31 Days of Halloween: Haunted House of the Day

[BrandonDaCollector]

I never watched that Jericho show, that's cool he does that. Oh now I'm very familiar with the Clown Motel. I've seen a lot of that. I was amazed the first time I seen how many Clowns there was It's very scary when you see the Clowns move on their own Very good entry Packer

[AcidDragon]

Hahaha, wow. When I was a kid, I was absolutely terrified with clowns. This is some next level channeling of one's childhood fears. Lol. Love the idea of adding the circus music in the background. Sorry I didn't post on the day, it was Canadian Thanksgiving.

[packerbacker180]

No worries, they'd always be waiting for you here to share a smile...



For today we're going to stay local and go where...

When you're alone and life is making you lonely
You can always go
Downtown
When you've got worries all the noise and the hurry
Seems to help I know
Downtown



The light's so much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
So go downtown
Things will be great when you're
Downtown
No finer place for sure
Downtown
Everything's waiting for you



In 1901, Buffalo hosted the Pan-American Exposition. Statler built a hotel on the Exposition grounds and called it "Statler's Hotel". It was a temporary wooden structure intended to last the duration of the Exposition. With 2,084 rooms, it could accommodate 5,000 guests. Although the Exposition was deemed an overall failure due to a number of factors (including bad weather and the assassination of President William McKinley). The first "permanent" Statler hotel was designed by August Esenwein and James A. Johnson, built in Buffalo, New York, and offered 300 rooms and bathrooms (later expanded to 450 rooms and baths). It was the first hotel chain to offer such amenity.



For several decades the Statler was the only luxury hotel between New York City and Chicago and as such it hosted lavish parties for the rich and famous. After World War II the number of people staying in the city could not fill the hotel rooms and some floors were converted to offices. In 1954 Hilton Hotels bought out Statler Hotels. In 1984 the last hotel room was closed and the building was renamed Statler Towers. In 2000 an attempt to convert the building into condos failed and it went bankrupt. In 2011 the current owner bought the building – which was apparently in such bad shape some floors were about to collapse and many of them were filled with water.



It is rumored that the mob had a financial presence in the hotel from day one. Buffalo provided the perfect place to deal with ‘special problems’ away from prying eyes in Chicago and New York City. This is said to have left behind some residual energy as well as a number of guests who may have checked in but never checked out.



Hotels are often plagued by suicides. If you kill yourself at a hotel your family won’t have to clean the mess. Stories say the Statler had more than its fair share of jumpers; some even suggest there is something on the upper floors that gives a fragile mind an extra push.



Apparitions of former guests and staff; people are seen falling from the upper floors but fade into nothingness before they meet the ground; shadow figures; touches from unseen presences; an elevator that likes to go from floor to floor even when no one is in it – it may or may not take you to the floor you requested or it may not – it seems to prefer floors that the highest paranormal activity is reported on (2,11,18).



Objects move on their own; phantom footsteps; disembodied voices and conversations; time and dimensional slips; unexplained noises of all kinds from whispers to screams to loud bangs; cold and warm spots; light anomalies; feelings of unease, not being wanted and not being alone.



So go downtown
Things will be great when you're
Downtown
Don't wait a minute more
Downtown
Everything's waiting for you

[BrandonDaCollector]

I didn't know about that one. That's great you posted one in your hometown Packer

[packerbacker180]

Well then, let's go across the state to the place where if you can make it there, you just might never leave...



You'll surely give rise to no scary thoughts when I say the address of 14 West 10th Street in Manhattan unless you think of the cost of renting in NYC. Which is why this unassuming brownstone has earned the name The House of Death!



The string of unfortunate events that took place within its walls began with Fred Andrew, who was a well-known cyclist in the late 1800s. The event took place on August 9, 1897. Andrew was out cycling and struck a young boy. The boy broke his leg in the collision, and Andrew was subsequently arrested for reckless behavior. This event was recorded in a contemporary issue of the New York Times. This accident is often noted as the starting point for the house negatively affecting its residents.



Tragically, the brownstone was home to a real life demon—Joel Steinberg. A former New York criminal defense attorney, Steinberg was charged with first-degree manslaughter for beating his 6-year old, illegally adopted “daughter” to death. Lisa Steinberg was found around 7am in November of 1987 by officers responding to a call about a child not breathing. After entering the second floor apartment, they found Lisa unconscious and another baby covered in filth and tied to a playpen. The baby survived, but Lisa was declared brain dead and died a few days later. Steinberg was released from prison in 2004.



