Dr John R Drish House

The house is now more simply known as Drish House and is located in Tuscaloosa. Alabama, USA. The building is on the National Register of Historic places and was first recorded by the Historic American Buildings Society in 1934. The building was started in the centre of a 450 acre plantation, by this point Drish was widowed and had married Sarah Owen McKinney in 1835. The marriage shows up on ancestry.com under All Alabama, Marriage Index, 1800-1969. The couple are listed under the Tuscaloosa area.

The home original incarnation was was attributed to the influence of architect William Nichols, the home’s plasterwork was largely completed by skilled slave artisans, like most of the plasterwork in the area of that period. The house was extensively remodelled in the Italianate-style prior to the American Civil War, mixing it with its Greek Revival Style too.

John Drish died in 1867, he had reportedly died from a fall down a stairway, I found reference to his death as complications from the fall, Richard Southall (Haunted Plantations of the South) and says that viewing and the funeral took place in the home. There is another part to this saying that Sarah lit candles in his honour and kept them alight whilst he lay in state, after the funeral she then extinguished them with an order that they should be lit again when she died.

Www.nps.gov has a featured article on the place and says the building was known as Monroe Place, it was also a working farm and he was a very wealthy man. He is recorded on the document about the property as having been a drunkard and a gambler. Drish seemingly drowned his sorrows and diminished his wife’s wealth by poor management and further alcoholism. It’s worth noting there seems to be no actual evidence of his drinking problems and the full record of his death.

It is anecdotal perhaps from Robert Little, it is recorded by him that he had been suffering from some form of delirium and leapt from his bed, several of the slaves (please note this is from the articles I read, and I am not sugar-coating language) there attempted to hold him down. He escaped and rushed down the stairs, ‘uttered a terrible cry and fell dead midway down’. He had made his will 13^th July, 1867, a few weeks before his death. It seems he may already have known about his serious health issues and limited time left; he had penned it before dying at the very least.

After his death it was found that he did not have the money to pay the claims against the estate, his extensive real estate had to be sold and even the house was sold from under Sarah, but the wording of his will meant she was the “dower” and allowed to live at the estate until her death.

She had lived a wealthy life and for the last 15 years of it lived in genteel poverty with her clothing, furniture, china and silver. Her step-daughter, Catherine Drish King, lived with her until at least the 1870 consensus. Eventually Catherine moved out and Sarah died in 1884.

The contents of her home were sold at public auction, it seems that she had made no will out. It also meant that the family had no knowledge for her funerary wishes. Again this is anecdotal but they missed the previous request about the candles from the details I could find online. Once she had been buried the mansion lay empty for several years, the owner – Ezekiel Abner Powell – sold the property soon after her death and it was sold to the Tuscaloosa Coal, Iron and Land Company.

One of the founding members of the company purchased it as a family home, from there on it passed hands several times. The house was used as a school from 1906 until 1925, Jennison School. It was then a parts warehouse for a wrecking company. 1940 saw it purchased by the Southside Baptist Church, it remained with them and threatened demolition in 1994 and then released to the Heritage Commission of Tuscaloosa County.

In 2012 it may have finally got its future secured, in 2016 the renovations finished opening its doors for weddings and various events.

The sites ghost stories and hauntings are featured in ’13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey’ and in the short story ‘Death Lights in the Tower’. The short story talks about a family moving into the home and experiencing supernatural events. Wikipedia and the events history section show a summary of people seeing third-storey tower on fire when there is not one present and ghostly lights from the house in general.

The tower fire may have its roots from the fact it did set alight a few months after Sarah’s death. There was no one living in the mansion at the time. The neighbours reported the fire as the light was so bright it was seen from several miles away. The fire brigade went out to find no sign of fire and no damage suggesting there had been one. Over the next few years, the reports came in a few times and upon arrival there was the same result.

The stories of fake fires then became known, and people would pass by regularly, the story of fire was then replaced with the sighting of Sarah Drish at the front of the mansion or from the third-floor window of the tower. The closure of the school in 1935 evolved the story further, there were more reports of lights, candle-lights were said to appear, and the suggestion is that it is Sarah’s candles lit for her husband.

