THE GREAT WHITE CASTLE OF THE NORTH
"THE HOUSE OF LUDINGTON"
(Judy S.)
If you are looking for the adventure and mystery of a haunted theme park mingled with the heritage of a living historical museum you can forget about Disney Word. The House of Ludington is the real thing!
Rescued by Edward and Suzell Eisenberger a little over five years ago, this enchanted castle, known as The Great White Castle of The North, has under gone long awaited loving restoration. While the refurbishment is not totally complete, most of the guest rooms and the main areas of the hotel are finished, and are absolutely beautiful.
This massive enchanted castle occupies over half of the block it resides upon.
From first sight of the House of Ludington’s stately residence one may get the impression that they have entered a time warp. As you approach the castle with two court yards you may be over whelmed with haunting visions of nostalgic images of the grand and elegant styles of life gone by. The court yards, one on each side, extend all the way to the back of the building. When viewing them from the inside there is an illusion of gardens surrounding the entire structure. With natural stone enclosure housing gardens and statute, the court yards must be breathtakingly beautiful in the summer months. For certain I will see for myself this summer.
The House of Ludington historical guest registers reveal having had hosted celebrated guests from actors and authors to notorious gangsters and the regal and the royal. A hundred years or so ago The Great White Castle was a place reserved for the wealthy and the affluent. Today, you can step back in time and enjoy this elegance once reserved for the elite. The price of being a guest at the House of Ludington is “surprisingly” reasonable and affordable.
The lobby cannot be described in modern architectural words. The reception entrance of The Great White Castle is a beautifully restored grand and elegant room which displays many beautiful antiques. Many of the antiques housed all over the hotel are believed to have been there since the 1800’s, and are in nearly flawless condition. There you are likely to be greeted by Edward, Megan, or Steve. Megan and Steve (front line employees) seem to have an intuitively orchestrated system of team work. When the castle is in full operation with guests, phones, restaurant, two dinning rooms, meeting and banquet rooms, and a lounge, they seem to communicate instinctively, gliding from one task to the next, while never displaying tension, and never turning their personable attention from the guests.
The reason that Megan and Steve work so well together, and the reason that they appear to enjoy their jobs so much, may be the same reason that all of the staff seem to be happy. Suzell, a pretty little woman, charged with energy, one can see that the staff adores her, and that her energy and enthusiasm radiates to them.
Many ghost hunters and ghost curiosity seekers have visited the enchanted castle. Keweenaw Video/Media Productions of Houghton Michigan, published a DVD, Great Lakes Spirit Sightings and Lighthouse Ghosts, featuring the House of Ludington. The hotel did have the DVD in stock for retail, but I purchased the last one they had at that time. Perhaps it’s been re-stocked, or it might still be available at the Spirit Sightings web site.
Of the photos we took using a HP 215 digital and a 35 mm disposable camera, about half presented orbs. Some photos are posted here on this web site in our photo albums. All over the hotel the presence of energies can be seen, felt, and smelled. One room in particular got my attention. It was not simply that I felt and smelled a presence, but that I sensed I was not welcome by him.
Later I had asked Megan if the hotel had ever been a boarding house, and if that particular room had been occupied by an elderly tobacco smoking man who did not bath regularly and was some what of a grumpy man. Megan confirmed that research had revealed that the hotel had at one time been used as a boarding house, and in fact, the elderly man I had described did occupy that room. This neither surprised nor shocked me, as I mentioned, you can sense and smell energies all over the hotel, and if you bring a camera you are sure to see them as well.
The enchanted castle is a maze of hallways, tunnels, rooms, and floor levels. With each turn you discover some thing you would have never dreamed existed. You’ll need to plan a stay of a couple of days to see every hidden room and nook.
Three separate basements support the hotel. One basement, which we had the opportunity to see, has a complete surprise adventure. You would never guess of its existence. Not yet ready for use are a tanning salon, laundry, and male and female beauty salons. These salons are awesome! You will swear that you are back in time to the 1920’s. Part of the excitement in this level of the hotel is in the woman’s salon where there is a circular settee’ surrounding a pole beam, and an old time shoe shine station sits on the floor. The nostalgia feels like a movie set, except it’s all around you. Curiosity caused us to open a box that was set within the wall in the hallway. We were amazed to find an old time service for a telephone system. The most interesting thing about this service is not that it was still there, but that it is still in tact after many decades.
When visiting the House of Ludington I would suggest that before checking in you request permission to wander about and view the unoccupied rooms. (This is a joke, there are no unoccupied rooms at the House of Ludington). They were very gracious about allowing us to look at the rooms before checking in. Each is beautifully decorated in a different theme. The sizes of the rooms vary from cozy to large and airy. They even offer family suites (a great family Halloween adventure). One of the family suites offers a full nursery which sleeps two young ones and a baby. All rooms are furnished with antiques or vintage furniture. Draperies and accessories are antique or have been replicated in old day's style and elegance.
