scroll down you'll find some of the many ghost stories that I grew up with. Lately, the ghost stories from this house have been few and far between. It has sat empty since my grandmother died and my family decided to sell the house. For many years, the house didn't sell and sat in silence, as if waiting for something. I always prayed that it wouldn't sell, although I know the rest of my family has prayed it would. The rest of my family sees the house as a decaying burden that serves no purpose. I have always seen it as a link to our family history. This week, if all goes well, the house will sell. I will say goodbye to the beautiful mansion that inspired so many of my ghost stories and will always haunt my dreams. Such is life, but as the house vanishes from my life, I've caught my first glimpse of paranormal activity here that I've seen in years.

On Tuesday, my boys played tricks on each other in the upstairs bedrooms of the old house. My older son moved a doll from room to room and tried to convince his younger brother that the doll was evil and moving on its own. After my younger son came screaming down the stairs in terror, I decided to put an end to this game. I went upstairs with my angry face on and found a mound of what looked like a small child beneath the covers in one of the bedrooms. The mound was moving and I could see it shifting beneath the sheets. I could even see a hand moving under the sheet.  I assumed it was my eldest son, waiting to leap out at his youngest brother and scare him to death. I pulled back the covers and found the large plastic doll under the sheets staring out at me with glassy eyes. I have never been afraid of strange events in this house, but I knew if my sons found out about this they would  be sleeping on top of me so I have kept this event to myself. It is the first unexplained event in this house for many years and I think it means that even though I won't be here anymore, the house is awake again.  The pictures I took of the house this trip have a few orbs in them.  The house is a dusty old lady, so they could be tricks of light and dust, but I'm glad to see some sign of ghosts again.  I'm also glad for the chance to say goodbye to the house I've loved my entire life.

This is a crooked picture of the giant doll I found beneath the sheets.

 

 

Cheboygan on Dwellable

The Horrific and Beautiful Franklin Castle

The Franklin Castle is a house surrounded by sorrow.   Franklin Castle was built in 1865 by Hannes Tiedemann, a German immigrant.  It is located in Cleveland, Ohio and is believed by many to be the most haunted house in Ohio.  Whether or not it is the most haunted house in Ohio, it is certainly one of the most tragic.   Tiedemann's luck seemed to have taken a downward turn after he moved into the beautiful mansion.  Many say it wasn't his luck, but his murderous temperament that took a downward turn, but history speaks only of his luck.   Tiedemann's daughter died of diabetes shortly after his taking up residence in the house.  His mother followed quickly behind her and three more of the Tiedemann's children also followed their sibling into the afterlife.  Death came more and more often in Tiedemann's house.  His wife died.  His niece died.  A maid died.   Rumors began to circulate that Tiedemann was behind all the deaths. Other rumors surrounded the house itself.  People began to whisper that the house itself was cursed.

In 1911, the house was purchased by the German Socialist Party.   Little is known about this period in the house's history.  The Nazis owned the house until 1955 and many tell a story in which 20 Nazi's were killed in the house during this period.   Later, the Germans rented the house out.   Other rumors indicate that a mad doctor lived in the house while the Germans owned it.  The doctor performed strange and perverse experiments in the darkest parts of Franklin Castle killing all he experimented on.

Rumors and stories about The Franklin Castle abound.  Mysteries lurk in the shadows there.   The house is riddled with secret rooms and hidden passages.  Tunnels creep underneath the house and old stories lay buried there.   In 1970, one of the occupants of the house found a secret room filled with the skeletal remains of babies.  Those that found the babies described hearing the phantom voices of crying babies long before they actually unearthed the remains.   Theories about the origins of the baby remains go from them being medical specimens, to them being the remains of Tiedemann's lost children, to them being the medical experiments of the mad doctor.

Ghost stories surrounding the Franklin Castle are prolific.   Residents and visitors have described hearing weeping babies and phantom children.  A black lady is said to be seen from one of the window. Nazi ghosts are prevalent and strange noises, voices, and lights fill the stories of all those who have wandered Franklin Castle.  The house gathers ghost stories like a child collects Halloween candy while trick or treating.    

