Having worked in the event industry
for
over twelve years, in historic mansions, I have seen and heard
things
that are inexplainable.
There was a certain office manager who reportedly claimed
hearing
'voices', and said to have witnesses to back her up. The
first
time she heard strange voices occurred while she sat in the
piano room
of the Boettcher Mansion nestled on top of Lookout Mountain. It
was
built in 1912, as a summer hunting lodge by Charles Boettcher,
one of
Colorado's famous entrepreneurs. Admittedly, I thought to
myself
that the woman was a nutcase! My respect fell short for her and
I must
say that I had made fun of her account several times.
Coincidently, the voices heard by the office manager happened
within a
week or two proceeding the death of a Boettcher heir. In
fact it
was notably a suicide. Having met the Boettcher family
personally, worked the memorial service and spoke on occasion to
past
caretakers of the house, I want to tell this story with care and
respect. The Boettcher legacy has been a Colorado
endearment, as
The Boettcher Foundation has done so much for Colorado and its
people.
Now picture this, I am sitting at the desk in the entrance of
this
incredible Arts and Crafts mansion...alone...about ready to
close the
house at dusk when, suddenly I HEARD THE VOICE!
Stricken with absolute fear, as what I heard was the most
saddest cry
(from the hallway, fifteen feet away)...it was a woman's
voice.
Could it have possible been the voice of the mother's who grown
child
has just died?
If having to 'eat your own words' isn't revenge enough, don't
know what
is!
At that moment, it felt as though my temperature dropped, I was
paralyzed and I couldn't move my hand to press one button to
call the
on site caretaker. Once I could breath again, I did phone
the
caretaker to come over and investigate the house.
This occasion was the beginning to many moments of having to
call the
caretaker. He has his own strange stories as well that are
not
explainable, but he's still not convinced as to the place being
haunted.
Many nights I would be working late alone and had heard
footsteps in
the kitchen. Often times I would run down the stairs to scare
the
person, I thought may be trying to scare me, yet to no avail -
no one
would be there. If it is quiet at night and no one is
around, the
house seems to come alive as all old houses do with insane
sounds that
give you chills. But how does one explain hearing
footsteps
around 8:30 each evening in the kitchen. The footsteps
were
always behind me, but I continued to work through the noise as
fast as
I could. On occasion, when the sound of footsteps would
get to
me, I like a child would call my mom and tell of the
happening...she'd
insist I leave...
but work always prevailed.
Some people during parties would report seeing women in 20's
style
clothing, or men outside standing by a nearby car.
Sometimes
psycics would come through on a tour but they always hesitated
to tell
me what they felt. I have been gone for quite some
time and
currently the house is undergoing renovations, including the
nemesis
kitchen. The upstairs offices, once servants bedrooms,
always
gave me the creeps. I still have strange dreams about the
house. I always wondered what would happen during an
investigation.
One of the last strange things that happened before I left, was
again
while working late, during an October, cold and foggy
night...all the
lights off in the house except my office, and startlingly the
grand
piano played by itself! My explanation for this is that at
the
time, there was a small radio used in the fireside room and
sometimes a
jazz radio station would play while even being turned off.
It was
due to the radio towers on top of Lookout Mountain. The
jazz
station has interfered with weddings and other events. So
that's
my rational explanation of the night I heard the soft lilt of
the
cheery piano tune.
Other co-workers have experienced weird and creepy things, that
have
made them go home early and not finish projects! Boettcher
Mansion has also taped past family members account of living
there and
former servants and caretakers who I've been privileged to meet
have
all stated their accounts of strange and irritating occurrences.
So in the end, I have learned not to judge people so
harshly...as now
my family thinks that I am the crazy one!
Working also at the Grant Humphreys and Byers Evans House
Museum, I can
truly say that really nothing creepy or unnerving got to
me.
Again I worked many late nights alone, but felt comfortable at
those
locations. Caterers would tell me their stories of past
employees
who will never work at Grants again due to the encounters they
experienced.
While closing down the house the beautiful hand painted
portraits of
the family members were perceived to be staring at you from
every angle
of the room, but I was told that portraits used to painted that
way on
purpose!