Speaker 1: Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky listener Discretion is advised.
Speaker 2: Years ago, my dear Friendship Coffee and I made a
Speaker 2: trip to a small town in Pennsylvania. Our mission to
Speaker 2: potentially buy an old haunted mansion. You see, this particular
Speaker 2: Victorian was for sale in a town that had seen
Speaker 2: a huge economic downturn over the last few decades, and
Speaker 2: this mansion, built in more profitable times, had just sat.
Speaker 2: It's beautiful but peeling wallpapered walls, a dusty grand spiral staircase,
Speaker 2: a crumbling carriage house in the back, and even an elevator.
Speaker 2: To me, this was a dream come true. Chip and
Speaker 2: I saw so much potential in this grand old lady,
Speaker 2: and boy did we want her for our own. As
Speaker 2: we left and were slowly closing the door, for a
Speaker 2: split second, I thought I saw someone peer around a
Speaker 2: hallway wall, as if wondering who are those people? As
Speaker 2: fate would have it, it wasn't meant to be. After
Speaker 2: we sat and really discussed the logistics of owning such
Speaker 2: a property, mainly getting to it, we decided against it.
Speaker 2: It was one of the hardest decisions and one the
Speaker 2: two of us reflect on.
Speaker 1: Often.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of what ifs, But why don't we
Speaker 2: explore the story of a home where someone did jump
Speaker 2: forward and make such a purchase. Join me as we
Speaker 2: travel to the mcineer Villa in Atchison, Kansas. I'm Amy Bruney,
Speaker 2: and this is Haunted Road. A Queen Anne style red
Speaker 2: brick house stands at the top of a hill in Atchison, Kansas.
Speaker 2: Although the home is over a century years old, its
Speaker 2: design and decorp have stayed remarkably consistent over the years.
Speaker 2: In fact, it would be virtually impossible for anyone to
Speaker 2: do an extensive remodel. According to the Homes National Register
Speaker 2: of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form, its walls are just
Speaker 2: too thick and strong. If anyone were to knock one over,
Speaker 2: the whole house could come crumbling down. Over the years,
Speaker 2: a porch was removed, a door was closed off, and
Speaker 2: bathrooms were added. The kitchen was also updated, but beyond that,
Speaker 2: the house today looks very similar to how it did
Speaker 2: when it was first built nearly one hundred fifty years ago.
Speaker 2: Many of its stained glass windows are original. The banisters
Speaker 2: have detailed carvings and elaborate columns support the peaked roof
Speaker 2: in the attic period furniture graces the five bedrooms, four bathrooms,
Speaker 2: and the seven rooms in the basement. It's also decorated
Speaker 2: with various mannequins and dolls, including one that's said to
Speaker 2: be haunted. Her name is Esmerelda, and she's a nineteenth
Speaker 2: century marriage made with real human hair. From the outside,
Speaker 2: the house looks ominous with its slate black roof and
Speaker 2: a wrap around porch that's shaded by heavy eaves. On
Speaker 2: the north side of the house, a simple plaque declares
Speaker 2: that this is the mcinteer Villa. It's nestled in Atchison, Kansas,
Speaker 2: a town that once sat on a major stagecoach line.
Speaker 2: Its population exploded in the late nineteenth century and now
Speaker 2: about ten thoy five hundred people live there. And if
Speaker 2: you're thinking this sounds familiar, that's because the mcinteer Villa
Speaker 2: is just about a mile from the Sally House, which
Speaker 2: I covered earlier this season. In fact, according to a
Speaker 2: Ghost on Every Corner by Don Coleklasier, Atchison has an
Speaker 2: unusually high number of haunted locations in it. The community
Speaker 2: has been dubbed the most ghostly Town in Kansas. The
Speaker 2: Mcenteer Villa was built in eighteen eighty nine and eighteen
Speaker 2: ninety by John mcinteer. He was a first generation Irish
Speaker 2: American immigrant who'd made a fortune as a harnessmaker.
Speaker 1: According to the.
Speaker 2: Visit Atchison website, his saddle and harness shop was very
Speaker 2: popular due to the superior quality of his work. The
Speaker 2: demand for his goods was so high John practically had
Speaker 2: no choice but to expand the business. He and his
Speaker 2: wife Alice spent fourteen thousand dollars on construction for their home.
Speaker 2: Adjusted for inflation, that was the equivalent of about half
Speaker 2: a million dollars today when it was finished. It's belief
Speaker 2: that John gave it the name of mcineer Villa himself.
Speaker 2: He reportedly was the one who had the title etched
Speaker 2: into the stone. Sadly, his wife Alice only got to
Speaker 2: enjoy the new house for a little under two years.
Speaker 2: During that time, she suffered from what the Atchison Daily
Speaker 2: Globe called an intermittent fever, and in December of eighteen
Speaker 2: ninety one, she passed away inside the villa.
Speaker 1: Four years before.
