A TALE OF TWO HOMES
An East Providence, Rhode Island homebuyer received an unpleasant surprise when he uncovered a piece of Rhode Island’s horrid past in his attic.
Planning to fix up his home for his family, an East Providence man hired contractors to do some work in his house. One of the contractors hired to do some work in the attic, came rushing down from the attic within minutes of being up there. The homeowner noticed that his face was ghostly white. The contractor, when asked why he was leaving replied that the owner needed to check out the findings in the attic.
Much to his astonishment, the homeowner found Ku Klux Klan robes and hoods, KKK prayer books along with a significant amount of other Klan ceremonial and operational items. Also included within this find were neatly wrapped and packaged photos dating back to the 1920’s. It was apparent that nothing had been disturbed in years.
The plot on land on which the house stood consisted of two homes both inherited by the last owner, a relative of one of the Klan members. The East Providence man had purchased the older of the two homes, which at one point had been rented out to the former owner’s relatives. Older people in the neighborhood which had become predominately Cape Verdean along with people of various other ethnicities said that the people who used to reside at the property forbade their children to interact with other people in the neighborhood and that they would not rent the house out to anyone they disliked.
Upon further work in the house, the homeowner discovered in the closet of a room belonging to his daughter a rope tied in three knots, which supposedly represents the placement of a curse or the prevention of a curse. Buried in the concrete driveway was a horseshoe and an identical one was planted in the floor of the garage. Depending on which was a horseshoe is pointed determines whether it represents blessings or bad luck. The open ends of these horseshoes were pointed up (and that depends on which direction you are looking at them).
As more work on the house commenced, the owner said that he began to hear knocking sounds at night. Even though he “smudged the house” the house was still noisy at night. Desperate for answers, he called in some paranormal people to determine what was going on. He was told that a lot of children were hurt in the house and that there was a lot of energy in the basement whose uneven floor displayed discolored random patches as if the floor had been dug up and recemented several times in various places.
It turns out that the KKK was very active in RI from the 1920’s-1930’s. They called themselves the Second Klan and they fed into the local anxiety and disapproval of immigrants. Less violent than their southern brothers, The Second Klan also disliked Catholics, Jewish people and Afro-Americans.
The East Providence homeowner continues his investigation of the property and its history. It was his choice to decline an inspection because he had decided that he would have his contractor crew fix up the house. Most people don’t think of the KKK when they think of Rhode Island but this man has proof that they did exist in the Ocean State.
