Tag Archives: 1900s

The Creepy History of The Haunted Old Spaghetti Factory

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Take a journey through the macabre and spooky history of The Haunted Old Spaghetti Factory in Vancouver, a family restaurant where you get a ghost story served with your meal. 

Right before opening time, a waitress was walking in the back of the restaurant to check if all the tables were set. She suddenly saw a little boy under one of the boots and went over to him to see if he was alright. Suddenly the books on a bookshelf fell out with a bang and she looked away for a couple of seconds. When she looked back at the boy under the table he was gone. 

She had just seen one of the residential ghosts she had heard stories about in all her years working there, and now she had seen the ghost herself. That was her last shift at the Old Spaghetti Factory. 

Are you ready to explore the chilling history of The Haunted Old Spaghetti Factory? The haunted restaurant is located in Vancouver in Canada, and these eerie walls have been home to tales of ghosts, ghouls, and strange occurrences throughout the years as well as pasta. 

From strange noises and flickering lights to sightings of mysterious shadows, there’s no telling what secrets this haunted restaurant has hidden away.

The Old Spaghetti Factory in Vancouver

Located in Vancouver, The Old Spaghetti Factory is well-known for its alleged hauntings and is located in the cobbled streets of Gastown, the oldest parts of the city. 

The Haunted Old Spaghetti Factory opened its door in 1970 and is located in the Malkin Building on 53 Water Street in Vancouver, Canada. The building has been a staple of the local landscape since 1887. 

Its mysterious energy and eerie vibes have attracted many people to investigate its depths – some of whom claim to have experienced terrifying supernatural encounters while they were there and the former owner of the building, William Harold Malkin is said to haunt, not only the building, but Gastown as a whole.

The Haunted Old Tram, Number 53

Inside of the restaurant there are many old and vintage decorations, like an old trolley cart from 1904 that used to be on the streets of Vancouver. 

One of the most notorious tales that haunt The Haunted Old Spaghetti Factory is that of the old trolley car, Number 53. At first glance it looks like it is just a part of the restaurant’s rustic decor, but this is the thing that makes it so haunted.

Some people claim that it is the ghost of the conductor that once worked in the tram that is haunting the restaurant and the tram he once worked in and that the hauntings first started when they put the tram inside of the restaurant. 

Many visitors to The Haunted Old Spaghetti Factory have reported seeing a strange ghost in uniform inside of the tram after closing time. 

The Little Red Man Pulling Pranks

Another ghost that is said to haunt the restaurant goes by the name of The Little Red Man or Looky-Loo and is the mischievous ghost with auburn hair or red clothing, depending on who tells the story.

He is said to be running around the kitchen and creeping out the staff by calling out their name. He has also been known to scare women in the restroom.

The Young Boy Scaring Staff to Quit their Jobs

The third ghost is said to be a young boy around 11 or 12 with blonde hair wearing blue overalls. The staff have eventually named him Edward and he runs around in the restaurant after closing time or is seen trying to bend the cutlery or unscrew the light bulbs. 

“We asked, ‘Can you swing a lamp or move some cutlery or move a chair right now to prove that you are here?’ Five seconds later a fork lifted up off the table, swiveled around, and dropped back onto the table. A lamp started swinging and chairs collided. This was all visible and audible to us,” Kris Newson, a former staff member in the restaurant, said in an interview.

One story goes that a waitress saw the young boy on her first closing shift and got so spooked out by the experience that she quit that very day. 

The Girl with the Balloon Looking for her Mom

There is also a legend about a young girl sitting by herself at a table, holding a balloon that no one knows. A friend of the general manager is said to have talked with her for a long time and said she had told him she was looking for her mother. But when another came over to the table, she apparently vanished right then and there. 

The Dark Vortex the Reason for the Paranormal Happenings?

Once the restaurant had a psychic that came and inspected the place to understand why there was such a presence of ghosts there. The psychic claimed that the ghosts were attracted to the place because of a vortex in the back of the restaurant as well as the spirits attachment to the decor of the restaurant. 

Some say the concentration of ghosts in this single restaurants is because of the long history of both the building and the area. 

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Haunted Tales From The Old Spaghetti Factory – Gastown 

This Vancouver Restaurant Is so Haunted That Staff Have Quit After One Shift 

This Gastown restaurant is the most haunted place in Vancouver | Dished 

The Mysterious Tale of Borley Rectory – Was it Really Haunted?

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Tucked away in a remote corner of Suffolk lies a building with a sinister past – Borley Rectory. For centuries it had ghostly tales of nuns and headless horsemen in the night, but how much of it was true and how much was a hoax?

Borley Rectory, located in a remote corner of Suffolk, has long been shrouded in mystery and speculation of the paranormal kind. It even used to be described as the most haunted house in England, and that is saying something.

Rumors of hauntings in the large Gothic-style rectory have swirled around the property since its construction in 1862, but to this day no one can say for sure what lies beneath – are the stories simply urban legends, or is something even more sinister at work?

A Closer Look at the History of Borley Rectory

Borley Rectory was constructed in 1862 by Reverend Henry Bull, who served as Rector of the church of St. Mary between 1862 and 1892. 

During this time, many paranormal occurrences were reported by members of the Bull family and visitors to the property, including sightings of phantom figures, unexplained noises and strange lights in the surrounding woods. The case remains unsolved to this day, with experts and amateurs alike still trying to uncover its secrets.

The Headless Horsemen

One of the things people claimed to have seen was the headless horsemen over four decades on various occasions, pulling a phantom coach. This was also the thing the wife of Reverend Smith saw when she later would call the Daily Mirror and get an investigation going in 1929. 

The Death Coach: The “Death Coach,” a prominent figure in the folklore of Northwestern Europe, particularly in Ireland. The death coach is typically described as a black carriage, driven or led by a headless horseman known as the Dullahan. The appearance or sound of the death coach is believed to be an ominous sign, foretelling imminent death either for the observer or a close relative.

