Moon Mausoleum
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Sitting on the porch outside the historic John Lawson House, three mannequins sat on the porch for over a decade. No one really knew who lived there, or why the mannequins were there. And no one really saw when or if someone came and moved the mannequins’ positions, clothes and wigs.
Sitting on the porch outside the historic John Lawson House, three mannequins sat on the porch for over a decade. No one really knew who lived there, or why the mannequins were there. And no one really saw when or if someone came and moved the mannequins’ positions, clothes and wigs.
The old house is found in Wappingers Falls in New York and has probably seen its fair share since it was first built. It is a really old house built in 1845 by a man named John Lawson that is not known much about. What is known of this man is that he is descended from the one of the first Europeans families that took over the area.
The John Lawson House itself therefore has an old story, and the house would by its historic architecture and age be a breeding ground for haunting house rumors and paranormal ghost stories. But it was in recent times that the house really started to be known as the creepiest house in America.
In a span of a decade in the early 2000s, the house on 9A Main Street was known for housing a group of life size mannequins that sat on the porch of the house. In each of their rocking chairs the three mannequins sat in their vintage dresses, looking out on those passing the house.
The mannequins were of the kind you would find in clothing stores. What is weirder is that someone would change their clothes and their wigs occasionally. In pictures they wore everything from vintage dresses to normal mainstream fashion, often according to the seasons as well.
They would also get different props to hold in their hands like standard props like books opened for the mannequins to look like they just relaxed on their porch, reading. There were however also occasions where the mannequins held onto things that made the weird sight, even weirder. Like when they held onto stuff like an empty birdcage or tool boxes.
When there was bad weather in New Hamburg, they would disappear from sitting on the porch so they would not get caught in the rain, but come back when the weather cleared up.
What was this supposed to be? At the time, no one really knew who lived in the house, and no one really saw who changed the props or clothes of the mannequins. This of course led to people thinking the house was really haunted and people started to look to the old history of the house for an explanation.
There are mainly two tragedies from the past the locals used to explain the reason behind the supposed hauntings of The John Lawson House.
Back in 1871 a freight train derailed close by the house on February 6th. It ended up colliding with a passenger train that was unable to stop and it all ended in a big tragedy.
The train was carrying oil which caught fire and ended in an explosion only 200 feet from the John Lawson House. That night, 22 people were killed, and this is one of the events that are said to haunt the house.
Another thing that is attributed to the haunting is the second fire that broke out in the neighborhood. In 1877 on May 3rd, seven buildings burned to the ground and the John Lawson House was one of the few houses that survived the fire. There were at the time theories that the fire was arson. If there were any casualties in the fire is unknown.
If there was any local legends surrounding the house before the mannequins showed up on the porch is unknown. Or if these two tragedies have been told as a ghost story before, is also unknown. Most likely the stories have been used to create the legend of a haunted house, not just the house of an eccentric.
According to the legends told, the mannequins were haunted by the spirits of those that died in those two accidents. But as the article has already have stated, what came first, the hauntings or the mannequins is a bit unclear.
There are also those that connect the dots that some of the mannequins are facing the site of the train derailing and others are facing the other historic house that survived the second fire.
The strange house has made many theories about what really went down in the house. The most likely scenario is of course the house was owned by some really committed pranksters or just some with a strange hobby. And although one can very easily find out who lived in the house or occasionally comes to rearrange 3 real life dolls outside on the Main Street, everyone loves a good mystery without an unsatisfying truth behind.
This strange house with its strange inhabitants started to become more than just a local legend of the quaint town of New Hamburg and the story of the weird mannequins started to draw tourists wanting to have a look around The John Lawson House and see for themselves what the thing was all about.
But if you are curious about the house and the mannequins, you are now in bad luck. Today there are no more mannequins sitting on the front porch of the house.
One day in the summer of 2016, the locals found that the porch was empty and the mannequins had simply vanished. No one really knows where they have gone or why they were there in the first place.
Although, rumor has it they are found at a house near Route 9W, ready to create another urban legend.
Inside The Mystery Of The John Lawson House And Its Haunted Mannequins
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