Moon Mausoleum
An online magazine about the paranormal, haunted and macabre. We collect the ghost stories from all around the world as well as review horror and gothic media.
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 and were the name comes from. What is known of this man is that he is descended from the one of the first Europeans families that took over the area. But who lived in this house now, is uncertain and up for a lot of speculation.
But one day something strange appeared on the poarch that caught the curiosity of the locals and made people speculate in the haunted rumours of the house. A couple of dressed up mannequins without any explanation suddenly appeared, and to this day, we still don’t know the full story.
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The John Lawson House, sitting by the road and letting the paint peel 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.
Read More: Check out more ghost stories from haunted houses in the world.
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 on the porch of the John Lawson House 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.
The people orchestrating the mannequins 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 as if they are taking the view in. 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.
Whenever there was bad weather in New Hamburg, the mannequins would disappear from sitting on the porch so they would not get caught in the rain, but come back when the weather cleared up.
Read More: Check out more ghost stories about haunted dolls like: Mandy the Haunted Doll, The Possession of Letta the Doll, The Haunted Barbie Doll in The Shrine on Pulau Ubin Island or Okiku — The Haunted Doll of Hokkaido.
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 in between sets. 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, although the most disturbing thing yet seems to be the thing sitting on the poarch that everyone can see and touch. But can we really explain it?
One of the dark legends connected to the John Lawson House comes from a terrible accident decades ago. Back in 1871 a freight train derailed close by the John Lawson 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. But what came first? Did the haunted legends fuel the urge to put eerie dolls on display, or did the dolls sitting there like the uncanny valley give a head start to the haunted rumours?
Another thing that is attributed to the haunting is the second fire that broke out in the neighborhood around John Lawson House. 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 for some reason. There were at the time theories that the fire was arson and a very strategic one at that. If there were any casualties in the fire is unknown, but the ghost stories claim that there really was.
If there was any local legends surrounding the the John Lawson House before the mannequins showed up on the porch is unknown. Or if these two tragedies have been told as a ghost story before they started hanging out on the poarch, 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. Coincidence? Like most things in life, most likely. Or…
The strange house has made many theories about what really went down in the John Lawson 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. Could this be one of the cases were the locals simply don’t want the truth and full story, as the life in these parts are boring enough?
Read Also: Another haunted case were the locals didn’t want the truth to ruin the fun local legend is the case of The Anson Lights Highway Ghost in Texas.
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.
What outfits would they wear? What items would they clutch in their cold and stiff hands?
But if you are curious about the house and the mannequins, you are now in bad luck most likely as it seems that the pranksters got tired of the constant upkeep of the dolls. Today there are no more mannequins sitting on the front porch of the house.
One day in the summer of 2016, the locals in the town found that the porch was empty and the mannequins had simply vanished during the night. Even when the weather cleared up, they were nowhere in sight. No one really knows where they have gone or why they were there in the first place.
Or is this simply another case of the: the story is better if we don’t know the truth? Because rumor has it they are found at a house near Route 9W, ready to create another urban legend, sitting ready in their outfits, reading a book and enjoying the nice weather outside.
Inside The Mystery Of The John Lawson House And Its Haunted Mannequins
