 In
the market for buying a house? You might consider this
lovely little haunt. It's located in the Cathedral Park
neighborhood of North Portland; a stones throw from the
St. Johns Bridge. It's cozy, well kept, and comes with an
extra; down in the dark basement.
Karla
used to live there and was gracious enough to give the
following details via email:
"Hello, I
found your site accidentally and am so interested in
this. You see two years ago I moved from XXXX N. Syracuse
after living there for five years. This house was very
haunted. We had lights turn themselves off and on at
will. We had off become on and on become off. We
especially felt a presence in the basement. One night we
had a visitor, a hispanic man knocked at our door and
asked if the ghost was still there. It would manifest
itself more if we were doing any construction on the
house and when we prepared to move it went nuts. We heard
footsteps in the middle of the night. My husband slept in
the basement for awhile and saw a woman at the foot of
his bed one night standing over him. We have many
stories. I loved that house and became friendly with the
ghost and never felt in danger, just often alarmed."
Thanks,
Karla
The
preceding email perked my curiosity. I asked for a bit
more detail and received the following:
Dear Mike,
"I bought the house in 1991 and as a realtor I
pulled a chain of title that showed all the owners. It
had been owned for 40 years by a single old woman who
sold it about 11 or 12 years before I bought it. I don't
know if there was any tragedy or deaths. It is my
understanding that after the old woman it was owned by a
Mexican family and neighborhood rumor had it that they
ran a still out of the basement and had some workers
living in the basement. When I bought it there were old
slat bunkers in the basement and an eerie feeling down
there. Then the old man who stopped by one night was also
Hispanic and said the ghost had bothered them terribly. I
always felt that the ghost was probably the old woman. I
felt that she was protecting the house and making it
uncomfortable for anyone she didn't like."
Some of
the problems we had were:
"One
day my son turned out the dining room light to leave and
it turned itself back on by the time he reached the front
door. The switch to the basement light was in the
kitchen. All the time we would find it on and I was
always yelling at my kids. Finally I woke up a few times
in the night to find it on after I had certainly shut it
off and with the other phenomenon I realized it was the
house. My daughter says she would turn it off and when
she went up the stairs to the second floor she could see
through the floor boards it was back on. Once my back
stoop light switch turned off to on and visa versa for
about a week and then switched back. We would unscrew
bulbs in certain rooms with out dated light fixtures and
find they would come on. Once the pantry light was on,
but when I touched the light bulb it fell into my hands.
It wasn't screwed in enough to be on. Once I was painting
my bedroom floor and I turned out the LAMP and painted
myself out the door. Closed it and then remembered that I
had left something in there. Turned around to find the
light on under the door. I didn't go in."
"Once my stereo in the same room had a loud feedback
sound. Horrible, and when I ran to shut it off, it was
off. If we did any construction or work on the house the
phenomenon would increase."
"My husband moved to the basement for while and had
a woman visit him at the end of his bed. He said he felt
peace from her, not fear. My son had a lot happen to him
as his bedroom was above the most haunted basement room.
I could have him email you with some of it. He felt there
were 3 separate entities in the house. He is very
sensitive and received the most activity."
"I sold the house when I separated and was losing
it. I hated losing it and I miss the house and its ghost
very much. A man from across the street from the house
bought it to put his family in and over 2 years later he
still hasn't moved into it and is now trying to sell. I
haven't spoken to him about this and would appreciate you
leave my name out of your questions. If the opportunity
arises I would still like to buy it back. But, I do
believe there is a reason he never moved into it and then
is trying to sell it. Please let me know what you find
out."
 I
haven't quite figured out how to approach the owner who
lives across the street. I would hate to lie and pretend
to be a prospective buyer.... but it would be easier than
asking about haunts. Most owners/sellers do not like
ghostly publicity. They are afraid that the selling price
might go down. If bumps in the night are your kind of
thing, consider this dwelling as one which could be
yours.
10/9/00... as far as I know the Syracuse house is still for sale.
I received this email from the seller/owner. He isn't happy with the posting
but I'm leaving it up.
|
