Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places

275 Pages·2016·2.12 MB·English

by  Colin Dickey

ALSO BY COLIN DICKEY
Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius
Afterlives of the Saints: Stories from the Ends of Faith

VIKING
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ISBN 9781101980194 (Hardcover) ISBN 9781101980217 (eBook)
Illustrations © Jon Contino
Version_1
For Nicole
The main work of haunting is done by the living.
—JUDITH RICHARDSON
Ghostland lies beyond the jurisdiction of veracity.
—NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
CONTENTS
Also by Colin Dickey
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraphs
Author’s Note
Introduction: Anatomy of a Haunting
(New York, NY)
I: THE UNHOMELY
houses and mansions
1. The Secret Staircase
(Salem, MA)
2. Shifting Ground
(St. Francisville, LA)
3. The Endless House
(San Jose, CA)
4. The Rathole Revelation
(Georgetown, NY, and Bull Valley, IL)
5. The Family That Would Not Live
(St. Louis, MO)
II: AFTER HOURS
bars, restaurants, hotels, and brothels
6. A Devilish Place
(Richmond, VA)
7. Baby
(Reno, NV)
8. Passing Through
(Los Angeles, CA)
III: CIVIC-MINDED SPIRITS
prisons and asylums, graveyards and cemeteries, a park
9. Melancholy Contemplation
(Moundsville, WV)
10. The Stain
(Danvers, MA, and Athens, OH)
11. Awaiting the Devil’s Coming
(Charleston, SC, and Douglas County, KS)
12. Our Illustrious Dead
(Shiloh, TN)
13. The Wind Through Cathedral Park
(Portland, OR)
IV: USELESS MEMORY
cities and towns
14. The Wet Grave
(New Orleans, LA)
15. Among the Ruins
(Detroit, MI)
16. Hillsdale, USA
Epilogue: Ghosts of a New Machine
(Allendale, CA)
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
AUTHOR’S NOTE
This book is not about the truth or falsity of any claims of ghosts. There are
questions there—fascinating to some, problematic or uninteresting to others—
about physics and metaphysics, theology and superstition, the natural and the
supernatural, but all those questions ultimately end up circling back on
themselves. As Samuel Johnson mentioned to James Boswell more than two
hundred years ago, “It is wonderful that five thousand years have now elapsed
since the creation of the world, and still it is undecided whether or not there has
ever been an instance of the spirit of any person appearing after death.” There is
no amount of proof that will convince a skeptic of spirits, just as no amount of
skeptical debunking will disabuse a believer. As Johnson remarked regarding the
paranormal, “All argument is against it; but all belief is for it.”
This book instead focuses on questions of the living: how do we deal with
stories about the dead and their ghosts, and how do we inhabit and move through
spaces that have been deemed haunted? These are questions that remain whether
or not you believe in ghosts. Even if you don’t believe in the paranormal, ghost
stories and legends of haunted places are a vital, dynamic means of confronting
the past and those who have gone before us. Ultimately, this book is about the
relationship between place and story: how the two depend on each other and
how they bring each other alive.
INTRODUCTION
ANATOMY OF A HAUNTING
New York, NY
A
ugust 1933, a summer’s day in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. There are
children playing outside on East Fourth Street; they are wild, they are
shouting and running through the street, trying to gather up the last of the
season before the fall sets in. There is nothing unusual about any of this. Then
the door swings open at 29 East Fourth Street, and an old woman emerges onto
the stoop overlooking the street, waving her arms wildly and shouting to the
children to be quiet. The children and the adults all recognize her: Gertrude
Tredwell, who’s lived in the house for more than ninety years, born there in
1840, five years after her father purchased it. She is enraged; she tells them they
are being far too noisy, they must calm down. The children quiet, turning toward
the high staircase that leads to Gertrude’s front door, looking up with fear at the
old woman, who, satisfied, returns indoors and shuts the door.
There’s nothing unusual about any of this—except that Gertrude Tredwell has
been dead now for several weeks.
It is not the last time Gertrude Tredwell will be seen at the house on East
Fourth Street. In the months after her death, the house falls into the hands of a
distant cousin; since by now most of the old merchant houses of lower
Manhattan are gone, he decides to preserve the house as a museum, first
opening it to the public in 1936. Over the years there are dozens of sightings of
odd and inexplicable things happening in the house. In the early 1980s tourists
come across the house and ring the bell. A woman in period costume tells them
politely that the museum is closed for the day, and could they please come back
at another time. Later, when they call the house to get the hours, they are told
that the museum was in fact open when they came by and that, furthermore, none
of the staff ever dresses in period costume. Gertrude has also been seen inside