In the late 1960s, the United States Junior Chamber, known nationally as “The Jaycees,” began a Halloween tradition that continues today: Charity Haunted Houses. These attractions were cheaply built and staffed by volunteers, but they raked in thousands of dollars per attraction. It was estimated in 2016 that charitable organizations operated 80% of all haunted attractions in the US, raising some $250 million annually.
Haunted attractions were–and remain–inexpensive ways to generate money for charities. Although most people think of the Jaycees, many charities look for ways to scare up extra cash. And Halloween is perfect for it!
For more information regarding haunted houses as attractions and the history of these organizations raising money, view the Ghost Education 101 archived livestream at https://fb.watch/nM37_-8hh9/.
Join me with Ghost Education 101 as I discuss the history of haunted houses as attractions and why you don’t want to install one for your charity. FaceBook Live at 9 pm.
There are three true crime stories that have possibly led to residual hauntings. Join me as I discuss. The presentation will leave you with a teaser to my next appearance where I show off my ghost from the York Ghost Merchants.
Tomorrow night (October 13th) at 9 PM EST, I will be stepping in to chat about the 2nd most popular holiday in America: Halloween.
Due to last minute changes in scheduling, I am thrilled to bring you tales of fright, based in facts to whet your appetite for the upcoming holiday. Join me in the Ghost Education 101 Facebook Group for a LIVE stream, where I will take questions & the chat room will be open, OR watch the encore episode on the Ghost Education 101 YouTube channel.
There’s a photograph making the rounds on the Internet of a supposed apparition of a young girl peering through a window at Eastbury Manor House. The image is too blurry to definitively state that Joanne Puffett and Diane De-Groot captured a ghost in the photograph. However, the location is worth discussing.
Barking Abbey, located in Barking, London, England, was a large monastery established in 666 AD. It remained viable until King Henry VIII dissolved all British monasteries in 1539. Only the Curfew Tower remains today. In 1551, the land was sold off. Clement Sisley purchased a plot in 1557 and built the first red brick Elizabethan gentry house in the area. Construction was from 1560-1573. The home was originally called Estburie Hall.
Clement Sisley (1504-1578) and his much younger wife Anne Argall (1547-1610) lived in the home with their 4 young children. Even though Clement was of the gentry class (wealthy landowner who lived totally on rental income), he was in serious debt when he died in 1578. Anne sought financial security through her second husband, Augustine Steward (d. 1597). Ownership of Eastbury remained in the family until 1629.
Ownership of Eastbury fell through many hands over the centuries. The National Trust (England) purchased the home in 1918 and restored it. The home is an H-shape with an inner courtyard. Although most of the land once owned by the Sisley family has long been sold, the house does boast two gardens: a Tudor herb garden and a walled garden. The walled garden houses bee-boles. “Bole” is a Scottish word for recess in a wall. Rows of recessed bee boles help bees proliferate.
1. Painting of Eastbury Manor House. 2. Bee-boles, location unknown and not the one at Eastbury.
But the question of the day is whether Eastbury Manor House is haunted. It probably is. The most familiar legend tells of the house being haunted by a young girl that only women can see. That certainly fits the narrative of the photograph. However, there is a lesser-known variation where it is a young girl and a woman who haunt the dwelling.
I’m curious about whom might the girl—and woman—be. Records from the 1500s are scarce, possibly lost to fire. Luckily, the house does hold paranormal events. At this time, though, the home is closed due to COVID. (Note: Joanne and Diane merely walked outside the house, where they took the picture.) Check the website, https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/eastbury-manor-house, to see when the home reopens. And I will add the house to my bucket list.
Helen Ackley in front of the 1890 Queen Anne house.
This court case, formally known as 169 A.D.2d 254 (N.Y. App. Div. 1991), is covered in nearly every law school class. Yet, many people falsely believe that the New York Supreme Court ruled the 1890 Queen Anne house located at 1 LaVeta Place, Nyack, NY was indeed haunted. What the Court did say was, “As a matter of law, the house is haunted.” Actually, the decision of whether or not the house was haunted was not before the Court. This case was a contract case; however, people enjoy discussing decades later. What is news: The “Ghostbusters House” recently sold.
Helen and George Ackley purchased the stately, though in desperate need of repair, 3-story, 4,628 square foot home in 1967. During their ownership, Helen boasted about three ghosts who resided with the family. One was a woman in a hoop skirt and the other was a Revolutionary War era couple called Sir George and Lady Margaret. (Sir George was dressed in a red coat and thus British.) Helen recounted the hauntings in the Reader’s Digest May 1977 article “Our Haunted House on the Hudson.” The instances were innocuous. Coins and trinkets left for the children. Gentle shaking of the daughter’s bed to get her up for school. Full bodied apparition nodding approvingly of the wall color choice. Helen took advantage of retelling the tales and included the house on haunted ghost tours. For all who resided in the tiny hamlet knew the house to be haunted. The couple who did not know were Jeffrey and Patrice Stambovsky.
