Home Equity Loan Lowdown: April 2007

All houses wherein men have lived and died are haunted houses ...Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

The United Statesnis one of the countries haunted with all kinds of scary ghosts and weird houses. We all find enough stories and evidences on hunted houses and hotels in America. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, it is fun to be scared. Some houses in the US have a creepy vibe. Let us try to find out how scary and interesting these weird houses are!

White House: This is one of the weirdest official houses in the US. Many ghosts have been reported here, but none has appeared very regularly as that of former president Abraham Lincoln. In one incident, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands was staying at the White House when she heard footsteps followed by a knock at her door. She answered it and came face to face with the assassinated president. Mrs. Grace Coolidge, the first lady, also saw Lincoln's figure dressed in black and looking out from a window in the Oval Office. Presidents Eisenhower and Truman both sensed a ghost’s presence, and Truman's daughter also heard knocking sounds. Later, President Reagan’s daughter also reported seeing Lincoln's ghost inside the White House.
Winchester House: Previously known as the Victorian Mansion, a wealthy widow named Sarah L. Winchester built the house in 1884 that is filled with so many unexplained oddities. This 160-room Victorian mansion had modern heating and sewer systems, gas lights that operated by pressing a button, three working elevators and 47 fireplaces. When you enter the house, you will be impressed by the staggering amount of creativity, energy and expense poured into each and every corner of the room. . The oddest thing is smell of chicken soup coming from a long-unused kitchen. There are many things in the house designed to confuse unwary spirits: doors that are very small or lead nowhere; long, winding staircases with very shallow risers; windows that look into other parts of the house; pillars installed upside down and the number 13 found everywhere.
Hull House: This haunted house in Chicago was constructed by Charles J. Hull at Halsted and Polk Streets in 1856. The house was then turned into a community center by Jane Addams and another social worker who took over in 1889. Jane Addams first occupied Mrs. Hull's bedroom. She was awakened one night by loud footsteps in the otherwise empty room. She then moved to another room. Jane was not alone in noticing the unusual happenings. Helen Campbell, an author was reported seeing an apparition standing next to her bed. When she lit the gas jet, the figure vanished. The same peculiar sounds and figures were also observed by Mrs. Louise Bowen, a lifelong friend of Jane. Hull House received its greatest notoriety when it was alleged to be the refuge of the Chicago "devil baby". This child with pointed ears, horns, scale-covered skin and a tail was supposedly born to a devout Catholic woman and her atheist husband. Locals reported that they saw a disfigured boy that was hidden away on the upper floors of the house. On certain nights, the image of a deformed face could also be seen peering out of the attic window.
Lemp Mansion: This Pointer Family house is located in St. Louis at Missouri. The Lemp Mansion was built in the early 1860's and was subsequently purchased by William J. Lemp as a residence and auxiliary brewery office. After the death of Charles Lemp, the mansion was sold and turned into a boarding house. However, stories began to emerge that residents of the boarding house often complained of ghostly knocks and phantom footsteps in the house. The decline of the house continued until 1975, when Dick Pointer and his family purchased it. The Pointer's began remodeling and renovating the place, working for many years to turn it into a restaurant and an inn. But the Pointer's were soon to find out that they were not alone in the house. During the renovation process, workers reported strange things happening in the house. The workers feel they are being watched, tools vanished and strange sounds inside the room. When the restaurant was opened, staff members also have had their own odd experiences. Glasses have been seen to lift off the bar and fly through the air; sounds are often heard that do not have explanation and some have even glimpsed actual apparitions who appear and vanish at will. It is also said that doors lock and unlock on their own. The piano in the bar plays by itself and voices and sounds come from nowhere.
Charles Wright Congelier Home: One of the weirdest houses was located was located at 1129 Ridge Avenue, in the Manchester, North Side, and neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Carpetbagger Charles Wright Congelier, his Mexican wife Lyda, and a young servant girl, Essie was living in this house around 1870. The story of its life as a haunted house begins in the winter of 1871, with Lyda's discovery of Charles having an affair with the maid. Lyda was so enraged, that she fatally stabbed Charles and chopped off Essie's head. For the next 20 years the house remained vacant. In 1892, it was remodeled to accommodate workers but they soon moved out, claiming to hear the sobbing and screaming of a woman. Around 1900, Dr. Adolph C. Brunrichter bought the haunted home. One day on August 12, 1901, the family next door heard a terrifying scream from his residence. When they ran outside to investigate, the neighbors saw a red explosion-like flash shooting through the house. The earth under them trembled, and the sidewalls cracked. Every window in the doctor's home was shattered. Upon investigation, they found a decomposed female body strapped to the bed and five headless young women in basement graves. Dr. Brunrichter, meanwhile, had disappeared, and the house once again stood vacant.
