The foundation of the church dates back to Viking times, in 1095. The building you visit today, however, reflects renovations conducted around 1685.

The crypts beneath the church date back to the 17th century renovations, and contain some unusual residents.

How to see St. Michan’s Mummies of Ireland

Visiting the mummies is a lot easier than I anticipated when I arrived for the last tour on a rainy Friday afternoon. And yes, in order to see the mummies, you must come during tour times and be prepared to pay in cash for your ticket (see below for opening times and costs). The guide asked us to wait for the tour to commence within the church’s sanctuary. I stared in awe at the magnificent stained glass windows and organ. The organ itself is also really old—still in use since 1742. Legend says Handel practiced and perfected his Messiah on this very organ.

The tour of the Ireland Mummies

After milling about in the church for a few minutes, a very enthusiastic guide came in and directed us to exit the church into the graveyard. Rain began to pour, but, being in Ireland, we just made a go for it amongst the drenched tombstones. I wish I could have spent more time hanging out with those graves, because they looked magnificent!

As the afternoon rain pelted the group, our guide ran to what looked like old-fashioned cellar doors on the side of the church. He instructed us to watch our heads as we hobbled down the uneven, Medieval stone steps into the crypt.

One by one, we filed into the crypt. Once underground, I instantly felt a difference in the air. Everything felt much drier, and my sixth sense knew instantly I was surrounded by dead bodies.

At this point our guide, no longer being drenched by the rain, began to tell the tales of the crypt. I need to interject just how amazing our guide was. In our small group of about a dozen people were visitors from Austria and Italy, and our guide seamlessly switched between English, German, and Italian as he told us of the tales of the crypt. He also used elaborate hand gestures to keep the conversation going, even when he spoke in another language. As a storyteller myself, I was very, very impressed!

Our guide told us to go to the end of the hallway, and there we saw the mummies.

The Mummies of Ireland

Originally, the four mummies were known as the Thief, the Nun, the Crusader, and the Unknown. However, in 2019 someone stole the body of the Nun (who would freaking do that?). When the church recovered the body, she was so badly damaged (and missing a head) that they decided to no longer display her for public view. So they replaced her with another mummy as apparently they had quite a few on hand.

In the photo above, the Unknown, a woman, lies to the far right on the raised casket. The Thief lies just left to her. Next to him lies the Crusader, whose hand outstretches from his casket (and before the 2019 burglary, visitors could touch his hand for good luck). To the left of the Crusader is the Nun’s stand-in, also an Unknown. You’ll note that his/her body is slightly darker; the body has not been coated with the same quantity of stirred-up dust as its companions.

The Thief

The Thief is known as such because he has lost his hand and his feet. Our guide informed us that if he were truly a thief and had lost his hand as punishment, he would not be buried in a church crypt unless he reformed and became part of the church later in life.

Morticians probably removed his feet (and possibly his hand) during burial because he was just too big for his coffin. While people come in all shapes and sizes, apparently coffins do not.

The Thief is about 300 years old, as are the other mummies in the crypt save for the Crusader.

The Crusader

The Crusader got his moniker from the way he’s buried, with his legs crossed at the knees, and from his age. No one is quite sure how he got down there since the crypts date to around 1685, but the Crusader is 800 years old! He was also very tall for the times—6’6″ which is tall by even today’s standards. So, perhaps his legs were crossed as a way to get him to fit into the coffin. At this point, we can only speculate.

Why are the bodies mummified?

Something about the dry air combined with the limestone tomb has created the perfect conditions for preserving the interred’s corpses, while deteriorating the wood of their caskets. It is sacrilegious to open a casket, and it is not allowed to photograph or disturb the tombs of those whose descendants are still alive. But for these unknown individuals whose coffins happened to split apart when stacked, revealing their bodies for all to see—well, it’s perfectly fine for us to gaze upon them and marvel at what their lives must have been like. They are still people, however, so respect is in order.

Other tombs in St. Michan’s

The tour does not end with the mummies! After leaving the crypt, our guide led us to another set of doors into another underground vault. Also filled with caskets, this particular crypt had a very famous set of residents: brothers Henry and John Sheares. The Sheares brothers were lawyers who visited Paris and became inspired by the French Revolution. Returning to Ireland, they plotted the Irish Rebellion of 1798, but were betrayed by a spy and arrested by the English in May of that same year.

The Sheares were tried for treason and executed by being hanged, drawn, and quartered. Our guide mentioned something about them being forced to watch their own entrails burn as well. Regardless it was gruesome. The original execution orders are on display in their crypt.

How to visit St. Michan’s mummies in Dublin, Ireland

St. Michan’s Church is open for tours year-round, but you do want to make sure you arrive within visiting hours (and plan to arrive about a half hour before closing).

November 1 through March 16:

Monday to Friday: 12:30pm – 3:30pm
Saturday: 10am – 12:45pm

March 17 through October 31:

Monday to Friday: 10am – 12:45pm / 2pm – 4:30pm
Saturday: 10am – 12:45pm.

Location

St. Michan’s Church is located at Church St, Arran Quay, Dublin 7 in Ireland
Phone: +353 1 872 4154

Pricing

Tours are not expensive. I don’t know the exact pricing as it does change from time to time. When we went, we paid €5 each. However, you will need to pay in cash, so make sure you go with some bills in your wallet.

Transportation

I took public transport which was not easy. I can usually find my way around any city, especially if the signage is in the same alphabet I’m used to, but Dublin’s transportation system is whack (sorry, Dublin).

That being said, here are the stops nearest the church:

By Luas (Tram): Smithfield or Four Courts (Four Courts is slightly closer) on the Red Line
By Bus: Get off at the Arran Quay or Merchant’s Quay stops (or if your bus goes to Four Courts, get off there). There’s about a dozen different buses that can get you there. For detailed information, visit moovitapp.com

Accessibility

The crypts are not accessible to anyone who has difficulty walking or difficulty walking on uneven surfaces, as you need to climb into a medieval vault via scary stone steps.

