Most Haunted Places in America: Hell House (aka St. Mary’s College)
Located in Ellicott City, Maryland St. Mary’s College is the location of many tales of terror and mystery, so much that is been given the nickname, Hell House. It started out as the home and tavern of Mr. George Ellicott Jr. and was sold in 1866 to Father Joseph Hempraecht. The homestead consisted of the main stone building as well as a few farm houses and about 110 acres of land. The seminary opened in September of 1868 to the boys who came from all around to study to become priests. As the years passed though the student count started to dwindle until finally the seminary had to close in 1972.
As with all old buildings there are stories and legends that go along with St. Mary’s College. One such legend is that it was actually a girl’s college and one night after the nuns finish with some form of satanic ritual, they went room to room and massacred all of the students and then did a mass suicide. There was, however, a girl’s college, but it was not at the location of Hell House. This particular legend is not quite true as there were no girls at St. Mary’s, but instead they were located at Patapsco Female Institute located a short distance away, but that is a story for another time.
There have been many people, mostly teenagers looking to do some thrill seeking who go up to Hell House and come back with some very scary tales. Here are a few accounts of the paranormal activity some of the young tourists have witnessed on their self led tours of the ruins of St. Mary’s college. The building has had a caretaker watching out for trespassers for many years, and although he was probably harmless, his Rottweiler dogs and shotgun full of rock salt was enough to scare even the bravest of adventurers away.
One young woman’s accounts of the paranormal experience she had while visiting the ruins was that she felt a lot of peacefulness in certain places and felt a feeling of foreboding and being unwelcome in other places. Although near the pool she did feel a few cold spots, and it had been mid August and very humid at the time. Her and her friends also would have an eerie feeling of evil while walking around the old alters that are found on the grounds.
Another account was that of a young man who came up to the buildings with some friends and while exploring, he saw the apparition of a young girl standing in a tunnel hallway, and since they were unsure if it was a figment of their imagination or a real, live little girl, they tried to talk to her. The child just kept walking toward them, so they started running, when they got outside they started to think that maybe the little girl didn’t mean to do any harm and wanted to communicate, so they went back in. When they found the little girl, she lifted her arm and pointed at one of the boys, as her eyes glowed, red she told them to get out of there, and they ran out and didn’t look back.
There have been a lot of teens going up to Hell House to see if they can witness anything spooky or surreal but whether their stories are those of a real, paranormal experience or that of teens who drink too much and then believe that they have seen or heard something that just isn’t there, we will never know. On the other hand, at least we won’t know, unless we go up to Hell House and check it out ourselves. If you go up to Hell House make sure you have permission or you may leave on of the most haunted places in America with a trespassing ticket.
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