Moment in Oddity - Indiana Bell building rotation (Suggested by: Duey Oxberger)
The Indiana Bell building was constructed in 1907 and stands at 240 N Meridian St, Indianapolis, Indiana. By 1929, Indiana Bell company determined that they required a larger building to accommodate their business needs. At the beginning, the company thought they would just demolish their current building and build a new one. However, after hiring Vonnegut, Bohn and Muller Architects for the demolition and rebuild of the structure, the architects told Indiana Bell that the building itself did not need a demo job, just a rotate job. If the building was rotated 90 degrees and shifted 100 feet west, the company would end up with the extra space they desired to build on an addition. As reported in different newspaper articles, the rotation launched on October 14, 1930. During the 31 day process, there were rollers, T5-ton jacks and 18 men involved. Amazingly, business as usual continued within the building while the 11,000 ton structure was in the process of rotation. The rotation rate was calculated at 15 inches per hour. This rate meant that the employees working within could not even feel the movement of the building. At the end of the process, the architectural team was able to place the building within one-sixty-fourth of an inch from the original calculated location! We are always amazed at stories where buildings are picked up and moved to a different location. But to move an eight story, 11,000 ton building while employees continued to work within, certainly is odd.
This Month in History - Astor Place Riot
In the month of May, on the 10th in 1849, angry crowds rioted outside of Astor Place Opera House in lower Manhattan, New York. British actor William Charles Macready and American actor Edwin Forrest were to perform "Macbeth" inside the opera house. Both were well known Shakespearean actors and a conflict had developed between the two of them. Three days before the riot, Forrest's supporters had bought hundreds of tickets for seats in the theater. Most of the audience were working class New Yorkers. The protestors had brought objects like rotten eggs, potatoes, apples, lemons, shoes and bottles filled with stinky liquids. The protestors began with hissing and booing during Macready's performance and then began hurling the objects at the stage. Some of the theater goers even ripped up their seats. The riot was fueled by anti-British sentiment, especially with the Irish immigrants who faced discrimination and viewed Macready as a symbol of British dominance and the upper class. On May 10th, police were concerned about the level of man-power they had available if a more serious riot occurred. The state's Seventh Regiment were assembled in Washington Square Park, as well as mounted troops, light artillery and hussars, to a total of 350 men along with the 100 police officers outside the theater alone. By the time the play opened at 7:30 p.m., 10,000 people filled the streets surrounding the theater. The rioters broke theater windows and attempted to set fire to the building. By the end of the riot, between 22 and 31 people were killed and 259 were injured including both civilians, police and militia. The Astor Place Riot is also known as the Shakespeare Riot. It is reported that prior to the riot, New York had not known so much gunfire and death since the Revolutionary War.
Houghton Mansion and the Masons (Suggested by: Nicole Cardarelli)
The Houghton Mansion in North Adams, Massachusetts was named for the family that commissioned its construction. Their biography is ripe for ghost stories with a tragic car accident leading to further deaths from broken hearts and suicides. The house then spent nearly a century hosting a chapter of the Masonic Order. The Masons have always carried an air of mystery around their organization with rumors of bizarre rituals, sacrifices and hidden knowledge. Many former Masonic temples and centers pop up on haunted lists and we have featured a few. Join us for the history and hauntings of the Houghton Mansion.
North Adams, Massachusetts was settled by Europeans in 1745, during King George's War, when Fort Massachusetts was built along the Hoosac River. That fort would be burned during the Siege of Fort Massachusetts in 1746 when 21 militiamen were no match for a French and Indian battalion numbering 1,000. The Fort was later rebuilt and then refortified for the French and Indian War in 1754. After that, it fell into disrepair. The North Adams Women's Club raised funds to reconstruct the Fort and was reopened as a memorial in 1933 that could be toured. That shut down in the 1960s and the Fort was demolished. A commemorative plaque with a reconstructed chimney are all that remains. The town of North Adams was named for Samuel Adams and became a mill town since water power could be generated from the confluence of the Hoosic River and various manufacturing was the main industry. Everything from clothing to marble to ironworks to cabinets were produced. In the mid 1800s, Arnold Print Works became one of the world's leading manufacturers of printed textiles and this company was started by Albert Charles Houghton (Hoe-ton), or A.C. as most people called him.