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Original construction of the haunted Read House

Businessman and politician Thomas Crutchfield built the original hotel in the 1840s, and locals originally referred to the building as the Old Crutchfield House. Over time, the building expanded, and became the now famous Read House, which began operating as a hotel in 1872. In the 1920s, the building continued to grow into an opulent icon of the Roaring Twenties, and never ceased operating the entire time throughout construction. Therefore, it holds the proud title of being the longest continuously operating hotel in the southeast. Impressive! 

Okay so I know what y’all are thinking. Enough history, and get to the spooky stuff already, lady! 

The ghosts of the haunted Read House

In 1927, a young, beautiful woman named Annalisa Netherly checked into room 311. Legend has it her husband caught her with another man. He flew into a jealous rage and slit her throat so violently that he almost severed her head from her body. However, because this happened so long ago, there are numerous rumors of alternate ways Annalisa may have died. Some say she was a prostitute murdered by a jilted lover or even that she died of a broken heart. The fact remains she did indeed perish in room 311.

Since her death, many guests have described paranormal experiences in room 311. Many guests see shadowy figures out of the corners of their eyes, lights flickering, unexplained cold breezes and water running. Quite a few guests also report they feel like they’re being watched. Ick! She apparently doesn’t like men, especially those that smell like cigarette or cigar smoke. The Read House refers to Annalisa as their resident spirit and gives tours of room 311 upon request. 

An infamous guest

But that’s not all that happened in room 311! Oh yes, there’s more. My sister-in-law took a tour of the room while she was staying at the Read House and the tour guide told them that just four years after the brutal murder of Annalisa, Al Capone stayed in that exact room while awaiting sentencing for his federal trial. They even put bars on the window in case he attempted to escape the feds. The hotel removed these bars in 2004 during yet another renovation. 

How to tour the ghost’s room at the haunted Read House

Tours of the Read House are available upon request. A tour guide leads you around room 311, explaining the gruesome history of the infamous room. Guests may photograph all areas of the room during the tour, which boasts original pieces from the 1920s. The most popular place to photograph is the vintage claw foot tub, which is allegedly the location Annalisa’s brutalized corpse was discovered. (At least that made cleanup a breeze?)

If traveling to Chattanooga isn’t in the cards for you right now, you can also tour the room virtually!

The Read House celebrates its 150th anniversary this year, and the hotel will offer room discounts and dining credits if you’re interested in staying. Maybe just ask for a ghost-free room? Or not. I know some of y’all would love to stay in room 311 and try to make contact with Annalisa. If you do, be sure to let me know what she has to say!

Update on 7/11/22: Becky spent the night at the Read House; hear her first-hand account of the haunting here.

The post The Haunted Read House in Chattanooga appeared first on Homespun Haints.

The rural, mountainous roads through northeast Tennessee can be both beautiful and terrifying. Curves jump out at you from the darkness; the road signs ominously warn of falling rocks and steep grades. And you don’t see another human being for miles.

During the day, the drive is equally sublime. The landscape is dotted with occasional farmhouses, churches, and old general stores. The mountains appear like hundreds of giants poking their heads up from under a vast blanket of trees—old, silent, and secretive.

This is the setting for the Historic Scott County Jail, which friends Miranda Young and Dr. Kristy Sumner recently leased to preserve the jail’s history and offer paranormal tours. Despite the building’s rural setting, accessing the jail—which is in the small and historic town of Huntsville, Tennessee—is relatively easy. It lies about an hour north of Knoxville, two hours north of Chattanooga, two and a half hours east of Nashville, and two and a half hours south of Lexington. I drove four hours from north Atlanta so I could experience the history and ghosts of this jail firsthand.

(And my husband called me constantly along the way, letting me know what a nut I was for wanting to do this and when would I turn around and come home. Well, he’s the nut for not wanting to explore a haunted jail at night.)

History of the Jail

The jail itself was built in 1904; however, before its construction, lawmen conducted executions and trials on the land where the jail now sits. Constructed of stone, the surprisingly beautiful structure sits three stories high and ends with a crenellated wall, giving it the appearance of a small castle. Kristy and Miranda reconstructed the jail’s history into an exhibit located in what would have been the sheriff’s living quarters years ago. Visitors can study the well-researched timeline that Miranda has put together, as well as confiscated items from prisoners, letters, and other jail memorabilia.

After I closed myself into this little room to do my business, I learned that these drunk tanks are some of the most haunted places in the entire jail.

The sheriff and his family lived on the first floor of the jail. In addition to the sheriff’s living quarters and workspace, the first floor contains several drunk tanks (which were painted Pepto-Bismol pink in their heyday). The drunk tanks could and did serve as isolation cells when necessary. Today, they are painted white and serve as the museum’s bathroom facilities. These rooms were the first thing I visited after my drive. And of course, after I closed myself into this little room to do my business, I learned that these drunk tanks are some of the most haunted places in the entire jail.

On the second floor sit several communal cells, which at times held as many as fifteen people each. Some of the rooms held women; some held men. The third floor contains the higher security cell blocks, again divided by gender. As we explored these areas, strange creaks and sounds jumped at me from every corner, making me wonder which sounds were the building, and which sounds were the ghosts.

Visiting the jail (and seeing the ghosts)

While history buffs can visit the jail just to learn a little bit about history (see ticket options below), I opted for the public ghost hunt, and invited my friend Katie of Lady Teal’s Curios to accompany. As I arrived, Miranda and Kristy greeted me with warm tea and introduced me to the others we’d be investigating with. Our group consisted of six: Miranda, Kristy, Katie, myself, and two other enthusiastic women who were veterans of the tour.

They’ve witnessed pictures flying off the walls, and they’ve heard footsteps on the staircase when they’re alone in the building. And yet, they are not afraid. They are merely intrigued, and they want to learn more.

The caretakers of the jail, Miranda and Kristy, are professional paranormal investigators themselves. Miranda Young’s Tennessee-based company, Ghost Biker Explorations, is a world-recognized web series exploring the history and hauntings of various locations, and Dr. Kristy Sumner is the founder of Soul Sisters Paranormal, a professional paranormal investigation and tourism team. As you can imagine, both women also have very prestigious careers in other areas as well; Miranda has 21 years experience in design, communications and marketing, and Kristy used to be a professor at two different colleges. How cool is that?