The Paranormal Activity in the Borley Rectory

Long before 1929 and the investigation that would follow, the rectory had been talked about as haunted for years. Paranormal activity was reported frequently in and around the Borley Rectory all the way back in 1863. Witnesses described mysterious footsteps, disembodied voices, and unexplainable lights in the surrounding woods. 

The Bull Family: The Rectory used to belong to the Bull family that told countless of ghost stories about the place over the years. This image is photograph of Reverend Henry Dawson Ellis Bull made before 1892

Others even claimed to have seen supernatural figures wandering around the rectory grounds. These reports were collected by investigators that visited the location over the years, creating an intriguing mystery that maintains its fascination today.

The Legend of the Monk and Nun

Before Reverend Smith and his wife moved into the rectory, the Bull family lived there for decades. On July the 28th, 1900, the 4 daughters of the rector claimed to have seen a ghost of a nun in the twilight, just outside of the house. They tried to talk to her, but when they got closer, the spirit seemed to just disappear. 

So called ghost historians talk about a legend from the Benedictine monastery that according to legend was built around 1362. One monk allegedly had a relationship with a nun from the convent not far from the monastery. 

Their affair was apparently discovered  and the monk was executed and the nun was bricked up in the convent walls. 

The Ghost of the Nun: One of the more enduring legends from the Borley Rectory was that it was haunted by a nun. Something that the children from the Bull family told about, as well a different mediums that held a seance at the place.

There was also once conducted a planchette seance in London about the spirits in the Rectory held by the medium Helen Glanville in 1938. She told that she had made contact with a young nun named Marie Lairre. She was a French nun that left her order in France to follow a man, a member of the Waldegrave family and owner of the Rectory in the 17th century. 

She never got that far though and she was murdered inside of the house. Her body was buried in the cellar, or perhaps even thrown in a well that wasn’t in use anymore. She had tried to write on the walls for help from the afterlife to try to get the people to find her body. 

The Skull at Borley Rectory

Fast forwarding to when Reverend Smith and his wife moved into the rectory in 1927, the wife soon started getting suspicious that something wasn’t quite right. Once she was cleaning the cupboard and came across a brown paper bag. When she peered inside, she found the skull of a young woman, and this is when things really started to take off. 

The servant bell would go off, despite not being connected, there were lights in the windows and she kept hearing footsteps and this phantom coach carried by horses at night. 

She got in contact with the Society for Psychical Research through the Daily Mirror, and they then sent a reporter writing about all the strange things that were happening in the rectory. 

Paranormal Investigation of Price

Harry Price was a celebrated investigator who visited Borley Rectory in 1929 and really made the haunted house famous for the country as his accounts were printed in the Daily Mirror. He was attempting to uncover the truth of the supernatural phenomenons. 

Harry Price

During his time there, Price recorded his experiences, noting mysterious phenomena such as cold spots in certain areas of the rectory and inexplicable noises. There were also things like a vase and other objects being thrown and mysterious spirit messages that were being tapped out on the mirror.

According to Mrs Smith, all of these haunted phenomena stopped as soon as Harry Price left the rectory, and she suspected it was him that was behind all the hauntings. 

When Price published the study by the Society for Psychical Research, he rejected most of the rumors that people had reported on, however, most ghost historians discredit this report and books and TV are continuing to be intrigued by the story of the Borley Rectory.

The Exorcisms and Poltergeist Activity

The Smiths left in 1929 and Reverend Foyster moved into the rectory with his wife, Marianne and their adopted daughter, Adelaide. 

Reverend Foyster wrote in 1930, a detailed report to Harry Price about the strange things they had experienced while living there. The bell ringing the Smiths had heard continued, the windows shattered and there were stones and bottles thrown by no one. 

Marianne Foyster even reported to her husband that something had even thrown her out from her bed. 

Reverend Foyster tried twice to repel the hauntings by exorcisms, but it didn’t go so well. In one of the exorcisms he was even hit by a stone in the shoulder. 

After they moved out from the rectory in 1935, people speculated on what was going on in the house. Most blamed Marianne to be the mastermind behind the hauntings, and even though she blamed her husband and psychic researchers that came by to investigate, she later came forward with shocking news. 

She had an affair with one of their lodgers called Frank Pearless, and she had used the paranormal rumors to cover up her lies and deceits. She also had a habit of making her friends fake hauntings to prank her husband. But everything? Marianne claimed not, and said that she really did believe some of the hauntings had been something real, although most could have been the wind. 

The Borley Rectory Report

Harry Price couldn’t let the Borley Rectory be and rented the place in 1937. He let 48 observers stay in the house for longer periods of time and interviewed them about their stay there. 

In 1937, Price published his findings from Borley Rectory in a report which has since become known as ‘The Borley Rectory Report’. In it, he concluded that the rectory was indeed haunted by several distinct entities and spirits. 

Despite decades of debate, no one has been able to conclusively explain or disprove Price Harry’s findings. While some people suggest hoaxes or natural occurrences are behind the phenomena experienced at Borley Rectory, others remain adamant that its walls still echo with supernatural activity – mysteries we may never be able to explain.

The Fire

During the planchette seance in 1938, there was a second spirit that turned. The spirit identified himself as Sunex Amures, and claimed he would set fire to the rectory that year. He also said that the bones of a murdered person would be revealed then. 

There was no fire in 1938, but in 1939, the new owner was unpacking boxes and knocked over an oil lamp. The fire spread quickly and the house was severely damaged. After they investigated, they concluded that the fire seemed to have been started on purpose. 

After they did a quick search in the cellar of the burnt down house, they discovered two ones, something Price thought to have been the bones of a young woman. 

Burnt Down: The Borley Rectory after the fire.

Borley Rectory – a Hoax?

Debate continues over the precise source of the paranormal disturbances experienced at Borley Rectory. While some suggest hoaxes or natural occurrences are behind the phenomena experienced, others remain adamant that its walls still echo with supernatural activity – mysteries we may never be able to explain. 

