HGB Ep. 498 - Memphis' Victorian Village

Moment in Oddity - The Original Mechanical Doll (Suggested by: Breanne Sanford)

Once upon a time, in a year not so long ago, there was a life-sized doll that caught the attention of many, to the extent that a woman wanted to purchase the doll for her granddaughter. The doll was born in Como, Colorado in 1890. Her name was Lady Blythe Vashtie Marvin and she started performing at the ripe old age of seven. She was discovered by Mary Elitch as Blythe was pretending to be a mechanical doll. Due to her performances she became known as "Lady Blythe The Original Mechanical Doll". She performed at the 1915 world's fair in San Francisco as well as performing as the headliner in the Orpheum Circuit. One of the most commonly shared stories of her career was when she was working in the window of Bullock's Department Store in Los Angeles. It took place just before Christmas and as Lady Blythe played her part of the mechanical doll in the window of the store, Santa would wind her up and then the doll would break down and the performance would repeat with Santa ultimately picking her up and carrying her away. Lady Blythe noticed an older woman coming to watch her 'performances' for a full week. She became concerned the woman would tell the children who would gather that she was not an actual doll. Lady Blythe need not be worried because, in fact, the older woman was so taken with the mechanical dolls performances that she wanted to purchase Lady Blythe from the store manager for $1,000! Lady Blythe the Original Mechanical Doll performed around the world and had quite a storied career, giving her last performance at the age of 70. But one thing beyond question, a woman making a living by portraying a mechanical doll, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Birth of Raoul Wallenberg

In the month of August, on the 4th in 1912, Raoul Wallenberg was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He was born into two prominent Swedish families, his maternal grandfather being a celebrated neurologist and paternal grandfather an Ambassador to the Swedish embassy in Japan. Sadly, Raoul's father, a naval officer, passed away from cancer just three months before his son was born. Wallenberg's paternal grandfather Gustav, had a great influence on Raoul's life including his education. This led the young man to study architecture at the University of Michigan. He loved his time in America and he found it difficult to leave once his college years were completed. Eventually Wallenberg moved to Palestine where he worked as an apprentice to a Jewish banker from Holland. This proved to be a turning point of sorts for Raoul as he met once well off middle class Jewish people who were now reduced to ragged clothed beggars by the Nuremberg laws of the German Reich. After the sudden passing of his grandfather, Gustav in 1937, Raoul floundered for a few years but never forgot about the Jews suffering in Nazi Germany. In 1944, Wallenberg had made connections with Iver Olsen, a representative of the American Refugee Board. Raoul enthusiastically agreed to go to Hungary to assist the Swedish embassy in Budapest. His progress over the next six months were inventive, valiant and daring. His admirable goal was to save what was left of the Hungarian Jewish population. Wallenberg created a Swedish passport and stated that it entitled those that held one, amnesty from the deportation to the Jewish death camps. He supplied as many as he could without any particular requirements of the receiver. It is estimated that this sole act saved 20,000 Jewish lives. He then went on to create safe houses and was able to home 35,000 people in buildings fabricated for less than 5,000. Wallenberg's humanitarian efforts were relentless and he had an incredible way of encouraging and rallying others to stay positive and vigilant. He continued his valiant efforts until January, 1945. Raoul Wallenberg had requested a meeting with the highest Soviet authorities after explaining to Russian soldiers he encountered, his goal of rescuing Jews. He was escorted to his home to gather some belongings where he told his friends that he would be back in a week. His friends and family never saw him again. Over the years there have been varying stories as to the fate of Raoul Wallenberg. The latest sighting noted was in 1987 in a prison camp, 150 miles from Moscow. On October 26th, 2016, the Swedish government officially declared Raoul Wallenberg deceased with the death date listed as July 31st, 1952.

Memphis' Victorian Village

Memphis' Adams Avenue is where the rich built their homes during the Victorian era. Today, it is referred to as the Victorian Village, but in its heyday, this was Millionaire's Row. These gorgeous homes not only represent the opulent lifestyle of the rich Victorian times, they hold history and ghosts. Memphis has an amazingly rich history and culture that is both positive and dark and that is the case with the spirits here too. Some are benevolent, while others are hostile. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of Memphis' Victorian Village!