Haunted Jail Hospitality

As you can imagine, getting to spend time in this jail with these ladies was a top-notch experience. Miranda and Kristy began by giving us a detailed tour of the jail. Then, they shared some of the creepier things they’ve experienced within its walls. For instance, Miranda and Kristy have both noticed sharp objects going missing without any explanation; they’ve heard humming and whispers and felt unseen hands touch their shoulders. They’ve witnessed pictures flying off the walls, and they’ve heard footsteps on the staircase when they’re alone in the building. And yet, they are not afraid. They are merely intrigued, and they want to learn more.

We heard people whispering behind us when no one was there, we heard footsteps on the stairs when the stairwell was empty, we caught things on tape. Yeah, I’d say we talked to ghosts. It was freaking incredible.

After learning about the jail’s history and where the paranormal hotspots are, our hosts turned out the lights and lent us investigation equipment. Also, we were allowed to use our own if we had any (I, being the most amateur of investigators, brought only my phone). Katie brought a ghost box, and those of us that used it heard strange voices answering questions in the static. The flashlights that Miranda placed in the doorways of the cells turned on and off in response to questions she presented to the ghosts. We heard people whispering behind us when no one was there, we heard footsteps on the stairs when the stairwell was empty, we caught things on tape. Yeah, I’d say we talked to ghosts. It was freaking incredible.

Solo Investigation Time

After about an hour together in complete darkness, we split up and explored on our own. And, that was when the real magic started happening. Our only lights came from the flashlights we occasionally turned on, and the streetlights streaming in through the sparse windows.

Katie and I took the upstairs maximum security cell blocks. At one point, the ghost box told me to look in another room, leaving Katie alone. When I called out that I would not separate from her, she heard someone loudly yell “No!” The cell bars behind her shook as if someone had fallen against them. As we tried to figure out what the noise was, Kristy came running up the stairs. She asked if we had just been in the stairwell. Then, she explained she heard what she thought was us running toward her in fear. But no, we had been stationary, no one had been in the stairwell. And we caught it all on tape.

After several more hours of filming, wandering around, and asking questions, we left for the evening and stayed at the nearby Grand Vista Hotel in Huntsville. The exhilarating experience left us absolutely elated.

Haunted jail hostesses for the win!

Not only did we experience some creepy feels first-hand, we did so in a warm and inviting space thanks to our delightful hosts. Kristy and Miranda are warm and friendly people who love what they do. We even took a hot cocoa break at one point. And I loved how they feature local artists in their small gift shop. Everything about the evening—from the design of the materials, the depth of the historic research, and the hospitality of the hosts—was absolutely top-notch. These ladies know how to run a business that makes you feel at home.

Kristy and Miranda are warm and friendly people who love what they do.

If the idea of an unusual and spooky experience excites you, please consider checking out the Historic Scott County Jail. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Some things to know before you go:

Pricing

Private Paranormal Investigation: $375 for a 6.5 hour investigation for up to 8 people. $25 extra per person up to 10 people.

Guided public/private ghost hunts – $35 per person for 3 hours and up to 6 people.

Flashlight tours (kid friendly!). $20 per person for a 1.5 hour tour.

Daytime general admission history tours – $10 gen admission tickets. The jail offers senior and military discounts for $7 per person.

Location

Address: 214 Litton Covered Bridge Rd. Huntsville, TN 37756.

1 hour north of Knoxville, 2 hours north of Chattanooga, 2.5 hours east of Nashville.

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Delphine and Louis LaLaurie

Alrighty, so contemporary accounts may have exaggerated the gruesome events taking place at the LaLaurie mansion, but regardless I think we can all agree that the LaLaurie’s sound like some bad mofos. While we might never know the actual truth of the history, I can tell you definitively that there are ghosts at LaLaurie mansion in New Orleans mansion.

The Ghosts at LaLaurie Mansion

People have heard moans, groans and even shrieks while inside the mansion. Some have described hearing the dragging of chains and scratching from the walls. Over the last few decades there have been multiple reports of people seeing a woman with long, red hair glaring at them in various parts of the mansion. (Did I mention Delphine was a redhead?)

In the 1870s, the mansion was converted into apartments, mostly occupied by immigrant dock workers and their families. While many children reported hearing and seeing all kinds of paranormal activity, the adults dismissed their stories, because children do have active imaginations after all. imaginations. But that all changed late one evening when one of the dock workers came home and found a large African American man in chains blocking a stairway. The dock worker demanded he move out of the way, but the large man didn’t respond. When the dock worker went to push him out of the way, his hands went right through the large man and then he dissolved into a cold mist. Freaked out by his paranormal encounter, the dock worker spread the word that ghosts haunted the building.

In the late 19th century, the building was once again converted, this time into an all-girls school. Students often reported experiencing strange physical assaults like pinching, hitting or scratching. When a teacher would ask them who their assailant was, the poor girls would always answer “that woman” while showing their bruises or scratches. I wonder if any of them described “that woman” as having long, red hair?

A cursed building?

Many people have bought and sold the LaLaurie mansion over the years, and each one of them seems to come into a string of bad luck. Some of them have experienced financial ruin. For others, it has been health issues or even insanity. The house has spared not one owner from these misfortunes. So best of luck to the current owner. It sure sounds like they’re gonna need it!

The post The Horrible, Heinous History of the LaLaurie Mansion (Part 2) appeared first on Homespun Haints.

Lalaurie Mansion: A Grandiose Haunted Mansion

The LaLaurie Mansion at 1140 Royal Street in the French Quarter is widely known for being one of New Orleans’ most haunted buildings. Built in 1832, the original grandiose mansion on Royal Street was an eye-catching baroque beauty complete with intricate wrought-iron balconies all around the second floor.

This impressive house, still one of the largest in the French Quarter, belonged to Delphine and her third husband, Dr. Louis LaLaurie. Yes, this was Delphine’s third marriage; she was already twice widowed when she met Leonard Louis Nicolas LaLaurie. After Delphine gave birth to a child out of wedlock, the two married in 1828. According to those close to the couple, the marriage was not a happy one.

Leonard Louis Nicolas LaLaurie bought Delphine a mansion on Royal Street

Unhappy marriage or not, they had an image to uphold within New Orleans society. After moving into their magnificent mansion, the pair gained a reputation for the lavish parties they liked to throw at their private residence.