Speaker 2: Remarrying and his second wife was a woman named Anna Colton,
Speaker 2: Like him. She had lost a former partner, and she
Speaker 2: and her late husband had three children together. She and
Speaker 2: John spent seven years in the villa before he passed
Speaker 2: on July seventeenth, nineteen o two. After John's death, Anna
Speaker 2: and her children remained in the home. Given that John
Speaker 2: never had any biological children, it made sense for his
Speaker 2: widow and stepchildren to keep the house. When Anna got older,
Speaker 2: her brother came to stay with her, and after she
Speaker 2: suffered a fatal heart attack in nineteen sixteen, even more
Speaker 2: of her family members came to stay with him. Anna's
Speaker 2: death made her the third person to die within the
Speaker 2: home in twenty five years, but one of the most
Speaker 2: tragic losses happened six years later, on October tenth, nineteen
Speaker 2: twenty two. That afternoon, the family was relaxing together when
Speaker 2: Anna's son, Charles Donovan, announced that he had a headache.
Speaker 2: He took some medicine and then headed upstairs. His relatives
Speaker 2: may have assumed that he was going to lie down,
Speaker 2: given Charles's history of poor health. He was a World
Speaker 2: War One veteran who'd survived about with the flu, but
Speaker 2: while he lived, he never fully recovered from the disease.
Speaker 2: He got sick frequently, and according to his friends, this
Speaker 2: may have made him feel depressed. No one thought much
Speaker 2: of it when Charles walked up the stairs, not until
Speaker 2: five minutes later, when the sound of a gunshot rang
Speaker 2: through the house. Charles had taken his own life, but
Speaker 2: the self inflicted wound wasn't immediately fatal. Instead, it took
Speaker 2: two hours for him to die of his injury, all
Speaker 2: while doctors scrambled to save him. Their efforts, sadly, were
Speaker 2: in vain. He was only thirty four years old. Given
Speaker 2: how much tragedy had happened within the walls, the family
Speaker 2: eventually moved out of McIntyre Villa, but they still owned
Speaker 2: it and rented it to tenants, and just seven years
Speaker 2: after Charles's death by suicide, another person died there. This
Speaker 2: time it was a newborn girl named Ramona Jane Wood.
Speaker 2: She was only four days old when she breathed her
Speaker 2: last on September twentieth, nineteen twenty nine. By nineteen fifty two,
Speaker 2: the home had been sold to someone who fit oddly
Speaker 2: well with its macabre reputation. The new buyer was a
Speaker 2: woman named Isobel Altis, but she went by Goldie. Goldie
Speaker 2: was in her late fifties, unmarried, childless, and liked to
Speaker 2: dress all in black. According to the Atchison Daily Globe,
Speaker 2: she also took in a large number of stray dogs
Speaker 2: and cats over the years, so naturally, the neighborhood children
Speaker 2: and those who attended the elementary school just across the
Speaker 2: street believed she was a witch. The truth was that
Speaker 2: she had been born and raised in Atchison, although she
Speaker 2: had lived out of state for some period of time.
Speaker 2: When she was in town, she worked as a secretary
Speaker 2: for the local police department. She had also spent some
Speaker 2: time playing the violin with the Denver Symphony Orchestra. Goldie
Speaker 2: managed to avoid any major tragedies while she owned the home,
Speaker 2: but she did fail to restore it to its original
Speaker 2: glory in spite of her best efforts to renovate it.
Speaker 2: Since she couldn't afford professional repair people, she tried to
Speaker 2: fix up the Mcenteer villa herself. The local paper, the
Speaker 2: Atchison Daily Globe, reported that people often saw her on
Speaker 2: the roof trying to patch it on her own. But
Speaker 2: after seventeen years of home ownership, Goldie was seventy five
Speaker 2: years old and her health was taking a turn for
Speaker 2: the worse. She had no choice but to sell the villa,
Speaker 2: but the new owners kindly let Goldie continue living there.
Speaker 2: In her final days, she enjoyed sitting in her rocking chair,
Speaker 2: and each day she'd call the same cab to take
Speaker 2: her to a local restaurant for dinner. One day in
Speaker 2: late December of nineteen sixty nine, the driver pulled up,
Speaker 2: but Goldie didn't come to the car like she usually did.
Speaker 2: The driver left, thinking she may have made other plans,
Speaker 2: but when she was a no show the second day,
Speaker 2: the driver called the police to request a welfare check.
Speaker 2: The police reached out to the homeowner and he rushed
Speaker 2: with them to the mcineer villa. As soon as he
Speaker 2: opened the front door, he could see Goldie slumped over
Speaker 2: in her rocking chair. Her trusty pistol was sitting on
Speaker 2: a nearby table, and her hand was on the gun.
Speaker 2: The owner was afraid to disturb Goldie while she was armed,
Speaker 2: so he went in through another entrance. He yelled Goldie's
Speaker 2: name as he approached so as not to surprise her,
Speaker 2: and when he finally made it to her side, he
Speaker 2: touched her arm to find her skin was cold and clammy.
Speaker 2: She'd been dead of natural causes for at least a
Speaker 2: full day after Goldie's death. The owner and his wife
Speaker 2: both moved in, and they in turn also passed away
Speaker 2: within the mcineer villa's walls. Their children sold it again.
