Waverly Hill Tuberculosis Sanatorium - Louisville, KY (The Pucker Effect)

4400 Paralee Dr.

Louisville, KY 40272

www.therealwaverlyhills.com

           Over the years I have given dozens of interviews for various newspapers, magazines, television and radio around the country. Most are always conducted in the normal fashion and almost always include the same question: “What has been the most active place you have investigated?” Although I have spent years visiting hundreds of reportedly haunted locations in every nook and cranny of the south, my answer is always undisputedly the same: Waverly Hills Tuberculosis Sanatorium.
           For centuries, one of the many deadly diseases that ravaged the human population was tuberculosis. TB, as it is most commonly known as, is an infectious airborne disease that most regularly affects the lungs and respiratory system, but can also spread to other portions of the body. As with many of these mysterious deadly diseases, regular experimentations were conducted in attempts to find a cure. In most cases, these attempts proved to be futile, as you were left with painful procedures and a growing body count.
           As I mentioned with the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum, early medicine was basically a guessing game. Doctors “brought the pain” so to speak, as medieval-like procedures were conducted and concoctions containing who-knows-what were administered to often unwilling participants. The race to find a humane cure for tuberculosis would not be spared, as many of these attempts were torturous and often proved just as deadly as the disease itself.

Oak Alley Plantation - Vacherie, LA ("They Killed Us")

3645 Louisiana 18

Vacherie, LA 70090

30.003318,-90.780735

www.oakalleyplantation.com

As I mentioned when I discussed Madame John's Legacy, one of my all-time favorite movies has always been Interview with the Vampire. From the storyline, to the characters and especially the locations, it is one of the few movies I do not get tired of seeing. For those of you that have seen the movie, once Louis de Pointe du Lac (Brad Pitt) is bitten by Lestat de Lioncourt (Tom Cruise), he slowly begins to transform into a vampire. As his health worsens and his body deteriorates, his demeanor and mannerisms equally dwindle down to the shadows where he is soon to follow. He becomes ill at the site of food, yet his hunger for blood intensifies. As he and Lestat sit at the dinner table of his grand mansion, his quadroon servant comments on Louis's fading appearance. Louis cannot resist the beautiful woman and bites her. She then faints, sending Louis into a frenzy, sick of what he has now become. As additional slaves gather at the outside of the home, Louis sets it ablaze. The pinnacle of the scene shows Louis kicking the door of his home open, as he carries out his servant, flames in suit. He hands the maid off to a waiting slave, hops on a horse and flees the property, as the slaves cheer and celebrate that the “devil” has finally gone.
If you remember the scene I am referring to, than you obviously remember the beautiful home that was used as Louis's plantation. If it looks strangely familiar, it's probably because you have seen it, not only in several other movies and television shows, but it is a very common plantation used in southern artwork, as many feel it to be the quintessential depiction of southern plantation life. If you have been living under a rock for the last few centuries, I am of course referring to Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie.

Bienvenue House - St. Martinville, LA (The Cajun EVP)

421 N Main St.

St. Martinville, LA 70582

30.127395,-91.828604

            Being raised in such a Cajun household is quite a unique experience. Some may call it the simple life while others refer to it as good old country living. As a child, it wasn’t a matter of eating your vegetables. As a Cajun kid, you would be more likely to hear, “Boy, if you don’t eat all of your rice and boulettes (meatballs), I’m gonna get you with the palette à mouche (fly swatter)!” I can never forget growing up, my dad would come home with huge snapping turtles that he would catch in a nearby lake. He would bring them home and proceed to clean them to make a good sauce piquante, or red gravy. In a bucket, he would throw away the feet and scrap pieces. If the turtle was a female, my cousin and I would always gather the eggs and chase each other around the yard as we threw them at one another. Consider it a poor boy’s paintball game! Yes, it sounds disgusting because it is!
               A stereotype of country folks is the comical story of eating road kill found on the side of the road. As I have often said, “The thing about stereotypes is that they are normally true!” I can attest to this, as one Sunday morning on the way to church, my mom ran over a squirrel. It wasn’t horribly marred, as it simply died of a head wound. I remember my mom saying, “I guess I should go pick it up for your daddy.” To my amazement, she swung a u-turn that would have made Bo “Bandit” Darville proud and had me get out the car to pick up the lifeless corpse. She popped the trunk and I threw the squirrel in as we proceeded to church. After Holy Communion was over and our Hail Mary’s had been said, we returned with our catch. Sure enough, my dad was pleased to see what we brought him as he would skin it and freeze it, adding with the rest of his collection. After about seven or eight had been collected, it was supper time!