Now, the building that stands today on Royal Street is not the original home that the LaLauries occupied. Because, in 1834, an angry mob burned the original LaLaurie Mansion to the ground after the citizens of New Orleans discovered what had occurred in this cursed home. Honestly, I’m a bit surprised they rebuilt the place at all, given what I’m about to tell you.

Still reading? Okay, don’t say I didn’t warn you…You see, the details that made the LaLauries truly infamous came to light after a fire broke out in the mansion’s kitchen in 1834. It turns out Doctor and Madame LaLaurie were hiding a vile secret; they had a penchant for inflicting brutal sadistic torture on the enslaved people working in the mansion

Warning: Gruesome facts below about the LaLaurie Mansion

Rescuers broke down the door into the slave’s quarters, and encountered a truly gruesome sight. They discovered mutilated slaves, all covered in scars and held in place by multiple heavy chains. Among their poor enslaved victims, many torture devices were found. The men and women were they chained up, some even suspended by their necks. In addition, they were also routinely tortured with pincers, whips and heavy iron collars with sharpened points to pierce painfully into their necks. Everyone had various shocking injuries. Some people had gouged out eyes, grisly wounds from large areas of skin that had been flayed off and left to fester, and fingernails brutally ripped completely off from the root.

But…it gets worse

As hard as it is to imagine, it gets much worse. The enslaved woman that started the fire was discovered bound by chains in the kitchen. Once freed, she led her rescuers to the attic, where even more men, women and even children were kept. When they opened the heavy door, they were overcome with the smell of decay and rot. Some of these victims had body parts stitched to other areas like tongues sewn onto chins or a severed hand sewn onto their abdomen.

Clearly, the LaLauries were a couple of sadistic sickos!

A few of the women had mixtures of offal and ash stuffed into their orifices. Others were smeared all over with honey in the hopes to attract armies of ants. Some victims even had holes drilled into their skulls so Madame LaLaurie could use a stick to stir their brains around. One woman was locked in a cage and had had her limbs all broken and reset in such a way that she resembled a crab. Y’all, there’s so much more heinousness but I’d like to not lose my lunch. Clearly, the LaLauries were a couple of sadistic sickos!

It could have ended sooner, but…

Sadly, years before this macabre discovery, rumors swirled about Madame LaLaurie’s ill-treatment of her enslaved people. She was even investigated for cruelty in 1828. Records show she paid for legal services to get out of any real trouble.

News of the first responders’ ghastly encounters quickly spread throughout the city. An angry mob gathered outside the mansion, forcing the LaLauries to flee New Orleans. The LaLauries eventually made their way to Paris, where they successfully hid from authorities. Delphine died in Paris almost twenty years later, without ever having to pay for her heinous crimes. And then an investor rebuilt the mansion in 1838 as an African American girl’s school. Eek!

But, is it all true?

While Madame LaLaurie will go down in history as a sadistic serial killer, many revisionist historical accounts say her crimes have been exaggerated over the years. Revisionists say no one was “experimented on,” and many of the more disgusting offenses seem to change with each telling. After all, much of the “reports” of her abuse come from her neighbor, Monsieur Montreuil. Montreuil had a bit of a crush on Delphine, which she spurned. Since that time, the crimes committed by Delphine LaLaurie have gained the allure and life of folklore.

That said, the LaLauries were not saints. They did chain, whip, and brutalize the enslaved people in the mansion. But, it’s likely the tortures they inflicted on these pour souls were no worse than the tortures inflicted on enslaved plantation workers. Genteel NOLA society would have found these methods gruesome. But in the countryside, the LaLauries would have been no different from their neighbors. And that, my friends, is possibly the most heinous part of all.

Regardless, there’s a bunch of ghosts haunting the LaLaurie Mansion

Yikes! I warned y’all this one was especially gruesome! So obviously, with the amount of atrocities perpetrated inside the LaLaurie mansion, there’s plenty of paranormal activity. If you aren’t too freaked out, come back next week to get the deets on the ghosts haunting the mansion today. And if you get the chance, check out some of the haunted tours that include the LaLaurie Mansion.

The post The Horrible, Heinous History of the LaLaurie Mansion (Part 1) appeared first on Homespun Haints.

Are you ready to stay at a real haunted house? Well now is your chance, unless you’re deterred by what co-host of the Travel Channel’s “Portals To Hell” Jack Osbourne said about the Haunted Hill House in Mineral Wells, Texas: “it’s probably the one place that I would say, if there was a demonic presence it would be [there].”

The Real Haunted Hill House

You’ve probably heard of a haunted Hill House popping up in various films and literature. The original inspiration for these fictional haunted Hill Houses comes from the novel The Haunting of Hill House, written in 1959 by the great literary horror novelist Shirley Jackson. This novel inspired the 1963 film The Haunting starring Julie Harris, and a more fantasized 1999 adaptation of The Haunting starring Lili Taylor and Liam Neeson. And, of course, the Netflix series, “The Haunting of Hill House.” The Netflix series really doesn’t have much to do with the original novel at all (other than character names) but you should still watch anyway.

But Shirley Jackson’s Hill House, which inspired all of these offshoots, was not inspired by the haunted Hill House in Texas. In fact, according to Jackson’s biographer Ruth Franklin, Jackson drew inspiration for her fictional Hill House from the Winchester Mystery House. So, while both the fictional Hill House and real Hill House are obscenely haunted, they’re completely different places.

Haunted Hill House History

125 feet away from the (also haunted) Baker Hotel sits the looming Haunted Hill House. This house is a Victorian mansion that takes up 3800 square feet. The famous East Mountain, where Native Americans and Outlaws battled over a century ago secludes the mansion from the main thoroughfare. The house was built during the Civil War as an A-frame home and belonged to the First Founding Families of Mineral Wells. During the late 1800s to the early 1900s the home was used as a makeshift hospital and then later became a retreat for illegal activity. It once hosted prostitutes, bootleggers, and gambling for those that wanted to be discreet and imbibe these illicit activities in secret.

How did this house become so famous for having the most paranormal activity?

Some say, if you die on the property, you never leave.