The house's recent history is as odd as its past.  The house was burnt to a ruin in 1999.  In 2004, the house was bought and it was said it was going to be turned into a club.  The website for this club still remains.   http://franklincastleclub.com/.   This was shown to be a scam by a Mr. Mislaps.  He got into some trouble over back taxes and was ordered to stop giving tours of the house. 

The house has recently been rezoned as a 3 family dwelling.   One thing is for sure, with more people living in the house in the future, there are sure to be new ghost stories and new dark tales to fill the halls of this old house. 

The Kildare Mansion

I did this post on The Kildare Mansion a couple of years ago.  It has become one of my most popular posts and some of the comments on the post are very interesting and written by those who have lived in the house and experienced it.  I thought I would repost it with the comments so others could read the stories of those who know the house far better than I.  The Kildare Mansion was first famous for it's ghosts.  It was built in 1886 by a wealthy Irishman named O'Shaughnessy.   He built the castle as a reminder of his homeland, Ireland.   He put a fortune into making it the most extravagent house in the area and he did a good job of it.  This giant of a house overshadows everything around it. It has over 40 rooms and is over 17,000 square feet including the massive basement.   In 1900, MR. O'Shaughnessy went blind and his wife Anna sold Kildare to the trust fund established for Mary McCormick who inherited a multi million dollar fortune from her father

Unfortunately, Mary McCormick was mentally ill and suffered greatly during certain periods.  At the time,  treatment options were limited so they kept her locked in the house and had several nurses and staff to take care of her.  During her lucid periods,  Mary a wonderful woman who was known for her kindness and generocity.   For her entire life, she needed nurses to help her care for her mental illness.  Finally she had to retire to a sanitarium,  leaving her beautiful house behind.

From 1932- 1975, the Kildare Mansion fell into disrepair.   It decayed slowly as slums and lesser buildings slowly surrounded it hiding it's beauty in their sullen shadows.  In 1975, the house was purchased by the Reeves, who lovingly restored the house to its original splendor  It was during this time that the house was shown in the tour of historic homes and became a popular visit for haunt jaunters.   The house's basement was notoriously haunted by the ghost of  Mary McCormick.   Still tormented by her madness, she apparently made quite a ruckus at night.

In 2005 the house was bought by a family whose name I won't mention.  Since that time, the ghosts have become the least interesting part of this house.   The house has always been a favorite site for anyone visiting Huntsville because of its historic significance, its beauty, and its haunted history.  Many people drive by the house and photograph it.   Since 2005, however, the new owners have spent a considerable amount of time watching out for anyone lingering near the house.  If you drive by slowly or stop in front of the house,  a woman will emerge screaming at you.  Sometimes she'll curse and sometimes she'll use the garden hose to spray your car.  Other times she'll shine a spotlight on you and others she'll take pictures of you with her cell phone.  No matter what the new owner does, it is always hostile and she seems to always be watching.  She sits day and night waiting for those that linger to long, which might make one wonder if  Mary McCormick's mental illness might not be spreading?   Perhaps the house and its dark secrets have driven the new owner mad?  Perhaps madness is part of the curse of the house?

No matter what the case. Sadly,  the reason most drive by these days is to see the new owner run out and start screaming.  Her wild antics have become a fun attraction for locals who stop by just to see her jump around and scream  Few remember the ghost stories or the house's beautiful history.

The Five Most Chilling Real Haunted Houses

All ghost stories hold unending fascination for me, but the ones that contain the most mystery are the haunted house stories.  I know I'm not alone in this because there seem to be unending movies and books written about Haunted Houses.  The list is long and prestigious.  The terror held by house hauntings is unique.   You are bound to the haunted location by financial obligation, family, and sentiment.  It is your home that holds the shadows and that can't be easily escaped.  The ghosts or dark spirits can catch you in bed, with your children, and in the shower.   There is a unique vulnerability to being in a haunted house.   So here is my list of the most compelling house haunting stories I've heard.  I've written about many of these haunted houses before, but revisiting them still sends shivers down my spine.

5.   The House on Larabee Street:
This haunting story has always been one of my favorites because it does not have a history.   The haunting on Larrabbee Street has often been compared to the Amityville case, however, the house on Larrabee Street didn't have the history the Amityville house had.   It is a haunting that is unexplainable.   The spirit that haunted  Allen and Deborah Tallman came from nowhere.  

