Celebrating Halloween with a few famous haunted house stories

WASHINGTON -- Every neighborhood has one -- a house the kids are certain is haunted. Where I grew up, it was the monastery on top of the hill, only we didn't realize at the time that is was a religious place. We just thought it was spooky.

People have always loved a good ghost story, especially when it comes to haunted houses. And there are untold numbers of places supposedly occupied by spooks and specters or that were the site of ghoulish acts so heinous that the houses themselves have become part of the folklore.

Back in my day, few people knew what might be lurking behind those locked doors. Who -- or what -- lived there, for example? Or in which room or rooms did the spirits actually reside? But times change, and now all you need is a cell phone or the Internet to get full, detailed access to practically any home's information, freakish or not.

Try HouseFront.com, a real-estate search and valuation firm. Simply text message the home's address to 46873 (which spells "house"), and it will return the number of bedrooms, baths and the home's value -- even the date when it was last sold and/or built, along with the current owner's name. You can get the same information at housefront.com, all at no cost.

You can obtain the data on more than 1 million homes, not just those that are reputed to be inhabited by phantoms. But in the spirit of Halloween, here's a look at some of the country's spookiest haunts:

-- Amityville Horror: The Long Island, N.Y., home where Ronald DeFeo murdered his family has been the subject of several movies, as well as a best-selling novel. Today, the house at 112 Ocean Ave. is occupied by a family that is living in peace, though the front of the structure and the street number have been changed, according to the Amityville Record, the local newspaper. But that wasn't the case for the Lutz family, which moved into the place 13 months after the 1974 killings. (housefront.com/1976424).

-- Manson Murders: The address also has been changed at the location where Charles Manson and "friends" slaughtered Sharon Tate, an actress who was eight-months pregnant, and four others in 1969. It's now 10066 Cielo Drive. But then, it's not the same house.

No one would purchase the Tate house because of the stigma it carried. So it was torn down and replaced with a seven-bedroom, 12-bath manse that sprawls over 16,300 square feet. HouseFront estimates its value at $7.4 million. Still, the chilling impact of the murders remains, as locals and tourists with a penchant for the macabre visit the site frequently (housefront.com/1993381).

-- Grant-Humphreys Mansion: Built by Colorado's third governor, James Grant, this Denver house at 770 Pennsylvania St. lays claim to five ghosts, including that of Albert Humphreys, a subsequent owner who died of a suspicious shooting accident on the third floor, according to HauntedHouse.com. (housefront.com/1991271).

-- Madrona Manor: Room 101 in the bed-and-breakfast at 1001 Westside Road in Healdsburg, Calif., is said to be haunted by a woman dressed in black. Some guests are certain their possessions have been moved while they slept, and at least one dinner guest swears a ghost sat next to her and spoke.

The manor was built in 1880 by John Paxtron, whose corpse was kept in the house in a glass coffin by his grieving wife, Hannah, until her own death 15 years after his, according to HauntsofAmerica.blogspot.com. Later, one of their two sons committed suicide in the house. While the place was being turned into a bed-and-breakfast in the 1980s, workers complained they were being watched (housefront.com/1991256).

-- Reed House: Samuel Reed built this Asheville, N.C., home in 1892. Though Reed was a lawyer for tycoon George Vanderbilt, his life was "full of loss," according to the local paranormal society. Five of his children died young. Then his wife passed away, and he followed her into the great beyond six months later.

The house was abandoned for a time and then was purchased in 1973 and turned into a bed-and-breakfast. Now, it known as the Biltmore Village Inn, a place where the sound of heavy boots can sometimes be heard, or a spectral game of pool takes place. Bedroom doors open and close by themselves, and the lights sometimes go on and off for no reason (housefront.com/1985226).

-- Winchester House: Sarah Winchester, who inherited more than $20 million and a 49 percent stake in the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. from her husband, William, built this architectural marvel in San Jose, Calif., around-the-clock for nearly 40 years.

A medium told her to build a house for herself and never stop or she would die. Another account says that she believed the only way she could repent for the thousands of people killed by her family's rifles was to keep building. Either way, she built and built and built some more, from 1884, when she purchased a house under construction, until her death 38 years later.

The place started out as a six-bedroom house. But Sarah turned it into a monster mansion with 40 bedrooms, 40 staircases, 47 fireplaces and 1,257 windows (housefront.com/1976454).

-- Hale House: Deacon Richard Hale, the father of Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale, built this place in the mid-1700s in Coventry, Conn. A wealthy New Haven patent attorney, George Seymour, purchased the vacant and rundown structure in 1914, only to experience a paranormal episode shortly thereafter.

Well, it wasn't Seymour, exactly. It was a friend who rushed to the window when he arrived, only to come nose-to-nose with the apparition of Deacon Hale, which had come to the same window to see what all the commotion was about. Several of the deacon's offspring are said to haunt the place, as is a servant who has been seen sweeping and eavesdropping.

The house is now a museum open seasonally to tours and educational programs (housefront.com/1991286).

-- Whaley House: Few homes in San Diego, Calif., are as historically significant as this one -- or as haunted. Not just in Southern California but the nation, according to the Travel Channel's "America's Most Haunted." Every day, visitors from across the world tour the old place in the city's Old Town section, and numerous manifestations have been reported since the house reopened as a museum in 1960.

Among them: Yankee Jim Robinson, a thief who was hung on the site where the house sits. Thomas Whaley, a witness to the execution, bought the property anyway, and soon after he built the house, the family began hearing the heavy footsteps of a large man, supposedly the late Robinson. Many visitors report encountering Whaley himself, while others see specters of women and children (housefront.com/1934493).

-- Strawberry Hill: Also now a museum, this Kansas City, Kan., mansion is known not only for its size -- more than 40 bedrooms -- but also its numerous, uninvited ghostly guests.

These include the "Lady in Red," who has been spotted by several people, including two nuns, and an unknown male who doesn't like it when people visit the third floor (housefront.com/1991348).

-- Stranahan House: Built in 1901 by Frank Stranahan, the "father of Fort Lauderdale," the oldest house in this Florida city is now a riverside museum that anchors Riverwalk, a linear park that meanders along the New River. Stranahan, the town's first postmaster, a banker and businessman, killed himself during the Great Depression. Afterwards, the first floor became a restaurant but his widow lived upstairs until her death in 1971.

Ghost tours are offered every October (housefront.com/1989945).

-- Franklin Castle: There are ghosts aplenty at Cleveland's Franklin Castle, which is known as Ohio's most haunted house. And no wonder: Among other things, a pile of baby skeletons were discovered in a small room at the rear of the house, the victim of some inept doctor, according to ForgottenOhio.com, and a group of Nazis were gunned down in a political dispute.

Today, babies can still be heard crying, and conversations in German are said to continue long into the deep, dark night (housefront.com/1989692).

Lew Sichelman has been covering real estate for more than 30 years. He is a regular contributor to numerous shelter magazines and housing and housing finance industry publications.