Welcome to our haunted mansion. We have many ghosts in residence
here. We will include articles, reviews, interviews, plus some poetry
and tales about ghosts and haunted places.
NOW READ: A real life ghostly encounter in the New Orleans
infamous French Quarter!
GHOSTS in the FRENCH
QUARTER
by Lucinda
MacGregor
In the early 1970's I lived for a time on Royal Street in
the famous (and sometimes infamous) French Quarter (also known as the Vieux
Carre) of New Orleans. A friend of mine owned a bookshop
on Royal. There were two floors. The second level was divided into two parts--one
of which was part of the shop and the other was the owner's old living quarters
that he vacated years before. I needed an inexpensive place to stay
in the Quarter since I was working at my mother's book & curio shop located
nearby. (I also worked two other jobs at hotels one of which was in
the Quarter and the other the famous historic St. Charles Hotel that was
later demolished to make room for a parking lot--the Historical Preservation
Society evidently wasn't around in those days or had no influence to save
the hotel.) My friend agreed to let me stay in his old quarters.
One night after the bookshop closed, I began hearing noises all around the place. At first I wasn't sure what it was. I had never heard anything like it previously. I finally realized that the noises were large cockroaches (New Orleans having been built over swampland is a natural place for cockroaches to breed). Suddenly, while I stood in the middle of the studio apartment area I was bombarded with roaches flying across the room. They seemed to be coming from all directions at once! I immediately ran out and down the stairs to call a friend whose father owned a pest control company. She said she would come right over. That meant I had to wait about forty-five minutes as she had to travel from a fairly long distance. I wasn't about to return upstairs.
Meanwhile, a little later I heard a loud clicking noise coming down the stairs. It was one of those darn huge cockroaches! Instinctively I ran to the front door and opened it waiting to see what would happen next. The cockroach made its entrance and ran across the floor making a b-line for the front door. I moved back out of the way so it could go through the door. After exiting the door the cockroach hopped down the steps and made its way along the sidewalk off to wherever cockroaches go.
My friend finally arrived about an hour later and sprayed
the place. It was the kind of spay that left no residue of odor, so
I stayed ther for the rest of the night. (Knowing what we all know
nowadays about insecticide, I shouldn't have stayed.) She promised
I wouldn't see any more roaches that night but would find a lot of dead ones
the next day. Well, she was as good as her word. I did a lot
of sweeping and
cleaning up.
But, that was not the end of it. Several weeks later I heard more strange noises and I investigated them enough to know that this time it wasn't roaches. One night after the bookshop was closed while I was downstairs using the telephone I heard what sounded distinctly like several boxes being knocked over upstairs. I checked it out but couldn't find any boxes out of place. I then dismissed the noise and went back to my phone conversation.
The next night I heard the same kind of noise while downstairs.
Now, this was getting more than a bit disturbing. Once again
I investigated and discovered nothing out of place. Later that same
night I was sitting reading on the bed upstairs. It wasn't so late
I couldn't still hear an occasional group of people walking by and talking
loudly outside but it was late enough that I rarely heard any more vehicle
traffic outside. For the most part things were quiet. Suddenly
a folding screen, standing across the room, started rocking violently back
and forth. I then heard an intense clawing sound as if a cat was running
its claws down the screen. Meanwhile, I backed up against the brick
wall totally petrified with fear. I couldn't move. I just waited for
the screen to stop rocking. It did (what seemed eternity but the whole
event probably didn't last more than a minute). I just kept staring
at the screen waiting for what would happen next--.
Well, I waited again for what seemed a long time but was about forty minutes.
I slowly got up and walked over to move the screen aside to I could
look at it in the direct light. I expected to see claw marks on it
but there were none! I then checked the door that led to the roof and
the door downstairs. Both were locked.
I decided to call a friend who lived down the street and ask him to come
over. I noticed then that it was one o'clock.
My friend arrived just a few minutes later carrying an antique gun from the Civil War era! We checked the door to the attic again. Then we checked the attic and a small area that led to the other side of the attic that was part of the beauty parlor next door. Both doors were locked. We thought at first that there might be some way a cat might have entered the premises but we couldn't find one anywhere. And the place was not known for having rats.