A.C. Houghton was born in 1844 in Vermont. A.C. was a driven man from an early age and founded the Houghton Chemical Works of Stamford before he was 21-years-old. He also got involved in real estate and started amassing a small fortune. Cordelia Smith of Stamford became his wife in 1866 and they would have five daughters: Laura, Florence, Susan, Alice and Mary. In 1868, A.C. opened the Parker Mill in North Adams and he would move the family there in 1870. In 1881, he became the president of the Arnold Print Works. And he even dipped his toes into beer when he took over the A.J. Houghton Brewing Company out of Boston when his father, A.J. Houghton died in 1892. There were 31 breweries in Boston at the time. The Stony Brook area had 24 alone and only one of them is still active today. Many of the buildings are gone too, but the A.J. Houghton one is still there at the corner of Station and Halleck Streets. The brewery specialized in Vienna Lager and also made Pavonia Lager Beer, Vienna Old Time Lager and Rockland Ale. That shut down in 1918 due to Prohibition. Houghton became director of the Boston & Albany Railroad in 1895. In 1896, A.C. became the first mayor of North Adams and he served two, one year terms.
It was after this that A.C. decided to build his third home in North Adams. This would be his most extravagant house and was designed in the Neo-Classical Revival style. The outer clapboards are thinner at the base to make the house appear taller. It stood three stories and had a roof of Spanish tile. Behind the house, a formal garden was planted. There was a large horse barn on the property as well. In 1900, A.C. and his wife Cordelia moved in with their 23-year-old daughter Mary who had decided not to marry and planned to just care for A.C. whose health was failing. At this point, Florence, Susan and Alice had all married and were raising their own families. Laura had died in infancy.
Cars were all the rage by 1914 and the Houghtons decided to buy their first automobile. This was a seven passenger Pierce-Arrow touring car. There was just one problem. The Houghtons had no idea how to drive a car. They decided to send the man who had been the keeper of their horses and carriages to go learn how to drive the car. His name was John Widders and he had also been a family friend. Now he was their official chauffeur. A.C. decided to travel to Bennington, Vermont and he told Mary that she could bring a friend. She asked her childhood friend Sybil Hutton to join her and Sybil's husband Robert came along. The group set out in the Pierce Arrow for the pleasure drive with Widders at the wheel. This drive would be anything but pleasurable.
First, the road they were driving along was under repair. This was a road designed for carriages, not cars. The road was very narrow, so two cars could barely fit when passing. As Widders made his way up the gentle grade of Oak Hill Road, he saw a team of horses parked ahead on the right side of the road. He passed them on the left, but there wasn't enough road there and the tires on the left side of the car left the road, causing the car to tilt off the road. They had been heading uphill and so the car rolled down the embankment and rolled three times before coming to a stop. Mary was still in the car, but everyone else had been thrown from the car. This was a car with no roof, so you can imagine that if Mary was still in the car, that wasn't a good thing. She was mortally injured, but still alive. She was taken to North Adams Hospital where she passed away later that day. Sybil Hutton had been killed instantly with the first roll. Dr. Hutton, A.C. and Widders all walked away from the accident with minor injuries.
Widders was riddled with guilt and the following morning, he was found dead in the cellar of the horse barn with a bullet in his head. He had apparently taken his own life with a horse pistol. The investigator for the State of Vermont exonerated Widders and said that the soft shoulder of the road was to blame. But that mattered little since Widders was no longer alive. The family had him buried in their family plot at South View Cemetery, so they didn't blame him either. A.C. Houghton would die 10 days after the accident. Some say that it was from injuries caused by the accident, but others claim he died from a broken heart. He was 70 years old.
Cordelia Houghton remained in the house until her death four years later in 1918. By this point, Florence had moved into the house with her husband, William Gallup, to care for her mother. The couple remained in the house until 1926 and they sold it to the local Masonic order, which is today the Lafayette-Greylock Freemasons. This was formed from a merger of two lodges with the original dating back to 1847. The Masons would remain in the house for 90 years. They pulled out the formal garden and constructed their lodge building on the spot.
Freemasonry claims to go back to the Middle Ages, but the oldest document referencing the Masons is the Regius Poem from 1390. The First Grand Lodge of England formed in 1717 from four lodges. The fraternity spread throughout Europe and then came over to the American Colonies. Many of the Founding Fathers were Freemasons. Forty-four signers of the Declaration of Independence belonged to the Fraternal Order. President George Washington laid the cornerstone for the U.S. Capitol on September 18, 1793 and paintings about the moment feature him wearing his Masonic apron during the ceremony. He placed an inscribed silver plate under the cornerstone and to this day, nobody can figure out where the cornerstone is located. Metal detectors have been unable to find that metal plate. Our Supreme Court was shaped by Chief Justice John Marshall, also a Mason. The goal of Freemasonry is to spread the ideals of the Enlightenment and contribute to social improvement. They founded orphanages and homes for widows and the elderly. We've talked about several here on the podcast. And while they have done many good things, there are those that claim there is a dark side to Freemasonry.
