Hampton Lillibridge: 507 E Julian St, Savannah, GA Built in 1796 by an architectural firm from Rhode Island, it had deteriorated during the early twentieth century and had served as a boarding house. Reportedly, a depressed sailor hanged himself from a brass bed frame in one of the rooms. In 1963, Williams purchased it and moved it four blocks from Reynolds Square to its current location. DeBolt and Caskey report that a worker was killed when part of the roof collapsed during this tricky transition. Williams hired a crew to begin work, but they quickly reported strange footsteps, voices, laughter, and the sound of furniture being thrown around. Several workers left after they experienced the sense that unseen others were present in the house. A news crew that caught wind of the rumors entered the unoccupied house one evening and saw a piece of construction material come flying at them. One worker reportedly went to an upper story to investigate a loud noise in a room supposed to be empty. When he failed to return, others went to find him and discovered him lying facedown on the floor. He was terrified. He told them he’d walked into the room and felt as if he had plunged into ice-cold water. He seemed to lose control of his body, so he dropped to the floor to impede the force he’d felt drawing him toward an open chimney shaft, where a thirty-foot drop would have meant certain injury, even death. (Caskey says that when this man mentioned an exorcism, they heard a loud female scream coming from that room.) Workers also reported seeing a tall man dressed in black with a silver cravat glaring at them through a third-floor bedroom window. Some passersby had spotted a gray-haired man wearing a silver morning robe, and neighbors often heard party noises and a woman singing. Once, they reported seeing people dancing on the top floor when the house supposedly was empty. Lights turned on and off when no one was home, and a maid told Williams she was afraid of a male presence she sensed inside. Williams dismissed the idea that his new house was haunted, although he did admit that an empty crypt had been found on the lot. He eventually moved in and learned more about the structure than he wanted to know. Several times he was awakened to the noise of footsteps in his room, like someone crunching broken glass underfoot. He also saw a dark figure approach him and disappear, and he chased another figure down the hall until a door slammed in his face. He found it locked. He was finally willing to acknowledge that something odd was happening. Williams then asked an Episcopal bishop, the Reverend Albert Rhett Stewart, to perform an exorcism. For nearly an hour on December 7, 1963, the holy man blessed the house and commanded the evil to leave. However, his rituals apparently failed, because within a week the noises returned. Hans Holzer, a premier investigator of paranormal phenomena, came in and assured Williams that it did indeed harbor something. Other psychics sensed a female presence, including one with children. The American Psychical Research Foundation in North Carolina investigated, and they, too, affirmed the phenomena, as did a team from Duke University, hired by subsequent owners. Caskey points out that part of the house is painted “haint blue,” a color used to ward off spirits. Apparently, it doesn’t work. Current owners make no comment, although the house is for sale ($2.8 million).
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 03:35:43 +0000
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