The Ghost House – beloved family home

This is just a little something for Halloween, about a beloved family home… and ghost house…

In the remote hills of Vermont

H.P. Lovecraft found inspiration in the remote hills of Vermont, in the same area where my great-grandparents bought over 100 acres of land and an old farmhouse in the 1950s. The farmhouse had been built in the 1800s, and at one time it had been a stage stop. It was a family house – many aunts, uncles, and cousins visited often, over many decades. I grew up knowing this farmhouse as my home away from home. I loved roaming the woods, dipping into the nearby rivers, and staring in wonder at the vast number of stars visible in the country sky. And the house itself, I loved deeply. I had great affection for its rustic qualities. This was despite its lack of hot running water.

Secret compartments and a spooky cellar

There were some spooky things about this beloved house. The stove was an old potbelly that had to be disassembled each time a visit ended. We hid the parts away in secret compartments in the stairs to the attic. This was because at one point, someone had broken in and stolen the previous stove. They removed it piece by piece, through a window. The idea of attic stairs that lifted up to reveal secret compartments seems pretty neat now, even practical. But back then it simply added an old-fashioned mystery to the house.

The cellar was short-ceilinged, with a dirt floor and giant stones for a foundation. Upon arriving for a visit, the electricity had to be turned on by going into that cellar and fiddling with antique glass fuses. It meant walking through the dark, shuttered, creaky house, finding one’s way down the old stairs, straight into the middle of the cellar. The tall house sat alone, looming over the dirt road that was not much older than the house itself.

A family get-together

Though I loved the house dearly, it did at times feel creepy. When several families of us cousins would visit together, filling the house, the energy was alive and cheerful. But when only a handful of people came to stay, it seemed pensive, at best. On one occasion, I and my boyfriend (who is now my husband), arrived at the house in the middle of winter. We had planned a visit with my brother and his girlfriend. They were to join us later. We cleared snow from the doorway, turned the electricity on, and got a good fire going in the woodstove. We settled our things and lay down for a quick rest.

Out like a light

The fire in the stove warmed the place nicely. We both fell asleep in cots set up in the living room, unexpectedly drowsy from the heat. We woke suddenly to the distinct and familiar sound of the key in the front door. Jumping up to greet my brother and his girlfriend, we were surprised when the door did not open, and around us was as silent as snow. My boyfriend reached for his glasses, which he had placed on the floor by his cot when he lay down, and could not find them. I joined him in the search, and finally found them clear across the room, past my cot. On the floor, but certainly out of anyone’s reach.

We both went to check the door. It was still locked, and it was clear there had been no one there. At that point we were getting a little spooked. The sound we had both heard was the exact, familiar – and distinct – sound of the key in the door. The glasses were inexplicably found fully across the room. The gentle silence of winter surrounding us was little comfort.

More unexplained noises

Shaking the feeling, we decided to start dinner and wait for their arrival. As my boyfriend stood at the stove, stirring, I sat by the still-shuttered window. We were just talking together easily, when we suddenly heard a loud, deep scraping sound. I jumped up, heart racing, he stopped stirring, and we looked at each other, trying to figure out what had caused the sound. Our first thought – trying to be rational, was that an animal had pulled on the outside shutter. Seemed unlikely, but a possible rational explanation. The shutters were closed whenever anyone left after a visit, and they were held tightly in place by strong hooks. My boyfriend went outside in the deep snow to take a look… no tracks, no sign of an animal anywhere around the side of the house.

Get out…?

Our second thought was perhaps a boulder had slipped loose in the cellar; it certainly would have made a loud scraping noise. It also seemed unlikely though. We both went to look and found nothing out of place there either. When we came back to the kitchen, we both felt our nerves growing on edge, and when we tried to get back to what we had been doing, we simply looked at each other and knew… I don’t remember which of us said it first, but we had both strongly felt the message, “Get out.” It was as if each event had been trying to tell us what suddenly formed as a message in both of our minds.

We started hurrying to clean up the uneaten dinner. As we did so, the feeling intensified and it wasn’t until we had driven away that we started to feel better. It was many years before the time of cell phones, and the town we were in had no pay phones, so we weren’t able to call my brother and his girlfriend until we checked into a motel many miles away. They had not been able to travel north, as something had come up, and of course, had no way of reaching us.

Unexplained activity

We’ll never know what had created those noises. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard noises in that house that were not easy to explain, and it wasn’t the first time I’d felt a little spooked there, but it was the first time the noises had been so precise, an object had been found somewhere it hadn’t been left, and such a negative energy had risen up. It was also the first time that more than one person had experienced the same things together. When describing it to my brother and his girlfriend, they both admitted having felt such unease there before, only when they were there alone as a couple, and had actually been unsure about making this visit.

Continued family visits, continued love

After that time, we had a few family visits there and all was fine (the house has since been sold and renovated). We never went back alone, and as far as I know, few people did. At one point we buried my father’s dog on the land there. My dad of course had a close kinship to the area, and his dog loved the woods there. In dreams, this house has appeared to me as “the ghost house,” where I have visited and conversed with family members who have passed away. I don’t know what the real nature of the house is… whether there really is something “other” about the place. But I am pretty sure it would have made a great setting in a Lovecraft story!