Summary – I found no date to support the haunting data or some of the facts around the requests about funerary arrangements. “In 2008 – paranormal investigators were able to go inside and look for any signs of a haunting. The investigators were able to capture a few abnormalities, enough to satisfy the claims.” There seemed to be no linked evidence or anything about how the claim was satisfied. I think unless more comes to light I cannot give any conclusion.

Deep River Public Library

In Connecticut, USA things are supposedly quite interesting at the Deep River Public Library. It was the home of a prominent man in Deep River over 100 years ago. The house was built in 1881 by Richard Spratt Spencer, he owned a manufacturing company that dealt in the ivory trade and served as both treasurer and president of the Deep River National Bank, and was a state senator. He lived in the house until his death in 1910 with his second wife and their three children. The Library brought the property in 1930 and remains essentially the same minus some additions, it has the original windows and wood mouldings and the ghosts are only found in the old original sections.

A staff member had shut down all lights for the night, leaving only the one on at the circulation desk where she was standing and she had the feeling that she was not alone. The experience is one that she is not alone in either…

Since 2004 various ghost hunters and mediums have been over to the Main Street library in an attempt to investigate strange goings on. Some of those investigating feel that they have experienced such things and amongst the presences they have felt those of two females, one in their teens and one in their 50’s. The library was once the residence’s kitchen and the original wood-burning stove from 1877 is still in there, where local investigators feel they captured two spirits.

The library’s assistance director was eating her lunch one day and was the only person present, she heard someone in another room, like that of someone clearing their throat. She went to check and found no one was there.

Michael Dionne, founder of Full Spectrum Ghost Hunters explained in an interview that I found online, only one percentage of investigated cases are paranormal. They plan to investigate it using measures like Electromagnetic field sensors, it has been established that interference in the fields can bring on paranoia, nausea, skin irritations and hallucinations and may not necessarily reflect paranormal activity. (So he seems a rational investigator I hope.)

If nothing else it attracts visitors to the library, which this blogger thinks is a good thing. Libraries are a ‘haunt’ of mine, they have books! I don’t mind the digital age but there is still something very appealing about opening the pages of a book and sitting down to read.

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

This fantastic building was listed in 1990 as a National Historic Landmark, formerly known as Weston State Hospital. It operated from 1864 until 1994 and was built on the fairly-well known Kirkbride plan.

Construction began in 1858 and the local newspapers reported “seven convict negroes” were amongst the first arrivals to work on the project. When the American Civil War broke out construction was stalled. Eventually the project came to fruition and the first patients were admitted October 1864, construction then continued until 1881.

In the period it was constructed it is worth noting that, sadly, black people were still segregated and in 1873 they build separate rooms for black patients. It was supposed to be another self-sufficient venture with a farm, dairy, waterworks, cemetery and gas as well.

It started with an ideal for 250 patients but by 1880 there were 717 and at its peak in the 1950’s there were 2,600 people crowded into the building. In 1935 a fire was started by a patient and a wing was rebuilt, clearly the place was struggling on many levels.

The population had declined by the 1980’s but it was discovered that those who could not be controlled were locked in cages. The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum is now closed and used as a tourist attraction. The new owners offer historical tours and paranormal tours, it is popular in part due to the many rumours of hauntings there. TAPS, Ghost Adventures and other popular shows have filmed and investigated there.

So what are the paranormal reports? On the first floor many have reported being pushed, hearing sounds and people say they have encountered the ghost of ‘Ruth’ on the hallways, though I have no idea who Ruth is/was.

On the second floor in Ward Two people have encountered shadowy figures, near the area a man was stabbed 17 times and died; nearby two patients committed suicide via curtain poles and some EVP’s captured have clear enough warnings of ‘Get Out’.

The third floor has nurses quarters and some say they have been nurses walking the halls. There were violent female patients there on the floor and some report the sounds of their disembodied voices. Adding to the accounts was that some believe, and report to have experienced, a man named Dean who haunts where he murdered a nurse, Elizabeth, and in another nearby hall that they have caught EVP’s of someone called Big Jim too.

On the fourth floor Ward R is reportedly the creepiest and where the ghost of Lily can be contacted. There was a report of a black dog there but this makes very little sense to me. Supposedly there is another ghost known as the ‘creeper’ because it crawls and slinks around. – ghostresearch.org