Many investigators have revisited Borley Rectory since Harry Price’s initial investigation and it is still considered to be a site of major paranormal importance today. Even if Price himself has been thought to have faked many of the phenomenon when he conducted his investigation. Whether it was a hoax or not remains to be seen, but it remains an enduring mystery in the world of ghost hunting.

In 1938 it was confirmed that the legend of the monk and the nun bricked up in the convent had no basis in facts and now many speculate that it was the children in the rectory that made the story up for fun. 

The skull Mrs. Smith supposedly was never accounted for, and the bones they found in the cellar was also debated. The parish refused to have a ceremony because they believed that the bones they had found belonged to a pig. 

In 1944 it was demolished and the land divided before getting new buildings built. 

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borley_Rectory

The Mystery of the Haunted House on Avenue Frochot

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Something strange is lurking in the shadows at Avenue Frochot’s notorious Haunted House in Paris. After a Chambermaid was supposedly killed inside of the house, there have been strange things going on according to the neighbors as well as some of the owners.

Enter at your own risk, as the mysterious Haunted House on Avenue Frochot in Paris is filled with secrets and dark forces just waiting to be discovered. Prepare yourself for a spine-tingling adventure that could lead you to discover a hidden world of terror or uncover the truth about what lies deep within the walls of this haunted abode.

Avenue Frochot, Home to Paris’ rich and famous

Avenue Frochot is home to some of Paris’ most affluent and powerful citizens where they live behind the iron fences. It’s also the home of a centuries old mystery – the Haunted House on Avenue Frochot. 

Famous writers and artists of Paris’ bustling art scene have a history of passing through this beautiful avenue. The writers Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo lived here at one time and so did the painter Toulouse-Lautrec who had a studio at no. 15 . 

People like Théodore Chassériau was neighbors to Gustave Moreau and movie director Jean Renoir and jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt also spent time in the avenue. There were also people like the composer Victor Masse, who died inside number 1, and this place are now remembered to be very haunted. 

The Murdered Chambermaid

Although the whole avenue can look a little haunted with their glass stained windows, gargoyles on the front, there is one that is remembered as the most haunted mansion in Paris. 

But it isn’t one of the powerful, rich and famous men that owned the houses that are said to be haunting it. The ghost is said to be the ghost of a chambermaid who was brutally murdered inside of the house at the beginning of the 1900s. While she was working for the director of the Folies Bergère. One day, she was walking up the stairs when she was stabbed with a poker. Her killer was never caught, and she is haunting the place now even after death. 

It’s rumored that in the dead of night, eerie footsteps can be heard echoing off the walls of the Haunted House, even when it’s supposed to stand vacant. Some claim to have seen shadowy figures moving through the windows or even heard disembodied voices coming from within the walls. 

The Curse of Number 1

From then on, there is said to be a curse of the house that was built in 1839. Mathieu Galey was a theater critic that died in the house, paralyzed on his bed, the same place and same position that the composer Victor Massé was a hundred years before. 

Sylvie Vartan bought it in the 1970s, but fled from the house only a few days after moving in. Why? Well, many say it was because of the ghost haunting it. 

Today, there is a professor of medicine living there, refusing any paranormal claims the house has. So perhaps, the curse somehow got broken, and the chambermaid finally moved on. 

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La maison maléfique de Paris – Paris ZigZag | Insolite & Secret

The Time Travelling Ghost Haunting Château de Versailles

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Château de Versailles in France is known for being the peak of decadence, royalty and luxury. But it is also known for being one of the more haunted places in France, and even has a potential time traveling story.

Château de Versailles, the stately French palace on the outskirts of Paris, is said to be one of the most haunted places in France. 

The Palace is a formal residence to the royal family of France that was built by King Louis XIV about 19 km west of Paris. It started out as a small hunting lodge in 1623, but it kept expanding until it was the luxurious palace we know of today. 

With Château de Versailles’ dark history and numerous reports of mysterious sightings and eerie phenomena, this magnificent building has become a haven for paranormal investigators and ghost hunters alike.

The Story of Louis XIV’s Ghost

It’s rumored that the ghost of Louis XIV, the Sun King who oversaw much of Château de Versailles’ construction, still haunts the halls. He loved this palace so much that he even moved the French Court and Government into it in 1682 from the Louvre Palace. 

Witnesses say that his specter can be seen in his favorite chambers and garden pathways, wearing a traditional robe de chambre and capotain hat. The sound of horses galloping on unseen paths have been heard too, dead silent at midnight – a ghostly reminder of Louis’ presence in the form of what some believe to be his funeral procession.

Mysterious Sightings of Marie Antoinette’s Ghost

One of the more famous ghosts in the world must be that of Marie Antoinette, who in her afterlife, also has a lot of rumors around her. She is mostly known for quoting that the people should eat cake instead as they didn’t have any bread. This is false as she never said this. It is also said she is haunting the rooms of the Versailles palace. But can this also be false?

It is widely believed that the ghostly figure of former Queen Marie Antoinette can often be spotted walking near the Grand Trianon and inside of the palace. Even more chilling, some have heard her sobs echoing throughout the empty halls in the dead of night. 

Others claim to have seen a woman wearing her famous white dress, complete with a white rose in her hand, sauntering along the grounds of Château de Versailles.

The Ghost of the Petit Trianon

The most famous haunting is of the Petit Trianon, the grounds outside the palace. Or is it really a ghost story as one of the theories is that it was actually a time slip. The story was written down and published in 1911 that fueled the rumors that a ghost was haunting the Château de Versailles. 

Two English women visited the palace as they traveled through France on a hot August day in 1901. Miss Moberly was a headmistress of St Hugh’s College for women in Oxford while Miss Jourdain was a former student of hers who was now her assistant. 

As they were having a pleasant trip through the gardens they asked for directions from two men they met dressed in green coats and three cornered hats with spades in their hands. Strange, but perhaps not too strange at an old palace. But the two women suddenly started to feel a strange sensation and growing distress as it was something they couldn’t quite pinpoint. They also passed a Chinese kiosk on their way. 

Photo by Leah Kelley on Pexels.com

They then encountered a woman wearing an old dress and a white hat while she was drawing in the garden. The women were overwhelmed by the experience, and they returned to Paris, agreeing that the place was definitely haunted. 

