Huguenot House
Huguenot Haunting
Part I: BACKGROUND HISTORY
Little is known of the history of the house, or of the Bemont family that occupied it. It is believed that East Hartfords first Roman Catholic Mass was performed in the building and that the towns first Catholic priest had lived inside, but these legends have not been confirmed. No one alive today can even explain why it is called the Huguenot House (Huguenots were French Protestants, many of whom fled to more tolerant countries to escape persecution in the 17th Century), presumably the building was also occupied at one time by Protestants, as well as Catholics. What little can be gleaned is generally from old Hartford Courant articles pertaining to the buildings restoration and inscriptions from the headstones of Bemont family ancestors, interred in East Hartfords Center Cemetery on Main Street. Many of these headstones, dating from the 18th and 19th Centuries, are in various states of disrepair and erosion by the elements, making parts of them unreadable.
Makens Bemont (c.1743-1826) has been associated with the house, due to the 1879 history of
The Bemont House was built by family patriarch Edmund Bemont in 1761, later to be occupied by Makens Bemonts family well into the 19th Century. Nothing yet has come to light about the homes history from the time the last Bemont left (presumably in the mid 1800s) to the time of Rosenthals ownership in the 20th Century. Goodwins history is the only one known to mention the house, and he describes it simply as a typical old-fashioned house.
Not surprisingly, no incident of haunting or other paranormal phenomena appears in the records prior to the beginning of restoration on the old house in 1971. While the EHHS struggled to get funding from the town and businesses, professional workmen and volunteers straightened the old frame, rebuilt the square center chimney using matching antique bricks, repaired the magnificent gambrel roof (which had been damaged by a falling tree in 1969) and built a new foundation. New white cedar shingles gradually replaced old layers of tarpaper and asphalt roofing, in order to more closely resemble the original shingles. Work upon the interior was also extensive and time consuming, a process which continued throughout the 1980s. Generous donations from businesses and individuals, in the form of materials and manpower, made the whole project possible.
Unfortunately, restoration suffered a temporary setback when vandals damaged the historic house in 1972. For a few months in the spring, several incidents occurred in which windows were broken and the hatchway door pried loose. The broken windows were particularly distressing since they were some of the few remaining examples in existence of that particular 18th Century window glass. Some of the vandals were caught, all young boys, but the damage prompted a shocked and outraged community to speak out in newspaper editorials, pleading with parents to please tell your children that when they damage historic property like the Huguenot House they steal from the schoolchildren of East Hartford who have collected nickels and dimes to save the Huguenot House, who sold cakes and cookies to move it, who printed stationery to restore it.
Restoration continued, and by the time of the week long East Hartford Heritage Festival in April of 1973 the EHHS was ready to open the House to the public for a preview showing. By that time, the Society had succeeded in raising $30,000 for the moving and restoration of the building, and was now actively seeking funds for antique furniture. In 1982, the building was added to the National Registry of Historic Places.
By the time restoration was being completed in the 1980s, workmen and locals already considered the building haunted. Unexplained construction mishaps and reports of loud banging coming from within the house, while the building was vacant, are among the first reported incidents. Workers affectionately named the haunt Benny and the foreman reportedly made out a daily work list for him. Workers and locals also reported seeing the apparition of a lady in a blue dress. This Blue Lady has become one of
Since then, the Huguenot Haunting has appeared on various websites and even in a popular travel guide. Two other paranormal teams had previously investigated the site, with the cooperation and permission of the EHHS, and reported their members having being pushed down stairs, an antique spinning wheel being spun by an unseen hand, faces appearing in the window, strange colored lights coming from the chimney, and, of course, the Blue Ladysometimes appearing inside the house, sometimes outside.
Is the Huguenot House truly haunted? Hopefully, we would soon see
Haunted Sites in
http://www.essortment.com/travel/hauntedsitesha_tvdp.htm
For Info on Bemonts in
For Directions and Info on the Makens Bemont House:
Part II: THE INVESTIGATION, week 1
The place was an easy one to miss. Tucked away behind an abandoned Walgreens on
The first I stumbled across had not appeared on the list, perhaps because of the different spelling of the Bemont name. This one read:
This headstone, then, appeared to be that of a brother to Makens Bemont, and son to Edmund and Abigail, the homes original owners. I found the rest of the family plot a little further along, to the left of the main path where a large tree still stands. There, I came to these worthies, the patriarch and matriarch of the home. Their stones read simply:
While seated in front of the family stones, a strange impulse came upon me to speak to the family that had lived in the house we would soon be investigating. As a skeptic, I rarely give in to such impulses, but it seemed the right thing to do. So, I introduced myself to the Bemonts, one at a time, explained that I would be at their home next week, and asked permission to be there. I also invited them to join us at their home, and to perhaps allow us to record their presence while there.
