Ghost hunters spend haunted Halloween at Ballestone Manor

November 3, 8:44 AMGhost Hunting ExaminerPatricia Marin

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Rear view of Ballestone Manor near twilight

It was a perfect Halloween night, cool and clear, with stars sparkling like diamonds in a velvet sky. Ballestone Manor, more correctly known as the Ballestone-Stansbury House, located in Essex, MD, recalls the elegance and formality of earlier times. Dating from the late 1700s, it was built in the Federal style and surrounded by hundreds of fertile acres used for farming. Most of the original land was gradually sold and today the Rocky Point Golf Course stands where once rich fields of tobacco and wheat grew. Worth a visit at any time of year, it's especially exciting on Halloween when the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest and spectral residents make themselves known to the living.

 R.I.P. was honored to be invited to investigate this magnificent manor. We decided to also film an episode here for our Internet TV seres, The R.I.P. Files. Our five person team - me, Jim, Lisa, Rene (R.I.P. sensitive), and Celeste - arrived in the late afternoon, minus our Science Advisor/Photography Expert, Mr. D, who was on vacation. Our talented film crew - Marianna, Luis, Susanna, and Daniel - were already hard at work. The first step involved putting microphones on me, Cindy (one of the Ballestone volunteers),and Jim (Technical Director) and shooting our tour of the house. Our hostess, Cindy, a 20 year veteran of the all volunteer staff at Ballestone-Stansbury House, has witnessed some unusual events and was eager to share her stories.   

The Reports: Objects have disappeared and reappeared at Ballestone-Stansbury House, particularly an angel Christmas tree topper that went missing for over a year only to be re-discovered in an obvious and visible location in the attic. During one Halloween season a few years ago, witnesses reported hearing a glass candle globe crash; when they investigated, they saw that the globe, which had been placed near the center of the table, appeared to have somehow "jumped" over the candle itself and the rest of the table and landed on the floor as though it had been thrown there. On another occasion, several witnesses reported hearing the marbles that had been used to weight down the delicate antique teacups in the dining room begin rapidly swirling around in the cups. When they investigated the odd sounds, the marbles had stopped moving. Cindy's daughter, particpating in one of the events at Ballestone, got into the old canopy bed in the upstairs Master Bedroom and pulled the curtains closed, as her character was supposed to do. She reported that the bed immediately began moving up and down very noticeably and she has since refused to get into the bed or participate in the play ever again. Another volunteer had an experience with a firmly closed door that repeatedly opened on its own. One Civil War re-enactor at Ballestone was spending the night with the rest of the re-enactors on cots set up in the kitchen building. After hearing strange sounds and footsteps in the middle of the night, he moved his sleeping bag out of the comfortable and air conditioned kitchen building and opted to sleep outside instead, even though it was a hot, humid summer night. The volunteers at Ballestone-Stansbury House held a "fake" seance one year for fun and had rigged a number of books to fly off the lower shelves at the appropriate time. Instead, the books on an upper shelf that had not been rigged began flying off the shelves on their own! Other volunteers and visitors have periodically reported feelings of being watched at certain places in the house. A week or so before this Halloween event, I received an email from a former visitor to Ballestone-Stansbury who reported an overwhelming feeling of uneasiness and even nausea when he went into the downstairs parlor during a tour. It was so bad that he was forced to leave the house and cut short his tour.

The Energy: Rene, R.I.P.'s Sensitive, began his analysis of this location in the dining room. He felt that there was perhaps some residual emotional imprint attached to the cabinet. When I used the EMF meter, it showed some rapid spikes to .6, .7, and .8 in that area. In the parlor, Rene and I both focused immediately on the china cabinet and the desk/hutch, even recommending that the infrared camera be moved to focus on that area of the room. However, we shortly discovered an electrical box near the china cabinet that was causing intermittent EMF spikes and we theorized that this might be the reason behind our feelings in that particular area. Rene still thought there was some type of energy signature near the desk/hutch and, again, I recorded very brief spikes. Most of the EMF readings throughout the house remained in the .2 to .3 range, which is perfectly normal. As Rene examined the museum room upstairs, he picked up on the fact that someone had been very scared in that area and Cindy was able to confirm later that this was where the "fake" seance was held that turned out to be all too real. The events were puzzling and certainly frightening to some of the participants! In the attic, Rene felt the energy of teenagers, some of whom had been known to vandalize the property, and other local teens who used the property as their local private hang-out prior to the renovations. Cindy and Colleen, long time Ballestone volunteers, were able to confirm that this was indeed accurate. 