My friend stayed and we talked until daybreak. After that I decided to get some sleep until my other friend, the bookshop owner, came along to open up. I decided right then to move out.
I called an inexpensive local mover later the same morning to schedule him to come over and move my console tv out. The place was furnished so I didn't have much and was able to move out the rest of my things in a friend's car. Despite the inconvenience I moved back to my parents house indefinitely.
During the next several years I talked to four individuals
who previously lived in that studio apartment in the bookshop--one was my
friend the owner, the next was an acquaintance who lived there before moving
into an apartment across the patio in the back of the building, an artist
friend who once lived in the studio apartment for a while, and a former boyfriend
(still a friend) who also stayed there for a couple of years.
All of them told me basically the same story. They experienced strange
occurrences there but never bothered to tell anyone about it. They
were afraid people would laugh at them. The only difference between
what happened to them and what happened to me was that they only heard strange
noises and could never find out why any of it happened. I also learned
that there was a story rumored around the Quarter for many years that someone
was murdered on the patio and someone committed suicide by jumping off the
roof. I understand that it had something to do with some tragic love
affair. These buildings date to pre-Civil War times.
In 1989 I stopped by the old bookshop to see how it had changed. My friend relocated his shop to another part of the Quarter and someone moved in and opened up an occult shop in its place. I asked him if any strange things ever happened to him since he moved in. He told me about the previous owner and how she was terrorized by something in the place, got very ill, had to move out and sell the place. After he moved in, he noticed the same cold spots she spoke of (something I never noticed) and occasionally some strange noises occurred. He decided to perform his own rites of exorcism (he's a practicing Druid priest). Since he did that he hasn't heard any more strange noises and the cold spots disappeared. Now I was always skeptical about things that go bump in the night, but we pretty much concurred that perhaps since the only individuals who experienced the worst occurrences in the place were female (myself and the previous owner) that evidently whatever was there probably held a resentment against females. All of the others were men and what problems they experienced were very mild. The only other answer might be that both she and I are extremely in tune with whatever entities existed there. Now that's something I would rather not think about--!
I will always remember what happened to me in that old French Quarter apartment. Though I have lived in several others, I never noticed anything odd, but I will say that the Quarter has a special atmosphere. It has a very haunted atmosphere. The old buildings have been maintained pretty much as they were built. The entire area mostly looks like something where time stood still for a few hundred years. It reminds visitors of something they would encounter in Paris. It has a reputation for being haunted. After all, this is the city where writers such as Anne Rice, Poppy Z. Brite, Nancy Collins, and several more have based their vampire, ghost, and witch novels. Many mystery writers have written endless stories and novels about scandals and murders in the French Quarter (as well as other areas of the city such as the old historic Garden District and the variety of old European-styled cemeteries with above-ground tombs). Many of these writers reside in New Orleans. The atmosphere gives them much incentive for creativity. The history of the French Quarter is full of tales about ghosts, pirates such as Jean Lafitte, infamous murders, the selling of slaves in the slave markets, voodoo practioners such as Marie Lavou, Voodoo Queen and her daughter who followed in her footsteps. I can't bear witness to the truth of those stories but I can state, without a doubt, that what occurred in that old bookshop did indeed happen because it happened to ME!