During the years that the house was shrouded in illegal and illicit activity, several deaths happened there. Some say that the spirits wander the halls as if they’re still living there. Investigators have detected nine different spirits haunting the home. The most dominant spirit is one of a little boy that inhabits the upstairs area. The little boy may have been a disfigured child born to one of the working girls. He only made it to the age of six. One of the owners who fell into a well also haunts the property. Also, all those that died on the property due to the flu outbreak. 

Anyone that visits or even dares to stay overnight could be in for the fright of their lifetime due to high levels of reported paranormal activity. The home has 18 areas where you can investigate, 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, and a kitchen. People that do overnight investigations have access to the entire property.  

At the time of this writing, the home is owned by Edward and Katherine Estes. Katherine offers to anoint her departing guests with Holy Water or another cleansing item to make sure they stay protected.

Ready to stay the night or take a tour? 

Beware of the haunted experiences some visitors to Hill House have had:

• Nausea
• Headache
• Immediately feeling ill upon entering the grounds
• A malevolent spirit visitation the next day after visiting the house
• Groups have had balls moved by the little boy spirit
• Several have had things thrown at them
• Over 70 people have been scratched and 2 have been bitten
• Seen green orbs

If you’re still feeling brave, visit their website to book an overnight investigation!

The house is located at 501 NE 1st St, Mineral Wells, TX 76067, just over an hour West of Fort Worth, Texas.

Haunted Hill House Trivia

• Previously visited by members of Ghost Adventures, Haunted Collector, Deep South Paranormal, Taps, Paranormal Files, Portals To Hell, Strangetown, and Christopher Saint Booth.
• Katherine said the house ranks #1 as the most haunted house in Texas (and third most haunted in the nation) by Good Day America. 
• Big Seven Travel listed it as the spookiest home in the state by
• Caves known as the East Mountain are located on the property.
• You can have your wedding at the house, but beware you may have some non-human guests!

Mineral Wells, TX

The town of Mineral Wells, TX, was first populated by settlers around the turn of the 19th century due to the discovery of purportedly miraculous curative mineral water. Remind you of any other famously haunted locations we’ve written about? The mineral water was dubbed “Crazy Water” because of a local legend of a woman recovering from some ridiculous 19th century mental disorder after drinking it. By 1900, Mineral Wells was the spa resort destination in the Southern US, drawing over 150,000 visitors that year alone. The tiny town boasted 46 hotels and boarding houses by 1909, and most visitors were only there because of the water. Visitors indulged in the four bathing houses, chugged at the seven water pavilions, or booked more intensive treatment at the two local sanitariums.

But the most hilariously cruel tourist attraction was the “Fat Man’s Reducer”. Tourists would gorge themselves on miraculous, healing, unfiltered, un-sanitized mineral water (a known laxative). Then they would take attempt to climb the “Fat Man’s Reducer”: a thousand-foot staircase built on the side of East Mountain. According to legendary66.com, the locals amused themselves by watching the tourists get halfway up, and then realize that they had to use the bathroom quite urgently, due to the water hitting their unprepared system. Hill House, at the foot of East Mountain, might have been a prime location to view these follies.

Have you visited the Haunted Hill House?

This house is on our long, long list of most haunted places to visit. If you’ve visited the location, please submit any findings you’d like us to share on this page!

https://hauntedhillhouse.com/

The post The Haunted Hill House appeared first on Homespun Haints.

Tragic Women of the Sorrel Weed House

The most common stories center around Francis Sorrel’s wife Matilda. According to legend, the tragedies began when Matilda discovered her husband having an affair with one of their maids, Molly. The heart-broken Matilda subsequently jumped to her death from the balcony. A few weeks later, Molly’s body was found hanging in her room, also an apparent suicide. Rumors began to circulate that Matilda’s ghost led Molly to commit suicide.

Both Becky and our podcast guest Enocha Edenfield have found evidence that the most commonly told stories about the Sorrel Weed house are not exactly what actually happened. For example, Matilda did likely commit suicide, but in the house next door. But that doesn’t mean the place doesn’t have plenty of spirits.

Ghosts of the Sorrel Weed House

Do the ghosts of Matilda and Molly really haunt the Sorrel Weed House? There are definitely some spooky things afoot within it’s walls.

In an article in Country Living titled “I Captured Something Disturbing on Camera at Savannah’s Sorrel Weed House” David Duran writes, “a series of photographs show the reflection of someone who wasn’t in the room with us suddenly appearing in the mirror.”

The home has a history of images capturing dark shadows and orbs. Investigators have also captured recordings of screams and creepy voices. A common occurrence is that people have a strange sensation of nausea and feeling choked in the basement. People who consider themselves “sensitive” or psychic have described feeling panicked in the house for no reason. Also, people’s cell phone and camera batteries drain by the end of the tour. Even though participants fully charged their devices ahead of time.

Others claim to hear the sounds of people talking in the living room. However, when someone approaches, the sounds abruptly stop. Even though no investigators have discovered the exact origins of these sounds, many believe they are the echoes of social events held in the home’s bygone years.

Is the Sorrel Weed House really haunted, and by whom?

When Becky visited, she didn’t get spooked…until she entered the basement. As in many of the houses in the region of the day, the basement would have been slave quarters. Enslaved people toiled in incredible misery in the dark, hot, foul basement for years, with no end in sight. Becky could feel empathetic echoes of the oppression and hopelessness that must have been felt by so many people in those rooms.

Becky also felt a presence behind her on the basement stairs. It was so powerful a feeling, that she turned around to usher that person into the room…only to realize she was the last in line. After Becky’s personal paranormal experiences in the house, she’s convinced that the house is indeed haunted. Perhaps by the famous upstairs dwellers. But certainly more so by the cellar dwellers, whose names history has forgotten.

Sorrel-Weed House Trivia:

• The opening scene of the 1994 film Forrest Gump was filmed from the rooftop of The Sorrel Weed House and is a popular tourist stop.
• The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) investigated the home during a Halloween Special episode of Ghost Hunters.
• HGTV’s If Walls Could Talk featured the home.
• The Ghost Adventures crew has investigated the home. 
• The Travel Channel featured the house on its show “The Most Terrifying Places in America”​
• USA Today listed the Sorrel–Weed House as a top 10 Halloween travel destination.
• Condé Nast wrote that Savannah is one of the eight best cities to visit at Halloween, citing the Sorrel–Weed House’s reputation for paranormal activity as “a great way to spend Halloween.”

