Paranormal Investigation: Lancaster, NY

We met this young lady in Gettysburg during an event last summer. She loves the paranormal and was fun to hang out with during that weekend. One of our investigators got her number and stayed in touch over the last year. She has since moved to Lancaster, NY and couldn’t resist moving into a home built in the early 1850’s. That’s where we spent last weekend investigating and that house did not let us down.

The Historical Society in Lancaster is only open on Sunday’s, our return home day, but we did manage to find some history at the local library. This house was 1 of 14 brick homes first built in Lancaster in 1851. At that time Lancaster was split almost down the middle for support for the North and the South in the Civil War. This house had its history in the Northern side as it has been reported to have helped free slaves coming from the South.

During the initial walkthrough, we found that in the dining room there were shadows seen with some blocking the light coming in from the windows. The master bedroom, a room with no windows (giving a little credence to the history of hiding slaves) was highly uncomfortable feeling and the client felt as if she were being watched in it. Upstairs was the kid’s room and the children have claimed to hear voices in it and then there was the basement itself which no one had spent much time in.

We got there late Thursday night and wasn’t long before we logged our first personal experience. Before the initial walkthrough scheduled for Friday, one investigator saw what she described as a shadow moving across a window and a voice that sounded like a child coming from the living room. Needless to say, no one was up walking around that late and the kids were at their grandmothers for the weekend. Though a little hyped now even after the long drive, sleep took over and we would have to wait till Friday to see if we could capture any of this with the equipment.

Friday was filled with a little site seeing which included the famed Buffalo Psychiatric Hospital, the Opera House and dinner at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo home of the chicken wing. To sum it up, the hospital was creepy and the wings were delicious! Once home we set up the DVR and broke into two teams, one headed upstairs and one to the dining room for EVP work.

After the dining room EVP session my team headed into the bedroom. This is when the night got interesting. I was taking base EMF readings around the dining room and into the living room headed towards the bedroom. Was holding steady at .1 until I walked through the bedroom door and it felt as if I passed through something. Wasn’t a cold spot to me just felt different and I even physically shook my shoulders to “shake it off” so to speak. The EMF meter jumped to .5 during those brief seconds. My team member behind felt the same thing and commented as we got into the room.

The EMF meter quickly settled back to .1 and I sent it on the bed along with a temperature/humidity meter with an external sensor and the H2 recorder. We started an EVP session and after explaining what the equipment did, I asked if someone could make the temperature drop in the room. The EMF meter jumped to .5 again and the temperature dropped a half a degree. Again I asked if they could make the room colder and the temperature dropped again, this time 1 degree. After a few more questions we left the room. This room was relatively small with just enough room for the bed and a dresser. We had one of our IR cameras in there facing the door being recorded by the DVR; we found that taking another night vision hand held camera in there created a problem so this experience, though documented on audio, will have to also be an interesting personal experience.

As we left the room I called up the team upstairs. I wanted to send two more in and see if we could duplicate the experience. So after gathering together again and discussing what just happened we sent two more members into the room. Then things got real interesting, more on that tomorrow.

Related posts:

1. Paranormal Investigation: Deland Artisan Inn
2. Paranormal Investigation: Artisan Inn 2
3. Paranormal Investigation: EVP’s from Tybee and Moon River
4. Paranormal Investigation: Lancaster, NY – Day 2
5. Old South Pittsburg Hospital Paranormal Investigation