Friday, July 31, 2009

Your Own Haunted House

I've previously mentioned that I've always wanted to own a haunted house. Well, this would be my chance if I were rich, and if any of you happen to be millionaires looking to move to the Twin Cities it might be yours.

The Griggs Mansion, 476 Summit Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota, is currently on the market. This mansion is considered by many investigators to be the most haunted house in Minnesota. The building was used as an art school from 1939 to 1964 and was once owned by Carl Weschke of Llewellyn Publishing, who I suspect purchased it because of its spooky reputation.

While a lot of "supernatural activity" seems to be centered around the 4th floor, many parts of the house have been visited by entities as well. Six or seven entities have been felt, heard, made their existence known by various means and have actually been seen throughout the years. The mansion's spiritual occupants are a young maid, a gardener, a child apparition, a thin man in a black suit, a teenager, Amy, and a Civil War general, perhaps Chauncey Griggs himself. The 7th sighting could've been any of the male apparitions, because only the head of an unclear, male apparition appeared.

In addition to the apparitions all sorts of paranormal activity apparently goes on in the house.

Many unexplained, but typical incidents common in haunted houses have been reported, though no specific entity has been found to be responsible for the noises, annoying behavior that makes the living uncomfortable or befuddled. Windows that had been firmly closed, even nailed shut, have been found open in the morning. Footfalls have been heard traveling up and down the staircases. Shadowy presences have been seen. Unsuspecting students who rented the apartments, have been shaken awake, to find an undistinguished apparition head floating above their beds. Doors open and close by themselves. "Rasping coughs" have been heard coming from empty rooms. Light bulbs suddenly shatter, paper bags have been known to jump off the shelves, and jump across the floor. People in the mansion have felt presences walk by them. Some of the presences happen to appreciate art. While working in the art studio room, with the skylight on the top floor, students had felt presences peering over their shoulder to get a good look at their drawings in progress, perhaps studying with interest the student's efforts.

Unfortunately for me, the old movie trope of being able to buy an amazing house incredibly cheaply because of paranormal activity doesn't happen in the real world. The asking price for the place is 1.8 million dollars, well outside my housing budget. Here's the real estate listing - check it out while it's still available and take a look at the interior photos. The place is just beautiful, and for me ghosts would be a real bonus. The area even has some personal significance - my wife and I were married at 490 Summit, right next door.

I guess I need to work harder on those lottery spells...

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7 comments:

Rufus Opus said...

Sounds cool!

yuzuru said...

I had a ghost in my house one time... they are just annoying. One time he screw up our food (don´t want to think what kind of ectoplasmatic thingy he put it there)!

So I don´t know what you see in them.

Scott Stenwick said...

Well, all you really should have to do to keep them out of places where you don't want them is set up some magical barriers. They can go right through physical walls, but spiritual ones are a whole different story. And, of course, if you move into a haunted house and the ghosts turn out to be more annoying than interesting you can always just banish the whole place and clear it out.

yuzuru said...

Yes, I did my best to annoy them as well!
after some incense, exorcism herbs, salt water, seals of solomon, invocation of archangel michael, I think they perceived that it was best to leave us alone!

But my point is that every house where there is a hounting, the owners are usually more annoyed than scared
:-)

Scott Stenwick said...

But my point is that every house where there is a hounting, the owners are usually more annoyed than scared.

Probably true. At least, that's the sort of thing that I see when I watch documentaries on paranormal investigations and the like. Paranormal investigators don't have much technology in their arsenal for clearing out haunted places. Despite this, most homeowners seem happy when they see some evidence of paranormal activity because they're more worried that they might be going crazy than than they are about having a possible ghost.

Sator said...

I have a comment about the former post. I like to think of myself that Im very grounded, not the kind of people with a lot of imagination that often thinks about magickal attacks. But once I had an argument with a Thelemic person , and suddenlly strange things started to happen me. My face was green, and almost had two car accidentes -I was a magnet for stupid drivers- so I went with a friend that is astrologer, and checked the cuestion; so it was true I was being attacked. Anyway I made some work with the egiptian godess Maat about asking for justice. And it was the last time I heard about this person.
P.d. Usually I read tarot, but went with the astrologer because i was involved in the situation.Anyway I know enough astrology for check for myself the cuestion s chart.

Scott Stenwick said...

I have a comment about the former post.

You actually can comment on posts other than the top one on the page. I'd move your comment to the previous thread if I knew a way to do it with blogger, but so far I haven't figured one out.