The Tallman's found their dream home on Larabee street and the house slowly turned evil.   At first, the family began to get sick and sickness became nightmares and ghosts and monsters that crawled in and out of the woodwork tormenting the family and their children until they finally flee there home.  For a more  detailed write up on this fascinating haunting you can go to:
http://ghoststoriesandhauntedplaces.blogspot.com/2010/01/haunting-on-larrabee-street.html

4.  The Demon in the Shadows:
This is a haunting I learned about during an interview for Haunted North Alabama.   A young woman came forward and told me she wanted to talk to me and the story she told me was chilling.   This young woman bought a lovely home with her husband and the house immediately showed signs of haunting.  Doors opened and closed on their own.  Light bulbs exploded.  Phantom mists tormented the woman and her family.   Finally, the woman would wake in the morning to find deep gashes in her back where the hostile entity had clawed her.   She and her family had to flee their home.  The complete write up for this haunting can be found in Haunted North Alabama.

3.   A Haunting in Conneticut:
This is one of the most famous hauntings.   It was made into a movie, that was not true to the facts of the actual haunting, but was still an interesting movie.   The real haunting in this case began with a house that had been a funeral home.   The eldest son of the family that moved into this home was driven slowly mad by a hostile entity that lived in the house and when he went to an institution the entity turned to the rest of the family.   Psychics involved in this case say an old evil lived in this house that preyed on the living.   An exorcism was performed of the house and the case resolved, but the family still moved .  You can read more about this case at:
http://www.thecabinet.com/darkdestinations/location.php?sub_id=dark_destinations&location_id=the_haunting_in_connecticut_house

2.  The LaLaurie Mansion:
 This infamous haunted house was home to the famous Madam LaLaurie.  Madam LaLaurie was a sadist and the things she did to her slaves in this New Orleans Mansion are beyond horrific.  She sewed slaves together and removed their appendages and reattached them to other places.   After a fire, the community discovered Madam LaLaurie's sadism and she fled, leaving behind her a trail of ghost stories and a house that is so haunted it screams with ghosts.  You can learn more about this ghoulish haunting at:
http://ghoststoriesandhauntedplaces.blogspot.com/2009/12/this-is-famous-ghost-story-and-any.html

1.  Hull House:
This is another haunting that was so famous it inspired a movie.  Hull House is tucked away neatly on a campus in Chicago.  It was founded by Jane Addams as a refuge for displaced young woman.  Jane Addams was a remarkable woman and the work she did for those in need is admirable on every level.  That is why she hated that Hull House became most known as the house where Satan's baby was born.  According to legend, one of the young women living in this house gave birth to a demon spawn in this house.  Ever since then tails of ghosts and paranormal activity surrounding this location have proliferated.   Hull House is a popular stop on the Chicago Ghost tours and is one of the few places I've photographed in which I got something that looked like a ghost on film.  The story behind Hull House was the inspiration for Rosemary's Baby.   Learn more about this one at:
http://ghoststoriesandhauntedplaces.blogspot.com/2009/12/this-is-famous-ghost-story-and-any.html


I know there are many other house hauntings that aren't on my list.  The Winchester House, Lemp Mansion,  Whaley House, and The Myrtles Plantation all have wonderful haunted histories, but these five are my favorite and the they have stories that give me a chill every time.   For me, this is the perfect time of year to revisit some of my favorite haunted house stories.  With October around the corner and Halloween in the air,  a little scare is the perfect way to set the mood for the season!

To learn more about haunted houses you can go to this link and read more:
http://www.halloweenexpress.com/ghosts-and-haunted-houses.php

The Cursed House

I found this story in an old book.  The book, Ghosts in American Houses, was published in1955 and given to my grandmother in 1965.  Although this is a fascinating story, the only evidence of anyone mentioned in the story I could find outside of the story  itself was in old genealogical records.  I couldn't find any information on the famous, cursed house.

