Horrific Hauntings : The House of the Seven Gables

  In a historical town known for past Witch Trials (Salem) sits a colonial mansion named Turner-Ingersoll Mansion but it is better known as "The House of the Seven Gables". The house was bought into the spotlight by Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1851 novel named "The House of the Seven Gables". Because of the town's dark history of killing witches, it has got a plethora of haunted buildings with "The House of the Seven Gables" being the pinnacle.

History

 The original section of the Mansion was constructed in 1668 for Capt. John Turner. It proceeded to be in the hand of his family for three generations, until John Turner III. Facing the Salem Harbor, the house had two rooms, two and a half storey, a front porch and a huge central chimney. This house is now the middle of the mansion. After a few years, two new kitchens were added to the structure.

 By the year 1676, Turner added a spacious front extension with its own chimney, with a parlour on the gound floor and a lard bedroom above it. The ceilings in this new wing are higher than the ceilings of the old portions of the mansion.

 During the first half of the 18th century, John Turner II altered the house in the new Georgian style by adding wood panelling and sash windows. Being an early example of Georgian architecture, the design of this house is still preserved. This mansion is one of the oldest timber-framed in North America, and it has 17 rooms spread over 8,000 square feet along with large cellars. After the third generation, the family lost the house in debt and it ended up in the hands of Ingersolls, who altered it again. He removed the gables, replaced the porches and added Georgian trim.

 The house was featured in a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, named "The house of the seven Gables" which played a major role in the house getting this name and the popularity it gained. The author described the house itself as a living being in his novel: "The aspect of the venerable mansion has always affected me like a human countenance... It was itself like a great human heart, with a life of its own, and full of rich and sombre reminisces. The deep projection of the section story gave the house a meditative look, that you could not pass it without the idea that it had secret to keep."

Paranormal Occurrences

 Author of haunted Salem, Rosemary Ellen Guiley once quoted that the house is a “ghostly reminder of shipping fortunes made and then misplaced, a bust blamed at the curse of the witch trials of 1692”. Although the employees and tour guides deny the existence of anything remotely paranormal inside the house, for many years a lot of visitors have reported seeing multiple ghosts inside The House of Seven Gables.

 Inside the well-known, mysterious staircase, visitors have sighted the spirit of a man running up and down the steps. Those who've seen him link his spectral origins to the underground railroad. Others document seeing a phantom boy who enjoys having fun in the attic. During the day, his little footsteps may be heard running around upstairs as he giggles and laughs. According to one historian, the attic space once functioned as the servants’ quarters so this could be the spirit of one of the servants. However, others confidently say that the little boy is Julian, the son of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

 The most frequently seen visible spectre on the residence is none aside from Susannah Ingersoll, Nathaniel Hawthorne's cousin who fed him with the terrible memories of the Salem witch hysteria. She is an ex-owner and lived in the house during the 1800s. She was a well-known businesswoman who amassed huge amounts of wealth when she was alive. She is also the only woman to have been born and died within the house. Her spirit has been spotted taking walks in the halls of her former house or even peeking out the windows to those who enter the estate through the garden underneath before mysteriously disappearing.

 In October 2006, one visitor named Christopher toured the mansion along with his girlfriend. Unfortunately, they’d arrived only at 7:30 pm and the museum had already closed. The next day, they returned in the early evening to make sure they didn’t lose their chance for the second day in a row. They checked in without knowledge of the building's haunted nature. Whilst Christopher descended to the bottom of the infamous attic stairs, he heard a woman whisper “shhh, shhhh,” into his ear. Christopher turned around thinking it was his girlfriend but she was almost four feet away and swore she hadn't uttered a word.

 One other commonly reported paranormal hotspot is the attic. "Suddenly I felt queasy and light-headed and couldn’t breathe, I had the feeling that I had to get out of the room now. I couldn’t concentrate and felt incredibly anxious” are the words of one verified visitor. Another visitor reported, “I am sensitive to that sort of stuff, and I felt a very strong presence inside the attic area. I remember doing a ‘double-take’ for no explained reason in the attic toward the little window facing the waterfront but nothing was there”. Also, one other visitor reported being strangled by invisible hands inside the attic.

Current State

 In 1910 the house was transformed into a museum and it has stayed this way ever since. You can still visit the place though but, I leave the decision to your own judgement.