This Old Home {Part 1 of A Few}

home

I have always had a fondness for an old classic style home. My first purchase 10 years ago was a unit in Baton Rouge’s oldest apartment complexes and post-war 1940s one bedroom, cozy place with charm and character. My second purchase was with my husband – a 1940s post-war free-standing home. We eventually sold our starter home and moved to Algiers Point where we purchased a much older home, built approximately in the 1840s.

The latter is our current residence. And it may be haunted.

Heightened Senses

When we moved in, life was a bit of a whirlwind for me. We had a four-month-old; I had recently just gone back to work post-baby; we just bought a house. I hadn’t been sleeping well, experiencing sleep paralysis to the point of not wanting to sleep, even though I could barely keep my eyes open. I felt haunted, so much so, that I considered smudging the new house to rid it of the evil presence I felt. I asked my husband if he ever felt a strange presence in the house; he had not. Was I more attuned to spirits after having a baby or was I just extremely sleep-deprived?

Shaky Senses; Shaky Home

Before my son was born, my husband built a bookcase that was rather shaky. Buster, the family dog, sleeps in my son’s room. We were sitting on the couch feeding my son an evening bottle. Li was then about 4 months old. Then, it happened. We heard a loud crash in the baby’s room, shelves breaking and items falling to the floor; we felt the floor shake as we were just in the next room; Buster jetted out, clearly frazzled. That bookcase must have tipped over (pre-baby-proofing!). I got up to go start cleaning up the mess – nope, not the bookcase in the baby’s room. I continued making my way through the house and then back up to the front again.

Reporting Back

I reported my findings to my husband. There was nothing out of place. Nothing had fallen over. I questioned whether he had really heard something or if he was just agreeing with me so as to not set me over the edge of really thinking I was crazy. He reminded me that Buster had run out of the room. So, yes, there actually was a loud crash that shook the floor. I must have missed whatever had fallen.

My husband did a pass through the house and checked closets to make sure those shelves hadn’t broken. About 10 minutes later, he rejoins me in the living room and I asked what caused the noise.

The Outcome

To this day, the loud crash that clearly came from my son’s room is unexplained. I admittedly get the goosebumps when I see my son waving, smiling and laughing to no one in our house.

What happened in our home next? To be continued…

1 COMMENT

  1. Do you all have a house next door? I lived in a shotgun in uptown
    built in the 1800s and next door was another shotgun built about the same time. We could hear our neighbor in the mornings getting ready for work. She walked in high heels. At first we thought it was someone walking in our house!

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