As an addendum – a cousin eventually purchased the house for his own immediate family and did some renovations. My husband and I visited a few years ago and spoke to him and his wife… He insisted, and this is an otherwise rational seeming guy, the house was haunted, and often spooked him.

More spooks…

If you enjoy spiritualism or all things haunted or ghostly, check out my post about Conjuring the Spirit World, a fantastic exhibition at the PEM in Salem, MA. And if you’re interested in the Lovecraft story set in the remote hills of Vermont, check out The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft at Amazon, which includes the tale, The Whisperer in Darkness.

~ Nellie

p.s. that is the beloved old house in the image above, dressed up a little for Halloween with some blurred edges 😉. It has since been renovated nicely and is quite beautiful. And I still have immense love for this place – if I could afford it, I would buy it myself 🙂

The Spirit World

Well, that’s a loaded title, isn’t it? Last weekend my husband Gary and I took a trip to Salem, Massachusetts to see a new exhibition at PEM (Peabody Essex Museum). It’s called Conjuring the Spirit World: Art, Magic, and Mediums, and it runs until February 2, 2025. We’ve visited Salem many times and have been to PEM four or five; it’s always greatly enjoyable. When I had read about this new exhibition, I just had to go.

The spirit world

I’ve always been intrigued by mediumship – or claims of mediumship. After my dad passed away in 2022 I read several books on the subject. I’m also very intrigued by spiritualism, haunted houses, ghost hunting, seances, even the tradition of Ouija and other spirit boards… basically discussions of “the spirit world” in general. I am not a complete true believer, but believer I am. I have had too many of my own experiences to simply dismiss. But I do not immediately believe, and I do not believe without considering more concrete or reasonable explanations.

The exhibition

The entrance to the exhibition.

We arrived in Salem just after PEM opened. The museum already had a good number of visitors, and the exhibition was popular and busy. It’s actually pretty cool that there were so many people there. I think that despite our inclination to doubt before we believe, there is still at least the desire for something to believe in. We aren’t all just automatic skeptics.

The exhibition was great. We were impressed by the extent and variety of the pieces on display, and by how well each piece was presented and described. The posters and newspaper advertisements for different mediums or magicians were thought-provoking. Supposed “spirit photography” was so interesting to see, considering that people at one time truly believed it to be authentic. A photo of a child who had passed was protected by a heavy curtain, so visitors could decide whether or not to look at this object (I actually declined to look). The death mask of a very old woman was probably the most poignant item for me personally.

The curators did an excellent job selecting these pieces, as well as recreating devices that in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were claimed to bring forth spirits and other entities. This wasn’t quite a hands-on experience, and certainly it was experienced through a contemporary filter, but it did very much demonstrate what people would have seen.

Some major figures were represented as well. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was apparently very much a believer. Not only that, he was a defender of mediumship as well as fairy photography. Harry Houdini was honored with quite a bit of exhibit space, and a number of famous (or infamous) mediums were of course also represented.

Memorabilia and souvenirs

Conjuring the Spirit World

I was not able to take photos during the exhibition, but I did purchase the accompanying exhibition book. Also for sale were a selection of prints of posters from the exhibition, as well as a good number of titles on ghost hunting, mediumship, and even a Salem Ouija Board (that I was so tempted to buy!). I had been hoping for a t-shirt – I have a t-shirt from an earlier PEM exhibition (It’s Alive! Classic Horror and Sci-Fi Art from the Kirk Hammett Collection) that I love – but I admit I do not need any more graphic tees!

Inside the book.

Salem Witch Trials 1692 Exhibition

After enjoying Conjuring the Spirit World, we grabbed a late lunch around the corner, then returned to PEM to see the Salem Witch Trials 1692 exhibition.

In all the times we have been to the museum, we had not checked this one out. A smaller, ongoing exhibition, it was effective in portraying the time, and just how brutal the accused’s fates were. Much respect was shown to the accused men and women, and there was appropriate messaging regarding intolerance and injustice. The exhibition featured historic court documents, as well as recorded testimonies of the accused. There were a number of pieces preserved from victims and their families: a walking stick, a cane, a cabinet; leaded glass windows, a (beautiful) wooden door, and heavy wooden pieces of a wall from a jail cell. This last was quite moving to see; it was immense and foreboding, when considering it had held an innocent person in their final days.

Exhibition pamphlet and museum guide.

I would suggest that despite its smaller size, this exhibition is a must-see for anyone interested in the witch trials. And of course, I highly recommend seeing Conjuring the Spirit World. If you can get there in October, even better for enjoying the city. Salem – the Witch City – in October is a very fun experience, and can’t be missed for a great Halloween season. I already look forward to my next trip to Salem, and to PEM.

We wrapped up our afternoon in Salem, having spent all of our time at the museum. Then we headed north to the shore. I do love Salem, and love walking around and shopping in the Witch City… but the beach was calling…

~ Nellie