Visit the Sorrel-Weed House

The Sorrel Weed House hosts History and Architecture Tours during the day, but we know you’re really interested in the evening Haunted Savannah Ghost Tours. There are actually two different ghost tours, tickets for which can be purchased in advance online. The nightly Ghost Hunters House & Walking Tours spend an hour exploring the house while a paranormal investigator explains the house’s history and shares the evidence of hauntings collected there by various ghost hunting teams. At the time of this writing, tickets are $20 per adult, $10 per child (12 and up only for tours starting at 9pm or later). As an add-on, the tour then continues for a second hour as a walking tour of other paranormal hotspots around Savannah. Including the house tour and the walking tour add on, tickets are $28 per adult, $12 per child.

The second tour, called The Ghosts of Sorrel Weed, is actually all about spooky ghost story telling! A professional storyteller details the tragic history of the house and the experiences witnessed there. The House hosts this 90 minute tour and storytelling experience only on select nights, beginning at 10pm. At the time of this writing, you can purchase tickets for this tour at $30 per person (ages 13 and up permitted).

Savannah Paranormal Investigation Tours

Idling in the audience not your thing? Sign up for the After Hours Paranormal Investigation, starting at 11:30 on select nights, where you’ll be experiencing and participating in a live ghost hunt. At the time of this writing, you can purchase tickets for $50 per person (only ages 18 and up allowed).

If you’re lucky, you can catch a longer version of the tour offered on certain evenings. These special activities feature even more paranormal investigation equipment (and occasional special guest investigators) for smaller groups of 12 people or less, at $125 per person.

Accessibility

One Trip Advisor reviewer states: “While not ADA accessible, the staff helped us navigate the house by having places to sit on the tour. They also let me look at the house beforehand to see if it was manageable. If [you] can do a few flights of stairs, it is, but if you cannot, you will only be able to peek in the property.”

Have you been to the Sorrel Weed House?

If you have had a paranormal experience or been on a tour at the Sorrel-Weed House, what did you think? Please leave a comment below, or submit your experiences so we can add them to this article!

www.sorrelweedhouse.com

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In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania stands Eastern State Penitentiary, This massive, eerie building holds the title of one of the most famous haunted places in America. A former prison with a sordid past and a haunted history, Eastern State Penitentiary, (aka ESP) housed some infamous inmates while in operation from 1829 until 1971.

Famous inmates at ESP

Notorious criminal inmates who served time at ESP include:

• Al Capone. Capone was arrested for having an unlicensed weapon—a fairly minor charge given his actual activities. The famous mobster received the maximum sentence at ESP, which led to allegations that he hid out in prison to escape blame for the St Valentine’s Massacre. Reportedly, the prison allowed Capone to have a fairly lavish cell with oil paintings, furniture, and a radio;
• Willie Sutton. This bank robber tunneled his way out of ESP, only to be re-arrested minutes later;
• James Bruno, A.K.A. Big Joe. After losing a series of key positions to rivals in the small town of Kelayres, PA (despite his attempts to fix the ballot boxes) Big Joe and his family mowed down the opposition’s victory parade in a rain of bullets in the 1934 Kelayres Massacre.

Architecture of the Prison

Known for his neo-classical style, Philadelphia architect John Haviland designed Eastern State Penitentiary. Haviland said he wanted the design of the prison to instill fear in those who considered committing crimes. Upon completion, the prison held the title of largest and most expensive public structure in the United States. ESP became the model for more than 300 prisons worldwide. The massive grounds sprawled across 10 and a half acres. It cost $800,000 to build, which would be equivalent to over $29,000,000 today!

Prison Operation

Originally, the prison operated under the Pennsylvania System. This method of reform required strict and complete solitary confinement with no communication except religious study. Over time, the guards and staff creatively supplemented these primary reforms with more outright, torturous punishments:

• The water bath (guards dunked inmates in icy water and hung them from a wall overnight while literally freezing);
• The mad chair (binding and restricting all movement for days at a time);
• The iron gag (guards shackled a prisoner’s tongue to his raised wrists, which, if relaxed, would tear the tongue);
• The Klondike (a dark cavern dug out under Cellblock 14 where prisoners were starved for extended periods)

Prison Closing

When the prison closed, most of the prisoners and guards transferred to Graterford Prison. ESP became home to stray cats and a forest growing in and between the walls. Autopsy Of Architecture writes that “the Eastern State Penitentiary Task Force successfully petitioned Mayor Wilson Goode to halt redevelopment. In 1994, Eastern State opened to the public for historic tours. Today, it operates as a museum and historic site and is open year-round. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966, and was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark on June 23, 1965.”

Eastern State Penitentiary Trivia

Building Trivia

• Considered to be the world’s first true penitentiary, ESP’s inception came about when American Founding Fathers first brainstormed the idea of this new prison in a meeting held at Benjamin Franklin’s house in 1787.
• Quite likely, ESP is the first prison in the US that housed a synagogue, constructed in 1924 and fully restored in 2009.
• Before 1959, prisoners at ESP would make dentures in the dental lab on the grounds.
• The building’s unique wagon wheel shape allows a guard to stand at the center and quickly see down every corridor (each a spoke of the wheel) simply by turning. This innovative architecture proved convenient for the many decades the prison operated before CCTV monitoring.
• The octagonal room directly above the central surveillance hub—just one of the several libraries at ESP—housed 10,000 books in several languages by the beginning of the Civil War.
• Most of ESP’s 1,000 cells and rooms remain untouched since the building was abandoned in 1971. This state of decay and ruin is an intentional visual reminder of the prison’s period of abandonment.

Animals at the Prison

• By the 20th century, the prison officially allowed incarcerated men to have pet canaries. Pet rats were technically not allowed, but were still commonly given a pass.
• In 1924, a dog named Pep went to live at the prison to boost prisoner morale, following a similar successful stunt in Maine. The state governor attempted to make it a joke, “booking” and incarcerating the Scotch retriever for “cat murder.” This sparked hundreds of protests from dog lovers as far-reaching as the Philippines, proving yet again that the funniest jokes are ones you have to explain and apologize for for years afterwards.