We had a lot of fun choosing our room, however, we could not agree on which room we liked best. We did agree that since it was my birthday I got to choose. When we stayed again on New Year’s Eve my husband got to choose the room he had wanted previously, it has a great big high bed that looks like grandma’s feather bed. There still, however, are many rooms we want to stay in. We’ll have to make plans for many more stays at the House of Ludington.
The House of Ludington is full of surprises. It is unique in a way I have never seen or experienced. A wonderland of adventure and history housing treasures and energies from an elaborate time long gone. The House of Ludington is a place every ghost enthusiast and every person seeking adventure, elegance, or history must experience.
THE HAUNTED FARMHOUSE
(Jessie)
I used to live in an old farmhouse for about 11 years. Well I remember when I was 7 years old I was in my bed, and the door was shut. The knob slowly turned and the door opened. I pulled the covers over my head and shook with fear, until I fell asleep. One other time when I was 11, right after my beloved pet dog Spunky was killed by two other dogs, I used to hear him coming up the stairs. He'd stop right in front of my room. It didn't scare me at first…but then this one time I heard what sounded like foot steps coming up stairs…now that scared me half to death. But all the things that happened there weren't always scary. I remember our music boxes would constantly go off. It was interesting because you never felt alone when they went off. One time when my one of my best friends spent the night…I had a music box in my room. We had it on the other part of the room facing the wall and it went off on its own. We moved out when I was 17.
ANGRY FRANK
(Bree)
My husband and I rented this house in Lincoln Park, MI back in 2004. It is a big house with and upstairs and basement in it. We really fell in love with it because it was so big and we have 5 children so that meant we had a lot of room for the kids. We were in the house for about 2 months when things started to happen to us in the house. We would hear god awful screaming and crying at night and then the out door lights on the side of the house would go off and on at all hours. We would leave the house for awhile and come back and all our surrounding neighbors would tell us that she counted over a hundred times of the backdoor light going off and on continuously. Some neighbors would tell us that they would see a figure walking in front of the window in the upstairs when none of us were at the house. When we moved into the house our landlord told us he had a locked door in the basement and that we were not allowed to open it or bother with it so we left it alone and not thinking anything of it. We had put the children down for the night and about a half hour they were upstairs while my husband and I were downstairs. We heard our son and daughter crying and screaming so we ran upstairs to see what it was all about. When we arrived to my son's bedroom door we saw the bed leaving the wall to the middle of the floor with them on it. My husband and I just stood there looking at each other not knowing what just happened. Next thing we see is my daughter and son was screaming in pain in front of us saying they were just scratched and bit. We went in there and took them out of the room and ran all the way back downstairs to the living room. When we got downstairs sure enough my son had a bit mark on his back and it didn't match my daughter's teeth marks and she had a long scratch down her arm. We all decided to sleep in the living room that night. My husband and I heard something upstairs the next morning like pounding and all of us were downstairs so he decided to go back up the stairs and I followed after him a few steps apart and when he reached the landing he stood there with his mouth wide open and I looked at what he was looking at and the mattress to my son's bedroom was in the hallway standing up and when I let out a gasp it flew to the wall against the hall cupboards. We left the house and went to my husband's family and told them all that was going on in the house and we contacted my husband's priest. He was leaving for a trip but gave us HOLY WATER and HOLY OIL and told us what to do. We did that and things seemed ok for a bit then things started to happen again. My son kept telling us that Frank was going to kill him and his family and we thought maybe it was a friend he made up or it could be a spirit we have been having trouble with. We decided to go to the city hall to look up the house and we didn't get anywhere with that. We were told by our neighbor and family to go to the library to see if we could find anything. After awhile of searching we could not find anything. My brother in law and some of our friends decided to come by on e night and looked at the house and we they all gathered in my son's room and they were all standing there and my sister and I decided to stay in the hallway with the room door open. It was cold in the room and colder in the bedroom closet. My brother in law felt something push him and then the door slammed shut with them all in the room and they could not get it open at first and asked me and my sister if we slammed it shut and we were shaking so hard and then they knew we didn't do it. Honest to GOD we never touched the door we were scared out of our wits standing there to begin with! They all decided to go down to the basement and open the door we were told not to open. In the room there was boxes covered with cement the landlord did when he re-did the front porch. In the boxes that did not have cement poured on were pictures in the box. We pulled out a picture of a man and my son was standing there shaking and crying saying it was a picture of Frank the guy that said he was going to kill him and our family. There were things a normal person would not leave behind when u move from a house in that room. My son was so horrified that we decided that it was time to go. We started to look for another place to go and more things would happen as the days went by. My husband was outside in our van and I was at the kitchen table and I heard someone call my name and I looked up and it was someone that looked like my