THE HAUNTED
OLD LADY
by Lucinda
MacGregor
During my early teen years my friends and I skated about the neighborhood where we lived. It was a genteel area with many old nineteenth century mansions amidst more modern dwellings. We always passed by one particular old Victorian house on the corner of St.Charles Ave. and Lowerline Street. The place had a neglected appearance. It looked like a haunted house and was rumored to be one. There never seemed to be any visitors. We learned that it was owned by some elderly woman who lived alone. We could not control our curiosity so we decided to investigate. First we went to a side door to the basement and tried the door. Of course, it was locked. Then we boldly decided to climb the long flight of stairs up to the front door. We peered into the huge window of what must have been the living room or might have been called in its heyday the drawing room. The window was very dirty and there was no light inside. Only the sunshine penetrated the gloom. There was the old lady sitting in a huge high backed chair. Her eyes were open but she did not move. She looked like a figure of Queen Victoria in wax. We were not sure if she could see us or not. The scene was like something out of another time and place. There were many antiques and cobwebs everywhere. We ran off and never visited the place again. We were plenty scared. The place was just too creepy. We never learned anything about the old lady except that her groceries had always been delivered to the basement door. Later we learned that after some groceries sat by the door for more than a week the police investigated and discovered that the old lady was dead inside. She had passed away alone. She had no surviving relatives. We never learned how old she was. A few years later the stately old house was torn down and some modern town houses were built there. Somehow those houses never looked right in its place. Perhaps, my old childhood friends have long ago forgotten that house and the old lady, but I remember. It haunts my memory. Every time I pass some old mansion, as there are many here in New Orleans, I wonder who is sitting alone inside like a living ghost waiting to pass on or who has already passed but remains.
Read what's in haunted Baltimore:
AT THE POE
GRAVESITE
by Lucinda
MacGregor
In 1985 I lived in Baltimore for a few months. I had
an opportunity to visit the Edgar Allan Poe gravesite. It's located on the
grounds of the Westminister Presbyterian Church at Fayette & Green Strs.
I took the tour given and I learned a lot of interesting things not
just about Poe but also about the history of the area, the church, and the
catacombs underneath the building. I even managed to take some photos
of the gravesite. The Church was built on the original site of the cemetery
and the catacombs beneath are part of that old cemetery. There is an
interesting tomb inside the catacombs where coffins are stacked in a corner
and a large variety of skeletons are piled nearby. The church is in
excellent condition and services are still held there. The tour was
fascinating, the catacombs appropriately creepy and the Poe monument is elegant.
Every year on Poe's birthday (January 19th) someone dressed in black shows
up at his grave and leaves a bottle of cognac and three roses. The
home that Poe lived in is located at 203 North Amity St. and is also open
for tours. Both the catacombs and the house are said to be haunted.
Some recommended Poe links:
http://www.poedecoder.com/Qrisse/usastrip/
Traveling With Poe
http://www.eapoe.org
E. A. Poe Society of Baltimore
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~ehrlich/poesites.html
A Poe Webliography
http://www.dgbn.com/coldmarble/poe/poe.html
E. A. Poe Memorial
Some houses are just too crowded.
RECOLLECTION
by Lorraine Bueno
I remember seeing the old woman only once or twice when she
was alive. I think I was 14 years old or so and I was weeding the rose
bed on her side between the two houses, I remember how beautiful they were.
She came out and saw that I didn't have any gloves and I was bleeding and
she got me a Band-Aid. She died not to long after that.
Well, after that a lot of people moved in and out of that house. I remember most of the people that moved in left in a few months. I think the longest ones were the two women that I babysat for. Abby was a short heavy Mexican woman with one child ( this child had a bad wetting problem). And the other woman was Linda also heavy with hair down to her waist and three children. I remember she had a boy (the oldest) and I think the other two were girls.
They were nice and I liked them. Abby and Linda needed a babysitter for the summer when the children were out of school. I had to be at their house at 6:00 a.m. which was very early for me. When I went over to their house there was no couch to lay on for it had to be thrown out because the (bed wetting) child had ruined it. So the only place for me to go to sleep was in their room. This house had hardwood floors and they would creak if anyone walked on them. The only carpet was in the living room.
So I would go over and wave good bye as they left, the children would still be asleep and I would go and lay on their bed. As soon as I did, I would feel something push up from under the bed like someone was under it. The first time I looked and no one was there. Then when I laid back on the bed, it would start again. So I ignored it and fell asleep. I was never scared, guess I just didn't care or was more tired than bothered.
This happened every time I laid down on their bed. I guess I didn't respond much to the pushing under the bed. One morning I was so tired I laid down and I heard the floor creak as if someone was walking around the bed. I looked up but no one was there. But the floor kept creaking, and I thought it would stop if I ignored it. As soon as I rolled over and closed my eyes I felt the bed go down like someone was sitting on it.
