Morgan House – Kalimpong, India

Date of Discovery

The mansion was built in the 1930s by an English jute baron – George Morgan.

Name

Morgan House Kalimpong or Morgan House

Physical Description

The mansion is built in a colonial British style. It sits on a 16-acre estate on the Durpindara mountain with views of the Kangchenjunga mountain range, and the valleys of Relli, Labha, Deolo, and Kapher.

Origin

The mansion was built as a summer getaway for the wealthy jute baron and his wife where they held extravagant parties when visiting. It is currently operating as a boutique hotel and is open to tourists.

Mythology and Lore

It is rumored that many tourists in the house have felt a presence while staying there. Further reports include hearing voices when no one was around and the sounds of high heels walking on the wooden floors. These are presumed to be made by the ghost of Lady Morgan haunting the mansion. It is believed that lady Morgan may have died in the house and is unable to let her treasured home go.

Modern Pop-Culture References

Movies

None known

Television Series

None known

Books

None known

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Myrtles Plantation – St. Francisville, Louisiana

Date of Discovery:

1796

Physical Description:

Creole Cottage with nine bays, a double door entrance, and 125ft long veranda. 

Origin

Built by General David Bradford in 1796 in St. Francisville, Louisiana.

Mythology and Lore

 The Myrtles Plantation

Known as one of the world’s most haunted homes, Myrtles Plantation is filled with ghost. The plantation was called Laurel Grove until 1834 when new owners Ruffin Gray Stirling and his wife Mary bought the land. After an extensive remodel the house doubled in size and was named Myrtles Plantation for the trees that grew close to the property. Stirling died in 1854 and his wife took over the plantation. 

She hired William Winter to help her manage the property. He married her daughter Sarah and they had six children. William Winter was shot and killed on his front porch in 1871. Sarah stayed on the property with her children and her mother until her death. Upon Mary’s death, the property went to her son. But the plantation carried a heavy debt and ended up changing hands several times. In 1891 it was bought by Harrison Williams and when he died the property was divided amongst his heirs. In the 1950s Marjorie Munson bought the house. In the 70s James and Frances Kermeen Myers bought it and ran it as a bed and breakfast. The plantation is now owned by John and Teeta Moss. The owners hold tours of the property and even allow overnight guest.

Many ghost stories and strange occurrences have surrounded the property over the years. In the 1950s Marjorie Munson was the first owner to give any validity to these stories when she moved in and started noticing strange things. 

The most well-known ghost is Chloe, a slave that loved to eavesdrop on the owners, Clarke and Sara Woodruff. When she was caught, her ear was cut off. Chloe took to wearing a turban to hide her missing ear.  According to the legend, Chloe really wanted to get back in the family’s good graces, so she devised a plan to make them sick and then cure them. She poisoned a birthday cake and fed it to the family. Sara and her two children ate the cake and got sick. But instead of Chloe being able to nurse them back to health, they died, and Chloe was hanged.  Chloe haunts the property and was even captured in a photo taken in 1992. 

Sara and her children’s spirits also haunt the house and are allegedly trapped in a mirror that wasn’t covered when they died.  Visitors and staff have seen the apparitions of the family in the mirror. Small handprints have even been seen on the glass even though there was no one around that could have made them. Another owner is also believed to haunt the house, William Drew Winter. He was shot while standing on his front porch. Allegedly Winter staggered back into the house and crawled up the stairs before collapsing and dying on the 17th step. His last steps can still be heard in the house today. There’s the sound of someone walking into the house, followed by sounds of something slowly moving up the stairs and then it stops…on the 17th step.

Modern Pop Culture Reference:

TV Series:

Unsolved Mysteries (2002)
Ghost Hunters (2005)
Ghost Adventures (2014)

Youtube

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Old Town Pizza – Portland Oregon

Categories
Haunted Places

Date of Establishment & Haunting

Old Town pizza resides where the lobby was in the original Merchant Hotel which was built in 1880 by wealthy lumber barons. The haunting began between the late 1800s and early 1900s, but the exact date of the original sighting is unknown.

Name & Location

Old Town Pizza, Merchant Hotel. The building is located in Portland, Oregon’s Old Town District also known as Chinatown in the Northwest part of the city.

Physical Description

An ornate stone building is one of Portland most beautiful pieces of architecture. The Merchant Hotel sits on the corner of NW 3rd and Davis St in Portland, Oregon and takes up half of the city block. The four story building has been wonderfully maintained and the spooky nature of it’s past is evident as soon as you approach.

Haunted Merchant Hotel Portland Oregon

Origin

The Merchant Hotel was built in the late 1800s (1880) by Brothers Louis, Adolph, and Theodore Nicolai and it was originally a luxury hotel in what is now known as Portland’s Old Town district and Chinatown. The building is built atop Portland’s Shanghai Tunnels which connected businesses to the docks to move goods. Later the tunnels were allegedly used to shanghai sailors thus the mysterious name.

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Mythology and Lore

Nina (pronounced “Nigh-na”) is the most notorious ghost and has been frequently sighted at the Old Town Pizza restaurant. Nina was forced into prostitution and worked at the upscale hotel. When she had the chance to escape the life she was forced into with support from local missionaries she took it. However, she never made it out of the hotel. She was found dead at the bottom of an elevator shaft not too long after planning her escape.

She reportedly will tap employees on the shoulder when they are in the basement. She has been seen wearing a white or black dress and will observe patrons eating.