Jeffrey and Patrice entered an agreement to purchase the home in 1990. They ponied up $35,200 in escrow funds and started learning about the small town of Nyack. They became concerned when local residents started telling them about the haunted house. That was when Jeffrey and Patrice wanted out of the contract and the escrow monies refunded. The Ackleys were unmoved.
The case wound its way up to the highest Court in New York. In the 1991 opinion, the Court found that the Stambovskys could, in fact, get their money back as they were not locals and did not know of the house as being haunted. The Court reasoned that the house was haunted “as a matter of law” since Helen Ackley endeavored to promote the house as such. Helen encouraged the label of “haunted” to be placed upon the house. She profited, if not monetarily, but by reputation. The case appeared to upend the widely held view of caveat emptor, or buyer beware. Indeed, Justice Rubin wrote how this case was an exception to strict application because of the facts and Helen’s silence.
Ownership has been steady over the decades since the Court’s decision. After the Stambovskys were able to get out of the contract, Canadian filmmaker Adam Brooks purchased and lived there for more than 20 years. American singer/songwriter Ingrid Michaelson resided there from 2012-2015, only to list the property due to her long-term absence from the large house. She felt the home “enchanting—but not creepy.” Simply put, she wasn’t there enough to justify the expense. American rapper Matisyahu purchased in 2015 and has been attempting to unload it since 2019.
The house has been extensively renovated.
Originally listed on September 18, 2019, for $1.9 million, the price has lowered until it finally sold on March 29, 2021, for $1,795,000. Not too bad for a home that Justice Rubin believed whose owners would suffer financially if the Stambovsky contract were to be enforced.
So, what happened to the three ghosts? Every owner since Brooks has maintained that the home is not haunted.
Keith Evans joins me tomorrow night to discuss the Hays House, a gorgeous Victorian house with a guardian angle and the bonds that link two families. Tune in at 9 PM EST on http://www.midnight.fm.
The Victorian mansion known as Whispers Estate is for sale. Listed at $130,000, the home boasts 4 bedrooms and 2 1/5 bathrooms, totally 3,700 square feet. The Zillow site lists the status as “accepting backups.” Reputed to be haunted, the home has sketchy history.
Local lore claims that the former residents, Dr. John Asa and Jessie Ruth Gibbons, suffered great loss. The home’s website states that the couple adopted or orphaned several children with 2 dying tragically. The stories are unsubstantiated through local newspapers. It is questionable whether a 10-year-old girl named Rachael died in a fire or that a 10-month-old infant named Elizabeth died in the master bedroom.
What is know is that the house was struck by lightning in 1917, and a chimney came down from the damage. Mrs. Gibbons died of “broncho-pneumonia” (listed on her death certificate) on May 31, 1934. The home’s website claims she died of double pneumonia—possibly an error from inaccurate reporting.
Dr. Gibbons was hit by a car a couple months after his wife’s death, July 26, 1934. He died “from complications” on July 6, 1944.
The couple did foster one girl: Helen Marie. She died in 1994. Other than that, few of the claims on the website can be verified. However, the home shows well. If interested, search the home’s address, 714 West Warren Street, Mitchell, Indiana, for more information.
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Haunted Georgia: Henry Greene Cole House, Marietta, Georgia
Henry Greene Cole was a Union sympathizer living in the Confederate South. He was also wealthy. He built a small house on Washington Avenue just outside the Marietta Square. It is told that his father-in-law urged General Sherman not to burn the Fletcher House Hotel because of his relation to Cole. Cole donated the land adjacent to his home for the Union National Cemetery, where over 10,000 Union soldiers are buried. Cole endeavored to build a larger home a block down from his small house. Although he died before it was completed, his family resided in the grand house for many years. Today, the house is a commercial building; however, it still boasts the architectural elements of a Georgian home.
It is also haunted. A local resident whose grandparents lived down the street spoke of walking past the house and seeing a woman in the upper left-hand corner. She saw this girl many times over the years. For several decades, the house was home to several law firms. Attorneys and their employees reported feeling cold drafts and hearing voices. One attorney experienced her clock running backwards. People walking past claim to see curtains shifting and lights turning on and off at night. The house sits directly across from the National Cemetery.
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