For a second my heart skipped a beat, but then I decided I wasn't going to move from the only place to lie down. So out loud I remember saying, "Move over and don't take all the room."
For the rest of the day the spirit stayed quiet and didn't
even push up from underneath the bed. I told Linda and Abby about this
and they told me things that happened to them.
The whole summer I babysat those children, doors would open
and close and the refrigerator door would be left open. I also remember
hearing the kid's typewriter typing but when I got close it stopped, but
I know I heard it. I never was afraid but the children told of faces
in the window and moving objects.
I guess all this finally got to be to much and they moved. I have never been in another house with a spirit but my own, and those spirits I make sure I drink every night, got to keep them under control.
RECOMMENDED HAUNTED WEBSITES:
Ghosts & Paranormal--
http://www.ghostresearch.org/
Ghost Research Society--Spooky!
http://www.connexions.co.uk/culture/
Culture, Myths and Legends of Cornwell
http://ghosts.org/
Ghosts.Org
http://www.scottishghosts.de.vu/
Scottish Ghosts and Phantoms
http://ghostsofthenortheast.150.com/
Rob's Kirkup's Ghosts of the North East
http://www.cleaverproperty.co.uk/strange/thame/ghost.html
Strange Thame
http://www.cleaverproperty.co.uk/strange/thame/witches.html
Strange Goings-on in the Thames Valley
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/hauntedplaces/index.html
Haunted Places in the UK
http://www.ghostwatchuk.org/
Ghost Watch UK
http://www.steveospage.com/ford/
Christopher Ford -- Amateur Paranormalist
http://www.isc-durant.com/jsturch/
Ye Olde Shoppe of Ghosts
http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~fair/phenomena.htm
Phenomena On-Line--Fascinating stuff!
http://www.geocities.com/~glycerin/
Lunar's Paranormal--Interesting
http://www.camalott.com/~brianbet/ghosts.html
Ghosts: The Page That Goes Bump in the Night
http://theshadowlands.net/ghost/
The Shadowlands: Ghosts and Hauntings
http://gothic.vei.net/hollywood/hhome.htm
Hollywood Hauntings
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/4383/
Chingle Hall
http://www.derbycity.com/ghosts/ghosts.html
Derby Ghosts
http://www.btinternet.com/~adrian.butcher/ghost.htm
Do You Believe In Ghosts? (Borley Church -- Suffolk,
England)
http://www.yeoldesussexpages.co.uk/ghosts/ghostly.htm
Ye Olde Sussex Pages -- Ghost Tales
http://mysite.freeserve.com/hauntedplaces/index.html
Haunted Places in the UK
http://www.hauntedinns.co.uk/
Haunted Inns of Great Britain
http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/
Mysterious Britain
http://www.ghostsandhauntingsmagazine.co.uk/
Ghosts And Hauntings Magazine
http://www.ghostmag.com/
Ghost Magazine
http://www.crown.net/X/GhostStories.html
Ghost Stories &
Folklore
http://www.hauntedsalem.com/
Haunted Salem
http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/2767/index.html
Bourbon Street Stories & Jazz
http://www.themoonlitroad.com/
The Moonlit Road--Lots of ghost stories and much more! Well
done.
http://www.southernghosts.com/
Southern Ghosts
http://www.swlaghost.com
Southwest Louisiana Ghosthunters Society
http://www.ghostweb.com/index.html
Ghost Web of International Ghost Hunters Society--Very informative.
http://users.itsnet.com/~peachy/
Graveyard Shift--Ghost stories and more!
Entertaining.
http://www.mindspring.net/~jangler/
Shades of Night: Web of Horrors--Ghost stories and other
horrors.
http://www.ghost.org/
Obiwan's UFO - Free Paranormal Page
http://freespace.virgin.net/martin.lightburn/ghost.html
This Spectred Isle: A Guide to Ghosts of England, Scotland, and Wales
http://www.scoot.co.uk/ghostwalk/
The London Ghost Walk
http://www.neworleans.com/ghosts/
New Orleans Ghost Tours
MORE TO COME!
Or,
to return to Haunted Cemeteries