Speaker 2: By this point there were already rumors and stories going
Speaker 2: around that the mcinteer ville was haunted, so the new
Speaker 2: buyers restored it and opened it up for ghost tours
Speaker 2: and paranormal investigations these days. Visitors on those tours report
Speaker 2: seeing objects move on their own. Other times they'll hear
Speaker 2: the distinct sound of a door knob turning or furniture
Speaker 2: dragging across the floor, but when they look into the
Speaker 2: room nothing is out of place. They also hear disembodied voices,
Speaker 2: distant piano music, and footsteps which sometimes follow visitors up
Speaker 2: and down the stairs to the attic. There are many
Speaker 2: reports of a baby crying, even when there's no child
Speaker 2: on the property. This could be the spirit of Ramona,
Speaker 2: who died in the home when she was just four
Speaker 2: days old. Alternatively, some psychics have claimed that at some
Speaker 2: point in the house's history, illegal abortions were performed in
Speaker 2: the villa's basement. I'll note that there's no historical documentation
Speaker 2: to verify that claim, but guests in the basement have
Speaker 2: also reported the sound of women moaning throughout the home.
Speaker 2: The lights often turn themselves on and off without anyone
Speaker 2: flipping the switch. Reportedly, this happened at least once when
Speaker 2: the villa's electricity was off, and guests sometimes see figures
Speaker 2: in the windows when the house is empty, or lights
Speaker 2: darting across the room. This activity is occasionally accompanied by
Speaker 2: a drastic drop in temperature or a strong whiff of
Speaker 2: either perfume or tobacco. One especially disturbing detail comes from
Speaker 2: the people who spend the night in the master bedroom. Reportedly,
Speaker 2: it's quite common for invisible hands to wake people by
Speaker 2: tugging on their feet, or for something that's not visible
Speaker 2: to walk across the bed, making the whole mattress shake. Additionally,
Speaker 2: there are many accounts of shadow figures and full bodied apparitions.
Speaker 2: These include a young man or a boy, a woman
Speaker 2: all in white, and a different woman in a pink dress.
Speaker 2: Goldie Altis, who died in her rocking chair, seems to
Speaker 2: still enjoy sitting in it. The chair has been said
Speaker 2: to sway on its own and if anyone else dares
Speaker 2: to take a seat in it, her spirit will touch
Speaker 2: or tickle that person. In general, Goldie is thought to
Speaker 2: be friendly, show play with visitor's hair, and she's been
Speaker 2: spotted strolling around in a black dress. Sometimes, even when
Speaker 2: Goldie isn't visible, guests can smell her distinctive perfume permeating
Speaker 2: the air, or hear violin music echoing through the house.
Speaker 2: Charles Donovan's spirit has also been reported in the home.
Speaker 2: He's frequently seen in the library, which may be the
Speaker 2: room where he took his own life. It's often chillier
Speaker 2: there than any other place in the house, and his
Speaker 2: disembodied footsteps can be heard echoing back and forth all
Speaker 2: across the second floor. Plus, you may remember the allegedly
Speaker 2: haunted doll I mentioned earlier, Esmerelda. When people are in
Speaker 2: her room with her, they sometimes feel a distinct sensation
Speaker 2: of something scratching them or pulling their hair. Given the
Speaker 2: house rich history and paranormal reports, it's only fitting that
Speaker 2: we talk with the owner, So that is coming up
Speaker 2: after the break. Okay, So I am now joined by
Speaker 2: Steph O'Reilly, who is the owner of the villa, and
Speaker 2: I'm gonna ask you right off the bat because I
Speaker 2: asked you beforehand. But I feel like this is a
Speaker 2: good question. How do you pronounce the name?
Speaker 3: That's awesome And I get this question so many times
Speaker 3: and I'm hoping, I hope I'm doing it right. I
Speaker 3: say mcinteer. Now I know I don't say McDonald's, but
Speaker 3: I don't know. For some reason, I just say mcinteer.
Speaker 3: It just sounds like that's it's supposed to be. Some
Speaker 3: will say McIntire. I'm not quite sure, but we're gonna
Speaker 3: go with mcinteer.
Speaker 2: Okay, McIntire it is. And that's I think what I
Speaker 2: said the whole first half. So that's good.
Speaker 1: I'm doing well, although I could be wrong.
Speaker 2: I recorded it a few weeks ago, so okay.
Speaker 1: So well, welcome to the program.
Speaker 2: And I just I really I want to know because
Speaker 2: I think, you know, I've talked with a few people
Speaker 2: this season in locations i've not been to. First of all,
Speaker 2: i've not visited you. I really would love to, especially
Speaker 2: after learning the history and everything. It sounds like such
Speaker 2: an amazing location. How did you come to be the owner?
Speaker 3: Well, I had gone to down the street. You've probably
Speaker 3: heard of it. It's called the Sally House. Yes, so
Speaker 3: the Sally House is like my house is on thirteenth
Speaker 3: and Sally House is on Second Street, and so we're
Speaker 3: very close at five minute drive if that. And so
Speaker 3: I stayed at the Sally House one night and nothing happened,
Speaker 3: which is fine. So I went back two weeks later
Speaker 3: because I'm like, I need I need to do I
Speaker 3: need to go back here for some reason. So anyway,
Speaker 3: I back then you used to have to check in
Speaker 3: at the depot and they would you'd follow them over there.
Speaker 3: So anyway, two weeks had gone by. I'm loud. I'm
Speaker 3: sure they just remembered like that loud girl. But they
Speaker 3: said there's a there's a house for sale and it's haunted.