Another theory was that they had experienced some sort of time slip or time travel. One of the proofs they presented was their own ignorance over the palace and garden at their visit. But when they looked at plans for the Trianon, they found that there indeed had been a Chinese kiosk there in 1774.

Unseen Spirits in the Hallways at Night

In the darkness of the night, some visitors have reported hearing strange noises and feeling a mysterious presence when walking along the Château de Versailles dimly lit hallways. One such story is about an unseen spirit that supposedly haunts the palace’s famous Hall of Mirrors or in the gardens of Petit Trianon. Witnesses like cleaners, guides and visitors have claimed to see dark shadows lurking in the corner of their eyes or feel a chill whenever they step foot into this eerie place.

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The ghosts of Trianon | Palace of Versailles

The Friendly Ghost Octavia at Den Nationale Scene

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At Den Nationale Scene theater in Bergen there is a ghost named Octavia that haunts the place. She is said to be a helping ghost, taking care of the staff and helping the actors remember their lines. 

There is a rule somewhere that every theatre needs a ghost, even if the building is new or old. In Bergen in Norway, they have Octavia at the oldest theater in Norway, Den Nationale Scene, in the beautiful art-nouveau building that opened in 1909. But as house ghosts go, she’s not so bad to have hanging around as she is said to be very friendly. 

Octavia Sperati

In the early and living days she was one of the actresses at the theater named Octavia Sperati that lived a long life as a working actress as her children did after her as well. She was born as Salmine Svendsen in Kristiansand, south in Norway, but took her middle name and married as Octavia Sperati which became her stage name as well.

Octavia Sperati was an actress who died in March 1918 in Bergen and had worked for many years at the theater in the city, dedicating her life to it and according to popular belief, she is still hanging out in the theatre, long after her death.  

She is remembered for her characters of the famous playwrights like Holberg and Ibsen where she played the character of Gina Ekdal in the first production of the play The Wild Duck and one of Ibsen’s most famous plays. 

Haunting at Den Nationale Scene

One of Octavia Speratis portraits still hangs in the lobby at Den Nationale Scene and is one of the things that are said to be haunted. The portrait has survived most things like multiple bombings during the second world war and fires that broke out in the theatre.

In a fire in 1983, her portrait was one of the only things intact after a fire at Den Nationale Scene. A man named Jørgen Fogge who worked there claimed to have heard her voice calling out in the flames. 

There have been several sightings of her over the years, most of them claiming she is in a white dress, flying around in the corridors or sitting in her kept seat in the front, watching the plays. Someone claims to have seen her with a hat, parasol and a pink ball gown in the attic.  

Before seeing her, you can hear her knocking, or her footsteps through the corridors. In some cases it is said that paintings are falling off the wall, or even the sound of her voice can be heard when the theater is quiet. 

The Helpful Ghost

Although a paranormal specter, the staff, actors and audience are not particularly afraid of her, and she is rather a dearly beloved ghost. She is said to be a helpful ghost, and her only goal is to take care of the building and the staff working there as she once did. 

She is particularly known for helping the actors to remember the lines and if they are stuck on them on stage, she will suddenly appear to help them. 

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References

Her er Norges mest kjente spøkelser – NRK Vestland

Octavia Sperati (skuespiller) – Wikipedia 

Tales from the Haunted Ship: Legends of the Queen Mary

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Want to explore haunted legends of the world’s most famous ship? Discover chilling ghost stories about strange and supernatural occurrences said to haunt the decks of The Queen Mary.

Step onboard the legendary RMS Queen Mary and discover the eerie tales of her ghostly visitors that are said to remain, decades after the ship sailed its last voyage on the sea. For decades, passengers and crew have reported sightings of paranormal activity, from strange lights and mysterious noises to full-bodied apparitions roaming the decks of the vessel.

History of The Queen Mary

Built in 1934 and christened by Queen Mary herself, the ship is now a permanent museum vessel in Long Beach, California. The Queen Mary has a rich history of dramatic events. Some based on facts and real events, some based on rumors, tales from the passengers and crew.  

As a luxury ship it transported many famous passengers, like Elizabeth Taylor, Jacky Kennedy and other rich and famous on first class. In second and third class, many more were making their way from America to Europe or the other way around. 

During World War II the vessel was nicknamed The Grey Ghost and the ship was used as a troopship to transport thousands of troops between Southampton and New York; many of whom are said to have died during the voyage. 

A Troop Ship: During the second world was, The Queen Mary was used to transport soldiers. Here from 1943 when it was about to anchor in Sidney with Australian troops.

She was together with the ship Queen Elizabeth the largest and fastest troop ships involved in the war and could carry as many as 15 000 men in a single voyage. Churchill himself remarked that Queen Mary had shortened the war by a year. 

After her stint as a warship, she had several reincarnations including being a job site for hundreds of workers since then, which could explain why so many mysterious occurrences have been reported onboard.

The Art Deco ship retired in 1967 as the market for passengers traveling by sea from New York, USA to Southampton, England declined rapidly as airplanes now could do the work in less time. 

A Number of Haunting Legends

Many of the legends about ghosts and unexplained happenings on the Queen Mary originate from stories told by crew members, passengers, and even those who worked on her in dry dock – however, their authenticity remains unknown. 

Read more about haunted ships around the world: Here

There is an infinite list of ghosts that are supposedly haunting the ship, with over 150 ghosts to this day and counting. Here are some of them:

Stateroom B-340

The hotel promotes the suite room B-340, that originally was a 3rd class cabin as being notoriously haunted, and there are many haunted attraction tours that take advantage of these ghost legends and will bring you on a tour. 

The ghost in one of the staterooms smelling of cigar and perfume is allegedly haunted by a person who was murdered there.

It is said to be the ghost of a British 3rd class passenger named Walter J. Adamson who passed away in the room and according to people staying in the room, he has been known to stand by their beds, sometimes pulling the bed covers off. 

