Spooky Homes & A Haunted Getaway

Some people believe it's nonsense and a product of an overly excited imagination, but you may be surprised at the number of Americans who believe in an other worldly existence. A poll by CBS in 2009 found that almost half of Americans believe in ghosts and 78 percent of Americans believe in life after death.

You can count me in as one of those Americans who believe in both, though I'm not sure I would actually say I believe the supernatural happenings are ghosts. For simplicity sake, I'll refer to them as ghosts.
 
Earlier this year, the Huffington Post did it's own poll and they also happened to collect some pretty spooky old photos of alleged ghosts caught on camera.

This is one of the photos at Huffington Post. The photo was taken in 1916. The dog was not there when the photograph was taken. Go to Huffington Post to see the whole slide.

Speaking of polls, I'm not sure where I read the survey, but another poll was taken to see if Americans would actually want to stay in a haunted getaway or buy haunted real estate. Surprisingly, to me anyways, quite a sizable amount of people would and do seek out haunted getaways as well as real estate.




Take for instance, The Lizzie Borden House located in Fall River, Massachusetts.  Lizzy Borden is infamous for the murders of her step-mother and her father, Andrew and Abby Borden,  though they were never able to prove it was actually her who committed the crimes. They even had a creepy nursery rhyme for her:

Lizzie Borden took an axe

And gave her mother forty whacks.

When she saw what she had done

She gave her father forty-one.

                    This photo of Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast is courtesy of TripAdvisor

According to some who stay, you can hear disembodied voices and meow's from her murdered cat. Light switches are reported to turn on and off by themselves as well as seeing shadowy figures. Each room is named after the person who occupied it, and guest can request specific rooms, including John Morse's room (Libby's brother) where Abby was found dead.

                       This photo of Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Located in New Orleans

The above is the Lalaurie Mansion . You may know it from the new American Horror Story: Coven.

Apparently, the owner at the time, Delphine Lalaurie (played by Kathy Bates) kept slaves and brutally abused them in the most horrific ways. There have been many reports of ghostly sitings throughout history. Some have seen a girl running across the roof trying to escape Lalaurie. There are reports of screams and crying by those who pass the building. 

 

                                     This photo of Lalaurie Mansion is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Hemingway House

This is the Hemingway house. Earnest Hemingway and his wife Pauline were gifted this house from her uncle. The home was found at a tax auction and purchased for only 8,000 dollars. Pauline loved renovating homes and this became the project she used to fill her days while Earnest was away on his many expeditions and adventures.

After his suicide, Hemingway has been seen by his neighbors waving out to them. The home is now turned a museum and visitors report seeing him walking out to the balcony or his type writer typing from his second floor studio loft. There have even been reports of him venturing out to his favorite local bar and has been reported to chat with some of the customers and leave out the front door.

Hemingways writing desk

What about you, do you believe in ghosts?