The mansion stands four stories high with the glassed in cupola rising 62 stairs from the main floor landing. While we recorded no paranormal experience in the cupola, we were treated to a spectacular display of a thunderstorm on Saturday night while up there. Directly below the cupola is the Ballroom. Once a showplace for the family to entertain, years and vandals have left this area a shadow of itself. The ceiling and walls have been stripped of their plaster and pigeons roosting under the eves can yield strange noises mistaken for EVP. Both groups held vigils at various times throughout the weekend. During our vigil, Philippe reported seeing shadow figures through the viewfinder of his video camera while Lon and Maryann reported footsteps nearby. Lon also felt the left leg of his jeans being tugged like a child was tugging on them.
    The 2nd floor is comprised of four rooms. The Daughter’s Bedroom and Son’s Bedroom had little to no activity. The Family Parlor at the front of the house is reported to be the room that Constance Adams resided while delirious from a fever. Legend states that she turned the wrong direction out of this room walked onto the balcony adjacent and lost her footing falling to her death. The frozen ground prevented her burial, so her body was kept in a bricked refrigeration pit in the cellar. This room during vigils produced strange tappings (sounded like tapping on porcelain), temperature fluctuations at our direction lowering from 72 degrees to 66 degrees, then returning as we asked the spirit to alter the temperatures. While sitting on one of the beds, Lon heard movement around the baggage at the end of the bed, then, felt movement on the bed behind him consistent with a small person crawling from the foot to the head of the bed. Maryann also reported movement near the bed she was seated on. Investigators sleeping in this room during our stay also reported the sounds of movement amongst their baggage. The Mistress’s Bedroom, where Mary Adams (the 2nd Mrs. Adams) died of pneumonia while recovering from a broken hip, yielded a photograph of a shadow person at the window. Maryann reported that she had seen movement near this window and felt drawn into the room. She, Philippe and Lon all felt a “funhouse” effect in this room and felt it difficult to stand at times. All three were touched while in the room. Lon felt a “tickling” sensation on the back of his leg, like a child was moving their fingers, Philippe was touched on the arm and Maryann said it felt like her foot was stepped on. During vigils in the 2nd floor hallway, movement near the staircase leading to the Ballroom was heard and shadow figures were seen at the top of the stairs peering around the banister down at us.
    The Servant’s Quarters at the back of the house and three steps down from the family area is mostly blocked off to investigators (housing workrooms and tools needed for the mansion’s renovation. On our last night at the mansion, Maryann, Philippe and Lon held a vigil in the storage room behind the servant’s stairs while the other group was in the barn. We were holding an EVP session thanking the servants for their hospitality during our stay and their dedication to the Adams family and the mansion. The other group returned from the barn to the 1st floor Parlor (our home base during the stay) they were laughing and speaking loudly. We made a comment that we wished they would quiet down. A few seconds later we heard footsteps in the hallway outside the room and a door creaking. Philippe checked the hallway, but found nothing. We completed our vigil and walked down the main staircase. One of the members from the other group was standing at the foot of the stairs and asked us if we were walking around upstairs. They had heard six footsteps on stairs, then steps coming down the hall stopping in front of the door where a deep male voice drawled “Ladies…” She described the tone as chastising (You’re in the Ladies’ Parlor act accordingly). We tried to recreate the footsteps on the stairs and the sound matched the servant’s staircase blocked at the top by plywood.

    The 1st floor mirrors the floorplan above. The Ladies’ Parlor is set up with long tables for visitors and served as our home base during our stay. This room, along with the Master Bedroom (now an art gallery/gift shop) and Library (office) yielded little paranormal activity. The Gentleman’s Parlor where George Adams hosted abolitionist meetings is directly above the area of the cellar used to hide runaway slave. Lon volunteered to sleep in this room alone while the other investigators slept on the 2nd floor. The first night Lon was awoken from a sound sleep at 4:30am by the sound of a woman crying. Unable to locate the source of the crying in the room, a check was made of the hallway when the crying stopped. The source was never located. The hallways of the 1st floor had periodic disembodied voices. One investigator heard her name called when no one was around, Maryann heard whispering in the hallway and Lon heard the word “Nine” (or German “nein”) while standing against the front door while all others were on the 2nd floor.
    The cellar is accessed through outside doors with two areas of activity during our investigation. The “refrigeration” room, with a bricked pit set into the floor allowing perishables to be kept at a cool temperature (also where Constance’s body was kept until burial) under the Master Bedroom experienced several shadow figures. One figure was seen at the doorway peering in by Maryann and another investigator who thought it was Philippe standing there until he spoke in another part of the room and the figure vanished. This figure appeared just as we commented that the cricket’s chirping had stopped. Movement was often seen in and around this room. The section of the cellar used to hide slaves under the Gentleman’s Parlor held disembodied voices, tappings, shadow figures and the feeling of being watched or that someone was standing beside you.
We look forward to a return trip to this location in 2010.