Speaker 3: And I just remember I didn't ask which house. I
Speaker 3: was just looking up houses for sale and Atchison and
Speaker 3: I came across the house and it was gorgeous, and
Speaker 3: I just knew that was it and it wasn't it
Speaker 3: was it was something else. Anyway, I finally came across
Speaker 3: this house and I couldn't stop looking at it. I mean,
Speaker 3: it was just the weirdest thing. I live about an
Speaker 3: hour away. I would just get in my car and
Speaker 3: drive out here and look at the house. I would
Speaker 3: look it up on like real estate dot com stuff
Speaker 3: like that, and I would just show people like, look
Speaker 3: at this house, look at this house. It was just
Speaker 3: something about it. And I say, I'm not obsessed with anything,
Speaker 3: like nothing, but there was something about this house I
Speaker 3: couldn't get out of my head. So I called my
Speaker 3: mom and asked if she wanted to co sign, and
Speaker 3: she did not. Sometimes yeah, I'm like when it goes
Speaker 3: in an a haunted house, She's like nope. And so
Speaker 3: she called my dad and he said yes. It took
Speaker 3: him like two seconds and he co signed without even
Speaker 3: seeing it. He lived in Arizona. But so that's how
Speaker 3: I came across, or that's how I came to own
Speaker 3: the house. He was only here once. He passed away
Speaker 3: April thirteenth will be five years. But I have his
Speaker 3: ashes here and whenever I walk by giving a tour,
Speaker 3: I will knock on the glass and say, Dad, stir
Speaker 3: stuff up, oh, just because he would. That's his kind
Speaker 3: of humor. He would find it funny. And I don't
Speaker 3: want to exclud him because I wouldn't have it without him.
Speaker 3: And so some people look at me like I'm Bizarred.
Speaker 3: I'm like one hundred percent yes, but that was his humor.
Speaker 3: So that's how I came. That's how I became the
Speaker 3: owner of the villa.
Speaker 2: So it just kind of called to you, And I
Speaker 2: think that's that seems to be a theme when I
Speaker 2: speak with people who buy haunted locations. It's this kind
Speaker 2: of almost spiritual calling to them, and I feel like
Speaker 2: most of them are meant to be there in some way.
Speaker 1: And so did you necessarily know it.
Speaker 2: Was haunted before you bought it or were you just
Speaker 2: getting like a strong vibe from it?
Speaker 3: Okay, well it was already known for being haunted. Oh Okay,
Speaker 3: Atchison is known for being one of one of the most,
Speaker 3: if not the most haunted town in Kansas, and so
Speaker 3: they actually there are newspaper articles and news reports of
Speaker 3: Missus Girardi and I bought the house from the Girardis.
Speaker 3: Mister and Missus Girardi both passed away in the home.
Speaker 3: Therefore kids inherited the house. I bought it from their
Speaker 3: four kids. So when missus, when mister and missus I'm sorry,
Speaker 3: when Missus Girardi lived here after her husband husband had
Speaker 3: passed away. There are articles that you know, she did
Speaker 3: interviews with they used Haunted actress and used the house
Speaker 3: as the backdrop or the advertising four Haunted Actresses.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, makes sense there.
Speaker 3: And it's kind of cool that the stories would like
Speaker 3: there's a story Missus Girardi would say she would hear
Speaker 3: her husband coming in the back door from fishing or
Speaker 3: from work, and she'd hear his keys. And just last weekend,
Speaker 3: the back door opened twice and I'm sitting here giving
Speaker 3: a tour and actually we're standing in the dining room.
Speaker 3: The group had just shown up and you hear click, click,
Speaker 3: and it just opens up and they're like what, like like,
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 1: Know, you, welcome to the house.
Speaker 3: It's so crazy that the things that happened to her
Speaker 3: still happened. So it's that makes it really cool to
Speaker 3: me because it's not something that people say like maybe
Speaker 3: if I brought in or something attached to the furniture,
Speaker 3: maybe you know that I brought in, but it's something
Speaker 3: that happened then. Or the whistles, like last night we
Speaker 3: heard a plane as day whistle and that's been going
Speaker 3: on since I don't know. That's one of the stories
Speaker 3: that Missus Geordi would tell. So it's kind of cool.
Speaker 2: When what was your first like wow experience when you
Speaker 2: bought the location, Like when did you go, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: this place is definitely haunted.
Speaker 3: The night I closed, oh my gosh, it was just
Speaker 3: so crazy I did. There was no furniture in the house,
Speaker 3: so I had some air mattresses and I was sleeping
Speaker 3: on while I was laying in one of the rooms.
Speaker 3: I didn't know which, you know, like when you go
Speaker 3: into a place and we, at least I used to
Speaker 3: and I probably still do, like where's the most active area,
Speaker 3: what time of day is the most active, you know whatever,
Speaker 3: and so I didn't ask what room was the most active.
Speaker 3: And so I'm just sleeping and trying to sleep in
Speaker 3: one of the rooms and I hear the door handle jiggling,
Speaker 3: and then I hear footsteps by my head and I'm
Speaker 3: on the air mattress, so I'm close to the floor
Speaker 3: and I'm like, it's walking next to my head. And
Speaker 3: my friend said, isn't this what you wanted? I'm like,
Speaker 3: shut up, yes, yeah. Sometimes yeah, sometimes.
Speaker 1: You get what you wish for.
Speaker 2: And then you're like, maybe I didn't.
Speaker 1: Really know what I was getting into. I love that though.
Speaker 2: That must have been such an exciting time though when
Speaker 2: it actually happened and you're there, there's no furniture yet
Speaker 2: and you just have this blank slate, and so what
Speaker 2: were your plans? Did you intend to kind of open.