The Investigation: Before we even began the formal investigation, Jim - R.I.P.'s technical guy - had an interesting experience twice in a row. He sat down in a chair in the upstairs hallway next to a large, antique wardrobe. Soon after, he witnessed one of the wardrobe doors open on its own. Thinking that it was merely a bit loose, Jim closed it firmly and sat back down. Approximately five minutes later, the door again opened by itself. We attempted to re-create the door opening and found that the wardrobe doors fit firmly together and the latch is not loose. Colleen said that she was not aware that either of the doors had ever spontaneously opened on their own at any previous time. As part of the attempted re-creation, Colleen also jumped up and down on the floor boards in that area to see if that could cause one of the doors to open. Nothing happened. Cindy remarked that her daughter once witnessed both doors of the wardrobe vibrating rapidly for no obvious reason.

We set up our Command Center in the downstairs hallway, with infrared cameras in the parlor, upstairs master bedroom, museum room, and attic. We had an additional video camera trained on the bed in the master bedroom. Lisa and Celeste did the measurements and created detailed grids of each room, while Jim finished setting up the equipment. I took over the Command Center and sent the teams to different areas to record baseline EMF and temperature readings. Jim and Rene discovered an area of very high EMF readings in the mid-part of the dining room, which is directly over the wiring in the cellar. They also found high readings on the top step of the staircase, which is directly in line with the light switches on the first floor (see Personal Experiences section for additional information on this location). During the next phase of our investigation, teams switched areas and began EVP sessions in different parts of the house and the cellars. At one point, Lisa and Celeste began getting hits from the K2 meter in the master bedroom but the cause remains undetermined. They theorized that the microphones they were wearing may have been responsible; however, Lisa, Celeste, and Marianna performed some experiments and were unable to re-create the effect. The cause remains under investigation at this time.

Personal Experiences: When the wardrobe door opened during the tour, Colleen was sitting on the top step. I mentioned a feeling of being watched in this area at the exact same time that Colleen began talking about the goose bumps she was experiencing on her arms. She added that she frequently sat on that top step and that she had never had goose bumps at any other time in that location during the 30 years that she has been a volunteer at the house. In the parlor, and again during the seance, Jim thought he heard very faint whispering in his ear, but said it may have been due to the whirring sounds of the nearby cameras. Another volunteer on the premises during the investigation saw shadows on the property that appeared to be following people and were also visible near the picnic tables and along the fence line. In that same area, Marianna experienced a strange interference in her sound equipment that she cannot explain. One of the other volunteers saw a black shape in the attic window. During the seance itself, Colleen and I were sitting next to each other and we both reported goose bumps on our arms and feeling chilled as Rene said that the spirit of someone named Tom was present. That's very unusual for me because I'm one of those people who is always too hot. I like feeling cool most of the time and I'm almost NEVER too cold.   

The Seance: At around 1:30 am, we lit a candle and gathered around a table in the museum room. As Rene began asking for any entities in the location to give us a sign, Colleen and I noticed goose bumps and chills. Since we were sitting next to each other at one end of the table, the temperature drop could be associated with an entity coming close to us. Rene said that someone named Tom was present and the volunteers confirmed a "Thomas" name associated with the history of the house. Rene said that Tom was taking credit for some of the "pranks" that have been observed in the house, including disappearing objects and doors opening and closing on their own. Tom expressed his approval of the renovation and restoration of the house and seemed to provide a kind of protective energy in this location. Rene got the feeling of 1830 with Tom. Rene asked everyone if they were getting any images/words/feelings and I said I was seeing the persistent image of a young woman named Isabelle, around the 1840s timeframe. She was wearing a white muslin dress with a burgundy velvet sash and a straw hat with burgundy streamers over her long, wavy, light brown hair. I got the number "24" associated with her. Colleen said that there was someone named "Mary" buried in the small family cemetery. She had died in 1844 at the age of 24; however, I've been to the cemetery before and may have subconsciously remembered this particular headstone. The staff was unable to confirm anyone named Isabelle in the family or associated with the house.

Conclusion:  Our team and the volunteers reported several personal experiences and Rene definitely felt that there was at least one benvolent entity present. We are still reviewing videos and recordings and a full review will require another week. There have been some light anomalies observed on the digital video footage, but we want to eliminate the obvious "orbs" caused by dust, humidity, and insects. We will review any remaining anomalies as a team and make a decision concerning their validity at that time.