A Haunting Weekend
In the no-man's land between downtown Memphis & the Medical Center lies Victorian Village; this strip of Adams Avenue, once known as Millionaire's Row due to the wealth of the cotton merchants who lived there, contains ornate Victorian mansions. One in particular, the Woodruff-Fontaine House, is rumored to be haunted. The daughter of the owner, Mollie Fontaine, lost a baby due to stillbirth & her husband within a few short years of each other during the yellow fever epidemic in Memphis.
Rumor has it that Mollie's spirit lingers in the home where she and her husband lived; she haunts the bedroom where they slept; photographs taken by paranormal investigators have shown disturbances and handprints on the bedspread where only seconds before the fabric was smooth. In addition to Mollie, an angry male spirit named Walter resides in the house, on the third (and top) floor; his presence is felt on the stairway leading up to the top floor.
On Friday evening, a dark chilly night here in Memphis, I drove down to the home to take the tour, which included displays of Victorian mourning attire & customs (draping the lanterns outside the home, the porch railings, and the mirrors in black) to show that "the pale visitor had come." There were mannequins wearing mourning attire scattered around the home; as I was on the third floor, these blood-curdling screams came from the floor below. It seems that some guests, who had visited the wine bar rather frequently, had gone into one of the rooms containing several mannequins and were joking around; to their shock, one of the mannequins was a real person, and she moved. Let's just say that the screams would have woken the dead.
As I was walking down the stairs, I trod on a step and heard a loud "thud!"; perhaps Walter was telling me to move along.
I've posted pictures on Facebook, and will try to load some here. Tomorrow, I'll post about the other activity of the weekend, a trip through Elmwood Cemetery.
Happy Halloween, friends!!!
Rumor has it that Mollie's spirit lingers in the home where she and her husband lived; she haunts the bedroom where they slept; photographs taken by paranormal investigators have shown disturbances and handprints on the bedspread where only seconds before the fabric was smooth. In addition to Mollie, an angry male spirit named Walter resides in the house, on the third (and top) floor; his presence is felt on the stairway leading up to the top floor.
On Friday evening, a dark chilly night here in Memphis, I drove down to the home to take the tour, which included displays of Victorian mourning attire & customs (draping the lanterns outside the home, the porch railings, and the mirrors in black) to show that "the pale visitor had come." There were mannequins wearing mourning attire scattered around the home; as I was on the third floor, these blood-curdling screams came from the floor below. It seems that some guests, who had visited the wine bar rather frequently, had gone into one of the rooms containing several mannequins and were joking around; to their shock, one of the mannequins was a real person, and she moved. Let's just say that the screams would have woken the dead.
As I was walking down the stairs, I trod on a step and heard a loud "thud!"; perhaps Walter was telling me to move along.
I've posted pictures on Facebook, and will try to load some here. Tomorrow, I'll post about the other activity of the weekend, a trip through Elmwood Cemetery.
Happy Halloween, friends!!!