The Chauncey Griggs Haunted House

HISTORY:

In 1883, a wealthy wholesale grocery businessman, Chauncey Griggs, built this lovely mansion, but lived in it for only four years, before moving onto greener pastures on the West coast, where he expanded his business interests to include the lumber and transportation markets. Over its 100+ years, the mansion has been a private residence, and at one time was divided into apartment units as well. Many families/individuals, who moved in, spent a lot of money on upkeep, furnishings, servants, etc., but wound up leaving after only a few years.

The mansion became an art school in 1939, and stayed there for 25 years, until the new Arts and Sciences Center was built. Many students and teachers were glad that the new building was built, because now they didn't have to share their school with seen and unseen presences.

MANIFESTATIONS:

While a lot of "supernatural activity" seems to be centered around the fourth 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.

 One of the most strongly felt presences is that of a young maid, who in 1915, hanged herself off the fourth floor landing, suffering from depression over an ended romance. Earlier in the 20th century, she appeared to a young servant and a butler in the fourth floor hallway. Her presence has been felt strongly by many people throughout the years. She perhaps is one of the entities that climbs the stairs to the fourth floor, to her unseen rope on the landing there. While climbing this staircase, and standing in the hall as well, people during the day have felt a "sense of foreboding," anxiety, and feelings of distress, that could be quite strong, as three newsmen found out one night, when they came to gather information for a series on ghosts. After setting up camp in the big room on the top floor, and armed with two cameras; one regular and one with infra-red aimed at the well-lighted, top of the stairs and fourth floor hall, and a tape recorder, the men each went out to the hall, but scooted back to the room when they were filled with an overwhelming sense of fear. They heard heavy footsteps coming up those stairs. One brave newsman went though the hall to the stairway, and though he saw nothing, he felt a strong presence on the stairs. They left in a hurried manner together down the stairs, feeling nothing was worth staying a night there.

Want to know more about the other apparitions?  Go here