The Wademan House: This huge old Victorian house on Center Street in Navarre, Ohio was built in 1850. The foundation was made from 4 feet thick slabs of limestone, and the structure itself was put up with huge oak timbers. In the basement there was a narrow and frightening tunnel that was once part of the infamous Underground Railroad. Initially the 14 rooms house had been quite pleasant and peaceful, however many strange and weird things started to occur. There was a cold spot in the music room that was absolutely freezing all the time. In many instances, things would turn up missing, or would be moved around to some other places. Rocking chairs would frequently rocked all by themselves. Footsteps were heard at all hours of the day or night walking through the downstairs hallway. Many beautiful antiques in the house were knocked or either thrown onto the floor and broken.
The Myrtles Plantation: The Myrtles is one of the most haunted houses in America. Bradford (former leader of the whiskey rebellion) had built the great haunted house on a Tunica Indian burial ground in 1794. He was actually the very first to see a ghost at the Myrtles Plantation. A naked Indian girl was seen wandering lost on the grounds. A Civil War soldier died on the floor near the front door from battle wounds. He was an avid cigar smoker who stayed at the house before his death. The smell of cigars sometimes fills his room (though smoking was not allowed at the Myrtles Plantation). William Winter was said to have died on the 17th step of the staircase after a mysterious man shot him through the study window in 1871. The steps heard on the stairs in the middle of the night are attributed to him. Those who count claim the footsteps stop at the seventeenth step. People believed that the ghosts would hide in the corners until nighttime, when they would come out to pester the living.
LaLaurie House: This three-story building at the southeast corner of Royal and Governor Nichols street gained its eerie title, ‘The Haunted House,’ from an oft-repeated tale in which spirits of tortured slaves clank their chains during the midnight hours in remembrance of awful punishment meted out to them by their mistress. It appears that the mistress of this home was the first victim of yellow journalism in this country. Lalaurie was one of five children born to Louis Barthelemy Chevalier de Macarty and Marie Jeanne Lovable. The Lalaurie mansion was erected in 1832 and for the next two years was the scene of many fashionable affairs, for the Lalauries entertained on an elaborate plan. On the afternoon of April 10, 1834, an aged cook set fire to the house during the absence of her mistress. When neighbors rushed into the mansion to fight the fire and try to save the furniture and other valuables, slaves were found chained in their quarters. The principal ‘ghost’ is that of a little girl slave who, to escape the whip of her mistress, climbed to the roof and jumped to her death into the courtyard below. Another tale, equally untrue, was that the mistress of the mansion buried all her victims in the courtyard well. There were also reported incidents of people seeing, feeling and hearing the ghosts of tormented slaves in the LaLaurie home, and there are even reports of the Madame herself being seen there. Furniture moves about by itself, people feel the touch of unseen hands, and there are several who have seen the ghostly faces of the dead peering from the upper windows and the chamber of horrors that became the crucible of their miserable lives.
The Whaley House: Located in San Diego, California the Whaley house was built in 1857 by Thomas Whaley on land that was partially once a cemetery. The house has since been the locus of dozens of ghost sightings. In the courtroom the faint scent of a cigar and perfume could be felt. Some of the other ghostly encounters include: the spirit of a young girl who was accidentally hanged on the property.
The Stranahan House: The Stranahan House was built in 1906 for Frank Stranahan. He married Ivy Cromartie and used his newly acquired wealth to build her a home whose charm and beauty would endure into the 21st century. However, Stranahan died on June 23, 1929 but his life story had a sad end. Legend tells that he committed suicide after having sunk into financial ruin in 1927 when he lost most of his wealth and holdings in the aftermath of a devastating hurricane. As many as six family members have also died in the house. The ghost of Frank Stranahan is still in residence at the home he built with such loving care. Reports of strange apparitions and ghostly noises have come from rattle staff members. The ghost of Ivy Cromartie Stranahan, who died in an upstairs bedroom in 1971, was also reported to appear accompanied by the strong scent of an antique fragrance. The uneasy ghost of her father, Augustus Cromartie, who died in that same bedroom year before, is reported to make his presence known on occasion. Other ghostly residents include Ivy’s brother and sister and the apparition of an Indian servant girl seen outside the rear of the building.
Franklin Castle: It has the distinction of being known as Ohio's most haunted house. Hannes Tiedemann, the builder of this castle was regarded as a monster type of man. A number of murders have been attributed to him for generations. He was responsible for the deaths of his daughter and a servant. According to some record, his 15-year-old daughter, Emma, was found hanging in the rafters. The murdered servant girl was either hacked to death with an axe in a front turret window on her wedding day in a fit of Tiedemann jealousy or perhaps she was strangled in her bed when Hannes bound and gagged her upon learning of her engagement to another man and her intention to leave him. Some speculate that you can still hear choking sounds in the room where she was killed. When the Romanos moved into the castle, things apparently got weird right away. On the first day the family moved in, several of their children went to play on the fourth floor. They returned a while later and told their mother of their new playmate, a little girl who dressed and talked strangely, and who refused to leave the upstairs. The continued to play with the girl for quite a while, but could never get her to come downstairs. A variety of investigators visited the house during the Romanos' stay. A team of researchers from the Northeast Ohio Psychical Research Society visited the Franklin house, and in the middle of the investigations one member of the team fled and vowed to never return. A writer saw a strange ectoplasm cloud and felt dizzy to the point of passing out when she approached it.