Now much of what we are going to share here is based on conspiracy theories and such, but its extremely intriguing and we find some of it compelling. Many members of the Freemasons and Eastern Star join for the camaraderie and business dealings. Most probably don't know the ancient origins of their rituals and maybe think its all just a fun little aside. Few reach the upper echelons of membership and probably are never taught some of the darker things. Now there really may be nothing to any of this, but let's be honest, if you have secret handshakes and hide your rituals and membership is by "invite only," you are asking for scrutiny. Anyone who has been inside these old Masonic Lodges has probably gotten a weird feeling because of the symbology all around them from the black and white checkerboard floors to carved chairs and sculptures of ancient deities and the head dude is called the Worshipful Master. The weirdest temple is in DC. The Masonic Lodge in DC is called the House of the Temple and was inspired by the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus - so yeah, a tomb. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The interior has black statues representing Egyptian figures made from black marble. That marble came from Lake Champlain and took 15 years to find. They are all carved from that one piece and the carving was done inside the temple. Greek figures adorn the lamps and chandeliers.
Freemasonry communicates secretly through symbolism. Washington, D.C. was laid out specifically according to Mason design. From overhead, one can see the pentagram that Masons have as one of their symbols. The square and compass are other symbols laid out in the street plans and such for D.C. The most obvious symbol is the Washington Monument. We all know that it is meant to be a giant phallic symbol. It measures 66,635 inches tall and 6,660 inches long at the base. And what does that phallic symbol need to be complete? A womb, right? That would be the domed Capitol Building. In ancient mythology and the mystery religions of Egypt, placing this phallus and womb in this way was like setting up an energy generator and this was to draw up the seed of Osiris from the Underworld. For those that don't know the Egyptian myth behind this, Osiris and Isis were brother and sister and also became husband and wife. They also had a brother named Set who was jealous of Osiris and he killed him one day so that he could be king. Set cut Osiris' body into 13 pieces and scattered them. Isis was devastated and managed to collect 12 pieces, but she never found his phallus. She had great magical powers and brought Osiris back to life. She fashioned him a phallus from a magical obelisk and soon becomes pregnant. After this, Osiris descended to the underworld and he is lord of that domain. their son Horus then became king of Egypt. Another location where you can find this design is St. Peter's Square. There's a giant obelisk and then St. Peter's Basilica as the womb.
Francis Bacon was an English philosopher and the father of empiricism. He was a part of the scientific revolution and he wrote a book titled "New Atlantis" about a utopian island. Bacon believed that America was the New Atlantis. He was influential to some of the Founders. Thomas Jefferson wrote, "[Francis] Bacon, [John] Locke and [Isaac] Newton. I consider them as the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception, and as having laid the foundation of these superstructures which have been raised in the Physical and Moral Sciences." Thomas Jefferson was also the man who suggested that the Capitol should resemble the Roman Pantheon, which was a circular domed rotunda dedicated to all pagan gods. Some believe that Bacon was the father of Freemasonry in America.
Masonic lodges offer three masonic degrees and these are Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft and Master Mason. Most Masons fall into those degrees, but there are masonic bodies that offer higher degrees to Master Masons, all the way up to the 33rd degree. That's what Shriners are - 33rd degree Masons. Their main ritual reflects on this character named Hiram Abiff, which Masons claim was the chief architect of King Solomon's Temple. The Bible does mention a master craftsman named Hiram in 1 Kings 7:13-14 and he cast the bronze furnishings and ornate decorations for the temple. The King of Tyre sent building materials for the temple and his name was also Hiram, but it isn't believed by Masons that this was Hiram Abiff. The Masonic ritual reenacts his murder at the hands of three fellowcraft masons. He is ambushed while leaving and tied up. The three demand to know the secrets of a master mason and he refuses to tell them. Each one asks and then strikes him with a mason's tool. The first two hits injure him and the last kills him. His body is hidden under a pile of rubble temporarily and then the assailants retrieve it at night and take it outside the city of Jerusalem and bury it in a shallow grave. Hiram's body is found later by other masons and given a proper burial. King Solomon declares that the secret word of a master mason is now lost, so he replaces it with another secret word. And that is the main secret the upper echelon of Masons are keeping.