Speaker 1: It for ghost tours? Were you going to live there?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: What was your intention?
Speaker 3: My you two wasn't to never live here. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's it's a big house. It's a gorgeous house, but
Speaker 3: it's not I never intended to and I won't live
Speaker 3: here because I live an hour away, and well, I
Speaker 3: will go to locations and investigate. And I always just
Speaker 3: kind of joked like, oh my gosh, if there were
Speaker 3: a place for sale and haunted, how amazing would that be?
Speaker 3: And I, you know, it just happened to just I
Speaker 3: don't know if it's luck or what it was, but
Speaker 3: come across this house and so I don't know what
Speaker 3: took place. I don't even think they knew all of
Speaker 3: the deaths that were in the home. It's had nine
Speaker 3: that I know of nine documented deaths. I don't know.
Speaker 3: I know every owner that's lived here has died here,
Speaker 3: So I do not.
Speaker 1: I don't want to live here, right, What.
Speaker 3: Did I think well, my kids, they might appreciated it
Speaker 3: for business, like, oh, add another number. I mean that
Speaker 3: sounds weird.
Speaker 1: No, that's fair though, I mean.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go somewhere, so why not the villain. I
Speaker 3: don't know, it sounds that sounds a little morbid, but
Speaker 3: it's still new. Things happen and it still freaks me out.
Speaker 3: The footsteps will always make me uncomfortable. Last night, I
Speaker 3: had a small event here and we heard it. Well,
Speaker 3: I was coming get in the hallway on the second floor,
Speaker 3: and I tell everyone, I don't like that second floor.
Speaker 3: If I'm here spending the night by myself, I don't
Speaker 3: like that second floor, and I won't come up here
Speaker 3: if I'm spending the night loan. But if there's one person,
Speaker 3: even if a friend of mine is here and they
Speaker 3: go to Walmart, I'm fine. I will go anywhere in
Speaker 3: this house. But so there were people here last night,
Speaker 3: but I'm the only one walking down the second floor
Speaker 3: hallway and I heard I thought was kind of like
Speaker 3: a lady moan or hum or something. So I lean
Speaker 3: over the banister and I'm like, who made that noise?
Speaker 3: Nobody did, and so I got on. I have cameras
Speaker 3: all around the house since I don't live here for security,
Speaker 3: but also they pick up the craziest stuff. So I
Speaker 3: got on the camera and it's a baby. It sounds
Speaker 3: like a newborn wow, crying and I have obviously I
Speaker 3: haven't posted it yet, but I'm going to today. But
Speaker 3: it's just so new stuff like that. We've captured babies crying,
Speaker 3: but this is a it's a different kind of cry.
Speaker 3: I don't know. It's so new things all the time,
Speaker 3: glowing eyes and where are those coming from? I don't know.
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, there's so many different things that happen,
Speaker 3: and I'm sure maybe it's, you know, with all the
Speaker 3: people coming in, maybe it's somebody brought something, or maybe
Speaker 3: I did, or maybe it's something attached to this stuff.
Speaker 3: I don't know. So I'm not the best at explaining
Speaker 3: like what or who is at the villa because we
Speaker 3: also there's something that mimics people, and that's so I've
Speaker 3: heard my dad talking, but I don't think it's him,
Speaker 3: and that sounds weird, but I just don't. I just
Speaker 3: don't think it. I just feel it's not him. Somebody's
Speaker 3: captured a little girl on the second floor, and I
Speaker 3: just don't feel it's a little girl. But for some reason,
Speaker 3: when we go to the basement and I hear a kid,
Speaker 3: I feel it's a kid. So I don't know. If
Speaker 3: I don't think I have a gift, some people will
Speaker 3: say yes, No, I don't know. I think the more
Speaker 3: places I go, it feels like it's something is opening
Speaker 3: up a little bit more that I can. I'm hearing
Speaker 3: more my friends that I were talking about the other day,
Speaker 3: like we are hearing more things just out loud, just
Speaker 3: sitting around. And I don't know if it's if we
Speaker 3: are opening ourselves up more or we're just hear more
Speaker 3: and we know the house better. I don't know what
Speaker 3: it is. But still the new things that happen are
Speaker 3: it never gets old. I'll just say that that's what
Speaker 3: I mean.
Speaker 1: No, that's fair.
Speaker 2: I mean so I think I know, just on a
Speaker 2: personal level, having investigated so many different places, I feel
Speaker 2: like over time, I wouldn't say that I'm, you know, psychic,
Speaker 2: but I do think you just start to get kind
Speaker 2: of not necessarily more open, but you're just aware of
Speaker 2: that different feeling the more you're around it, Like you know,
Speaker 2: I can usually yeah, I can usually walk into a
Speaker 2: location even if I'm not there on like a ghostly
Speaker 2: on ghostly business, you know, I'll walk in and be like, whooh,
Speaker 2: there's something here, you know, like I can just feel
Speaker 2: the difference, And I just think you acquire that over time,
Speaker 2: So that might be part of it. And I do
Speaker 2: think there's a big There's something to the fact too
Speaker 2: that you're there so often that they feel more comfortable
Speaker 2: around you, and so that could be it too. But
Speaker 2: my question is like, so what did you furnish the
Speaker 2: place with? Did you bring in antiques?