Of course, I received no response that I am aware of. But I wanted to be polite, and I figured what harm can come of asking first? After my one-sided conversation in this graveyard, I quietly took my leave.
Part II: THE INVESTIGATION, week 2
We arrived for the first time at the Makens Bemont House on
After the signing of liability waivers, and a heartfelt thanks to Mary Dowden and the EHHS, we began setting up equipment. Mrs. Dowden left us then, with the promise to return at
An infra-red video camera was set up on the first floor, in the room where the large sewing/spinning wheel had been seen by Mrs. Dowden to spin of its own accord, then reverse itself to spin in the opposite direction. Another camera was set up in the upstairs guest bedroom, where the Blue Lady had been seen to look out through the windows on at least three occasions. Our third camera was also stationed upstairs, in the master bedroom, along with Haydons computer and EVR equipment. Electronic Voice Recorders were set up at various locations throughout the house. We would also make frequent use of the EMF receivers that Pat and I brought with us and still photo cameras, both film and digital.
While Seth and Haydon set up recording equipment, Matt and Pat planned the course of the investigation and Gail walked the inside acclimating to the resident spirit activity, I went outside to snap some exterior photos of the house, schoolhouse and blacksmith shop. I got one of my most interesting photographs during this time, a bright white orb in front of the 19th Century schoolhouse.
Upon my return, Matt and Pat divided the six of us into two teams. Gail, Haydon and I took the upstairs first while Matt, Pat and Seth investigated the downstairs and basement. In the upstairs master bedroom, Gail and I sat while Haydon experimented with white noise and pink noise to provoke spirit activity that Gail might be able to sense. I took with me only my little digital EVR, which stayed on throughout the night, a notebook to keep track of Gails sensations, and my digital camera for still photos. As usual, Gail remained hands-free except for a flashlight, so as to remain as unhindered as possible while communicating with any spirits or entities. Entities were slow to make their presence known at this time; Gail sensed only that there was a loving couple, male and female, who had once occupied this room, that the man had been very tall and that there had been a great affection between the two. Gail told us more details about the couple as they became available; that both man and woman felt connected to the house, both knew that they were dead (some spirits dont), and that they felt we were a little rude to be barging into their dwelling. Gail assured them of our good intentions, and our purpose for being there. Gail felt the weaker presences of at least three children that had been in the house (perhaps spirit memoriesnot actual ghosts), two boysone older and one younger, and a girl. She saw that a war had occurred, that it had touched the household in some way, and she felt a strong connection of the household with horses and handiwork, or craftsmanship. She felt that the family had been in a business related to the making and selling of things, in some way connected with horses.
This fit in well with what I already knew, about Makens Bemont having been a successful saddle-maker, and having owned an expensive horse-drawn carriage that was the envy of the town in his time. They were also a family of Protestants.
Meanwhile, the other team had been investigating the spinning wheel downstairs with some interesting results. They discovered that a rational explanation may, in fact, explain Mrs. Dowdens account of the wheel spinning a complete revolution on its own, then reversing itself to spin about in the opposite direction. They were able to recreate the event by setting the wheel at a specific point, then opening and closing a door to the room. The wheel began spinning (due probably to room pressure or vibrations caused by the door) then, upon completing its spin, the weight of a joint in the wheel caused it suddenly to reverse itself and spin again in the opposite direction. Had the haunted spinning wheel, then, been successfully debunked?
As Matt and Pat later explained to Mrs. Dowden, the ability to recreate an event through naturally occurring processes does not, in itself, prove that a paranormal event did not occur. It simply means that a rational explanation is proven possible. We therefore cannot consider it as evidence of a haunting. Mrs. Dowden was actually relieved to see them recreate the event and allowed that a natural explanation is probable.