Oakley Plantation - St. Francisville, LA (The Guitar Strum)

11788 LA 965

St. Francisville, LA 70775

30.809357,-91.282741

            Often overlooked due to the mass notoriety garnered by the Myrtles, our next location may not get the haunted attention it deserves. Tucked away about two miles from the Myrtles is Oakley Plantation, which helps in making up the Audubon State Historic Site. The land that the home sits on began as a Spanish land grant in 1796 that was given to Ruffin Gray, a successful planter from Natchez, Mississippi. If that name sounds familiar, you’re not alone. From the information that I have gathered, Ruffin is the father of Ruffin Sterling Gray who would purchase the Myrtles in 1834. On his newly acquired land, Ruffin would begin construction on the family home. Early into the job, Ruffin would pass away, leaving behind his two children and wife, Lucy Alston. Lucy would ensure that the family home was completed, as she remarried a Scotsman by the name of James Pirrie. The two would birth a girl, Eliza, who was born on October 6, 1805.
            During this period in time, it was customary for planters to travel to New Orleans in the hopes of exposing their families to a more eclectic form of culture. I am sure these excursions were also a chance for young women to search for a successful husband in the big city. During the spring of 1821, Lucy Pirrie would make a trip to New Orleans and meet the well-known James Audubon. At the time, Audubon was working on his famous Birds of America paintings and literature and was in need of a steady paying job. Lucy would offer Audubon employment by returning to their home in order to tutor her young daughter, Eliza. The proposal was simple; Audubon would receive fifty to sixty dollars a month plus room and board for himself as well as his thirteen year old protégé, John Mason. In exchange, he had to tutor Eliza half of his time, while the other half could be spent roaming the grounds and doing as he wished. Audubon would stay at the Oakley House for about four months. During this time, he would create thirty-two of his famous pieces of artwork and gain an immense love for the West Feliciana land.

Shreveport Municipal Auditorium - Shreveport, LA (The Johnny Cash EVP)

705 Grand Ave.

Shreveport, LA 71101

32.507483,-93.75316

www.shreveportmunicipalauditorium.com

            One of the things I have been the most proud of since forming Louisiana Spirits is the fact that we have been the first paranormal investigative group to be allowed into many of the state's most well-known and historic venues. In doing so, it has validated our credibility and proved what a good reputation we have earned throughout the years. To get some of the approval we have obtained, we have had to survive imposing interviews from government officials, town meetings with civic leaders and tons of other nerve-racking encounters. Once the deciding individuals quickly saw how reputable we were, permission was granted, making all of the work and persistence worth it. The feeling of bagging a big investigation is like a drug. I know in my case it often makes me say, “Ok, if I got this big investigation, what's the next one I can get?”
            As I mentioned earlier, many of these locations that we have pioneered may not have a great deal of haunted history, if even any at all. Sometimes for the hell of it we will investigate locations simply due to the immense history and energy that it holds. Every haunted location started with the first ghostly encounter. Who's to say the first encounter cannot be experienced by yours truly? Many times, we come up short handed, leaving us to say, “Well that sucked!” Other times, we actually do find something, bringing another haunted location to the mainstream. I've always said, “It's not bragging if you can back it up!” We can proudly say that several of the most notably haunted locations in the state were introduced to the paranormal community by Louisiana Spirits. Sometimes we may not be given the credit we deserve but I'll save the sour grapes for another time!

St. John Theatre - Reserve, LA (What Causes a Haunting?)

115 West 4th St.

Reserve, LA 70084

30.054904,-90.557958

www.stjohntheatre.org  

            From the largest cities to the smallest towns, Louisiana has a vast and eclectic amount of theatres. Some may be grand multi-tiered and greatly ornate venues that hosts the biggest productions featuring the top stars of today, while others may be no bigger than your living room with milk crates for chairs. Whatever the case may be, you are likely to be equally entertained with both extremes. As a child, there was a movie theatre in my home town that was so bad, it was worth going, because you never quite knew what you would encounter. What they called new releases were already on VHS, your feet stuck to the floors from the filth and if you didn't get a staph infection from the chair springs sticking you in your legs, chances were you already had it form getting bit by one of the cat-sized rats that often scurried across the floor. I use the term “scurried”, yet “slowly crept” was more like it, as they had feasted for so long on candy and popcorn, they couldn't quite get around like they used to.
            Pardon me for my wild tangent, as I often have the tendency to veer off topic. Nonetheless, our next location is one of these small hometown theatres but I can assure you, the conditions inside are nowhere near the old theatre I used to visit. In the small town of Reserve is a local theatre that has long been a source of great entertainment for the local community. The theatre was built in 1931 by Louis J. Maurin, Sr. and was originally opened to play motion pictures, or “talkies” as they were often called during these times. In 1954, a large remodeling took place and the venue was renamed to Maurin's Show Place of the River Parishes. It continued to feature the latest movies of the times until its doors would shut down on May 27, 1979. Fortunately, the closure would not last too long. On May of 1980, the St. John the Baptist Parish Council purchased and renovated the facility as a live-theatre venue and leased it to the Cultural Center Committee. The venue, now named the St. John Theatre opened in July of 1981 with the staging of the musical, "South Pacific," and has operated ever since, producing and presenting live-theatre and cultural events for the residents of the local community.