According to the story,  Phillip Noland who lived in Loudoun County, Virginia in1750 and acquired a track of beautiful land.  Noland was a rich planter whom had married into great wealth.  Noland had a grand vision of building the most extravagant house in the South.  He saw his verdant land as the perfect setting for his dream home and began construction on it.  The house would be four stories of red brick and would possess every luxury a house of this scale could possess.  It would even have a ballroom.  The house was so beautiful, that early in construction it entranced General Anthony Wayne.   Wayne and Noland became friends and Wayne followed the progress of the construction of the house with great interest. 

Years passed, and the house seemed to grow no closer to completion.   In fact, it just seemed to drain the once wealthy Noland's financial resources.  Noland's own money dwindled and then the extravagant inheritance his wife left him dwindled until the only thing Noland had left in the world was the house that seemed impossible to complete.  Many thought the house was shrouded in some kind of curse because no amount of work or money ever brought the house closer to completion.  There was a Hessian prisoner camp near by the house and when several of the Hessians escaped, the were shot dead after being chased into the house.   It was said that these men left behind their ghosts in the house.  Their ghosts rattled around inside the unfinishable house torturing Noland to his dying day.  When finally Noland died, his ghost added to the general cacophony inside the house until Wayne died and joined them.

According to the author, the house was still unfinished when he wrote his book on haunted houses in the early 1950s.  It lay in disrepair.  Its ballrooms still laid exposed to the weather and the entrance hall, that was once lit by a glass fan, was still only partially done, waiting for the ghosts inside it to finish it.

The Haunting of Halcyon House

Halcyon House is one of the most prominent and historical houses in the Georgetown area.  It sits beside the Potomac with a quiet, historic beauty that invites ghost stories and its history doesn't disappoint.  Halcyon House was built by Benjamin Stoddert, the first secretary of the US Navy.   The house was well known by society and was said to serve as a social hub for the politicians of the time.    Stoddert died in 1818 and the house changed hands many times.  It eventually became a stop on the underground railroad.  Its basement was connected via underground tunnels to other stops along the railway and an untold number of slaves seeking freedom passed through the subterranean portions of the historic, Georgetown house.   Many slaves also died seeking their freedom in this house.  The trip through the underground railroad was perilous and many say that the slaves that died in Halcyon House still remain there.   Their ghosts still cry out for freedom from their subterranean lair.  The tunnels beneath the house have been walled up, but the ghosts remain.

In the 1930's, a man named Alber Adsit Clemens bought Halcyon house. Clemons was a cousin of Mark Twain and changed  Halcyon House drastically. Clemons was more than a little bit mad and he came to believe that as long as he kept building on the Halcyon House, he would never die.  He added rooms, doors to nowhere, pointless staircases, and useless halls.  He added new apartments, a crypt, and a coach house.  After Clemons died, the haunting activity increased.   Residents of Halcyon house since this time have described many ghostly encounters.  They have described being levitated above their beds at night, seeing phantom women, hearing strange noises, objects moving on their own, and seeing the ghost of Benjamin Stoddert and Alber Clemens. 

Halcyon House is currently owned by a sculpture who has put a great deal of time and effort into restoring Halcyon House and making it  beautiful.   He has had the house on the market for several years now and the beginning asking price for this beautiful building was 30 million.   The price has dropped.  Halcyon House was for sale for 19.5 million in April of 2010.   Although the house is for sale, it is far from empty.  The current owners still rent it out as a venue for special events and parties and is a common location for weddings so ghost stories still drift out of the house like a steady fog.  The ghost stories are so many they can't all be listed.  Phantom cries are a common noise in the old house as are the sounds of objects moving.   John Alexander wrote a book on the haunts of Washington D.C. and in it he said that Halcyon House was the most haunted house in Washington D.C.

The Haunting of Snow Hill Inn

If I were a rich woman,  I would have bought this house.  Snow Hill Inn is located in Snow Hill, Maryland and until very recently it was for sale.   The Inn at Snow Hill has been many things.  Its been a post office, a doctor's office, an apartment building, and an inn.  It is a beautiful colonial style house surrounded by trees and painted a cheerful yellow.  It is picturesque and welcoming.  It is perfectly pretty and utterly haunted.

