1875 Inn
We were called by the owner of the 1875 Inn Joanna Oliver to come in and investigate. She saved the inn from becoming a parking lot in 2001 and during the renovations she came to discover that she had purchased not only property, but spirits as well. Innkeepers Ken and Ray both have had experiences as has the owner Joanna and various guests over the years have claimed seeing or hearing a little girl, woman or man in the halls or in their rooms.BACKGROUND: (taken from the 1875 Inn website)
The 1875 Inn at Tilton was originally built as a country inn for housing guests visiting the area. For years guests have enjoyed the charm of the Winnipesaukee River that meanders through the downtown area, the likes of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison have been known to enjoyed the scenic Tilton village.
The original building was not what it is today shortly after it was built the owners expanded into the barber shop next door. The beautiful fieldstone fireplace and the raised paneling in the dining area are original to this building. At this time the police station was housed in the basement of the inn. Later a fire broke out in a neighboring building and damaged the top floor of the inn, which was later rebuilt in a different fashion.
The restoration of the inn began in January of 2001. The building had been neglected and sat vacant for 5 years before Joanna Oliver took on the project, renovations included raising a section of the building to replace the foundation, adding support to the second story structure and replacing the long bank of windows across the front with reproductions of the original windows.
The restoration was completed August 2001 and has been open for business since. The Inn's history and integrity has been renewed with the reopening.
It wasn't just restoring the Inn, but restoring the tradition of the Inn.
The investigation:
BASE READINGS:
Temperature
Attic: 59 F with small coldspots varying 4 degrees at most
Second Floor: Comfortable 62 F although one room (Samuel Sanborn Room, where we stayed) was a consistent 42 F
Main Floor: Even temp in the 60's
Basement: Suprising the basement was not chilly at all and stayed in the 50's
EMF & K-II
Attic: 1.5 mG (milligauss) pretty steady throughout attic. K-II registered nothing Second Floor: Varying degrees of EMF detect between rooms between 1.5 and 3 mG. K-II did not register Main Floor: EMF did not register anything. K-II did not register Basement: EMF was in predictable limits for a basement. K-II registered 1.5mG EMF clocked in some areas at 8mG
Humidity: Low throughout entire property
WALKTHROUGHS:
Beckah and Raven both picked up on four spirits, two gentlemen, one woman and one child. One man who resided down in the basement was gave the impression that he was not intrusive. Although people may feel like they are being watched and sometimes touched he was not of a negative nature and only minorly disruptive if at all. The second floor seemed to have the most activity according to both psychics. The spirit of a twelve year old girl was there, along with her mother. The mother told both psychics that the little girl was supposed to be in bed. Both got the impression of fire, which was consistent with the history they were told later when talking with the owner. They described the little girl as having darker colored hair and a sweet disposition that she was from the late 1800's. This girl fit the description of what Joanna Oliver believed to be her resident ghost "Laura". The male spirit who walks both the second floor and attic (since converted to more rooms for rent and an apartment which houses the innkeepers) was a fairly dignified figure. Both psychic recieved the impression that he was an older male who held a lot of sway within the community.
VIGILS: First we decided to hold vigil in the room we were staying. It was the only room on the floor that showed a very big temperature drop compared to the others. Katie went into the bathroom to begin taking pictures. There was a victorian era washstand with mirror and she snapped a few photos of. Later it would prove that there was much more in that bathroom then expected. When we talked to Ray and Ken they said that it is believed that where our room was is where Laura perished in the fire. They said that they often smell smoke in this area. We called out for knocks and raps but got minimal responses. We then headed to the opposite end of the second floor, in the back to the far right were two rooms. When the psychics had mentioned to the owner that they were drawn to these rooms the owner had actually laughed because from the guests and her own experiences she had theorized that the area was one of the most active in the house. While there we did recieve communications through the K-II meter and on film we could easily make out orbs passing by the tool when it lit up.
We have not as of yet gone over our recordings, although we do believe that there are some EVP's as all three had heard some form of auditory phenomena that night. Including one instance where Raven and Beckah were on the stairs up to the second floor and heard a female voice say "Oh God"
The Pictures.....
BACKGROUND PICTURES:
The Front of the 1875 Inn
The Front Door
The 1875 Inn when it was the Tilton Hotel
Laura
PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE:
This picture and the following were taken in succession, one without and orb and one with an orb!
The orb appears
Looking down the hall at where both the owners and psychics believed to be the area of most activity.
A view of the hall from our room
A "control" shot of the mirror. The face of the mirror was angled toward the ceiling so one could look down into it.
Taken from the same position mirror angled same way. There is now a face in the mirror
Closeup of the face
What we saw in the mirror at first. Looked like a blob
Closeup of the eye. It's orange...there was nothing orange in the room whatsoever.
On to "Mt. Washington Hotel"