One of the twenty-two spirits is said to be that of infamous author, Samuel Langhorne Clemens who went by the recognized pen-name of Mark Twain. Clemens was said to be a resident of the building briefly between the years 1900-1901 and there is even an aged plaque there commemorating his stay there. But the building is not where Clemens actually died, he moved on from New York City and died in 1910 in Redding, Connecticut. Although Clemens died in another nearby state, somehow his spirit is haunting the building.





By far, the most reported phenomena in the so-called “House of Death” is a woman in white. This spirit’s description varies slightly between accounts – some people say she wears a nightgown, and some say it is an actual dress. Bartell’s visiting medium even mentioned sensing a woman in white. The spirit wanders through the halls, walking through doors. Lights often flicker with no concrete source of the disturbance, which some attribute to the woman in white. And no, the woman in white doesn't refer to former NY Senator Hillary Clinton in a Robert Byrd tribute outfit.



Not all of the 22 purported spirits have been identified, but they just might be one of the reasons that the city never sleeps.



Peeka-BOO!

[BrandonDaCollector]

Holy heck, I never knew about that lawyer Joel Steinberg or any of that That was terrible to say the least Good one Packer, keep'em I coming

[packerbacker180]

I did not know that story either. I guess I was still a little too young to remember things like that that I'm sure would've been on the news back then.

Nor did I know much about today's Haunted House of the Day...



The Joshua Ward House has some rich history behind it. Built in 1784, it is one of the first brick homes built in Salem, Massachusetts. A noted bricklayer and woodworker at the time, Samuel McIntire did all of the house’s interior woodwork, including an original staircase that remains his oldest surviving work. Since 2015 the Joshua Ward House has served as a hotel. But before that, in 1983 it was added in with Salem’s Downtown District. And prior to that in 1978, it was listed with the National Register of Historic Places. George Washington requested to stay in the home during a visit in 1789.



The Joshua Ward House has long been rumored to be haunted due the property’s connection to Sheriff George Corwin and the accused witches he tortured during the Salem Witch Trials, including Giles Corey who he pressed to death at the nearby Howard Street Cemetery in September of 1692. CBS News named the Joshua Ward House one of the six most haunted houses in the U.S., the New York Post named it one of the 15 scariest haunted house in the U.S. and International Business Times named it one of the 10 best haunted houses in the U.S.



Corwin was a bloodthirsty character whose zeal added to the notorious events that surrounded Salem in the late 1600s. Nicknamed ‘the Strangler’ after his preferred method of torture (which included tying his prone victims’ necks to their ankles until the blood ran from their noses), he is said to be responsible for many of the deaths of the accused witches, including that of Giles Corey. Corey was tortured by the placement of heavy stones upon his chest in an attempt to crush a confession from out of him (and seize his property). Despite his horrific treatment, Corey never confessed and indeed he is said to have implored his torturers to pile on more rocks in order to hasten his departure. Corwin was so hated by the time of his death that his family had to bury him in their basement for fear that his grave would be desecrated.



In the early 1980s, a real estate company named Carlson Realty bought the Joshua Ward House, intending to turn it into their headquarters. After moving in, an employee named Dale Lewinski began taking photographs of the staff members to add to a welcome display. Lewinski was using a Polaroid camera to snap head-and-shoulders, passport-style pictures. After photographing a colleague by the name of Lorraine St. Peter, a peculiar sight greeted Lewinski. Instead of showing Lorraine St. Peter, the Polaroid developed but showed a strange, black-haired female figure. (The apparition completely overshadowed and even replaced St. Peter. Robert Ellis Cahill published a reproduction of this photo in his book Haunted Happenings. Ellis, himself an ex-sheriff) describes St. Peter as “both genuinely frightened and embarrassed by the picture.”



One room, in particular, seems to be more haunted than the others. An employee would “lock her office door nightly only to return in the morning to find books and papers thrown across the floor, the wastebasket upside down and lampshades askew.” At least two entities who reside here who were innocent victims of the witch trials, perhaps looking for Sheriff George. Neither of these apparitions are at peace. One is the spirit of a woman with a black, rather wild hairstyle and may be an unjustly executed victim. People see her apparition roaming the hallways throughout the building. (This is the woman rumored to be in the Lewinski photograph.)



