Sunday, June 20, 2010

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!


25 comments:

kathleen said...

creeeeeeeppppyyyyyyyyy

conspiracy theorist said...

excellent, a haunted clock!
makes me wonder whose ghost it is, and why she is choosing to haunt a clock in the first place...
kinda reminds me of the winchester house, just a little.

montana irregulars said...

oooooo!!! I love a good ghost story!!

MysteryJellyfish said...

Maybe some prankster left a tape recording there...

Aww who am I kidding?

IT'S GHOSTS!

The Golden Eagle said...

A haunted clock? Awesome!

Rosie said...

Hey guys!! Its me Rosemary..i havent visted anakas diary in a while...Dont worry i am here to stay :) my computer has literally been jammed since spring break.

Kitty said...

Teeheeheehee~~ >w<

The Dimensionist said...

I'd really like to talk to a ghost. As long as they don't devour me.
Hehe.

Rosie said...

i jjust watched a show about a guy who dug up grave stones in his yard. It was really cool! He found all these old books an boxes... but he didnt continue searching for the bodies.

Anonymous said...

off subject but has anyone ever noticed how much alike gurgi from black caldron and gollum for lord of the rings they are. in the way they talk...

Alli The Totally Wicked Novelist said...

Oh that is so cool!

charstar said...

oh thats sooooooooooooooo creapy!!!

I havent been able to post coments la8ly idk y

MushroomCloud said...

there's gravestones in my yard. But it's just that a stone carver lived here and he made his mistakes into pathways.

there's a ghost in my house.my mom saw it and my dad had this dream about a ring of keys in our kitchen. a lady showed him which one fit the basement door. He tried it when he woke up and it fit... creepy..

MushroomCloud said...

any new yorkers studying for Earth Science regents? ick. I'm supposed to be... hope it's as easy as algebra was.

i wish my school didn't have all these advanced classes, then I would't be taking three high school courses before i was in high school... well, only three days till I am.

Anonymous said...

And I JUST got back from NYC...
-_-

Anonymous said...

AWESOME!

mushroom cloud: you are SO lucky! not about the school/studying thing but about your yard and your ghost. my friend and i think that one room in her house is haunted, but she doesn't want to spend the night in there. but it is a very creepy room, and we have believed its haunted since like second grade.

EQ said...

Wouldn't it be kinda cramped hiding in / haunting a clock?

I always wonder why ghosts try to kill people. First of all, if they died from something--say, drowning--don't they have reason to want to PREVENT other people dying of the same thing that killed them? Furthermore, when a ghost kills somebody, you'd think they're running a risk that the victim will become a ghost too, and they'll have to share the haunting spot...in particular, ghosts that were perfectly nice in life--what's the deal with going serial killer??

That said, I bet it would be FUN to do a bit of haunting.

Hana said...

Going to New York next year! I will definitely take a look at that clock. How awesome is THAT?

Rebecca said...

thats creepy!

charstar said...

iv been looking this up online iv been on tons web sites and the story iv dug up is,

Eliza married wine merchant Stephen Jumel from France.
i think she moved back to new york and she sold her husbands business and her husband got hurt and Eliza ripped off his bandages and let him bleed to death
and a year(14months) latter married Vice President Aaron Burr. She supposedly married to increase her stature,and he wanted her money.He died on the the day of the divorce.
Eliza died at age 90 in 1865 what Ive read is that she went crazy and died so its not a pretty story

The haunted stuff is that.

Ive read the same story over and over,
some kids where out side the house and a woman in a purple dress told them to shut up and the woman turned and walked threw
the wooden door.

I looked and looked but did not find any thing about a clock
and I couldn't find out how she died if she was killed or any thing that would make her haunt the house/clock

:) wow that was long

Anonymous said...

when does the eternal ones come out?

Anna said...

EQ-
Not all ghosts are evil, I know this from experience. Every house I have lived in had a ghost. My old home had bad ghosts, they were actually a reason my family left the area. Whenever I go back to the house, I can hardly breathe... The air is thick with a horrid feeling...
Well, back to our current ghost(s).
My mother used to see a strange man dressed in Victorian dress clothes when we first moved to the house. Our house is very old, and our street, which my grandfather bought all the lots on for his behemoth of a family, is actually a historical place called Portland Manor. I mean, we have a plaque at the end of the street. Well, we were renovating the house when my mom saw the ghost. He didn't do much, he would just stand there, looking at our home-in-progress, and disappear. He would lock our doors, too. Only the ones that led outside, thankfully. But he would lock them, it seemed like a game to him. After a while, though, he left for what we thought was for good. My mother was sorry to see him leave, he almost was becoming a friend. But last October, a friend of my dad's was talking with my mother about the ghost...
And soon enough, our doors began to lock again.
You can go outside, and walk around outside for a bit, and then, the door will lock. You just have to smile about it, and politely ring the doorbell, until you hear a "click". You can then walk in the house.

Odd, huh?

MushroomCloud said...

ghosts are pretty cool. I always thought they were the souls in purgatory. that would explain why some leave after a while.

oh nad I graduated fromMS today so no more school! YIPEE!!!!!!

TicTac said...

i love ghosts and hauntings. which is why the number one thing on my bucket list is to go to Roswell, Georgia :)

Anonymous said...

Awesome, i love ghost stories!