The Haunted Commonwealth

Haunted mansions are quite common in ghostly folklore and horror movies but the truth is, most older mansions do tend to have some sort of tragedy or ghost story associated with them.  The Sutherlin Mansion is no different.  The house was built in 1859 and was considered a mansion in that time period.  As you can tell by the picture, the house today would be considered moderate in size.

According to the visit Danville website "the Sutherlin Mansion was home to Major William T. Sutherlin, a wartime quartermaster for Danville and among its most prominent citizens."  Sutherlin, who was part of the confederacy, opened up his home to President Jefferson Davis during the final week of the Civil War.  It is here that Davis drafted his final Proclamation to the Confederacy on April 4th 1865.  After spending a week at this mansion, the Confederacy was dissolved and the war was finished.

According to some of the staff and visitors of this mansion, there are some ghostly occurrences at this home.  There have been reports of a man standing looking out of the Davis Bedroom window during the day even when there's nobody in the house.  Cigar smoke has been smelled inside the residence during normal museum hours, even though there is a no smoking policy in the state of Virginia.  At night, people have heard a girl moan from the upstairs bedroom.  Finally, there have been sounds of footsteps and random noises coming from the house.

Today, the home has been converted into a historical museum.  The operational hours are from 9 am to 5 pm during the week and from 2 pm to 5 pm on weekends.  Tours are available to anybody who requests them.

Official Website: http://www.danvillemuseum.org/

When you're investigating the paranormal, sometimes you stumble upon an intriguing story that offers no real explanation as to why or how the events occur.  Virginia Intermont College has been around for almost 120 years and is home to 555 students according to the school's official website.  The college is relatively small but the sometimes even the smallest of places can have a haunting past.

The paranormal claims that surrounds this college is centered around one room in the main building on campus.  I've found a post on a site linked at the bottom on this article and I'll let this person do the story-telling.

I am a freshman at Virginia Intermont College. I know the exact room which you are talking about, and I would like to explain the story a little more. Back in the 1800's the school was all girls. One girl in particular was having an affair with one of her professors. She got pregnant, but the professor refused to leave his wife for her. She hung herself, and while doing so knocked over the kerosene lamp she had been using, and started a fire. The rest of the building has been repaired, but any time her room is worked on, it reverts back to the same charred state it was in. It is noticeable when you see it -- it looks like the fire just happened, even though it was over 100 years ago.

The story is tragic but the phenomenon that is said to occur here is interesting.  If you look at it from a scientific perspective, there isn't a finite reason for why a wall would continuously look charred even 100 years later.  Is it paranormal, possibly but this is definitely a location that could use an investigation by a skilled paranormal group. 

I did some more digging and found a good post on another blogspot site explaining this haunting even more.  According to this post, the girls name is "Vera." However, the interesting thing included in this post is that the ghost isn't just linked to the one room in the Main Hall, instead people have reported feeling cold spots, the feeling of being watched, and cold breezes all across campus.

A less obvious “haunting” happened to Travis Williamson his first year at VI. He stated, “I was sitting [in my room, 211] eating a sandwich and I had some soda in a Gatorade bottle that was really flat, no carbonation at all. The lid was screwed on just a little, and all of a sudden the lid pops off and the bottle is rocking back and forth.”

If you really dig deep enough, almost every college in this state has some sort of "ghost" story.  What separates VIC's ghost apart from the rest is the widespread reports of phenomenon.  You have visual, auditory, and object manipulation.  On a scale of 1 to 10, VIC is probably close to the 10 side of the scale when it comes to activity.  If you ever get a chance to visit this college, don't pass it up. 

Strange USA Blog Post: StrangeUSA
Schools Official Website: http://www.vic.edu/
Vera Blog Post: http://mentalhealthlife.blogspot.com
School Magazine: Check Page 16

First, I apologize for my disappearance for the last four months but I promise you that this blog will continue in the future.  I began writing for a site called VirginiaTechFan.com and that has taken a lot of work and effort over the past four months, especially since that is a paid position for me.  Outside of college and writing for that site, as well as a part time job (hopefully here soon) this blog is going to get shafted a bit. 

However, I promise you it will continue but at a slower pace than what I wanted.  I appreciate everybody who reads this blog and will get back to work on this site very soon. 

Thanks

Justin Clark