Is America’s oldest house haunted?
It's the oldest timber frame house in America, lived in for generations by the same family and lovingly kept just as it was in its early Colonial days.
But what the Fairbanks House lacks in modern facilities it seems to make for with ... strange spirits.
The house in Dedham, Massachusetts, was built between 1637 and 1641 by English settlers Jonathan and Grace Fairbanks.
Today the house is a museum, but it could very well one of the most haunted houses in America.
Is it or isn't it? There is a movement on to see if one of America's oldest houses, in Dedham, is haunted
Justin Schlesinger, one of the museum directors whose ancestors built the property, said: 'There’s always been weird things happening in the house, from the doorbell going off a million times to flashlights never working.'
He added that there are sometimes footsteps heard on the stairs when no one is there. Also, a newly-installed alarm system went off every night for several weeks with the alarm company unable to offer an explanation.
If there are such things as ghosts, he said, 'this would be the logical place for them to be.'
For decades now, throngs of visitors from all over the world, from school children to distinguished architects, have toured the house, entranced by its authenticity.
Over the centuries, there must have been some deaths in the house, museum business manager Lee Ann Hodson said.
There's even been a shocking murder. In 1801, one of the Fairbanks sons, Jason, was convicted in the killing of his girlfriend, Elizabeth Fales, in a nearby pasture. She had apparently spurned his marriage proposal.
He was hanged from the gallows on Dedham Common in one of the most sensational murder cases of the time.
On a whim last year, Mr Schlesinger, 25, asked a ghost-hunting group, The Atlantic Paranormal Society, or TAPS, to come in and see what they might find.
A house full of history: Tools and items from the early Colonial days litter the property
Lizzie Borden House, Fall River, Massachusetts
The ghosts of Andrew and Abby Borden are said to roam this house, now run as a bed and breakfast, where they were killed in 1892.
Mr Borden's daughter, Lizzie, was accused of hacking him and her stepmother to death with an axe.
Now she is remembered by children across U.S. with the skipping rope rhyme 'Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks'.
LaLaurie Mansion, New Orleans, Louisiana
This house became famous in 2007 when it was bought by actor Nicolas Cage.
It's reputed to be haunted by the victims of Madame Delphine LaLaurie, a socialite who inflicted horrific punishment and torture on her slaves.
The horrendous truth was uncovered when a fire ripped through the house in 1834. Rescuers discovered slaves who had been whipped, mutilated and imprisoned wearing spiked iron collars.
Franklin Castle, Cleveland, Ohio
This Gothic house couldn't look more haunted if it tried, with its tower, turrets, balconies and gargoyles.
It was built in 1860 for a German immigrant, Hannes Tiedemann.
But soon after he moved in, four of his daughters died in as many years, including three babies, leading to speculation Tiedemann had a hand in their deaths.
Visitors say they have heard footsteps, doors slamming - and the sound of babies crying.
Sprague Mansion, Cranston, Rhode Island
Two ghosts are said to haunt this house, once owned by one of the town's most prosperous families, the Spragues, who owned a textile mill.
In 1843 Amasa Sprague was found shot and beaten on the road from the mansion to the mill. According to lore, his ghost returned to the house and can be spotted prowling the wine cellar.
Visitors say they have also spotted 'Charlie the butler' descending the main stairway.
Myrtles Plantation, St Francisville, Lousiana
This spooky-looking plantation home is populated by a whole family of ghosts. In 1808, a young slave named Chloe, jealous of the plantation owner's family, baked a birthday cake for one of his children, filled with poisonous oleander leaves.
His wife, Sara, and two of his children died. Chloe confessed to the murder - but her fellow slaves hung her and threw her body in the Mississippi.
Now she is said to haunt the garden, where she tends her plantings, while the spirits of Sara and her children are said to be trapped inside a large mirror.
He spent a a night in the house with the TAPS investigators.
'We heard footsteps in the beginning,' he said. 'Up where the children used to sleep.'
The TAPS group made audio recordings all night in an effort to detect anything out of the ordinary.