Prisoner Trivia

• By 1926, the Christmas feast included cigars for prisoners.
• Famous visitors to the prison included Charles Dickens (who wrote about the appalling psychological torture taking place at ESP) and Alexis de Tocqueville.
• The prison required the warden to visit every inmate every day.
• At least 35 inmates were former enslaved persons, at least 3 of whom received sentences of 3 years for theft of items totaling less than $1 in value. One former enslaved person, Thomas Dane, made a daring escape through a sewer in 1870, about a century before the prison closed. Formerly enslaved prisoners suffered a mortality rate 3 times that of formerly free Black prisoners, which in turn was 3.5 times that of White prisoners.
• The prison only abandoned solitary confinement as a reform measure when the cells became overcrowded. While Haviland designed ESP to house 250 inmates, at its peak, the prison’s population topped 1700 inmates.
• In 1923, Warden Robert McKenty tasked a small gang of prisoners known as the Four Horsemen with handling minor disputes among fellow prisoners. To nobody else’s surprise, the Four Horsemen abused this authority to create an enormous drug ring. While drug smugglers were sent to basement confinement, ESP treated opioid addiction (“morphinomania”) as a treatable medical disease as far back as the early 1900s, revolutionary for its time.
• Up until 2019, ESP hosted a bizarre annual alumni reunion, where ex-employees and ex-inmates could reminisce together about living and working at the prison.

The Haunting of Eastern State Penitentiary

However, what the former prison is most famous for is being one of the most haunted places in America—hundreds of paranormal experts visit each year—even being featured on Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures and Most Haunted Live, Syfy’s Ghost Hunters, and MTV’s Fear.

Even back when it was still in operation, famous inmate Al Capone reported that the ghost of a St. Valentine’s Massacre victim, James Clark, haunted his cell.

Below, we’ve listed several stories and sounds visitors have heard. These stories dated back to the 1940s and are corroborated “by visitors, staff guards and inmates,” according to an article on NPR called “Is Eastern State Penitentiary Really Haunted?”

Some of the haunted experiences visitors report:

• Cackling and echoing voices come from Cellblock 12
• Shadow figures dart along the walls in Cellblock 6
• Visitors to Cellblock 4 have visions of ghostly faces
• A silhouette of a guard appears in one of the towers
• Footsteps
• Wails
• Whispers
• Giggling

One of the most legendary tales comes from Gary Johnson, a locksmith who helped maintain the former prison. In the 1990s, Johnson worked to remove an old lock in Cellblock 4, when he says “a force gripped him so tightly that he was unable to move. [It was] a negative, horrible energy that exploded out of the cell” in a blast of cold air. Tormented faces appeared on the cell walls and one form in particular beckoned to him. Could he have opened a portal of some sort when he opened that stuck 140-year-old lock?

Tour this famous haunted prison

Today, Eastern State Penitentiary operates as a historic site and museum that is open year-round and offers daytime and nighttime tours. Daytime general admission occurs Wednesday through Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm (last entry 4 pm). Admission includes a self-guided audio tour narrated by Steve Buscemi, with some former guards, wardens, and even prisoners also contributing. Additionally, you can access some closed areas like the Klondike and hospital with a guide at specific posted times. If you want something a little more in-depth, full guided tours are also available. At the time of this writing, tickets for Daytime Prison Tours are discounted when purchased in advance, and are not date or time specific.  

For Halloween of 2021, ESP will host a special series called “Halloween Nights,” which runs on select evenings from September 24th, 2021 until November 13th, 2021. Tickets for Halloween Nights are $34.

While you’re at ESP, check out The Fair Chance Beer Garden on the audio tour, which includes a guided meditation. The Beer Garden itself is part of an awareness campaign designed to make visitors really think about who gets incarcerated in the US, and why, and how that affects their lives upon release. The local brewery that serves beer at The Fair Chance, Triple Bottom Brewing Company, is a certified B Corp dedicated to providing living-wage jobs for people who have experienced homelessness or incarceration.

Can’t make it there by November 13th? Keep up with ESP on Facebook or Instagram for other upcoming tours and events.

Have you visited Eastern State Penitentiary and have stories to tell? You can fill out our form to submit your story and/or picture to be featured!

https://www.easternstate.org/

Stephanie Long contributed to this article.

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The Thornewood Castle, in Lakewood, Washington, boasts of a rich history and haunting past. Chester Thorne, one of the founders of the Port of Tacoma and Mount Rainier Park, spared no cost to make the mansion spectacular for his bride Anna. Even more impressively, Thorne dismantled a 400-year-old manor in England and shipped it, piece by piece, to the United States, so that all the bricks would be a part of the Castle. The mansion has 54 rooms, 28 bedrooms, and 22 bathrooms! In 1911, after four years of construction, Thornewood finally completed the 20,000 square foot castle. This testament to Thorne’s love for his wife gave the castle its sweet nickname: the house that love built.

The haunting of Thornewood Castle

So if the castle was built out of love, why is it so spooky? What makes this tudor-gothic mansion eerie? Several ghosts call it home. People believe these spirits stay at the mansion because of either their love for it, or the tragedies that have occurred there.

Ghosts of Thornewood Castle

Chester Thorne himself is the most active spirit there. He reportedly has made several appearances over the years. He usually shows up in the room that used to be his den, where he likes to unscrew the lightbulbs. No one really knows why; perhaps he feels nostalgic for the soft candlelight of 1911?

People have also reported seeing Anna, Chester’s wife, sitting in the window seat of her room that overlooks the garden. Today, Anna’s bedroom is a bridal suite which still has the original mirror from her time. Guests claim to see Anna’s spectral reflection in her mirror.

Guests have also claimed to see a child standing alone by the lake, only to find that when they rushed down to help, no one was there. Legend has it that the grandchild of a former owner drowned in the lake.