Upstairs, I experimented by having Gail read the poetic inscriptions I had transcribed from the headstones of Elijah and Leanard Bemont. I thought that if the male and female presences were, in fact, Makens and Pamela, that these would draw them out in further conversation with Gail. This experiment, however, seemed to have no more success than Haydons recordings. Whatever presences lingered upstairs still seemed reluctant to share details of themselves with Gail. She was unable to get first names from them for the first couple hours, then later felt that one may have been named Charles and the other Hannah.
At present, I have still been unable to place a Charles or Hannah at the Bemont House during its very long history. It is important to note, however, that a full century of that history has been lost to us. After the last Bemont gave up the house in the mid 19th Century, the house had changed owners many times, once even serving as a boarding house for travelers. Any number of persons may have passed through its doors and remained for any length of time. The fact that none of the Bemonts of the house were named Charles or Hannah does not, by itself, prove or disprove Gails findings. As I discovered in the
As the clock ticked closer to
It is interesting to note that several days later, while reviewing the videotape from that room, Matt would discover the most interesting video taken throughout our nightlong investigation. Light anomalies passed numerous times in this area, right inside the window where the Blue Lady had been said to stand and look outside. These anomalies appeared as distinct glowing orbs traveling in lazy, convoluted patterns. No other area of the house picked up anomalies of this type and the orbs appear very different from the many dust orbs that appear on our other cameras. Dust orbs, or round reflections of light bounced off moisture or dust in the air that is rising or setting, typically have fuzzy or indistinct edges and do not emit their own light. Good investigators are careful not to confuse dust orbs, which are naturally occurring phenomena, with spirit orbs. In this instance, it is still uncertain whether the anomalies were dust or some other phenomenon.
Over the next few hours, our entire group left the house to go outside and allow the cameras and recorders to obtain good data, uncontaminated by our own voices and noise of our passage through the building. An interesting incident occurred during one of these occasions. While Gail and Haydon sat on the bleachers toward the rear of the house, overlooking the little ball park, Matt, Pat, Seth and I took a cigarette break near the roadside. An East Hartford Police officer pulled up. We explained to him our reason for being in the place after hours, and he spoke with us in a friendly manner for several minutes. We said nothing to him of the Blue Lady or the houses other haunt, Benny.
The police officer then told us that the place had always given him the creeps, ever since he had witnessed someone in one of the second floor windows look out at him one time while he had been patrolling in his cruiser. He explained that the incident had occurred while he was working the Third Shift one night, but he was unable to describe the face he had seen. He pointed to the windowone of the same windows where the Blue Lady had been seen. He asked that we not reveal his name or badge number, to which we respectfully (though regretfully) agreed.
Incidentally, four more police officers would arrive in the area and speak with us throughout the night. We regretted not having made a courtesy phone call to EHPD to give them a heads-up before beginning the investigation, but every officer we spoke to was respectful and courteous. They did not interrupt the investigation or approach the house at all, but merely waited in the nearby parking lot for one of us to walk over. The last couple that showed up actually had already heard from their fellows about our investigation and actually came out of curiosity, simply to hear what we may have discovered thus far.
The two teams then regrouped and shared information. Hoping to contact one of the spirits through Gail, without contaminating her revelations by prior knowledge, I asked Pat if it would be a good idea to give her some first names of persons associated with the place. I was especially anxious to nail down the identities of the Blue Lady and of Benny (the poltergeist-like haunt that reputedly could move objects and even push people).
We had actually learned quite a bit about Bennys legend. The workmen who first began reporting numerous unexplained movements of materials and the locals who reported noises like construction coming from within the vacant building at night, had been responsible for the name Benny. They chose the Biblical name Benjamin, a name meaning right hand of God, for him because they felt that he had lent a hand in the restoration of the house during the 1980s. The name Benny, therefore, had nothing to do with the history of the house, or of the Bemonts. I had a sneaking suspicion as to who the real Benny might actually be, but kept this theory to myself for the time being.
Pat suggested I make a list of first names, half of which were real names of persons associated with the houses history and the other half of names that had no relation to the house. I did this and handed the list to Gail. Things became interesting when she hit upon two of the names right away; Henry and Abigail. These names would be the only two that struck a chord with her.
Now, Abigail Bemont was the wife of Rev. Edmund Bemont (the original builder of the house), and the mother of Makens Bemont, for whom the house is named. Along with Pamela Bemont, Makenss wife, she was one of the two most likely candidates for the mysterious Blue Lady. Abigail, she felt, was the very strong female presence in the childrens room upstairs.