They told him after reviewing the tapes that they did record some sounds.
'They thought it was kids, because they got some laughter on the recordings.'
Schlesinger admitted that he didn’t get much sleep that night while the group camped out on sleeping bags in the house’s tiny parlor, especially when his cell phone went off in the middle of the night and began playing organ music.
'I don’t know if scared is the right word,' he said.'Maybe startled or confused.'
The ghost hunters told him not to worry, that if there were spirits in the house, they were likely his own family and wouldn’t harm him, thebostonchannel.com reports.
He said the TAPS team told him spirits like to 'mess with electronics,' which might explain why tourists’ cameras often stop working as well.
'There is so much history living in this house,' he said.
The TAPS group returned last weekend for a second round of testing armed with their electro-magnetic field detectors and audio recorders.
Team leader Traci Boiselle, 38, described the outing as 'awesome.'
'This time, the house had a very different feeling,' she said. 'We had lots of knocking and moving sounds.'
'My take is that definitely there is some paranormal activity in the house,' she added.
But Lesley Haine, one of the house’s tour guides who was raised in Dedham, said that while it’s hard to keep flashlights working there, she’s never personally noticed anything too odd.
'If there are spirits out there, they are good spirits,' she said.
'There’s nothing bad. They’re happy spirits.'
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How 'poltergeist who scrawled on window' forced a family to flee
dailymail - A family has been forced to flee their home after they became terrified by a poltergeist.
Even paranormal investigators were 'freaked out' by the activities that included the discovery of the word 'move' written onto a window at the house in Hull, East Yorkshire.
For Emma Keeitch, 31, and her family, the writing in condensation was the final straw and they left the house soon after.
The poltergeist echoes a case last week when the mother of 11-year-old Ellie Manning videoed a poltergeist opening a wardrobe door and moving a chair across a room.
Experts were called in to see what could be done at Miss Keeitch's house, but one of them became so scared that he was going to be attacked by a spirit that he also bolted from the house.
Now the family has been told that they will need to employ the services of an exorcist to rid the house of its spooks.
Paranormal psychic Steve Kneeshaw said: 'I have done many investigations but this is the worst one yet - it even freaked me out.
'It was a very intense evening and some of what happened was totally bizarre.
Emma and her boyfriend, Jamie Owen, 25, left their home with their four-month-old daughter Pheobie after waking up and seeing the message on their bedroom window.
She claimed that poltergeists had switched on stereos, spun pictures that were hung on walls and even threw a plank of wood into a bin.
She said: 'I've never believed in ghosts and always been very skeptical. But what has happened to us is too much - we just can't stay here any longer.
'We have tried to explain it away. You can blame the electrics or a draft for some things but not everything.
One of the investigators, Kellie Taylor, said that she was slapped across the face by one of the spirits causing her to flee.
As they continued to look around the house a television remote was thrown across the room and bedding moved by itself.
In his report on the events Elliot Ainley said: 'The house is definitely haunted and has poltergeist activity. There are two spirits haunting the house - that of a mother and that of a baby.
'The mother spirit seems particularly angry, probably at the way she died, which is why objects are being thrown about.
'We decided to do some glass divination, during which Kellie had her face seemingly lightly slapped by a spirit hand.
'Through this we determined that there were two spirits - a mother and baby and the names "Rachel" and "Sarah" also became apparent.
'They appear to have both died quickly and tragically. The master bedroom proved to be a very active area. All three of us were in this room calling out for the spirit when I had a TV remote control thrown across the room at me.'
A retired Church of England clergyman, Reverend Tom Willis, has now been called in and is expected to carry out an exorcism next week.
He said: 'The first thing you need to do is diagnose what is causing it then I simply bless the house and pray what is there is removed.
'Hauntings are usually lonely spirits that have refused to move on.
'I don't get scared by this as I'm not actually that psychic and haven't seen an apparition in 50 years.
'What I do brings relief to both the spirit and those bothered by it.'
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The Mystery House
londonist - Mystery House is the actual name of a haunted house that once stood in a by-road close to old Crystal Palace. It was called Mystery House because it had its fair share of bizarre incidents, which plagued every tenant that moved in, beginning with the Trent family.
