Ghost Story Du Jour

I was up in Washington Heights (just north of Harlem) today, doing a little research at the old Morris-Jumel mansion. (The mansion and the surrounding grounds are one of my favorite places in New York City. If you ever have a chance, take a bag lunch and enjoy it in the garden. It's lovely, quiet, and just a little bit creepy.) While I was there, I heard an interesting ghost story.

I was speaking with a woman who has worked at the mansion for decades, and I jokingly asked her if the building had any ghosts.

She pointed to the clock shown below, and said, "About fifty men have heard a woman speak to them from inside that clock."

One visitor told her that he had come to the mansion on a school trip when he was fifteen years old. His teacher had asked that each student pen a 200-word essay about an object he/she found interesting. This particular young man chose the clock. As he was scribbling notes, the little door on the front of the clock opened, and he heard a woman's voice say, "Come closer." Then the clock began to shake. The kid's teacher assumed that he was the one shaking the clock and yelled at him from across the room. Just then, the woman said, "I want you."

It took the young man twenty years to work up the courage to visit the mansion again. He came with his wife, who refused to set foot inside the building. He ventured in alone and stood in front of the clock for over an hour, but he never heard the woman's voice again.




Here's a video of another Morris-Jumel ghost story . . . enjoy!