Owner Adam Milne said an employee once saw a woman in a white dress go downstairs during closing time. When he went down to tell her they were closed, no one was there – Portland Eater Oct 27, 2016

Modern Pop-Culture References

Books

Puzzle Box Horror’s “Atlas of Lore” July 2020 article Slice

Index

  1. https://pdx.eater.com/2016/10/27/13440764/haunted-portland-restaurants-and-bars-oregon
  2. Portland Historic Landmarks Commission (July 2014), Historic Landmarks — Portland, Oregon (XLS), retrieved February 1, 2015.
  3. Portland Bureau of Planning (April 4, 2008). “National Historic Landmark Nomination (Revised Documentation): Skidmore/Old Town Historic District” (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved February 26, 2016.
  4. “Merchants Hotel”. Historic Resource Inventory, City of Portland. Oregon Historic Sites Database. Retrieved January 26, 2015. “Old Hotel Remodeled For New Role” (December 7, 1968). The Oregonian, Section 1, p. 15.

Have more information or a story of the haunting, post it in the comments below.

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Perron Family

Categories
Haunted Places

Date of Discovery

The Perron moved in during 1971, however the property dated back to the mid-1800s when the Sherman’s were living there.

Name

The Perron family and Bathsheba

Physical Description

The house had white siding with large windows, enclosed porch, and 5 bedrooms among the house, as well as a built-in garage.

Origin

The house was built in the Baptist town of Harrisville, Rhode Island where it still stands today.

Mythology & Lore

                In January 1971, the Perron family moved into a farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island, that had a dark and strange history. Carolyn, Roger, and their 5 daughters began to notice strange happenings immediately after moving into the house. Carolyn reported various household items would move around the house, sounds of something scraping the kettle, and she kept finding small piles of dirt on the floor. The young girls began to see spirits around the house, and alleged most were harmless, however, a few were very angry. The worst of all the spirits was Bathsheba, Carolyn found records showing the family was the only family to own the home for 8 generations, many died under mysterious or horrible circumstances.

                Records show a Bathsheba Sherman, also known as Thayer, lived on the property in the mid-1800s, rumored to have been a Satanist, and was buried in a nearby cemetery. Several of the children drowned, one was murdered, and a few of the family members hung themselves in the attic of the home. “Whoever the spirit was, she perceived herself to be mistress of the house and she resented the competition my mother posed for that position,” said Andrea Perron, which was the eldest Perrons’ daughter. Andrea also reported there were other spirits on the property as well. She claimed there would be a rotting flesh smell, beds levitated off the floor, heating equipment would fail, and so on. The Warrens we called in on several trips to the house and performed many tests. Eventually the family was able to move out in 1980, after which they did not experience any other spirits or hauntings.

                With local legends claiming Bathsheba as a witch the mysterious deaths of her children, she would see infamy in the horror culture world. The spirit Bathsheba goes on to become one of the Warrens’ cases that inspired the 2013 film, The Conjuring, the second being The Enfield Haunting. There were many of the Warrens’ case to be featured in the many horror series of The Conjuring as well as others. Andrea went on to become an author of a book about the hauntings called House of Darkness: House of Light – The True Story. Bathsheba’s grave can still be found inside the Harrisville Cemetery, her name still has investigator’s debating to this day.

Modern Pop-Culture References

Books & Literature

Movies

Television Series



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Pocong

Name

Known most frequently as Pocong, or Pochong, meaning “wrapped ghost.” Also known in Indonesia and Malaysia as a kain kafan, which translates roughly to, “(fabric) shroud,” As well as hantu bungkus, or “the wrapped ghost,” in Malaysia.

Physical Description

Described as having a pale green, shriveled, and decaying face–where its eyes should be, there are two abyss-like holes. It is said that due to the Muslim origins of this legend, the pocong is wrapped in the prescribed length of cloth used in Muslim burials to wrap the body of a dead person. The corpse is covered in white fabric which is tied over their head, under their feet, and around the neck. Because they have their feet tied together, the pocong cannot walk, which causes the pocong to hop like a rabbit, but they can hop up to fifty meters (a little over 162 feet) at a time. It is said they also have the ability to fly and teleport.

Pocong in Indonesia
Photography by Adhietya Saputra

Origin

Believed to have originated in Indonesia, the pocong is a wrapped ghost that is said to be the soul of a dead person trapped within its shroud. According to the traditional beliefs of the region, the soul of a dead person will stay in the realm of the living for forty days after their death–if the ties of the shroud are not untied after forty days the body is said to jump out from the grave to warn people that they need their soul released. After the ties are untied the soul is released and will leave the realm of the living forever.

Mythology and Lore

The Response to COVID-19

During the COVID-19 crisis of 2020, volunteers began dressing as the pocong, getting wrapped in white sheets and roaming the streets of neighborhoods in Indonesia’s central province on Java island to deter people from going and visiting each other during the period of self-isolation due to the viral outbreak. In Kepuh village of Sukoharjo, volunteers of this phenomenon told Reuters, that they have been conducting surprise patrols every few days since early April. Their plan initially backfired due to the fact that these patrols became a social media sensation–so a bunch of people actually came out of their homes just to see what was going on. Despite the setback, the volunteers of Kepuh have been working to mitigate the impact of COVD-19 through coordinated efforts with ministries, government agencies, and regional administrations.

He added later that the initiative was in cooperation with the local police force, saying that they, “set up the pocong roadblock,” and that the “environment of the village had become more conducive [to the idea of staying inside].”



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