Haunted houses seem quite common in the world of the paranormal, but this place had consistent levels of high strangeness which seemed to begin one morning when Mrs Trent walked into her bedroom and saw the pillows moving and the bed shaking. The woman remained unphased and put the incident down to hallucination until the following night when her husband, sleeping in a separate room, was awoken by a piercing wail. Mr Trent rushed to his wife’s aid and saw her struggling to stop an invisible force which was attempting to suffocate her with the pillow.
Strange smells filled the rooms on occasion, and then it seemed as if something was occupying the basement. Shuffling noises, objects moving and footfalls, which also travelled through the kitchen. Even in his scepticism, Mr Trent wondered just what was going on, especially when on one occasion it appeared as if someone was chasing him through the house. And there was the strange presence, as if someone unseen had walked into the room. Finally, the Trents decided to move out.
When the place was rented by a woman of the name Cattling, who owned several dogs, little did she realise what she was letting herself in for. At first she simply put her peculiar feelings down to the feel of the new house, until she found one of her dogs dead upstairs in the bedroom. Looking round the room she saw the pillow begin to move and take on the form of a ghastly face with a huge, pointed noise and two glaring eyes.
The woman was plagued by mysterious occurrences: the night when the gas went out; in the darkness a box of matches was gently slid into her hand; and the laughter ringing out through the rooms. Even friends saw the phenomena, which proved to be the final nail in the coffin that forced the woman to leave.
The place remained empty for a while until a Mrs Eveley took it for six months, with her daughter and two servants. The spirits never let up and tormented the occupants from the very first night, the beds shaking and shadowy figures looming over those sleeping, who awoke in terror. With loud hammering noises, footfalls and shuffling again in the basement, once again, the residents moved out.
History suggests that the original owner of the house had committed suicide, so maybe this tortured soul still roamed the structure, or maybe the house had been built on evil ground, but this is something we’ll never know, hence the immortal name, Mystery House.
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Hunterdon County, NJ Malevolent Haunting - SRI Case Log
The client has been living at the location for almost a decade and has made attempts to have the location cleared but without success. Lots of noises and odd activity, including attacks on the client as well as a steady deterioration of the client's health and overall quality of life.
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Irene and I conducted a remote view session on Wednesday April 6th. Several SRI team members listened to the session live via Skype. This synopsis will be brief.
The RV was done in 5 phases including a few other exercises in order to isolate and clear the opposing entity, which was a middle-aged male with a long full beard, dark clothing and heavy boots...as well as a very nasty disposition. There was also a teenage female spirit who was likely married in real-life to the male entity...possibly an arranged union. The female spirit was 'kept' and obsessed on by the male spirit in life and in death.
To make a long story short, Irene was able to move this male spirit away from the location...the female spirit may be moved later, though it seems not to be causing problems in the household.
The client was contacted by us immediately following the RV and advised of the session and given follow-up / support information.
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SRI team member JD offered her assessment of the RV session:
I was one of the SRI Team members listening this evening. As Allswell said last week, observing it is enlightening as well as educational. Early on in the session, Lon announced he was in the basement facing an inside corner. Irene said she had to slow him down. When he had done everything she told him to do and he said he was still in the basement, she told him to take a break. Then she started him over again. This time he said he saw someone working metal. Irene was able to get him back on track and they quickly went through phases 2 and 3. In phase 4, Irene asked Lon where he was. He said he was on the back porch watching the girl in the doorway, she was "spinning like a top." Lon was trying to make sense of her action when she suddenly disappeared and the older man was suddenly in front of him.
