La Grange

La Grange

La Grange Winery – 1790 Manor House

4970 Antioch Road, Haymarket, Virginia 20169

By Norm Gagnon

History:

House built in 1790. Has had multiple owners, most prominent

is Benoni E. Harrison who purchased the estate in 1837

and lived there until he died in 1869. Went through restorations

twice. Last time by the Pearmund family in 2005.

For more information and cultural resource survey: http://www.wineryatlagrange.com/history.html

S.E.A.R.C.H is the first paranormal research group to conduct official investigations at La Grange estate.

Team consisted of me, Jeremy: Scientific Consultant, Darla Vasilas: Case Manager/Ghost Hunter and Steve Vasilas: Ghost Hunter.

Paranormal Incidents: by Darla Vasilas.

• Previous “mediums” visiting the home have talked about sensing

a girl name “Margaret Ann” who is about 7 1/2 years old.

• Lights. Light in a 2nd floor room. During Civil War a Union

Solder had been wounded and was camping in the woods behind

the house. The little girl found him and told one of the

servants. The little girl would put a candle in the window to

let him know that someone was coming to bring him food, etc.

Light has been seen numerous times from the outside. When

they would go to the house to check, there was no one there.

Also, light was seen when there was no light source in the

house (electricity or candles).

• Cameo. 3rd Floor Fireplace. While restoring fireplace a

cameo pin was seen under the flooring. When the worker

tried to pick it up it moved away from him, further under the

flooring. He estimated where the cameo was and cut a hole in

the floor above it. When he reached for it again, it moved

away. The cameo is still under the flooring.

• Christmas Tree. 2nd Floor. A Christmas Tree was placed in

front of a window (same room as the candle). When the people

came in the next day the tree was lying on its side. (Was in

a heavy metal container.) They put it back and it was on its

side again every day. They moved the tree away from the

window and it was fine.

• Glass of Wine on mantle. A glass of wine had been placed

on the mantle in the reception area for Benoni. During a

Christmas Party someone emptied the glass and didn’t return it

to the mantle. The next morning when the employees were

working in the area, a glass (from a box of glasses under the

counter) suddenly flew out and crashed to the floor. The glass

of wine was replaced and no further instances have been

noted.

• Ghostly piano music was also heard in the manor house.

Ray Summerwell sharing an incident involving a wine

glass that was seen levitating across the tasting room bar.

Benoni's Lounge (Cellar) : Digital recordings captured chairs moving/shuffling upon the floor along with other unsual sounds.

First Investigation

Date: January 12, 2008

Temperature: 46 °F / 7 °C

Dew Point: 39 °F / 3 °C - Average Humidity 88%

Wind Speed: 0 mph / 0 km/h (NW)

Visibility: 8 miles / 14 kilometers

After our tour given by La Grange’s caretaker Ray Summerwell, the S.E.A.R.C.H team separated and positioned ourselves at different locations throughout the manor house and I stationed myself in the Benoni Lounge’s stone-walled cellar. Approximately 11:50PM, I heard above me what sounded like someone entering and walking in the lobby area. Shortly after, I heard a "hello" and I went up to see who have entered the tasting room but the area was unoccupied so I returned to the cellar. Steve have also heard similar sounds and a "hello" from the 2nd floor parlor room and stated that he did step out of the room and called out hello himself in reply to the first greeting, but no one was there.

11:55PM Cellar

Suddenly, I heard music emanating from upstairs and seconds later I received a radio call from Steve about this disturbance. I soon joined Steve and Darla on the second floor, and we all walked up to the third floor office to check out why a radio would mysteriously turn on and at maximum volume (eerily playing a mélange of Big Band and country music intermixed with static interference). We entered the office and I walked around the desk and I picked up a RCA RP5620 Clock Radio and upon closer observation, the switches were all in their "off" positions so I pressed the top snooze button to silence it. As we were trying to figure out why this radio switched on, one of the two resident wild cats catapulted between us and shot out the office door - boosting our heart rates even higher!

Spirits of another kind.

As a paranormal researcher, I often rely on my five external senses of sight, smell, hearing and touch during my field investigations but on this case, often passing by the many award winning collection of illustrious bottles that were displayed upon antique mantles, this reminded me that my sense of taste had been sadly deprived that evening. I did return to La Grange the very next day, not to seek poltergeists but to savor Portuguese - snort, along with other delightful vintages!

Second Investigation

Date: February 16-17, 2008

Temperature: 45 °F / 7 °C – Clouds: clear

Dew Point: 42.1 °F / 5.6 °C - Average Humidity 37%

Wind Speed: 5 mph / 7 km/h (N)

Pressure: 30.28 in / 1025 hPa (Falling)

Visibility: 10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers

Investigation: 06:30pm - 02:30am – VERY ACTIVE!

• One employee heard the heavy steel fireplace screen fall over earlier during the day, in the 2nd floor "cameo" room.

• 08:30pm: Steve & Darla from the lobby area heard a loud bang followed by what they perceived to be a conversation in an adjoining room. They were the only one in the house. Steve was later tapped on his shoulder by an unknown force.

• 10:15pm: Darla witnessed what appeared to be two pinpoint orbs moving under a window in the cameo room.

• Jeremy & I in the cellar both heard loud knocking and/or what sounded like heavy footsteps from floor above and proceeded upstairs to investigate. We all met in the lobby area and all were smelling thick cigar smoke without actually seeing smoke. During the time Jeremy and I were upstairs, the recorder captured chairs moving and shaking in the cellar (source: digital audio recorder inside a Faraday Cage that Steve fabricated and set up earlier in the evening). Experiment: We returned a few days later to record us moving the chairs and table in the cellar (with same digital recorder) and the results were identical!

Jeremy's notes:

Our team (being all in groups of two and in different locations) heard a loud banging from the main hall (where no team was at the time) heard by all members, which sounded like a loud knocking on the front door. All teams proceeded immediately to the area. Upon approaching the area, all members smelled smoke. It smelled like cigar smoke and could be smelled far away from the door but got stronger as we approached. It was not visible but seemed thick and caused some members to choke. After about 10 minutes it gradually went away till it could no longer be smelled. There was no sign of fire or burning and no smoke damage or dust. Fearing potential tampering by second parties, the whole area was searched. The door and windows were locked from the inside; the second door was far away and still set to make noise if someone entered with no evidence of disturbance. No secondary signs of burning (like ash) were found anywhere inside or outside door entrances. A person could have snuck up and knocked on the door from the outside (which would account for the noise) but for smoke to smell that heavy would have left evidence of which there was none detected at the time. Although we (team) all smelled smoke and mentioned it almost in complete unison, cutting down the risk of false identification, there is no way we can prove it was cigar smoke as the human nose is not calibrated and often wrong. To date, no abnormal EMF or temperature readings have been obtained but many strange noises have been heard and recorded (although this is no acceptable without other evidence). Members have felt forces acting on them in the form of tapping on their shoulders and such but this is also potentially suspect. Any true physical phenomenon will leave a trail. If the "smoke" was in fact smoke and can be detected again and this time caught both on file (to disprove any fakers) and by smoke detectors and air samplers without there being any normal source then this will be a true unknown physical phenomenon taking place.

We will plan a third investigation in the summer and with additional equipment. The S.E.A.R.C.H Team will also visit an old slave graveyard located nearby on a private property – with the owner’s permission.

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