The Mauretania Room

In this VIP lounge, in 1989 two women were sent to clean it. When they walked in they saw a passenger sitting on a chair on the dancefloor. The passenger didn’t say a word, but kept on staring. When a 3rd woman came in to clean, she asked the passenger to move, but the passenger didn’t budge. 

They were about to call for security when the passenger just vanished right before their eyes. 

The Crewman

A bearded crewman in blue overalls is often reported off, often accompanied by whistling. It is thought that it is an 18-year old crew member from Yorkshire that died in 1966. He was killed after he was crushed under a door during a fire drill. He is now haunting the doorway known as Shaft Alley where he died. 

The Lady in White

Some legends are hundreds of years old with reported sightings of a woman in white or a child running around the ship in little period attire. The lady in white is said to be a first-class passenger who is still dancing in the Salon of the ship in a long gown. 

The Engineer

In the old engine room it is said that one of the engineers died and came back to haunt the place. 

Boiler Room Number 4

Inside of this room people have reported about seeing a little girl running around. Sometimes she is sucking her thumb or holding a doll. 

The Haunted Pool

People have reported about wet footprints on the floor near the first class swimming pool that was once a luxury place with an illuminated fountain and pearl ceiling and mosaic tiles. 

One legend is of a little girl who is said to haunt the first and second class pools, but no deaths were recorded in either pool. There are also reports about a girl in a tennis skirt and a woman in an old wedding gown. 

The Murder Suicide

Another claim of a ghost haunting the ship is made by psychic Peter James when he visited The Queen Mary. He said that in 1959, a father murdered his wife and daughters and then killed himself in room B474 and the daughters haunt the room and surrounding corridors. But it is not really proven to happen on the ship but in Roanoke, Virginia in 1964. 

Chilling Accounts From Longtime Passengers & Crew Members

From passengers to crew members of the Queen Mary, chilling accounts of strange and supernatural occurrences are said to have haunted the decks of the famous ship. One such story was that of a former captain who experienced frequent nightmares about running in circles until suddenly appearing in front of a white figure located at the bridge. 

First Class: The Queen Mary was a luxury ship were many rich and famous chose to make their way on back and forth from America to Europe. Today it is mostly remembered as the worlds most haunted ship. //Source: wikimedia

Other occurrences range from changing room temperatures to hearing doors slam shut without warning while visitors board. Despite all these tales—the true origin of this haunted ship is yet to be discovered.

Many passengers have reported seeing lights dancing around certain decks on The Queen Mary as well as hearing voices whispering from empty hallways. Despite years of skeptics and non-believers, these eerie tales still resonate with many visitors on board this haunted vessel.

While many can relate to the eerie tales of supernatural occurrences onboard the Queen Mary, skeptics are quick to call these stories mere myth and legend. Despite this, one thing’s for certain: the stories of these chilling occurrences have captivated and stunned visitors for decades. Whether you choose to believe in them or not, one thing is clear – The haunted legends of The Queen Mary will never be forgotten.

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References

Featured Image: George John Edkins (1921-2001) Wikimedia

Is the Queen Mary Ship Really Haunted?

The Queen Mary: The Most Haunted Hotel in America

Meet The Unknown Immigrant Billionaire Betting Her Fortune To Take On Musk In Space?

The History and Secrets of The Winchester Mystery House

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One of America’s most iconic homes is The Winchester Mystery House. Inside lies a fascinating history of the eccentric Sarah Winchester who created it as well as a ghost story or two.

The Winchester Mystery House has been an enduring American legend since its construction over a century ago. Located in San Jose, California, the 160-room mansion was created by eccentric heiress Sarah Winchester who believed it would protect her from vengeful spirits. 

Or so the rumors say at least, but is it really true? Uncover the secrets behind its haunted corridors and spooky stories as you explore this iconic landmark.

Who Was Sarah Winchester?

Sarah Winchester was born into a prominent and wealthy family in New England. She married into an even wealthier one that made their money from the gun business. It was said that at the time, she was considered to be one of the wealthiest women in the world.

Sarah Winchester: A rich widow that spent most of her inheritance on building her strange house that has puzzled everyone since she started building it.

She spent her fortune to build the sprawling Victorian mansion to house her vast fortune and to ward off spirits she believed were angry at her due to her family’s gun-making business. This belief that her family was cursed and haunted by those who were killed by the Winchester rifle started even in her lifetime.

Throughout construction of The Winchester Mystery House, Winchester gradually added new wings, staircases that lead to nowhere, doors, and other features that made the home increasingly complex and filled with mysteries until her death in 1922.

The Construction of The Winchester Mystery House

The Winchester Mystery House is today world known for its quirky features and haunted reputation, even before Sarah Winchester passed away herself. In 1895 she started to appear in the newspaper where the writers and the other locals speculated as to why this rich widow kept building the house for no apparent reason.

The Winchester Mystery House was built in an almost continuous 24-hour a day state of construction over 38 years. Sarah Winchester hired carpenters, plumbers and other craftsmen to work on the massive project day and night. 

She also employed physicians to keep her healthy during the arduous task of designing and building her fantastic home as her health was rapidly declining over the years as well. Because of this she had to take several breaks from the construction because she tired so easily.

In fact, according to legend, one room was built around Sarah while she slept so that she wouldn’t have time off from the project. Her workers named it the “Martini Room” due to her nonstop working style.

Unique Features in the Winchester House

The Winchester Mystery House contains many unique features, including staircases to nowhere, secret passages and hidden doors. This maze-like way of building her house led people to speculate that she did so to confuse the spirits that haunted her and her family and prevent them from hurting them. 

There are also odd windows, strange symbols on the floor and doors that open up into walls that people have speculated about ever since. In addition to these weird features, Sarah Winchester installed beautiful gardens within the property and added stained glass throughout the home. She even used her wealth to construct a lavish conservatory in The Winchester Mystery House with exotic plants from around the world.

If not to confuse the ghosts, why did she build such a peculiar house? A student writing his master’s thesis on it came to the conclusion that her goal was to keep workers employed and to express her artistic vision although it was ever changing.