The second is said to be the spirit of Giles. Trash cans are found, turned over, books are pulled from shelves, rooms found in disarray. Sheriff George is a third entity reported. He appears as an older male entity, sitting in a rocking chair by a fireplace. In the mid-1980s, people reported being strangled by an unseen entity. No one is sure which entity causes this manifestation. Some think it is Sheriff George, while others believe it could be one of his angry victims. People report many spirits, including the above-referenced elderly-looking gentleman sitting by a fireplace and a ghostly woman who roams the upper floors.



I've always wanted to go to Salem, Massachusetts for the history. I know a few people who have been there. but the Joshua Ward House might be one place witch I avoid.

[BrandonDaCollector]

Oh yes, I'm sure a story like that would make the news Gosh, I never knew about the Joshua Ward House either much less that it made top 15 & top 10 lists I know about the Salem Witch trials however Sure, it's very historical but I'm not so sure I would want to visit there Another good one Packer

[packerbacker180]

The early days of Pennhurst State School and Hospital in Spring City, originally the Eastern Pennsylvania Institution for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic, gave little clue to the horrors that awaited the patients in the years to come. In 1903, the Pennsylvania Legislature authorized the creation of the Eastern State Institution for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic.

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When it opened in 1908, the asylum that cared for mentally and physically disabled Pennsylvanians seemingly thrived. Both paid employees and volunteers worked hard to provide a safe home for residents. However, as the years went on, the funding for the asylum began to decrease. A lack of funding led to horrific conditions – overcrowding, lack of food, and abuse of patients.



n 1968, conditions at Pennhurst were exposed in a five-part television news report anchored by local WCAU-TV correspondent Bill Baldini. In 1981, a Time magazine article described the place as having "a history of being understaffed, dirty and violent." In 1983, nine employees were indicted on charges ranging from slapping and beating patients (including some in wheelchairs) to arranging for patients to assault each other. The Halderman Case, which resulted in the closure of the institution, also detailed widespread patient abuse.



Today, the sprawling network of buildings and tunnels are left abandoned. Staff and caretakers of the property say that the buildings, as well as the underground tunnel network, are severely haunted by the spirits of the patients who suffered and died there. Reports of slamming doors, disembodied footsteps and voices, and sounds of vomiting and crying are heard from seemingly empty rooms. Some witnesses have even reported the apparition of a little girl roaming around the campus, looking perplexed and a bit lost. The sound of children playing and crying is also a common occurrence.



“The King” is the nickname for an unfriendly entity who is believed to be the ghost of a maintenance man who worked at Pennhurst during the 40’s or 50’s. His domain is the boiler room in the basement of the Mayflower building. He manifests himself as a shadow figure, but he has plenty of energy to touch or even choke people. Cigar smoke is a common scent when he appears. When you go down to the boiler room, you’ll see many cigarettes on the floor. They are presented to him as trigger objects. They’ll keep him happy for a few minutes, but his attitude towards visitors changes within the blink of an eye.



The Mayflower Building is not just haunted by The King. This building has three floors and a basement. When you enter the building, you’ll see plenty of satanic symbols all over the walls. According to the guides, people have broken into the facility when it was left abandoned to perform rituals that might have opened portals. People who visit the Mayflower Building can be overwhelmed by feelings of dread and sadness. Investigation tools such as cameras and other paranormal equipment is known to malfunction in the building. And, apart from the noises of slamming doors, footsteps and the sounds of a person vomiting, there is the creepy music box-music. That music seems to be coming from everywhere, but nobody has been able to locate the music box itself. Disembodied voices telling people to “go away” are frequent here, too. People have heard phrases such as “I’ll kill you”, “we’re upset” and “I’m scared”.



Some buildings can no longer be accessed, simply because the construction is dangerous. But there have been investigations in the past. The Quaker Building, for instance, is a scary place to be. People have seen shadow figures here, including the apparition of a female child with long black hair and long dangling arms. People have been pushed and scratched at the Quaker Building and even had things thrown at them. A demonic entity is said to cause the injuries. Inside the Limerick Building, people have reported seeing the apparition of a woman in an old-style nurse’s uniform.





Today Pennhurst stands as a decrepit reminder of man's inhumanity towards man, especially the abuse of those who are less abled to defend themselves or give voice to their torment. It is not a place I would ever want to walk into, let alone be forced to have stayed for many years. And I certainly would not want to tempt whatever remains there to this day.

[BrandonDaCollector]

I never now about Pennhurst State School & Hospital or any of that. Amazing stuff. Yet another good entry packer