The city of Memphis has seen some amazing history. Indigenous people referred to as the Mississippian culture were the first to settle here and they were followed eventually by the Chickasaw Indian tribe who arrived in the 17th century. Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto was the first European to arrive in the area, followed by French explorers led by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. The land was purchased from the Chickasaw Nation in 1818 and Memphis was founded by a group of investors that included James Winchester, John Overton and Andrew Jackson. The city was officially incorporated in 1826 and named for the ancient capital of Egypt on the Nile River. The town was initially platted around four town squares, three of which still exist today. Those squares would host slave auctions as Memphis became a major slave market. The city would also be a major exporter of cotton. Memphis is considered the "Home of the Blues and the Birthplace of Rock 'n' Roll" with many notable musicians growing up around Memphis like Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Isaac Hayes, Andrew Hayes, Young Dolph, and Elvis Presley. And really, Memphis has also been saturated with the music culture of gospel, jazz, R&B, rap and soul. Fun fact: Close to 20 percent of the earliest inductees (24 of the 97) in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame have come from within a 100-mile radius of Memphis. This was also the place where Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. would die on April 4, 1968 at the Lorraine Motel. Today, Memphis is home to St. Jude Children's Hospital, Graceland, Sun Studios and Beale Street. And historic Adams Avenue is home to many wonderful Victorian era mansions.

We covered Cleveland's Millionaire's Row in Ep. 352. Many major cities in America had a Millionaire's Row during the Victorian Era. Memphis was no different with Adams Avenue being the home of its Millionaire's Row. And while the opulent homes were beautiful, there was a dark side to this road too. Wade Hampton Sides wrote a 2010 book about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. named "Hellhounds on His Trail" and he describes Adams Avenue in this way, "A block from the park was the place on Adams Avenue where Nathan Bedford Forrest once operated a giant slave market, said to be the South's largest, that boasted 'the best selected assortment of field hands, house servants, and mechanics … with fresh supplies of likely Young Negroes.'" The neighborhood was on the outskirts of Memphis. Over a dozen three and four-story homes were built along this lane between 1845 and 1890. As the city expanded, the area around the Victorian Village declined with more lower income homes being built. As the exclusiveness vanished, so too did the wealthy families who had lived here. Some of the abandoned mansions were demolished, but several still stand today. And a few of them are reportedly haunted.

Woodruff-Fontaine House

The Woodruff-Fontaine House at 680 Adams Avenue could definitely be in the running as a home for the Addams Family. The Second Empire French Victorian mansion was built in 1871 by prominent businessman Amos Woodruff. Woodruff was born in 1820 in New Jersey. He and his brother moved to Memphis in 1845. They owned a carriage-making business and after awhile, Amos' brother decided to go back to new Jersey. Woodruff continued on his own and became very successful. He eventually opened a hotel, was a bank president and got involved with the railroad, a cotton compress firm and a lumber company.  In 1870, Woodruff purchased land along Adams Avenue for $12,000 and he built his 5-story mansion, designed by architectural firm Jones and Baldwin headed by Edward C. Jones and Matthias H. Baldwin. Jones had designed the first skyscraper in Memphis. The house featured a mansard roof, a central tower with tower lookouts on the fourth and fifth floors and elevated basement. There were eighteen large rooms and three great halls with the layout being the standard Southern pattern of a broad center hall with rooms on each side opening into the halls. The floors featured high ceilings and the interior had decorative molding and framing with rope motifs and scroll carvings. The stairwell ceiling at the top of the third floor was hand-hammered tin with wreaths, garlands, and winged cherubs designs. Amos moved into the house with his wife Phoebe and their four children - Sallie, Mollie, Frank and Cora - and they lived there until 1883. 

