The Haunting of Bradmar

This is one of my favorite ghost stories because it is so different than the usual haunted house stories you hear.  Most haunting stories end the same way.  They end with fear and a family fleeing their home to escape the nightmare of the paranormal.   This story shows that fear is in the mind of the beholder.

This is an older story.  It's from the 1960's and began when a physician and his family purchase a beautiful Tudor style manor house and began rennovations on the house.   The physician, Dr. Bradley, fell in love with the house and hired a well known architect and friend to supervise the renovations.    It was the architect, Karly Vogel, who had the first ghostly encounters.  While he was working in the house,  a local came in and told him the houses history.   The local told him that the woman who had owned the house prior to the doctor had lived there for five years and died there.  He said the woman had loved the house dearly and asked for the wake to be held in the parlor.   She also told many friends that she would haunt the house and that during the wake she would break the beam above her coffin to show them that she was haunting the house.   The events followed exactly as she predicted.  The beam shattered and the entire local community had assumed that the house was haunted by her.

Mr. Vogel didn't believe in ghosts and laughed this story off.   It wasn't until he spent the night there that he took the story seriously.   Dr. Bradley and his wife asked Mr. Vogel to stay in the house with their children so they would meet criteria for school placement.  The Doctor and his wife had job obligations and weren't ready to relocate, but they wanted to make sure their children didn't miss any school.   Mr. Vogel happily agreed to this, but while the children were sleeping he heard someone wandering though the house.   He investigated and found foot prints, but no sign of entry.   The noises and opening and shutting of doors continued.   Unphased, Mr. Vogel called out to the spirit and told it that he was rennovating the house.  He asked the spirit if they had any special requests for the renovation.  There was no answer.

The Bradley's moved in and named their new 33 room manor house the Bradmore Manor.   They loved it, but they were very quickly bothered by lights flickering on and off and doors opening and shutting on their own.   Visitors also had ghostly encounters and Mrs.'s Bradley's mother actually saw the ghost standing above her one night.  She couldn't fully see the ghost so she assumed the ghost was her daughter checking on her and told her she was alright.   Activity continued.   Ashtrays flew across the room on their own.  Furniture moved.  Faucets turned on and off on their own.  Other visitors saw ghosts while they were there.

Rather than be daunted by all this supernatural activity, the Bradley's took it in stride.  They opened their home up to paranormal investigators and general haunted tours to the public.  They even wrote a book about the haunting.  The Bradley's didn't leave their beloved home until other circumstances drove them to divorce. Rather than fleeing, they embraced the haunting.