Well the man got right in Lon's face, he said almost nose to nose, and was yelling and cussing Lon out. I had the impression the entity knew Lon was there. And boy, was this guy angry. I could feel it blasting out of the computer screen. Irene had Lon draw an up and down line, I think she called it a movement line. She asked him to go slightly up the line and asked him what he saw. he said he was at the foot of a stairway. She asked him to go up a little further and asked him what he saw. Lon said he was on a landing surrounded by rooms. She directed him into one of the rooms and had him describe it. Lon said it had a canopy bed, a couple of dressers a night stand and a window. He had the impression this was the girl's room. He also said he had the feeling the older man was "keeping" the girl. I had a feeling it was an arranged marriage. Then Lon said, "he's coming." Irene wanted to know how Lon knew. "I can hear his boots on the stairs."
Irene pulled him right up outside the house and asked him what he saw. Lon said he was looking down but all he saw was white light. She then lowered him down and asked what he saw. Lon said he was standing in the backyard looking toward the house. Irene gave Lon the targeting numbers again and Lon was back in the basement corner. She asked him to turn around. He said there were other rooms. She asked him to go 2 feet closer to the nearest room. He said there was a workbench and tools. Then the man was back, yelling and cussing at Lon. Irene had Lon go back to the line and move the pen up a bit. Lon said he was in a parlor. He could hear a piano playing, but no one else was in the room. Then the man came in, yelling and cussing. Irene said, "wait, wait, wait, wait." After a couple minutes of silence, Irene asked what he saw and felt. He said the man's face turned purple, then green and then he was gone. Then it felt like someone held my hands. Irene ended the session.
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Irene Block's assessment of the RV session:
I must say here that the members were listening on Skype as the session proceeded. Their instructions were to remain quiet at all times - some even switched their mics off. At the end of the session everyone was allowed to relay their thoughts and experiences that they had during the session - that in itself was very interesting.
I know these sessions can be very tedious, long and drawn out as the viewer goes through all the procedures enabling him to come closer to the target. It has pleased me that there has been so much interest in it. Although untrained the team was able to follow along.
Mind you, for all the monitors out there your work is just as difficult and can be very tiring as you are having to use your conscious mind to keep track whereas the viewer is using their subspace. The session went well and was very informative opening up more avenues for us to follow with this case. Very well done, Lon
Irene - Follow up: Time to own up now. I did tell one of the members of the forum, on the night the RV session, what I had done - but not Lon. After I cleared the male I asked again if Lon could feel anything, I was at that moment in time holding Lon's hands. I was feeling the energy he was giving out.
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The client has added an update:
Well it's been 10 days since 'Mr. Angry' was cleared. It took a few days but the energy of my house has changed so much. I'm no longer in a bad mood soon after I get home and beyond. My stomach problems, dizzy spells and headaches are gone. For the first time since I moved here 10 years ago I'm off all medications. Today the energy has changed a little to the negative. JD has advised me the 'girl' (remaining spirit) may now be lonely and not know what to do as she is not being controlled for the first time in over 100 years. JD has been wonderful in helping me heal after this 10 year nightmare! I've been working very hard to lose all the anger I've carried around for too long knowing this will make me happier, healthier and will keep unwanted angry away. I'm also doing the exercises I was advised to do. To Lon, Irene and JD - I can't thank you all enough! In a way it's like starting over.
NOTE: you can keep track of Spirit Rescue International's past and current cases at Astral Perceptions.
Access to SRI case logs requires registration. If you need help, please go to the website at Spirit Rescue International™.
SRI is a non-profit group that combines the resources of our affiliates worldwide in order to achieve a successful entity clearing. Our mission is to provide professional, confidential and ethical spiritual relief, including continued personal support and guidance at no cost to the client.
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Group reports paranormal activity at Bryn Du Mansion
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A Ghostly Archeologist's Guide
Things that go Bump in the Night
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Online Survey Investigating Experiences of Ghostly Phenomena
The Legend of the Headless Gringa
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Connecting with Spirits
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Rick Phillips at UFO Disclosure Countdown Clock is reporting an unusual UFO w/ video in Mississippi.
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SUNDAY'S BLOG
Starting today, there will be one large blog post on Sunday...unless there is a breaking story that needs to reported on. I am doing this because of other obligations including SRI, the radio show and a few other odds and ends that usually seem to pop up on Sunday. There will be regular posts from Monday-Saturday. Thanks for reading...Lon
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