Woodruff sold the house to Noland Fontaine in 1883. Fontaine came from Louisville, Kentucky to Memphis when he was in his twenties. He married Virginia Eanes in 1864 and they had ten children: Mollie, Williamson, Emma, Virginia, Noland, Edward, Martha, Seward and Elliott. Fontaine made his money in cotton and he opened Hill-Fontaine & Company. The Fontaines loved to throw lavish parties, one of which had John Philip Sousa's band performing. Even President Grover Cleveland came to a party. The Fontaine's daughter Mollie got married in 1886 and the reception was thrown in the house's ballroom. Noland told the couple he was going to build them a house across the street and it took four years. We'll talk about that house in a bit. The Fontaine family lived in the house until 1926. Both Noland and his wife Virginia died in the house. The Woodruff-Fontaine House was then sold to a woman named Rosa Lee who also owned the house next door. Both houses were turned into the James Lee Art Academy and we'll talk about that later. When the art school moved out, the house was willed to the city but stood vacant and vandalized and was going to be demolished. In 1962, the Memphis Chapter of the Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities acquired the house and restored it by adding modern plumbing, wiring, heating and air conditioning. Wainscoting and plaster were repaired as was a fresco painting on the ceiling of the west ballroom. The mansion opened in 1964 for tours, weddings and events. And there are stories of ghosts.

Fun Fact: With the Second Empire French style, symmetry and balance are key so in the back of the foyer there are two doors across from each other. One door is an actual door that leads to another area while the other door opens onto a brick wall.

Mollie Woodruff lived at the house with her husband Egbert Woolridge. The couple lost a young child shortly after childbirth and then Egbert got a staph infection and pneumonia and passed away. Both of these events took place in what is called the Rose Room at the mansion. This had been Mollie's bedroom. She eventually remarried in 1883 and moved to her new husband's home. Mollie lost another child there and she would have no children after that. She eventually moved in with her sister who had a home on Poplar and died there in 1917. Mollie Woodruff is thought to be one of the spirits at the mansion. Staff and visitors have seen a smoke formed apparition of Mollie. Staff say that she shows up whenever they start moving furniture or updating things in the house. Mollie can get pretty angry about changes and likes to slam doors and break things.  Her favorite spots seems to be the bed in the Rose Room and she is seen sitting on it.

The great granddaughter of Mollie's sister Sarah, Elizabeth Edwards, claimed that she was in the house when Mollie slammed a door. She also had friends who heard disembodied footsteps and an audible voice call out, "My dear." Laura Cunningham wrote in her book "Haunted Memphis" that "On one occasion, while Mrs. Edwards was conducting a tour, a woman walked into Mollie's old bedroom and grew quite pale and started to tremble. She told Mrs. Edwards that she was a psychic medium who could give messages from the dead. She informed Mrs. Edwards that Mollie's room was arranged incorrectly and that the bed was near the wrong wall. The large half-tester bed stands against the south wall, but the medium felt it belonged on the east wall, closest to the central staircase."

Susan Morgan was the events coordinator for the house back in 2009 when she told the blog I Love Memphis that she had personal experiences with the various ghosts. One time she had a string of pearls ripped from her neck. She has also had her hair stand up and she's had to smooth out the bedclothes in Mollie's bedroom in the morning after having everything straightened the night before. Art students from the school also claimed to experience hearing disembodied sighs and whispers coming from Mollie's old room. This room also is sometimes filled with a musty odor and can get very cold. A visitor once entered the room and immediately started having trouble breathing. She turned to the guide and asked who died in the room. A young boy on a tour turned to his teacher and asked where the lady had gone that had just been sitting in a chair. People who see the full-bodied apparition of Mollie say that she is wearing a period dress that is green.