The Snow Hill Inn was built in  1835.  In 1870, the town doctor bought the house and converted it into his home and office.  The doctor was a good doctor and was well known for his bedside manner and gregarious nature.  The doctor was beloved, but his son was never happy.  Many believe that his son was upset because he was failing pharmacy school. On December 14, 1904, the young man slit his own throat.  He left a note behind, but his throat was slit three times and this is a very improbably and uncommon way for someone to end their own life and some believe that the young man may have been the victim of foul play.

Whatever his cause of death,  the day after the young man died the house keeper at the house in Snow Hill reported hearing  groans and the sound of someone falling.   Since that time numerous people have lived in and stayed at the house in Snow Hill.   Innkeepers, guests, owners, renters, and many others have all described being haunted by the ghost of the young man.   They have reported lights going on and off on their own, shaking beds, opening and closing doors, seeing ghosts in mirrors, and seeing the ghost standing right in front of them.   The list of paranormal encounters in the Snow Hill Inn goes on and on.   Paranormal investigators have stayed at the inn and confirmed the haunting is real and one psychic says that she spoke with the ghost and he was the young man who did kill himself.  

It is a shame someone bought the house, because I was going to put it on Christmas list for next year.  I would have liked to meet the ghost of Snow Hill Inn.  To learn more about this lovely haunting you can read an article on the haunt at http://www.lowershore.net/towns/snowhill/haunting.htm .

Restless Nights in the Victorian Mansion

I am home now.  I am sitting in a quiet room in the Newton-Allaire house.  The house is a beautiful as ever.  It has been sitting empty for fours years now and the ghosts here are quiet.   The last time I was here my grandmother still lived here and the ghosts were loud and and robust, but years of silence seems to have lulled them into a deep sleep.   I don't feel them here like I used to.  They are a whisper hidden in quiet corners.   The ghosts were always most active here at night, making sleep challenging.  That seems to continue and the house still groans, reminding me of nights when I sat up searching for the source of strange footsteps and phantom whispers.

As I've explored the old house,  I've found bits of my history and ancestry.   The stories of the ghosts that have always lived here with us have come to light.  The house was built in 1871 by Archibald P. Newton who in 1876 was elected first president of the village of Cheboygan.  He built the stately house, with its cupalo top as a wedding gift to his bride Cornelia Allaire, who was his second wife.  We call Cornelia Allaire Aunt Newton.   Mr. Newton came to Cheboygan from St. Helena Island where he and a brother Carl in 1853 bought the island and where they built a good dock and large store.  In Cheboygan, he entered into business of processing hemlock for the sap which was an essential in tanning leather.  Mr. Newton loved to stand in his glassed in cupola atop his mansion and look out at the boats in the straights.  So do I.

Aunt Newton survived her husband after his death.  She died in 1916 leaving her entire estate to her only brother, Joseph Allaire who lived on a nearby farm.   Joseph Allaire was my grandmother's grandfather.  The house passed on to their children Charles and Bert Allaire in 1934 when Joseph Allaire died.  Subsequently the house was inherited by Bert Allaire's widow Irene Allaire.  She was my great-grandmother who we all called Nonnie.   The house is now in the hands of my mother and her 2 cousins and sister. 

I hope it will stay with us and it well re-awake into the living, breathing house I remember it to be when I was child.  Now it sleeps, but everything that sleeps can be awakened.

 

 

 

Cheboygan on Dwellable

A Southern Farmhouse Haunting

Last Christmas, when I started blogging about ghost stories,   I had been inspired by the extraordinary wealth of folklore and ghost stories that the nurses where I work and where my husband work seem to possess.   In rural Alabama,  these stories are as thick as the humidity.    I would sit and listen to the nurses and other country staff tell their stories and I thought that someone had to write these stories down.   My husband brought back stories for me from the hospital he works in, which is much more rural than the one I work in.  Yesterday,  another nurse brought me another story.  Of course,  I'm pleased as punch.   She even had pictures with her!

This nurse is young and lives in a farmhouse way out in the country.  Her farmhouse is over one hundred years old and those that have lived there have kept up with it by rebuilding it and fixing it up with modern amenities as time has past. Originally the house was a log cabin and beneath the brick and modern additions,  the old logs still stand strong.  The old farmhouse has a layered effect that tells the story of the many generations that have lived there.  Within these layers,  are ghost stories.