Speaker 3: And everything I did? So nothing came with the house. Well,
Speaker 3: there is a rocking chair that one on a lady
Speaker 3: had passed away in nineteen sixty nine, Goldie or Isabel Altis,
Speaker 3: so that came with the house. Everything else I brought
Speaker 3: in and Facebook Marketplace, antique stores, estate sales. Estate sales
Speaker 3: are my favorite because I'm not a haggler. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: will not ask for I'm like, there's the price, I
Speaker 3: will take it. So they're my favorite because you can't haggle. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't know, but I I it's been so much
Speaker 3: fun and it's not my we like where I live
Speaker 3: it or my house. It's very like bright colors modern.
Speaker 3: It's the more weird the better. That's just my taste.
Speaker 3: And so this was like very different. But it's been
Speaker 3: so much fun because it's just so unique. It's just
Speaker 3: the ornate, the woodwork, it's just crazy. And also the
Speaker 3: furniture is a little more, is a little daintier, and
Speaker 3: I don't have to ask for help and moving it.
Speaker 3: So that's what I love the most about it. But no,
Speaker 3: it brought all of it in getting on zillow. If
Speaker 3: anyone types in thirteen oh one Kansas Avenue can see
Speaker 3: what it looked like when I bought it. You can
Speaker 3: see the shag carpet, tan walls, and it's still even
Speaker 3: though I didn't do anything to the house constructurally, just painting,
Speaker 3: having the walls painted and bringing in different furniture. You're like,
Speaker 3: what room is that? It looks completely different. I love
Speaker 3: that because it was in this it was decorated for
Speaker 3: the seventies, which I get. But I'm glad they had
Speaker 3: the shag carpet because when we pulled the carpet up,
Speaker 3: all we've done so far is just vacuum.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: So they covered up wood floors. I imagine, right, They
Speaker 2: love doing that in the seventies, they covered up.
Speaker 1: All those beautiful wooden floors.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, yes, yes, and then the popcorn ceilings.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's always great too. Yeah, it's so funny.
Speaker 2: I live in a three hundred year old house and thankfu, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's an adventure, but thankfully it's part of like a
Speaker 2: historic preservation effort, so everything is still original inside. But
Speaker 2: I'm watching where I live because I live in New England,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure you see this too, you know, some
Speaker 2: of these.
Speaker 1: Old houses, especially lately.
Speaker 2: This happened back in the seventies where people were either
Speaker 2: gutting or tearing down Victorians by like like on a
Speaker 2: crazy level.
Speaker 1: And now here, at least.
Speaker 2: In New England, people are moving into these Victorians and
Speaker 2: they're just they're ripping out everything, painting them white, putting
Speaker 2: in these big, like open air modern kitchens.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, we're doing the same thing we did
Speaker 1: in the seventies.
Speaker 3: And it's like, you know, you know what's funny. You
Speaker 3: say that because I have my real estate license, and
Speaker 3: so right before I got on the call with you,
Speaker 3: I was down the street showing a house to my
Speaker 3: friends who want to see this house forever and it's
Speaker 3: for fail now and so we go in. It's I'm
Speaker 3: trying to think it's around the same time period as
Speaker 3: my house, so late eighteen hundreds. But you go in
Speaker 3: and it's all white and all brand new, and then
Speaker 3: I was like, that had a little bit of the
Speaker 3: exposed original brick, but that was it, and it made
Speaker 3: me kind of sad. Yeah, I think now that I
Speaker 3: get it, like, don't touch it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just you know, I consider like someone like
Speaker 2: you and like me.
Speaker 1: We're like we're stewards for history at.
Speaker 2: This point, like right, you know, whenever you think of ghosts,
Speaker 2: like you are preserving that house and so that on
Speaker 2: its own is such a wonderful undertaking. So cheers to that,
Speaker 2: no matter what happens there on a ghost level.
Speaker 3: Thank you. That's funny also because I will say, like,
Speaker 3: you know, I can't obviously make the spirits appear. There
Speaker 3: are going to be quiet nights. But you know, people
Speaker 3: will write in the books downstairs if they experienced something,
Speaker 3: but a lot of people will write, oh it's more
Speaker 3: active if steps here, or it was quite until step
Speaker 3: showed up, And I'm like, that's not true. People, So
Speaker 3: I know that a lot of people ask me to stay,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, I just like me. They do what
Speaker 3: they want, when they want, how they want. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: don't ask questions.
Speaker 2: It's funny though we I'm sure you probably already do this,
Speaker 2: But like when I investigate a location, I always have
Speaker 2: the owner kind of introduce me so they know that
Speaker 2: like I'm supposed to be there, you know, because there
Speaker 2: is sometimes they do get this comfort level with someone
Speaker 2: who's associated with the property, either like an owner or
Speaker 2: an employee or someone who lives there, and until they
Speaker 2: kind of give them the go ahead, the ghosts, I
Speaker 2: feel like sometimes are like, well I don't care about
Speaker 2: these people, you know, So I.
