Originally published October 2016
It is October. It is the month of monsters, goblins and GHOSTS! We frequently get asked if the Lamson House is haunted. And to be honest, I am never sure how to answer that question.
The fact is that on dark and stormy nights, the lights in the house do flicker and waiver. And doors do tend to open all by themselves. And I have to admit that sometimes out of the corner of my eye, it seems like I can just barely make out another person in the room who is not there when I turn my head. We have even had a few people even comment that they feel a “presence” in the house.
But just as easily, the lights flicker on stormy nights because the electric line coming into the house is old and the wind causes it to not connect correctly. And the doors open on their own because the house is so old that the floors and door frames sag a bit so the door is just following gravity if it is not closed properly. And maybe those shadowy forms spied from the corner of my eye are really just nothing more than shadows.
So is the Lamson House haunted? Maybe, maybe not. But one things is certain that every person who lived here has left a little bit of themselves, both good and bad. Upstairs in the old nursery, there are marks on the wall to show how tall many of the children who have lived here (including Nelson and Lorna Lamson) were at one time. Some of the doors have gashes and lock holes from when the house was apartments. There is not a single sharp corner in the house, as the many, many passing hands and bodies of people who have lived here long ago wore them down to rounded.
As for feeling that presence, well how could you not? Ghosts or no ghosts, but you can’t help but feel the age of a building when you step into it. A new built house feels different from one that has been standing 100 years. Everyday life leaves a patina on a place that anyone can feel. Is that a ghost? Maybe, maybe not but it is certainly something you can feel. Happy Halloween!