Read about more haunted houses around the world: Here

After an earthquake in 1906, the house was severely damaged, and it never really got completely fixed. It was also at that time she stopped working on the house all together by 1910 except from maintenance. When she died in 1922 the house had 160 rooms, 2000 doors, 10 000 windows, 47 stairways and 47 fireplaces.

Just months after her death, her house became a tourist attraction and attracted everyone from paranormal investigators to the likes of Harry Houdini. And then over the years the ghost stories continued and grew.

Ghost Sightings and Supernatural Encounters

It’s not just the architecture of The Winchester Mystery House that has caught the attention of visitors; reports on supernatural encounters also abound. For example, Sarah Winchester’s spirit is said to still haunt reportedly haunt the house, along with other spectral apparitions and spirits of former employees. 

Still to this day the popular belief is that she thought she was haunted by those who died from the Winchester guns, and the guilt she felt from it and the money she got from it kept her as well as her home haunted. 

One of the most popular ghosts in The Winchester Mystery House is a mustached man named Clyde. He can be seen pushing a wheelbarrow down in the basement or trying to fix stuff around the house. Guests have sometimes commented about how they liked the actor in the white overalls and Victorian boater hat. When the staff replies that they haven’t hired an actor they figured that the worker Clyde has been at it again. 

Shadowy figures have also been spotted in corridors and doors have opened and closed without a discernible cause. Some visitors describe feeling an eerie presence when they explore this historic landmark that never seems to be completely at rest.

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A Haunted History – Winchester Mystery House

The Haunted History of The Stanley Hotel

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From rooms filled with terror to séances gone wrong and best seller horror books, discover what really goes on inside The Stanley Hotel and why some say its ghosts still haunt the grounds today. 

The Stanley Hotel is known for its vibrant history, picturesque mountain views, and haunted past. The 140 room hotel in the Rocky Mountains has become an infamous stage for paranormal activity, from séances gone wrong to guests staying in rooms filled with terror. 

Uncover what really goes on inside the hotel rooms and why some believe its ghosts still haunt the grounds today and why the Stanley Hotel is so famous.

Learn the Fascinating History of The Stanley Hotel

The Stanley Hotel has been a Colorado landmark since 1909 when it was first built by businessman Freelan Oscar Stanley with the help of his wife Flora. It was built for the upper-class Easterners and worked as a health retreat for sufferers of tuberculosis. It is still operating as a hotel to this day where they have expanded on the original hotel as well as tried to preserve it.

The place of Estes Park is a pretty remote place in Colorado, so why did a luxury hotel suddenly spring up here?

In 1903, Stanley was given less than 6 months to live because of tuberculosis and he was recommended to take some fresh air. He and his wife went to the Rocky Mountains like so many other people with the means to heal in the brisk fresh mountain air. 

Thinking it would be the last place he would see, he instead recovered in the couple of months he spent there and he fell in love with the place, and he lived to be 91 years old. He then started constructing Estes Park into a summer resort town and building the Stanley Hotel. 

The Stanley Hotel as a Haunted Hotel

Feel an air of mystery and intrigue that seems to linger within its rooms, each full of strange stories and some potentially haunted by those who passed through them over the years.

Read Also: Find out more stories about Haunted Hotels: Here

The Stanley Hotel’s eerie atmosphere—fully illuminated in Estes Park’s pristine night sky—has been featured in films, TV shows and artwork for decades. Its most famous appearance is in Stephen King’s classic horror novel The Shining— a tale involving ghostly apparitions, psychological torment and murder. Despite a rather peaceful history in the early years and not many traumatic happenings connected to the hotel, it has a very strong haunted reputation, especially since King’s visit. 

Others say they’ve found themselves locked in an elevator with a ghostly figure inside and staff members whisper tales of unexplained children’s laughter echoing through the hotel’s hallways. Ghost shows, paranormal researchers as well as guided ghost tours are all trying to get to the bottom of the supposed haunted hotel.

The Shining

“The Shining” is a classic horror novel penned by the renowned author Stephen King. Published in 1977, it delves into the story of Jack Torrance, who becomes the winter caretaker of the secluded and eerie Overlook Hotel. As Jack and his family, including his psychic son Danny, endure the isolation and the hotel’s malevolent supernatural forces, they are gradually consumed by their own inner demons and the sinister history of the place. King’s storytelling and exploration of psychological horror have cemented “The Shining” as a seminal work in the horror genre, and has been adapted into a highly acclaimed film directed by Stanley Kubrick. The novel combines elements of the paranormal with the psychological, creating an atmosphere of dread and unease that lingers.

As mentioned the book was inspired by the Stanley Hotel and the legends that surrounds it. King was inspired to set his book to the hotel after he spent a night there in room number 217 just when it was about to shut down for the winter season. This particular room transformed into the infamous room 237 in the book.

The exterior shots seen in the movie The Shining were filmed on studio sets and at the Timberline Lodge in Oregon, not The Stanley Hotel though. The interior scenes were filmed on sound stages in England. There was a mini series from 1997 on TV by the same name that were actually filmed at The Stanley Hotel.

Room 217

From disembodied voices heard in the hallways to unearthly shadows passing through rooms, The Stanley Hotel has plenty of spine-chilling stories. People who have visited over the years claim to have seen strange mists moving from guest room to guest room and feel a chill as they pass by Room 217. 

So what is it about this room that has made it a hot spot for the alleged paranormal activity? During a Colorado snowstorm there was a housekeeper named Mrs. Elizabeth Wilson who walked around and lit up the acetylene lanterns in the hotel to prepare the hotel for the snowstorm that could cut off the power to the hotel. 

Unbeknownst to her, there was a gas leak on the second floor that filled the entire wing with flammable gas, and when she lit a match inside of room 217 there was an explosion that destroyed the entire floor and she fell down into the MacGregor dining room below. 

No one died and Mrs. Wilson only broke both her ankles. But the legend started to take hold in the hotel and many believe it is Mrs. Wilson is haunting the room after she died at age 90, many years after the explosion. 