Speaker 3: Have never thought about that, that is, I haven't because
Speaker 3: it's so it's when I start my tours, when people
Speaker 3: check in and if they haven't been in before, obviously
Speaker 3: I walk into the house, but we always go to
Speaker 3: we start around the main staircase before we go to
Speaker 3: the servant staircase, and so we're at the mainsrecase and
Speaker 3: it's ninety five percent of the time it's like we
Speaker 3: hear the footsteps coming around the landing, like who's here,
Speaker 3: who's here? So that makes sense, like maybe I should
Speaker 3: start doing that, because it's like they're coming around going
Speaker 3: who's here today, who's Yeah, Yeah, that's a great idea.
Speaker 3: I like it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it couldn't hurt to try it, you know,
Speaker 2: because that'll help. Like if I'm in a place and
Speaker 2: nothing's happening, I almost the almost the first thing I
Speaker 2: do is call the owner or call someone who's familiar
Speaker 2: with them and be like, can you come over here
Speaker 2: and talk to them for me?
Speaker 1: So that is so nice.
Speaker 3: And then there's me. I'm like, I'll sell you and
Speaker 3: it'll be a daycare center.
Speaker 1: I just oh, I love that. I'll sell you and
Speaker 1: you'll be a daycare center.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine the daycare center that moves in something?
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, people show up like you know what this was?
Speaker 1: Right? Like I love that?
Speaker 2: So okay, So how many so you say like this,
Speaker 2: you have this place for ghost tours and whatnot. And
Speaker 2: then so you have investigators coming in regularly and they
Speaker 2: get to stay the night and they get to investigate,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure you have ground rules right that, like
Speaker 2: they have to be respectful and all of that fun stuff.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, so that's great.
Speaker 2: So they come in and I mean, I love that
Speaker 2: there are locations out there. People always ask like, how
Speaker 2: do you get to investigate? How do you like, how
Speaker 2: do I get started? And I love a place like
Speaker 2: yours where it's like, yeah, you know, go support this
Speaker 2: loving business, but also like go get your feet wet,
Speaker 2: like this is the way you're in a controlled environment.
Speaker 1: Like I just love that.
Speaker 2: Yes, of course I have another question, though, what is
Speaker 2: it about Atchison? So I did the Sally House already
Speaker 2: this season weirdly, and when I found this place because
Speaker 2: I was kind of researching, like I'm like, what locations
Speaker 2: do I want to do? I didn't even realize they
Speaker 2: were in the same town until I started really digging
Speaker 2: in and I was like, oh my gosh, so what
Speaker 2: is it?
Speaker 1: What's going on there? Steph?
Speaker 3: You know, I don't know. It's so weird because well,
Speaker 3: Levenworth is the next town over, and my friends and
Speaker 3: I we went to Levenworth yesterday and we're like, and
Speaker 3: there's a prison and there's just big old buildings and cooled.
Speaker 3: I'm like, so, who did the voting? What makes Atchison
Speaker 3: the most haunted town in Kansas? And that's and I
Speaker 3: don't know what makes it the most haunted. People say,
Speaker 3: like the limestone in the water. I know there's limestone
Speaker 3: in my basement. The Missouri River is right here, so
Speaker 3: maybe that's it. I honestly don't know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just think it's so interesting. And now it
Speaker 2: also seems like the town has kind of leaned into it.
Speaker 2: Is that correct, Like they have they control like the
Speaker 2: Sally House tours and everything, so like the local government
Speaker 2: is kind of they realize that that is bringing people
Speaker 2: to the town.
Speaker 1: Do they work with you regularly?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: They do. Oh, I just I love them. They're they're
Speaker 3: just like haunted Atchison has been. In the beginning, it was.
Speaker 3: It wasn't the easiest in the very beginning, just because
Speaker 3: the new person. And I don't think I don't know
Speaker 3: if people knew what I knew or didn't know what
Speaker 3: I was doing, or you know, stuff like that. And
Speaker 3: it's also a religious town. There's the college, and so
Speaker 3: just I try, you know, I just need not well yeah,
Speaker 3: I do need to be respectful, for I didn't want
Speaker 3: to be obviously disrespectful to like, not everyone enjoys ghost hunting,
Speaker 3: not everyone is a not agrees, but yeah, and I
Speaker 3: want agrees about ghost hunting. So I wanted to make
Speaker 3: sure the first couple of years, I was just it's
Speaker 3: still kind of quiet. I still don't go around saying, hey,
Speaker 3: look at me, look at me. I've had the house
Speaker 3: seven years and it still feels like I'm the new
Speaker 3: person out there because people still haven't heard about me,
Speaker 3: which has also been nice because everything's been word of mouth.
Speaker 3: So with that being said, the Chamber has been just
Speaker 3: backing me up. And there are other locations in Atchison.
Speaker 3: There's actually a new place that's going to start doing
Speaker 3: investigations too. It's the antique store downtown called back Road Atlas.
Speaker 3: So I mean they're embracing all of the haunted stuff
Speaker 3: and not just during Haunted Sea. They will help me
Speaker 3: out throughout the year since ghost are twenty four seven,
Speaker 3: not just you know October. Yeah, so they've been amazing.
Speaker 3: They've been amazing. Yeah, I also not it also doesn't
Speaker 3: hurt that like Veliska or Malvern two hours door to
Speaker 3: door and I am all for I'm one of those
Speaker 3: weird people that think everyone should have a participation trophy.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm just that. So I just I will
Speaker 3: spread the word on other places too, because you know,
Speaker 3: if things are two hours away, like make a weekend
Speaker 3: of it, or like go to my house and the
Speaker 3: Sally House. You know, I just tell people don't just
Speaker 3: do what may do all or spend more than one
Speaker 3: day at a location, because you'll probably get more activity. Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, I mean I love that you kind of do
Speaker 2: like a little haunted vacation and kind of make a
Speaker 2: few stops. And I mean I love that area in general.