The nurse says that she isn't convinced her house is haunted.   She's seen things that aren't right, but it takes more than that to convince her.  Even if it is haunted, she feels that whatever is in the house is harmless.   She isn't afraid.  Her husband, on the other hand, is unnerved by the presence.   He feels as if something is always watching him.   He feels like he is never alone and  he has suggested they leave because of this.

The story that is told with the house is brilliant.   Over a century ago,   when the country was still new,   a Native American broke into the farmhouse looking for food and money.   The owner at the time was prepared for this type of event and cut the intruders head off with an axe.    The intruder's head rolled down the stairs.    According to the legend,   you can still hear the head rolling down the stairs and it is this Native American's ghost that still haunts this farmhouse.   The nurse's father says this is all made up nonsense, but even if it is, there is something in the house and that something is always watching.

My Ghosts

The ghosts of my past having been pulling at my heart strings lately.  The pull is so strong is tangible.   The pull started long before my visit to my grandmother yesterday,  but she only made it worse.  For most of my life my grandmother was the dowager empress of the family.  She sat in our old, family house  like a queen.  Our family house is in Cheboygan, Michigan and it is 150 yrs old.  It has been in our family for all those long years when my great, great, great uncle  built it as a wedding present for my great, great, great Aunt Newton.  The house was haunted.  It wasn't something people spoke of often, but it was certainly a given.  Entire batches of photographs were thrown out because white mists permeated all of them obscuring the faces of the living.  Strange noises came and went at night.   There was a cold spot in the middle of the old kitchen at midnight. 

There are so many stories it is impossible to list them all.   I visited once after a wedding.  I never took out my wedding clothes at the house.  I left them at the bottom of the suitcase.  After my departure,  they were found laid out on the floor of the attic.  There were no children or pranksters present during that trip.  Strange things like that were just normal there and that house was and is my favorite place in the world.  When I was a girl I used to hide under the piano in red parlor so I wouldn't have to go home.  The house was my home.  It was huge and beautiful and it was part of our family legacy.   With eight bedrooms and  2 kitchens and 2 parlors, a library, a den, and a dining room it was large enough for my entire family to meet in every summer.  All my aunts and uncles and cousins would fill the halls with laughter and drinking.   The adults would play cards well into night and the children would creep around the darkened rooms when we were supposed to be asleep. 

Many years have past since those days.  The family has broken apart.  Everyone got divorced and the cousins were left drifting in the wind.  Even my grandmother,  the dowager empress herself, has dementia and must now sit alone in a nursing home while her castle sits empty.   Yesterday, she and I looked at photos of the old days and I wanted to weep.  Ghosts drifted in and out of the pictures like family and she smiled and spoke of the house like a person.  To her,  the house is alive.  It is her great love and best friend.  The house is for sale now and  I have no ability to stop it.  It sits empty while the price drops as no one wants an old mansion in Northern Michigan.  My grandmother says some day she'll go back there and maybe she will, but not in life.  Maybe some day her ghost will join the others and she'll be empress once again.  I wish I could be there when she returns.  I wish we could keep our haunted castle.

The Horrible Ghosts of the Old South

I've been very tired lately.  I have been working hard on the deadline for my Haunted North Alabama book and between that and my day job,  I think I'm not sleeping at all any more.   Sleeplessness has its benefits, however, and one of those is that I have been reading more and more ghost stories.  I discovered a brilliant story and utterly tragic story recently.  I am including all the details for in my book, but I just can't help writing a little about it here.

I discovered an old plantation house deep in rural Alabama.   The house was built sometime prior to 1850 and housed several hundred slaves and their white masters.  The slaves lived in cabins around the  plantation and the masters lived in an exquisite mansion with imported marble.   Apparently,  these particular masters were more cruel than most and the neighbors spoke in hushed tones of how brutal they could be.  Their cruelty was so severe that the descendants of those that gossiped about this still know the stories.   When the slaves misbehaved they were chained in the basement and beaten and tortured.