Guests who have been staying in room 217 are reporting of the lights turning on and off as well as claiming that their personal items are being moved around in the room. But perhaps there wouldn’t have been as many claims if it hadn’t been that Stephen King himself stayed there when he was inspired by his book. 

Room 217: In the movie The Shining, the use of the haunted room of 217 is still used, although in a different way than in the actual The Stanley Hotel. Inside this room is the ghost of Lorraine Massey who used to to seduce young bell boys into her room. In the end she killed herself in disgust.

The Stairway Vortex

Another place that has gained attention for the strange things happening around it is the stairway connecting the hotel lobby to the second floor. Many think of it as a kind of tunnel of spiritual energy that attracts all the spirits and ghosts around the hotel and makes them stay. 

This is what the mediums are saying, but are normal people just as affected as those claiming to be able to sense energy like that? According to guests and staff members, many feel dizzy walking down the stairs and there have been many ghost sightings in this staircase and some even claim to have it documented. 

One of the more famous documentaries is a picture of what they think could be the ghost of a young girl as they claimed there was no one walking down the stairs at the time. This made headlines in the news and many look at this as convincing evidence for hauntings at the The Stanley Hotel.

So what do we think? Convincing evidence or obvious fraud?

The Concert Hall

One of the gifts the original builder made to his wife, Flora, was the concert hall. In it there was also a piano she would play as often as she could. After her death there is said to be classical piano music coming from the concert hall when there is no one inside late at night that fills the hotel. 

Another ghost that allegedly haunts the place is Paul. He used to be the one enforcing the hotel curfew in the early years of the The Stanley Hotel that started at 11 sharp. Guests as well as staff have said they have heard Paul tell them to get out when it is too late. 

The 4th Floor

In the early days of the The Stanley Hotel, the 4th floor was only used as an attic to store stuff during the closed winter months. It would later be rebuilt, first as lodging for females as well as their children. Then even later the 4th floor would be remade into hotel suits. 

Today, many guests complain about the noise of children running through the halls, laughing as they play throughout the night. When they open the doors for a closer inspection though, there are no children in sight. 

The Child Ghosts: In the movie The Shining, the ghost twins plays a prominent role. The Grady sisters are two ghost girls who were murdered by their father Delbert Grady, when he was possessed by ghosts.

Inside of the rooms, especially in room 428, there are reports about people’s stuff being moved around. Especially the clothes they just casually threw away would be tidied away and folded in the drawers. 

In addition to children playing in the late hours, there is also a rumor of it being haunted by a local cowboy. 

His name was James Nugent, otherwise known as the Rocky Mountain Jim, a local man that was pretty well known in the town. He was known as quite a ladies man, and people tell that they are surprised when they wake up and see the ghost of him standing by their bed. Female guests are particularly bothered and straight up harassed by him, and he is said to try to give them kisses in the middle of the night when they try to sleep. 

The Underground Caves

Under the The Stanley Hotel there is a very intricate underground cave system underneath it where the employees used to discreetly get around the hotel to not be seen by the guests. 

Those still working in the The Stanley Hotel say that there are some activities still going on in those caves. The smell of freshly baked goods has been thought to be from one of the pastry chefs that worked at the hotel when it first opened. 

The Icehouse

Before refrigerators and freezers became an indoor thing with the help of electricity, people used to store food outside in cold ice houses. There they also stored large blocks of ice to use in the bar for fancy drinks. 

Today the ice house is reworked into a museum to hold old cars at the hotel, and there are said to be two ghosts inside. One of them is a kid named Billy that tends to show up rather blurry in photographs. Who he was in regards to the The Stanley Hotel is unknown though.  

Stay at the Haunted Hotel

So those are some of the most famous ghost stories and places around the The Stanley Hotel where there are reported a lot of paranormal activity. 

These stories, combined with King’s famous novel and other supernatural legends attached to the grounds, have made The Stanley Hotel an alluring attraction for those interested in eerie secrets. And the hotel itself has decided to really lean into the haunted rumors with their own ghost tours. 

So, would you like to have checked in and stayed a night for yourself?

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Feature Image: Carol M. Highsmith :  http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/highsm.33392

The Haunted Stanley Hotel | Haunted Denver

The Stanley Hotel – Wikipedia

The Ghost in Höfði house in Reykjavik

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In Reykjavik, Iceland, there is a haunted house called Höfði. According to local legend it is haunted by the ghost of a woman who poisoned herself. 

One of the most haunted houses in Iceland is Höfði. For the outside world it is perhaps best known for being the location where Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met up to talk about ending the cold war in 1986. So it is a pretty well known house in political history, but there is something else living in the house at night.  

For the locals the Höfði house was a well known house long before that meeting. The house in Jugendstil was built in 1909 for the French consul Jean-Paul Brillouin at Félagstún and has since been in the hands of powerful and rich people. But none of them have stayed for a very long time.  

In the memoirs of one of the people living there in the early days tells that the Höfði house is haunted by a young woman. She either drowned or died by suicide, were the latter is the most often told one. 

One of the people living in the house with his family was an entrepreneur as well as a poet named Einar Benediktsson. He was the one that named the house when he moved in in 1914 and had his own theory about who the ghost was. 

He claimed that the ghost was of a woman named Sólborg Jónsdóttir. Benediktsson was once a judge on a famous assault case and when Sólborg Jónsdóttir heard the verdict she poisoned herself and died. According to Benediktsson, he always had to keep the lights on at night as she would appear to him during the night, still distraught over the verdict and haunt Höfði, even to this day. 

Höfði house: According to the legend, the ghost haunting the house is Sólborg Jónsdóttir, a woman that may or may not were poisoned inside of it.

The haunting in the house got so bad that John Greenway that lived in the house in 1952 asked to be moved, that the house should be sold and the British consulate should move elsewhere. He was afraid of what he called: ‘Bumps in the night’, and even filed a special permission from the Foreign office to get out of there as quickly as possible. 

The same year Höfði was sold back to the Icelandic government and the official statement by the Foreign Ministry was: “We do not confirm or deny that the Hofdi has a ghost.”

