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Recommended: A Haunted House
The Haunted House
This haunted house in Hagerstown was built long ago. It is the site of a most interesting ghost story, which happened to my friend’s friend’s grandmother. Now while I have heard many stories similar to this, I have never known someone to be involved in one and actually affected by it. My friend’s friend is a Caucasian, 17-year-old, female Christian from Hagerstown. Her dad is a postal worker, and her mother works for the government. The story takes place in the house her grandmother temporarily lived in as a child. I collected this story while I was hanging out with my friend in her room. I happened to mention this assignment, and in comes one of her friends with a story to tell:
This story takes place in Hagerstown, Maryland. It’s in this old house where my grandmother lived for like a year when she was younger. Before her family moved in, there was an old woman who had just died there. Her room just so happened to be the same room my grandmother stayed in. My grandmother would tell me that she would leave her room, and when she came back, her door would not only be shut, but locked. And this even happened when she was in the room sometimes. Plus, there was this rocking chair that was already in the house when they moved in, and it would just rock on its own. Now apparently, there were already rumors that the house was haunted. So, after not even living there for a year, my grandmother and her family moved out.After researching haunted houses in or near Hagerstown, I was surprised to see the many accounts of so called “haunted” houses in this area. The story I collected includes one of the most common characteristics: the mysterious rocking chair that will rock on its own free will. Many of the accounts reported online shared this feature. The other main paranormal activity from this story is the door shutting and locking itself. This same phenomenon seems to occur in many ghost stories. None of the articles I found online mentioned this feature, but such incidents appear in other stories I have heard from books and movies, so the door shutting and locking itself is certainly not unique to the story above.
The storyteller is a 65 year old Hispanic woman from Riverhead, New York. I collected the story over the phone on April 2, 2006. She started off by telling me that the story took place in 1988 on Long Island. Her landlord had told her about a wonderful restaurant that she just had to go to, so on a Friday night the storyteller and her husband decided to try it out. When stepping up to the Jamesport Manor Inn she had a creepy feeling just from looking at the old mansion. She claimed that it had an eerie sort of feel to it and obviously did not look like a typical restaurant.
The story was told to me by one of my high-school classmates, who is a resident of the town of Atco. The nineteen year old young man is currently a sophomore at Clemson University and describes himself as being a Roman Catholic of half Italian-American and half Irish-American decent. The young man also noted that he is normally very socially conservative and a staunch Republican. His father is employed as a general contractor and his mother runs her own catering company. He describes himself as a “self proclaimed expert of all things related to the Atco Ghost.” He cannot remember the specific date when he first heard the story, but stated that he can remember knowing most of the details to the story for most of his life. He also claims to have attempted to see the ghost on only one occasion and after what he saw, he refuses to ever go back to that area of town at night. The following is an almost word for word account, which he checked to ensure its accuracy, of the lengthy story as he retold it to me ...
The Horror story of “Diary Of A Haunting” was written by M. Verano. The main character is Paige. Paige is very capable of what she believes in. She also is very strong and fearless and curious about what is going on in her house. The theme of my book is “If You Have Something To Say, Say It.” I believe that Paige knew something was going on, but she was too afraid to say it because she was soon to know if her family would think shes crazy. Since she didn't say anything things got worse. I believe it is important to speak up if your know that something is wrong.
The storyteller told me the story of the Goatman in a mutual friend’s dorm room at night. I had come to the dorm room to ask my friend if he knew any urban legends of ghost stories from around campus or the state of Maryland. The storyteller, a 21-year-old biology major, shouted excitedly from the couch that she knew one. She is from Beltsville, Maryland. Her mother is a lawyer and her father is a math professor. My friend and I sat down on the couch and listened intently as she told the story: The Goatman from Beltsville.
Since I come from the Eastern Shore of this state, I was surprised to hear a ghost story I was previously unaware of. The story takes place in a park in Salisbury. The person who told me the story is a 19-year-old sophomore at the University, and we spoke about it one evening after dinner. He believes it to be true, because one of his friend’s siblings has apparently experienced the ghost firsthand. I tape-recorded his narrative:
I was told a story about one of Cloudcroft's more famous ghosts when casually lounging in the undergraduate student physics lounge at the University of Maryland, College Park, with a group of students during a lunch break before class. This occurred during early April, 2005. I inquired whether anyone knew any ghost stories or folklore. A friend of mine volunteered that she knew several ghost stories from her travels. The storyteller was a 23-year-old Caucasian female from an upper-middle class family in Baltimore. She currently lives in Crofton, MD, and is a physics and astronomy major.