From Thornewood Castle’s current owners

Wayne and Deanna Robinson purchased the mansion in 2000. The couple claims that the most common encounter they’ve had is the phantom party they would see in the great hall. One night while Deanna was reading, the room suddenly lit up like a cocktail party was taking place. According to the website Weird US, “she heard people walking and dancing across the floor, the clinking of glasses and the mutter of conversation. It sounded like 100 invisible people had suddenly appeared.”

On another occasion, “Deanna has seen what she described as a vortex in the Great Hall. It appeared one night on the grand staircase. This stairway, like most fixtures at Thornewood Castle, is several hundred years old. She saw several spirits come out of the vortex, but having previously had a near death experience of her own, she did not investigate for fear of being pulled to the other side.”

Thornewood Castle Trivia

• The mansion has hosted many garden and dinner parties for famous guests, including Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.
• The Stephen King film Rose Red used Thornewood castle as a set. So did its prequel, The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer.
• An obscure silent film, The Eyes of the Totem, funded by Chester Thorne, shot on the castle grounds, and released in 1927, was then promptly lost for 80 years. Archivists rediscovered the film in 2015 in the archives of the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.
• The manor has a collection of rare artwork which is hand-painted onto the glass. You can find this glass mounted in windows throughout the estate.

Visiting the Mansion

At the time of this writing, there is no formal Thornewood Castle ghost tour (or any tour) that you can take as a member of the general public. Staying at or attending an event at the inn are the ONLY ways to explore it. From their website: “We regret that time demands and our neighborhood setting do not permit us to show the Castle on a walk-up basis. The Castle is a private residence located in a gated neighborhood. It can be seen when staying as a registered overnight guest or attending a private event.”

However, the one exception to this rule might be to book a professional photo shoot there. Call Thornewood directly for details.

Accessibility at Thornewood Castle

The castle has no elevator. ALL of the rooms listed on their website are on the 2nd or 3rd floors. Remember in the States, the first floor IS the ground floor, so if you book a 2nd floor room, that’s just 1 flight of stairs to climb, not 2. 2nd floor rooms include the Grandview Suite, Presidential Suite, Anna’s Suite, Chester’s Suite, and The Blue Room. The other guest rooms all appear to be on the 3rd floor.

Some of the rooms do not have a bathroom en-suite, but may have private bathrooms that you’d need to exit your room and go down the hall to use. The house was built on its current site over 100 years ago, but is a replica (of sorts) of a 400 year old house, so expect the less-accessible features common to that time period.

But there may be another option: there are 2 (more modern) guest apartments on the property, one for 2 occupants, and 1 for up to 6 occupants, available by the week or by the month. Apartment guests get a key to the castle and are permitted to roam everywhere the guests staying inside the inn can. Be sure to call and specifically ask, as it’s unclear from their website just how accessible the apartments are.

Sweet dreams

Whether you believe these ghostly sightings took place or not, would you spend the night in Thornewood Castle? It’s on the National Register of Historic Places and serves as a country inn that has been restored. Online reservations are discounted by 15%. Again, at this time, ONLY guests of the Inn can roam the grounds; boat, swim, and fish in the lake; and have tea in the sunken English garden.

https://www.thornewoodcastle.com/

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The Sloss Furnaces Guided Tour

I have to say, the tour was fascinating. Even though we took the tour in the morning, the place is still creepy AF. Most of the areas are rusty and vegetation pokes up between giant, defunct machinery. The furnaces towered high above us as the tour guide explained the men who worked here would have to eat salt tablets to keep from passing out. Working near the furnaces, whether shoveling coal inside the burners or collecting the pig iron, temperatures could reach almost 130 degrees. I mean, I enjoy taking hot yoga classes, but that is freaking HOT!

The tour spooked me the most when we ventured into the area below ground level. We descended wet, steep stairs, then ducked under a small entryway into this tunnel of sorts. The air felt dark, damp and ominous.

There was even a large, rusted handcart they used to move the pig iron still just sitting there.

Fun fact: “Pig iron” gets its name from the shape of the cooling trenches the workers would dump the molten iron into to cool. These trenches looked like a sow feeding piglets.

Each of these blocks of pig iron weighed around one hundred pounds, and had to be picked up and placed onto mule-driven carts. Needless to say, only the strongest men were able to do that job.

But are the Sloss Furnaces haunted?

After completing our tour, the guide asked if anyone had any questions. I had to know if these famous Sloss Furnaces in Alabama were haunted! Of course I’d heard the rumor about Slag Wormwood, the cruel foreman that allegedly worked the men at Sloss to the bone. The workers, fed up with their ruthless leader, claimed one night Wormwood fell into the furnace, which is odd as he never really went up to the top. Not suspicious at all, right? Anyways, now his menacing ghost has been spotted haunting the furnaces.

Or has it?

My guide burst my excited-to-hear-a-ghost-story bubble when I asked him about Wormwood and he replied that the story is made up. Seriously?!? Apparently, a now defunct haunted house company started the rumor to drum up excitement for the haunted tour they put on every year at Sloss. Well, damn! The guide could tell I was super bummed about this news and went on to say that while the story of Wormwood is fictitious, it is (loosely) based on an actual event.

The Wormwood Origin Story

Calvin Jowers worked as a foundryman at the nearby Alice Furnace in the late 1880s. One night he walked around the top of the furnace to loosen a bell that had gotten caught. Calvin lost his balance and fell straight into the molten iron. Yikes! Rumors swirled of his ghost being spotted soon after his death. When Alice Furnace was torn down in 1905, Calvin’s ghost reappeared at Sloss Furnaces. While not quite as exciting as an evil foreman being murdered by his crew, it’s still an interesting tale and Calvin really did exist, unlike Wormwood.

If y’all are ever in the Birmingham area, I highly recommend you go check out Sloss Furnaces as one of the more interesting ghost tours in Alabama. You can either book a guided tour or just do a self-guided tour. It’s now a National Historic Landmark and rightfully so.

The reason Birmingham is the city it is now is mainly due to furnaces being built in the 1880s. These furnaces created thousands of jobs, and therefore brought thousands of workers to the area. While a self-guided tour would be fine, I would recommend the guided tour as you learn so much more about the history of the furnaces and the Birmingham area in general. Also, at the time of this writing, it’s only $10 which is a steal!

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