It's not just Mollie here. People claim to hear the sound of a baby crying and then a woman whispering to the baby. Contractors have felt as though someone was following them around and chandeliers have swung on their own. The paranormal activity heightens from February to May, which is the time between when the baby passed and Egbert died. On the day before the anniversary of Egbert's death one year, some staff heard crying coming from upstairs. They went upstairs to investigate and the crying stopped. When they went back downstairs, the crying started again.  A male spirit likes to hang out on the third floor and cigar smoke is detected up there. No one has ever seen him, but they feel him and he has a more hostile feel to him than Mollie. Especially towards women. Female visitors and staff feel threatened on the third floor. One former female director was even pushed down the stairs. It is thought that this isn't Egbert, but rather Elliot Fontaine who died during the Spanish Flu of 1918 when he was only thirty-four. It is believed that he was gay and a snooty socialite. Perhaps that is why men feel perfectly comfortable on the third floor, but women do not. A tour guide claims to have seen a man that resembled Elliot sitting at the base of the fourth floor tower steps.

Mollie Fontaine-Taylor House

This is today known as the Mollie Fontaine Lounge and it sits across from the Woodruff-Fontaine House at 679 Adams Avenue. Noland Fontaine built this for his daughter Mollie as a wedding gift. And yes, there had been two Mollies at the Woodruff-Fontaine House, which can be confusing. This mansion was built in 1886 in the Queen Anne Victorian style. This is a smaller house than those around it. but it is spectacular with its gingerbread ornamentation. Mollie lived here with her husband William W. Taylor until his death in 1925 and then she continued on alone until she passed in 1939. For the next few decades, the house changed hands and was divided into apartments. The Memphis Housing Authority bought the property in 1965 for an urban renewal project. Elaborate parties became a staple at the house starting in the 1970s. The owner during that time was quite the ladies man apparently and rumors claim that the home was a set for a Penthouse photoshoot, possibly the first one. 

Karen and Bob Carrier would buy the house as a private residence in 1985 and Karen ran her catering company, Another Roadside Attraction, out of the house. The Carriers eventually renovated the carriage house and used it for the catering company. Karen owned several restaurants in Memphis and she decided to turn the house into another one called Cielo in 1996. In 2007, the house was renovated once again and reopened as the Mollie Fontaine Lounge. The lounge describes itself as "Funky, Extraordinary, Eclectic, Soulful, Artsy, Avant-garde atmosphere; like your crazy aunts place, with a fondness for Alice-in Wonderland incongruities. Mollie Fontaine Lounge is open from 5pm 'Til the spirits go to sleep'." They have hosted DJ nights and burlesque shows throughout the years. 

This other Mollie haunts here former home. So basically you have the two Mollie ghosts haunting places across the street from each other. Patrons and staff claim that Mollie likes to take things and she even has flipped a cake or two. One hot summer day, she was blamed for turning the power off. The manager lifted the glass he was drinking from and proclaimed, "Cheers to Mollie!" and the power came back on. Now this has become a tradition at the lounge.

Magevney House 

This house is certainly nothing fancy compared to the Victorians on this street. The Magevney House is a simple white clapboard home located at 198 Adams Avenue. The original build that was constructed in 1833 consisted of just one room with a hallway. The house is named for Eugene Magevney who was born in Ireland in 1798 and he studied to become a priest. He first came to America in 1828 and spent five years in Pennsylvania. Eugene eventually moved to Memphis in 1833 where he worked as a teacher and became a civic leader. He boarded at the house until he bought it in 1837. At that time, he added a front parlor and an upper floor to the home. The parlor came in handy as Magevney was Catholic and he would hold the first Catholic Mass in Memphis in the parlor of his home. This was in 1839. Another Catholic first for the city would be Eugene's marriage to Mary Smythe, who was a former student of his in Ireland. The couple would have two daughters, Mary and Kate, with Mary's baptism being the first Catholic one in the city and this also took place in the parlor of the Magevney House.

In the 1850s, Eugene added two rooms to the back of the house. Much of the payment that Eugene received for his lessons came in the form of land and soon he had amassed a considerable fortune. But he would continue to live in his little clapboard cottage. He ran unsuccessfully foir mayor after retiring from teaching and then died in 1873 during the city's yellow fever epidemic. His wife Mary stayed in the house until her death in 1889 and Kate inherited the house and lived in it until 1925. Her sister Mary had left for Galveston, Texas where she established the Sacred Heart Convent in 1882. Kate married twice. Her first husband, John Dawson, died in the house in 1872. Her second husband, Hugh Hamilton, died in 1887. Kate took over her father's real estate business and by the time she died in 1930, it was worth $3.5 million. There was no will and a big court battle ensued with Kate's adopted daughter Blanche Karsch receiving the bulk of the estate. She gave the house to the city in 1941.