That Gail had felt Henry to be the strongest male presence was especially interesting. She also stated clearly that Henry was not one of the family spirits she had sensed earlier, and that he came along at a much later period in the houses history. She felt that he was deeply invested in the house, but could not say for certain if he had ever actually lived there.
This information from Gail dovetailed nicely with my own suspicions, based on my research into the houses restoration. Remember that Benny did not start haunting the house until the later restoration of the home in the late 1970s or early 1980s. The man most actively involved in the restoration of the Makens Bemont House, up until his death on
Unfortunately, attempts by us to have Henry touch one of us or to move objects were all unsuccessful. If Henry truly viewed himself as a protector of the house, he probably only manifested his poltergeist-like abilities when he felt the house to be threatened in some way; either by damage or improper construction. Obviously, we were unwilling to provoke his ability by damaging anything, and so had to content ourselves with polite, yet futile requests.
Our attempts to contact Abigail lasted well into the early hours of the morning. These attempts by the group involved joining hands in a circle, up in the childrens bedroom where the sightings had occurred and where Gail felt her presence to be strongest. Everyone except Gail knew about the Blue Lady sightings, and hoped to catch a glimpse of this famous apparition of a Victorian lady in blue dress. Other psychics who had visited the house in the past claimed to have contacted her, one at least claimed that the entitys name was Eliza, Alissa, or something similar.
While joining hands in the circle, I personally had a clear image in my head of a lady placing a white flower, possibly a rose, upon the grave of a departed husband. Another image I had was of the same woman striking her young son in anger, with her right hand upon the left side of his head. Gail had said that the woman was plagued by intense sadness and feelings of guilt, and that she had thought herself a poor mother. I asked Gail to ask her if she had ever struck her son, and Gail said that she had. I asked where she had hit him, and Gail stated that it had been on the left side of the head.
Were these images truly visions of spirit memories, or just my overactive imagination? It is impossible for me to know, certainly not proof enough to convince a skeptic, since I could not even convince myself. But the sensation remained. In fact, the only empirical data we obtained throughout these attempts, while the EVRs, EMF receivers, and video recorders were running, were the light anomalies I mentioned earlier that appeared in Matts video, near the windows.
Gail has said that she is not clairvoyant, mostly because she chooses not to be. She is more comfortable with clairaudience and clairsentience, but is uncomfortable with the images of dead people. She therefore chooses to block this ability, even though occasional images slip through. Since I knew that legend has the Blue Lady manifest as a visual apparition, and since she did not seem to be manifesting for us that night, I asked Gail if she could concentrate on this Abigail that she sensed and perhaps give me details of her appearance. Gail was very accommodating in this. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the entity in the room, who she knew only as Abigail.
Gail described a woman of medium build, with medium length black hair falling loose to her shoulders, and wearing a dress that looked more like a nightgown. I asked her to describe the dress. She described a loose-fitting dress, more like nightclothes, with a skirt long enough that the hem touched the ground, shielding the feet from sight. It had sleeves, somewhat puffy, but not as puffy as the Victorian leg-of-mutton sleeves. It was also closer at the waist, not necessarily cinched or gathered, and had a tie at the back. The color of the dress Gail described as white, or an off-white color, possibly yellow.
At one point, Haydon asked Abigail, through Gail, the name of her husband. Though we heard nothing at the time, our EVR recorded a very interesting EVP that we only discovered upon later analysis of the evidence. A distinctly female voice speaks immediately after Haydon had finished his question, and at a frequency impossible for a living human voice to have made. Matt and I would listen to the EVP many times, and our nearest guess is that the female voice is saying I have not forsaken you. If this is, indeed, what is being said, then what does it mean?
Is Abigail Bemont the famous Blue Lady of the Huguenot House? Sure, Gail described a white dress, not blue, but through antique windows and at a distance who knows? We could no more prove Abigail to be the Blue Lady than we could prove Henry to be Benny. Our investigation turned up very little in the way of photographic, or video evidence, aside from the light anomalies in the bedroom. Our best paranormal evidence was the one EVP, discovered only after reviewing many hours of recordings.
In the early hours of the morningstiff, sore, and a little irritable with each other from lack of sleep, we said our goodbyes to the Huguenot House. We were deeply grateful to Mary Dowden and the East Hartford Historical Society for the opportunity to investigate this beautiful and historic home. Before leaving, Matt and Pat promised her again to share whatever evidence later analysis of the tapes and photos might uncover.
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