The Haunting of Hill House is a gothic horror novel written by Shirley Jackson. Supernatural occurrences take place within the house revolving around Eleanor. Eleanor is a thirty-two-year-old woman who never once has felt the sense of inclusion. Eleanor seems to never recall the feeling of delight in her adult years due to the fact that she was a caretaker for her now deceased Mother; who took away most of her freedom by being incredibly restrictive. Dr. Montague, a doctor that specializes in analysis of the supernatural rents Hill House, a supposedly haunted house. During the renting period, Dr. Montague begins an experiment inviting individuals who have had involvement in abnormal events
The particular story I collected takes place in Philadelphia, where ghost stories are plentiful. Philadelphia is an old city with a rich cultural heritage, and our founding fathers made history in the place that was once our nation’s capital (Eidmann). Many believe that their spirits and spirits of those from colonial times still lurk around. It is easy to feel like spirits are around when in a place where many people have lived and died before, and in a place that is filled with old buildings and landmarks. All of these factors make this city a perfect place for a ghost story.
The University of Maryland has a rich history dating back to its founding in 1856 as the Maryland Agricultural College. Built between 1804 and 1812, The Rossborough Inn is the oldest building on campus today (Ghost Tour, 2). With its history, it is no surprise that the Inn has been a hotspot for ghost activity. Knowing that there have been numerous reports of ghosts at Rossborough, I visited the Inn to ask current employees at the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism, located in Rossborough Inn, if they themselves had experienced anything bizarre or if they had known others who had. I entered the small office where three women were talking and with their permission asked about their experiences with ghosts at Rossborough. Upon asking my question, all three smiled, although shaking their head, they indicated they had not. However, they all had heard of the stories, and one of the women replied and told me to speak with the University Archivist. She told me that she has spoken with the archivist, and upon learning the stories, she said that she “got freaked out and really wanted to go home.”
The following ghost story involving a ghost named “Anna” was first told to me by a person who lives near the ghost site. A New Jersey native, this girl was an eighteen-year-old college student. She came from a middle-class, predominantly white, suburban neighborhood. This story about Anna’s ghost was told to a group of other college students and me while eating dinner at the campus diner. The storyteller, I, and our group of friends began to discuss the things we teenagers do to occupy ourselves on weekend nights when we’re bored. Another friend of ours mentioned that she and her friends would trespass into an old, abandoned house in her neighborhood just for thrills. The storyteller then announced that she knew of this road in her hometown of Totowa, New Jersey that is haunted by a teenage ghost named Anna who is dressed in a white gown and was killed by a car while on the road. The storyteller did not know the exact name of this road; she claims that it is now only referred to as Anna’s road. She also did not know when the accident occurred and had not been there herself, but she asserted that a friend of hers had seen the ghost and verified the story for her. She then proceeded to enlighten her audience:
I searched until I heard a story that gave me the chills. It comes from right around the block from where I live on campus, at one of the sorority houses at the University of Maryland. I collected this story the weekend of April 2nd, at my fraternity house. I asked my friend, a junior from Pikesville, if she knows any ghost stories. Her face lit up as if she was dying to tell me this story since the first time we ever met. She asked “you never heard the story of the ghost in the sorority house?” I replied no. The normally quiet woman demanded my attention away from the TV and went into her story.
The teller is 24 years old, and works for the state department of education. Originally, he was from the Baltimore area where he attended an elementary Catholic school. He moved to Bell Air in second grade and grew up there. After his parents separated, he moved back to Baltimore to live with his grandparents, and has remained in Baltimore ever since. The sister he mentions in the story moved away to China years ago. A weekend or two ago, he, I, and a few other friends spent the evening in one of our favorite hang-out spots in Columbia, Pub Dog. It was there, sitting in our dimly lit booth, over some beers that I heard him tell this story from his childhood. He spoke in a strangely matter-of-fact tone, considering the weirdness of the story he was telling, and in a smooth, comfortable manner that seemed to indicate he had told the story many times before. Here is the story he told:
had not been told about the ghost story at all by the old people. This
a dull grey colour as if it had lost the will to live and stopped
“A Haunted House” by Virginia Woolf is a short story about a ghostly couple that are wandering around the home they lived in before they died, searching for something they lost. They move round the house as quietly as they can without waking the new owners. The owner does not awaken, but subconsciously begins to wander and get confused along with the ghost. they enter the drawing room the word “safe” is chanted multiple times, allowing the couple to feel at ease and know that their search was not in vain and what they yearn for is safe. The story ends with the ghost being described about how they were before their deaths. The wife passed away first and her death leads her husband to travel and he eventually returned to their home. the story