The City of Memphis restored the house and transformed it into a museum that featured what life was like for a family in the 1850s. During the restoration, a half-inch of paint needed to be burned off the walls and then a reproduction of Victorian wallpaper that was similar to the type used in the 1850s was added to the walls. Probably the most painstaking work took place on the roof. The family had installed a front porch and tin roof that went over the original cypress shingle roof. An exact replica was made of each shingle made from cypress. There are a few pieces of furniture original to the family, including Mary Smythe's horse-hair trunk she came over from Ireland with and Eugene's desk. Strangely, a hand carved crucifix was found lodged within a wall and it is now on display downstairs. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The museum is now under the direction of Pink Palace Museums and is open on the first Saturday of every month in the afternoons.

If you visit, you might experience some ghosts. Some employees have felt so uncomfortable in the house that they are reluctant to go inside and usually hang out in the garden unless conducting a tour. Visitors have sometimes felt the same way, not staying long enough for the tour to finish. One woman reportedly left in tears claiming something bad was in the house. A group of schoolchildren were visiting the house and they watched as a locked door to Eugene's desk opened on its own. Two child ghosts have been seen and heard in the house and it is believed that this is Mary and Kate when they were young. People claim to see them peering out of the windows at night. Child footprints have been found in the garden when volunteers arrive in the morning. A young girl once told her mother that she saw a man standing in the alley between the house and the church next door, but her mother didn't see anyone. The sound of a ball bouncing down the stairs has been heard multiple times and no ball is ever found, much less someone who was playing with it. And here's what is really interesting about that. The stairs to get to the upper floor were on the exterior when the city acquired the house. They built the interior stairs, so they aren't original to the house and weren't here when the family lived there.

Mallory-Neely House 

This breathtaking home at 652 Adams Avenue is considered to be one of the best preserved Victorian homes in the United States. New York banker Isaac B. Kirtland built a two-and-a-half-story house on a three-acre lot along Adams Avenue in 1852. This was designed in the Italianate villa-style. Kirtland sold the house and one acre of the land to cotton merchant Benjamin Babb for $40,000 in 1864. Babb had arrived in Memphis twenty years before that and by 1881, he and his brother-in-law had founded Benjamin Babb & Company. James Columbus Neely would be the next owner and he moved in with his family in 1883. He also worked in cotton as a broker and had a wholesale grocery. The Neelys would make major renovations to the house over the next ten years, adding a full third floor and the four-story tower in the front. This brought the house up to twenty-five rooms and nearly every room boasted a fireplace. The interior featured elaborate stenciling on the ceilings, parquet flooring and ornamental plasterwork. The family also added two stained-glass windows purchased at the 1892 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

The house passed on to the Neely's youngest daughter Daisy in 1900. She had married cotton broker Barton Lee Mallory. He had established W.B. Mallory & Sons with his father. The couple had three children: William, Barton Lee and Frances. The home was big enough to share with Daisy's sister Pearl and her husband Daniel Grant and their kids. Barton died in 1938, but Daisy stayed on in the house until her death in 1969 at age 98 and she made it known that she wanted the house to become a historic museum. The mansion wouldn't be donated until 1972 and at that time it was turned over to the Daughters, Sons and Children of the American Revolution. They turned the home into a museum and eventually turned it over to the City of Memphis in 1985. In 1987, it became part of the Pink Palace Museums. It was closed from 2005 until 2012 due to a need for expensive renovations. Today, it has a new slate and copper roof and is open for tours on Fridays and Saturdays.