husband and kept taking his finger and motioning for me to go into the kitchen. It looked like my husband but he looked very angry so I got up and went to the front door and saw my husband in the van and ran out there telling him he is out here and in the kitchen and all what I saw and we went back inside and he was gone. We called my husbands mother and told her what just happened and she called his uncle to come look at the house to bless it, we never told him anything that was going on in the house. His uncle came over thinking he was just blessing the house and he got sick and continued to bless the house and he got sick in our room that was next door to my son's room and in my son's room telling us that something is not right in this house and we need to leave it and never go back to it. We said a prayer in a circle with the family and we decided it was confirmation to go from the house. We started to pack our stuff and move out as fast as we could. We had a Picture of a wood frame to hold nick knacks up on the wall and that was the last thing we had to get off of the wall and as we were going to get it the frame flew off the wall and hit the floor so we grabbed it and left. My father in law witnessed for the first time what we were going through and said don't worry my son and his family will never be back! As we were walking out the front door the door slammed shut and we heard it lock on its own. Since we have been gone from this house we received a letter in the mail from the city of Lincoln Park asking us what all occurred in the house we were living in because every person that rents out that house have had allot of strange things happen. Since we left the house has had 24 different family's living there only for a few months at a time. We were the only one's to stay for 8 months. No one has lasted more then 2 months in the house. We have found out that the house was built on an Indian Reservation and a man that helped build the house was killed during the building of the house. He fell through the roof and died on the premises. His name was FRANK.
THE PHANTOM STALKER
(Donna)
When I was around 12 years old I had a very scary and unexplainable experience that still creeps me out to this day. In the house that I grew up in, my bedroom was at one end of our house at the end of the hallway. My parents' room was at the other end of the house down the hallway, through the dining and living room on the right. Well, one night I got up like normal to use the bath room, which was 1/2 way down the hallway on the left. My parents always left a small nightlight on in the bathroom so we could see without turning on all the lights, so after I finished using the bathroom I just walked out of the bathroom & turned to go back to my room. All I could see in my bedroom doorway, which was only about 6 feet away from me, was this big black hazy figure holding a knife above its head like it was getting read to stab me. This figure started coming down the hallway toward me and I turned and ran down the hall as fast as I could. I actually jumped across our dining room table and was beating on my parent's door to help me. I was screaming someone's in the house and they're going to stab me. I looked over again & could see the hazy figure still coming toward me through the dining room. My dad burst open the door and grabbed me. I closed their door and locked it. I was screaming "someone's out there, I saw them coming toward me, they chased me down the hall with a knife. My parents didn't know what to think, however my dad, being fearless, opened the door and turned on every light in the house looking everywhere, checking the doors and windows, making sure my other siblings were okay, we looked under every bed, in every closet, and came up with no explanation. I don't know what it was but it was something - it was moving and coming toward me and I was terrified. I still, to this day can see that figure in my mind plain as day. The figure with the knife coming toward me, it's almost like I knew it wasn't an actual person because of the haziness of it and it was like floating and moving. I just can't explain it. It still creeps me out that I cannot explain it and that what I saw lasted for more than an instant and that I actually did see it and just don't know what it was.
WITNESS TO POLTERGIEST MANIFESTATION
(Heather)
My Aunt told me about one of many incidents' that happened at their house. One night while everyone was in bed my Aunt was awakened by tremendous sounds of wind and wind blowing threw the windows, so she thought. She jumped up out of bed waking my uncle yelling there's a tornado get the boys and get downstairs and she told him that she would get my other cousin (who was female) and meet him downstairs. My Aunt ran out into the hall way and she said a rug that she had in the hall way was floating down the hallway in mid-air. The wind was so strong she could hardly get to my cousins bedroom to get her and get them both to safety. When my aunt opened the bedroom door she said that my cousin was sitting Indian style, yet was hovering above the end of her bed and that her long hair was full of static and sticking straight up into the air. Although this freaked my aunt out she grabbed my cousin trying to get them both down stairs. As soon as she grabbed my cousin the wind and roaring sounds came to a complete stop. My uncle came up the stairs and was also freaked out about what has just happened because when he opened the front door he said all was calm outside and there was no storm. He also checked the rooms and there were no windows opened. They still don't know to this day where the sounds & winds came from. My aunt explained to my Uncle what she had witnessed with the rug in the hallway and my cousin hovering cross legged over the bed and they both believed that something must have been happening through my cousin but they aren't sure why or what caused it. Since that time my cousin had a pretty rough life and tragedy in her life. I'm not sure why but my cousin has been missing now for many many years. Nobody has seen her or heard from her in almost 10 years. I still remember my Aunt sharing this story with me; it brought goosebumps to my skin.
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