Joseph Jefferson Mansion - New Iberia, LA (Rip Van Winkle and the Buried Treasure)

5505 Rip Van Winkle Rd.

New Iberia, LA 70560

29.975237,-91.973441

www.ripvanwinklegardens.com

            In all my years of investigating, I don't think I have ever visited a location where the land itself has an even more interesting history than the haunted house that sits there. That is, until I visited the Joseph Jefferson Mansion and Rip Van Winkle Gardens, located on the outskirts of New Iberia on Jefferson Island. Although the focal point of this blog will be the home, to truly appreciate the complexity of this location, I must first introduce you to the unique land.
            Jefferson Island, originally known as Orange Island, helps make up the famous “Five Islands” of Louisiana. The islands were created due to enormous pressures in the earth, forcing large amounts of salt rock to form a mother bed located five miles below the earth's surface. This elevated several low laying hills, which became the five islands: Jefferson, Weeks, Belle Isle, Cote Blanche and Avery Island. These islands are elevated anywhere between fifty and one hundred feet above sea level, which due to the islands' proximities to the Gulf of Mexico, this is considered extremely high ground.

Edgewood Plantation - Farmerville, LA (A Hotbed of Activity)

8876 Hwy 2

Farmerville, LA 71241

32.78543,-92.424642

www.edgewoodplantationlouisiana.com 

*Special thanks to Bess Maxwell, John Combs, Traci Myers and the rest of the North Chapter for all their hard work in these investigations.

Also known as the Baughman House, this beautiful Queen Anne victorian style home was built in 1902 by Jefferson Davis Baughman. The home, with its unique design, sits on over eight acres of illustrious landscaped  and wooded land. Jefferson Baughman and his wife, Nancy, had four daughters. Ms. Faye was the oldest daughter who was the last one to reside in the beautiful home and passed away in the late seventies. After her passing, the home began to deteriorate little by little. After years of the home being unused, the home fell into disrepair. Fortunately, in 2010, the home was bought by Pat and Kay Carroll and they began the daunting task of bringing back the home to its former beauty.
A background of any unusual or possible paranormal activity is generally unknown. We have one report of visitors on the front porch, after the home was abandoned and in a state of neglect, of an old radio, possibly in one of the bedrooms, suddenly coming on at a loud volume, when it was known that there was no electricity to the home at the time.

Holloway Cemetery - Deville, LA (A Ghost Hunter's Training Grounds)

Holloway Cemetery (Deville)

31.363852,-92.217554 

            Located off the backroads of Deville, Louisiana, the Holloway Cemetery (Hickory Grove Cemetery) is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, cemetery in the surrounding area, having graves dating back as old as the 1820's. The cemetery is quite large, yet the graves are spread out scarcely. The grounds are said to have once contained a missionary and the site of several hangings from the massive oak trees present, yet no verifiable documentation has been found of these ever existing.
            Years ago, this was one of the first cemeteries that we used as training grounds, so to speak. Starting out with your own group is difficult, as you cannot just jump right in and start investigating private homes and grand historical locations. You have to start somewhere, and for most groups, public cemeteries are prime places to start.

Old State Capitol - Baton Rouge, LA (The Castle on the Hill)

100 North Boulevard

Baton Rouge, LA 70801

30.446602,-91.189098

www.louisianaoldstatecapitol.org

*EVP's courtesy of Louisiana Spirits
 
            The old Louisiana State Capitol is a beautiful structure, sitting high atop the land to overlook the mighty Mississippi River. If walls could talk, this 150-plus year old building could lecture for days! It has survived the ravages of war, fires, physical fights, political battles and so much more.
            The building, which is known as “Castellated Gothic” was designed and built by James Harrison Dakin in 1852, five years after Baton Rouge was able to gain control as the state’s Capitol. Prior to this, New Orleans served as the temporary capitol. The building definitely coincides with its construction style, as it truly looks like a stout castle with thick walls, turrets and plaster trim resembling large blocks.
            In 1862, under the command of Admiral David Farragut, Union troops captured the building, transforming it into a stronghold and prison, absolving the current Louisiana legislators, sending them to find another safe haven. On December 28, 1862 the interior of the capitol was completely destroyed due to a fire unintentionally started by Union soldiers. Fortunately, the charred interior was completely reconstructed in 1882 by architect William A. Freret. On March 1, 1882, Governor McEnery arrived in Baton Rouge to officially take reigns of the newly restored statehouse and the new life of the capitol began.