Speaker 2: It's just you know, I think it's kind of off
Speaker 2: the beaten path and it's very interesting and you know,
Speaker 2: having traveled through it many times because I keep finding
Speaker 2: myself there even though I have not been to Atchison yet,
Speaker 2: it's just it's a really interesting, like kind of got
Speaker 2: a great small town feel. I love it there in
Speaker 2: the summer. I think it's fun and you're right, it's
Speaker 2: just like it's nice that they're kind of backing you
Speaker 2: and they see the value in that.
Speaker 3: Yes, and that you know, other people will not only
Speaker 3: just be here, they will like I would do a
Speaker 3: little boutique clothing for yes, right, and ask for their
Speaker 3: business cards to put in my break room because I
Speaker 3: just think when people are taking it three, there are
Speaker 3: still stores open, so go like it helps support Atchison too,
Speaker 3: So I think that that with the Chamber, I think
Speaker 3: they just work with everybody and so that's that makes
Speaker 3: it so nice that like if I want to have
Speaker 3: or there is a tour group coming there and they
Speaker 3: have nothing to do with Haunt stuff, but they're like
Speaker 3: Saint Patrick's Day and mister mcinte is very irish. Yeah,
Speaker 3: things like that. So like tour groups will come through
Speaker 3: for that and just for the history of their architecture.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's great.
Speaker 3: It's nice that it's not just for Haunted, even though
Speaker 3: that's ninety nine percent of with the business.
Speaker 2: So okay, so if people want to on that, not
Speaker 2: if people want to visit, like what do they do?
Speaker 2: I'm guessing on social media you also probably post a
Speaker 2: lot of this evidence that you're getting too, right.
Speaker 3: I do, I post and lot some of it is.
Speaker 3: Lots of it actually is when I'm here by myself
Speaker 3: and things just seem to happen. I don't know if
Speaker 3: they do it. I think it's more active during the day.
Speaker 3: People ask all the time, you know, if it's more
Speaker 3: actually in the day or not. I think it's more
Speaker 3: active during the day, probably because you know, I'm not
Speaker 3: paying attention. So I will post things like that, like
Speaker 3: I'm at the dining room table and something is just
Speaker 3: whistled very loudly at me, and I'm like what, Which
Speaker 3: is so nice? With the cameras because I won't investigate
Speaker 3: by myself. I'm very brave, but that's with other people.
Speaker 3: So when I'm here alone, maybe they know that too,
Speaker 3: and so I will post things that happen when I'm
Speaker 3: by myself here. But also I have a thing on
Speaker 3: my website that there are cameras throughout the house and
Speaker 3: I've will change them up. But three people can watch
Speaker 3: cameras from their home for ten dollars a month for
Speaker 3: like three cameras, and so they can like investigate from
Speaker 3: home too. They don't have to even be here. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's creaty is nice. That's what I do at the
Speaker 3: Paranormal Circle.
Speaker 1: I have cameras.
Speaker 2: I have them up in my attic on a bunch
Speaker 2: of haunted artifacts and stuff.
Speaker 1: So I do the same thing.
Speaker 2: It's like you can just you can investigate from the
Speaker 2: safety of your own home.
Speaker 1: So there you go.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 2: Well, that's great, Okay, So if people want to visit
Speaker 2: what is like your website and everything how can they
Speaker 2: get in touch with you?
Speaker 1: What's the deal there?
Speaker 3: They can go to eighteen eighty nine Macinturvilla dot com
Speaker 3: and my phone numbers on there. They can text me,
Speaker 3: call me, send me a message, and there's a calendar
Speaker 3: on there. People can just book online. I book seven
Speaker 3: days a week. I only mark off I think two
Speaker 3: weeks around Christmas time, but other than that all year long.
Speaker 1: Well that's lovely.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm really glad to finally have gotten to speak
Speaker 2: with you. I'm looking forward to hopefully visiting in the
Speaker 2: near future so I can see this for my I've
Speaker 2: got a tour Atchison and see all that that town
Speaker 2: has to offer. It's got quite the reputation, a lot
Speaker 2: yet amazing. Well, thank you so much for taking the time.
Speaker 2: And I really do appreciate it. You've been lovely.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Today the Macinteer Villa feels frozen in time. It's still
Speaker 2: decorated with period furniture and it's on the National Register
Speaker 2: of Historic Places. It's also a home where history can
Speaker 2: come to life, perhaps literally, because to all appearances, the
Speaker 2: people from the villa's past have never left it behind.
Speaker 2: I'm Amy Bruney and This was Haunted Road. Haunted Road
Speaker 2: is a production of iHeartRadio and GRIMM and Miles from
Speaker 2: Air and Minky. Haunted Road is hosted and by me
Speaker 2: Amy Bruney, with additional research by Cassandra de Alba.
Speaker 1: This show is.
Speaker 2: Edited and produced by supervising producer Rima el Kali, with
Speaker 2: executive producers Aaron Menke, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. Learn
Speaker 2: more about this show over at Grimandmild dot com, and
Speaker 2: for more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.