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From Iceland — Time Capsule: Höfði

Höfði House and the poet Einar Ben | Hit Iceland

The Haunted Babenhausen Kaserne

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Ghosts of nazi soldiers and witches haunt this old barracks in Hesse Germany. In the Babenhausen Kaserne there are stories about everything from soldier clad uniforms floating around as well as phone calls from a woman talking backwards. 

In Hesse Germany there is a medieval town called Babenhausen at the mountain range of the Odenwald where a lot of the old buildings and parts of the old city wall still remain. The old city has seen most of human tragedies, everything from world wars and tragedies like the witch hunts.  

Today Babenhausen Kaserne serves as a museum, but earlier, the Babenhausen Kaserne otherwise called DP-Lager Babenhausen was home to both German and American soldiers over the years. It was first used to house soldiers all the way back in the early 1900s throughout the both world wars. After the Americans took over as they did  with many of the former German military bases after World War 2, it was the American soldiers that got to experience the hauntings said to happen at Babenhausen Kaserne.

The Ghost Phone: According to the legends, there is a phone that keeps ringing in the dead of night. It is a woman that sounds like she is talking backwards.

Read more: Check out all of the ghost stories from Germany

It is said that ghosts from the second world war are still haunting the barracks of Babenhausen Kaserne and according to reports they have been seen still wearing their uniforms. Wars were raging across Europe at the time, and soldiers from both World War 1 and World War 2 were stationed at these barracks.

There are many things that happens after dark at the barracks that makes ghost stories circulate about it. Lights at the old barracks turn on and off when no one is suppose to be inside of it, and if you listen, you can hear the sound of footsteps and voices shouting commands in the middle of the night coming from the basement. 

There is also a strange rumor about strange phone calls the soldiers got during their stay from the time of landlines. What is extra strange is that the voice on the other side of the line is not the ghosts of male soldiers of the past. According to them, they only heard the voice of a woman, sounding as if she was talking backwards. 

Who is this female voice in a place mainly haunted by men? What could she possible be saying? It turns out that the grounds the barracks is built upon has a much older history, and goes back all the way to the witch hunts in Germany many centuries ago.

The Witch Tower by the Barracks

In the old town of Babenhausen, there is a Witch Tower which is the landmark of the town. A witch tower, or Hexenturrn as it is in German, is a term used for a tower that was part of a town fort or castle that served as a prison in the past. The name was given from the time of the witch hunts, were they put up the suspected witches and kept them prisoners as they went through torture before being burned at the stake. 

The Witch Tower: In the town by the barracks there is an old witch tower they used a prison back in the day. It is here they supposedly imprisoned over 50 women before burning them at the stake. Who knows, maybe it was more?//Source: wikimedia/Lumpeseggl

This witch tower in Babenhausen can have a connection to the other strange paranormal rumor that goes around in the old barracks. According to legend, there was in the 17th century over 50 women imprisoned in this witch tower suspected of being witches, all being burned alive on the marketplace in the city.

Read More: Check out more stories about Witches

One of these witches burned at the stake were according to the stories, a certain Mrs. Mueller who was thought to be behind the death of 3 men that she supposedly killed with sorcery.

Fast forward to 1843, there was another woman related to Mrs. Mueller who were stoned to death on the account of them believing she was a witch. 

This particular Mrs. Mueller allegedly seduced and killed at least 5 German soldiers when the barracks first were built. According to this legend their bodies were found in the Babenhausen Kaserne attic and their death remained a mystery. 

The Ghost of Mrs. Mueller in Babenhausen Kaserne

Or could it be the other version of the legend, where there is also a Mrs. Mueller, who is said to be haunting the HQ building in Babenhausen Kaserne? She was a young woman engaged to one of the soldiers at Babenhausen Kaserne. This was in the early days of world war 1 when people thought it would be over in a matter of months.

Mrs. Mueller’s fiance and 3 of his friends didn’t want to be sent to war in France and hid in the attic with her help. They stayed there for a couple of days, but were found when Mrs. Mueller tried to sneak some food and drink up to them. They were arrested and shot by a firing squad all 4 deserters and it was too much for Mrs. Mueller. 

The very same day they were shot, Mrs Mueller jumped from the HQ building and the fall killed her instantly. And according to the legend, just at that moment, the clocks to the officers clock tower stopped the very moment she died. It is said that she is one of those that is haunting the barracks. 

The Haunted Barracks of Babenhausen Kaserne

In conclusion, the Babenhausen Kaserne in Hesse, Germany holds a fascinating mix of history and paranormal legends. From the ghosts of Nazi soldiers to the haunting calls of a woman speaking backwards, this old barracks is steeped in eerie tales.

Read More: For more ghost stories from military bases, check out The Haunted Observation Post Rock in War Torn Afghanistan, Conn Barracks Ghosts of Nazi Soldiers and Bloody Nurses orThe Lingering Presence of a Nazi Ghost at Skaugum

Whether it’s the sightings of soldiers adorned in their uniform, lights flickering on and off, or the echoes of distant footsteps and commanding voices, the presence of the past lingers within the walls of Babenhausen Kaserne. These ghostly apparitions serve as a reminder of the turbulent times and the sacrifices made during World War II.

The Ghosts of War: Some of the hauntings going on in the Barracks of Babenhausen Kaserne is thought to be the ghosts of the soldiers that were stationed there during the wars.

Additionally, the connection between the Witch Tower in the town and the strange phenomena reported in the barracks adds another layer of intrigue. The imprisonment and tragic fate of over 50 women accused of witchcraft in the Witch Tower fuels speculation about their involvement in the paranormal occurrences. Could their restless spirits be seeking justice or revenge?

As the years pass, these ghostly tales continue to captivate the imaginations of visitors and locals alike, ensuring that the legacy of the barracks and the spirits that call it home will be remembered for generations. Whether one believes in the supernatural or not, the stories of the Babenhausen Kaserne serve as a chilling reminder of the tumultuous history that unfolded within its walls.

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