Whatever is haunting this house is friendly and welcoming. The first person to feel a presence in the house was living in a suite of rooms that had been turned into an apartment on the second floor. She experienced weird stuff, but wasn't spooked by any of it. An investigator was taking pictures in the house and captured an image with hundreds of sparkles appearing throughout the room. At the same time, the group that was in the room all felt the hair on their arms stand on end. There was a feeling of electrical energy and it lasted for quite a while. A visible orb was once seen on the ceiling of the second-floor hallway and was described as being indigo-colored. No source could be found for what was causing it as no sunlight reached the area. 

People have seen a woman crying in a third-story window. The third floor actually seems to have the most haunting activity. A cleaning crew once saw a woman with white, untamed hair staring down at them from the third-story stairwell. Neither would ever be in the house alone after that. Laura Cunningham writes in her 2009 book "Haunted Memphis" that the Mallory family had their own ghost story too. She writes, "One Halloween night, guests were arriving at the house for a party. Through the open front door, one person spotted a disembodied hand creeping down the banister of the grand, central staircase."

James Lee House

It's no wonder that the James Lee House is an internationally acclaimed boutique bed and breakfast. The house is absolutely gorgeous and stands at 690 Adams Avenue. The house was built in three stages. The original part of the house was built in 1848 and consisted of a small, two-story brick house. William Harsson was the owner and he was a lumber baron. He sold the house to his son-in-law, Charles W. Goyer, in 1852. Goyer had married Harsson's daughter Laura in 1849. He came to Memphis via a flatboat in 1841 when he was still a teenager, but he hit the ground running and became a prosperous merchant. After buying the house, he added a second addition to the south side of the home. In 1871, he added on to the front of the house, which included a three-story tower that totally makes this house! The additions to the house were necessary as Charles and Laura had 10 children. Laura died of Yellow Fever in the late 1860s and Goyer married her sister Charlotte.

Lee Line Steamers was founded in Memphis by James Lee. His son, Captain James Lee, Jr., was a Princeton graduate and he had moved to Memphis in 1860 to work as a lawyer. He had formerly lived in another house on Adams Avenue. He retired from law in 1877 and joined his father at Lee Line Steamers. When he died, the house passed to his daughter Rosa who was the last family member to live in the house. She donated it to the city to serve as the James Lee Arts Academy that eventually became the Memphis College of Arts. The art school moved to Overton Park in 1959. The Memphis Chapter of the APTA acquired the house in 1961, saving it from demolition, but nothing was done to restore it. The mansion sat vacant for decades and then in 2013, Jose and Jennifer Velazquez and J.W. and Kathy Buckman bought the James Lee House in partnership and they spent a year restoring the property. The website has tons of pictures featuring the work that was done. The house reopened as the bed and breakfast it is today in 2014 and features five suites.

The Lee Suite was formed from three rooms and features a collection of antique books. The Harsson Suite was also formed from three rooms and has a rustic, farmhouse feel with two exposed-brick chimneys that have cast-iron mantels. The Goyer Suite has a clawfoot tub that is original to the house. The Crosley Suite is the only one on the first floor and also is formed from three rooms and is decorated art deco style. And finally, the Isabel Suite has an exposed brick chimney and features a door to the bathroom left over from the art school days that has doodles all over it. Along with decadent treats and a relaxing atmosphere, the B&B also has a spirit. Laura Goyer seems to have never left the house. Art students as well as visitors have reported for decades that they have seen a woman in red. Finally, another colored dress! Investigators and psychics all feel as though this woman in red is very agitated. Several students claimed to see a woman in a flowing red dress come floating down the front staircase and when she got to the bottom, she disappeared. A former caretaker once said that he saw a rocking chair rock by itself. On another occasion, he saw a woman in red standing in the corner of the apartment he lived in at the back of the house. This was in the oldest section of the house. Many people who enter claim to feel an angry energy, but based on the success of the B&B, we aren't so sure that is true. But maybe it is true because maybe Laura is mad that her husband married her sister.

These glorious homes make up a special section of Memphis, full of memories and possibly ghosts. Standing here, one can imagine glancing in the windows and spying couples in their finest, swaying to the sound of jazz music. Or maybe it isn't imagination. Maybe there are spirits here still going about their business in the afterlife. Is Memphis' Victorian Village haunted? That is for you to decide!