Post by Joanna on Apr 18, 2016 23:26:06 GMT -5
Haunted in New England Films at Brown House
HAMPTON FALLS, N.H. – A dozen paranormal teams have investigated the old mansion on Brown Road known as “the Governor’s Mansion,” invited by owner George Blaisdell to assist in unearthing dwelling’s ghostly history. This Saturday (April 16), one more team will take a crack at investigating the spirits Blaisdell believes his home – the crew from the show Haunted in New England, a series available on Amazon Prime.
Blaisdell, an insurance broker, said he has witnessed bizarre, unexplained phenomena in the four-story Victorian since he moved in. A mysterious old woman is often seen in the windows by neighbors. Blaisdell sometimes sees a young boy running through the house playing with phantom cats. Visitors have become suddenly hysterical, claiming they were touched by an unknown presence. Even Blaisdell's mother claims she was physically attacked by an apparition, suspected to be the spirit of a teenage girl who once lived there, he reported. His mother vowed she would never step foot in the place again, he added.
But Blaisdell finds his residence more intriguing than scary. Once an atheist, he has become dedicated to explaining even the most terrifying incidents that have occurred the house on Brown Road. He’s had teams such as the Atlantic Paranormal Society from SyFy Network’s Ghost Hunters explore the mansion for an episode. “It’s just amazing, the stuff that’s happened,” Blaisdell insisted.
Eric Perry of Haunted in New England said he’s excited to get his team of investigators into the mansion to corroborate Blaisdell’s stories and what other teams have discovered. They’ll spend Saturday in the house, using a P-SB7 Spirit Box, a device that scans radio waves for voices, to record sounds the human ear can’t hear, he said. “I saw Ghost Hunters did it,” Perry confirmed. “I wanted to see if we get the same results as they get, scientific views. It intrigued me enough to reach out.”
The mansion was built around 1880 by Warren Brown, a prominent New Hampshire politician. He lived in the house with his wife Sarah and their children. The property also includes a windmill built from around 1902, a carriage house and a barn.
Blaisdell bought the old house in 1999 on a whim. Just six months after moving in, inexplicable activity began to occur, he related. Candlesticks would disappear and conversations were heard in parts of the house that were empty. He began seeing a young boy out of the corner of his eye that vanished when he turned to look. Mysterious cats would also appear and then vanish suddenly, he added. In 2001, Blaisdell discovered his mother with bruises all over her body. When he insisted she needed medical attention, she claimed she was assaulted by a paranormal being. Around the same time, Blaisdell said his aunt claimed she had been thrown down the stairs by some unknown entity. Blaisdell thought his mother and aunt were talking nonsense, convinced nothing of a paranormal nature had happened.
However, by 2006, he had seen and heard so many bizarre things in the dwelling that he began to question whether the house had a supernatural presence and started reaching out to paranormal groups and mediums. He hoped the paranormal experts would affirm his belief there were no such things as ghosts. When a medium came, though, her inexplicable knowledge of the house and its history only confirmed the place might be haunted. When she walked onto the property, the medium stopped and said the land appeared to be a burial ground. She was standing where a previous owner had buried a dog, discovered by Blaisdell when he was renovating the house. “I said, ‘That’s pretty damn good,’” Blaisdell said. “I looked at her and said, 'That’s a hell of a start.'” The medium spoke of Sarah Brown, as well as Bridgette, an Irish woman who was the head housekeeper. Bridgette, the medium said, also had a son who died tragically in the basement. The death gave Sarah grief, which the medium suggested is the reason Sarah still haunts the home.
When the medium channeled a 19-year-old female ghost named Gertrude – the name of Warren Brown’s daughter – what she said lined up chillingly with his mother and aunt’s experience, according to Blaisdell. The medium said Gertrude stated, “When people act out, I do things.” Blaisdell asked what kinds of things Gertrude was talking about. “She said, ‘I push people. You know exactly what I’m talking about,’” Blaisdell reported, connecting Gertrude to the suspected paranormal attacks. “I brought (the medium) in to give me sanity and strengthen my disbelief. It didn’t work that way.”
Since then, Blaisdell has become a firm believer in the paranormal. Paranormal teams say they’ve had similar experiences in different parts of the Brown Mansion. He called the house “a Disneyland for mediums, ghost hunters and paranormal aficionados.”
While Blaisdell believes his own mother was harmed by the ghosts, he claimed he feels comfortable living there with his family. He said there is no evidence his immediate family has felt anything other than welcome on the property – save some ill-will from a ghost that haunts the windmill. According to Blaisdell, people who have been inside the windmill feel as if they’re being watched. He said they have seen, heard and felt things that made them feel unwanted there. Some have left the windmill petrified, he claimed. In one instance, a woman became hysterical after standing in the windmill, insisting she felt someone playing with her hair and breathing on her neck. “She looked like she saw someone get slaughtered!” Blaisdell exclaimed.
Blaisdell has been criticized by some of the descendants of Warren Brown. Shelley Parish, Warren Brown’s great-granddaughter who lives next door, said the house is anything but haunted. She claimed Blaisdell has published incorrect information about her family’s history, including that Warren Brown once ran for governor. She said it was a different Warren Brown, not “our Warren.” She continued: “What's always troubling to us about George and the stories he presents as fact are they're tales he tells all over town and on national TV, complete with much innuendo about our family.”
Blaisdell believes his search for the history of his residence and the ghosts that dwell there has earned him the spirits’ blessing. He has completely remodeled the house since moving in. Sarah Brown, he believes, has appreciated his keeping up the property. “I think they’re trying to communicate,” he said. “I think in the house there’s a story that wants to be told and I don’t feel that they’re menacing at all.”
Source: Max Sullivan, Seacostonline, April 15, 2016.