The Civil War came and went and when it went the slaves were all free,  but the ex-slaves couldn't forget.  They couldn't forget nor could they forgive.  They joined together and murdered their masters in their beds and ran off into the night.   Southern justice couldn't let such an act pass.  So the Klu Klux Klan joined in and the ex-slaves were hunted down.  Lynch mob justice was delivered to the poor, tortured souls and, according to legend,  they were hung from the tree in front of the house.

The ghosts of the masters and the slaves still haunt the house today.  Their cries fill the night with their torment.   The house seems to be cursed because other tragedies have filled the house with many other ghosts that I am saving for later.

The Devilish Madame LaLaurie and Her Haunted Mansion

This is a famous ghost story and any google search will produce a plethora of conflicting information on this site. I first learned about this location on a haunted New Orleans tour and although parts or the story may be fiction, if even a portion of the story is true it is horrible. As on most such tours, I never saw anything to indicate a real haunting, but the story is horrifying enough.

According to haunted New Orleans tours and Haunted America, the LaLaurie Mansion is the most haunted site in New Orleans. Sources say that the house is filled with tormented screams and terrifying wails. They describe chains rattling at night and the apparitions in chains wandering the halls. The house has been many things since the famous Delphine de LaLaurie abandoned it, but it hasn't been anything for as it has been quickly abandoned by every resident afterwards. Some stories indicate that the ghosts here are aggressive and that they have attacked residents with whips and some even claim that multiple deaths have resulted from the hellish, supernatural residents of 1140 Royal Street.

The history of this mansion can only be confirmed to a point. It is known that Delphine LaLaurie was a wealthy, socialite who resided until 1833. Many accounts from contemporaries show that Madam LaLaurie was uncommonly cruel and beastly to her slaves, even for a time when cruelty to slaves was somewhat common. Following a kitchen fire in the house in 1833, the remains of over 100 dead slaves were found. After this, the evidence becomes weaker. Many sources indicate that firefighters entering the house found a room in the house in which slaves had been tortured in the most gruesome ways. It is said that some slaves had been subjected to many unnecessary surgeries and had had their sex organs removed, mutilated, or sewn onto other slaves. Other slaves had their mouths sewn shut with feces in them and their intestines removed and nailed to the floor. The list of atrocities goes on and on and are so vile that I shutter to even write about them.

Whether the more gruesome elements of this story are true or not, it is true that LaLaurie was a beast and a serial killer and that reports continue that this house is tormented by constant ghosts and spirits. Anyone curious about this house will be easily appeased, as it is a regular part of all haunted New Orleans tours and the guides stories about the house are beyond chilling.  However,  the house's inability to maintain an owner still remains a problem.  Nicolas Cage bought the house in 2007 and it was foreclosed on in 2008.  The house is still vacant and owned by the bank.

A Simple Southern Recipe for Exorcising Haunted Houses

I learned an easy Southern recipe for performing an exorcism on a haunted house today.  A few of the nurses I know gave me this wonderful glimpse into Southern culture and a way that they say always works to clear a house of dark spirits.

One of the nurses I know  learned this after her grandfather passed away.  Apparently, her grandfather  was a cranky old man who yelled a lot and called people names.  He was not the type of spirit you would want lingering in your house.  When he was alive, he used to demand people get him things.  When he was sick, he always yelled for his water.  After he passed on, his spirit kept barking orders and he was especially noisy about the water.

Her grandmother knew just what to do about the problem.  She used an old Southern remedy.  She called several of her lady friends over and they did a prayer service in the house and when they were done they used red nail polish to mark every door frame in the house with a small cross.  This ritual was originally done in the owner's blood, but her grandmother didn't want blood all over her house and she figured nail polish would do just as well.  It did work just as well and no one heard from grandpa's ghost again.

My friend was lucky she learned this old remedy, because she needed it again later on.  She bought a house that she later learned had been built on the site of another house.  The first house had been burnt down and taken a few souls to their untimely death with it.  The developers had built a new house on top of the ashes of the old house.  My friend's house was a problem because of this.  One door in particular opened on it's own and no matter how many times it was locked or latched it always popped back open.  My friend used the same ritual her grandmother had used when she was a child and the door never opened again.