Other rituals conducted by the Masons are to raise Osiris, who was called Apollo by the Greeks. Ancient myths believe that Apollo will be raised again and indwell a man and take his place leading a new Golden Age. And just to really add something to this, you know the missions to the moon were called Apollo and then a number. Buzz Aldrin is a Mason and he carried a special deputation with him that was intended to establish territorial jurisdiction on the moon for the Grand Lodge of Texas. Oh and in the Bible, in Revelation 9:11 is says, "They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon."
I was checking out this particular orders Facebook page and just a couple posts down was this:
The Masons couldn't upkeep the house after 90 years and in 2017, sold to hotel developer Benjamin Svenson for $160,000. The Houghton House today is still privately owned and no longer open for tours or investigations, which is a real bummer. The house still looks much like it did when the Houghtons lived there. Siding covers the clapboard now and the Spanish tile roof was replaced with asphalt. Its also said to be the most haunted place in North Adams. Masons, visitors and investigators all have reported hearing the disembodied voices of a man and a lady thought to be Mr. and Mrs. Houghton. Shadow figures were also seen many times. And Mary Houghton’s former room was always a place that made people feel an overwhelming sense of sorrow. There also is the spirit of a young girl in the basement who is thought to go back to a house that was on the property before the Houghton Mansion. The mansion was built on the basement and foundation from that previous house. The young girl is seen walking across the basement and fading into the walls. The lockers in the Mason's locker room would open and close on their own.
There are those who believe that the activities of the Masons may have conjured entities in the house as well and it DOES seem that most Masonic buildings have some kind of haunting going on inside. Same for the Odd Fellows. Could it be their use of real human bones in rituals, particularly in the past? Talk about causing unrest! Queenofdan on Reddit said, "I slept over at that place a good dozen or so times, and every time is different! We’ve had moments that were so dramatic we would run to each other like toddlers and huddle, and other times not much happened except we’d spook ourselves with anticipation. But that place is definitely spooky." Another group caught an EVP of who they thought was Widders saying, "I have a heavy heart."
Hometown Ghost Stories are Dave and Rob and they investigated in 2014 and they decided to try out the claim that a certain door will close when A.C. is asked to do it. The first time they asked, the door closed immediately. The second time they asked, it didn't close and then they said, "Let's do a countdown to three and on three, close the door" and sure enough, the door closed on three. Rob was in Mary's bedroom by himself when he heard a massive bang that startled him so much that he jumped to his feet and knocked over an end table. He tried to see what in the room could've made the sound and he couldn't find anything. Dave tried an experiment where he knocked on a wooden altar in the middle of a room and asked something to knock in return and something did. He tried it again with the same result. When they reviewed the footage, they noticed they captured a shadow figure moving left to right when the knocking sounds were made. Rob was investigating Widder's bedroom later and wasn't really getting anything and then all of a sudden there was a drastic drop in temperature in the room and Robe could hear footsteps moving up the hall and then he heard a door slam. He thought maybe it was Dave, but when he radioed him, he found out that Dave was out in his car in the parking lot.
Ghost Adventures hit the Houghton Mansion early on with it being their second episode of Season 1. On the episode, a member of the Masons told Zak that he was in the mansion one day, standing near the side entrance hall when he heard the side-entrance door open and close and then there were footsteps. He assumed someone had come in and he looked and saw snowy footprints on the ground in the hallway leading away from the door. There was no snow on the ground, so this wasn't surprising. What was surprising is that the footsteps just stopped abruptly and there was no one else in the house that he could find. The crew were shown a wall that was made from rock taken from the Hoosac Tunnel. This was a tunnel that stretched nearly five miles and was constructed from 1851 to 1875. Two hundred men lost their lives during the construction and people started calling it "The Bloody Pit." There are those that think these stones are cursed because they came from the Bloody Pit, particularly with the tragedy that befell the Houghtons. A former president here, Josh Mantello, told Zak that members would use audio recorders in the house to see if they could catch anything and that in Mary Houghton's former room they caught screams and someone yelling "Get out!" Mantello also said he saw a full-bodied apparition on the third floor, standing in a doorway at night. They also captured a picture of a ghostly face in a third-floor window. In the basement, Mantello and others have been tapped on the shoulder by something they couldn't see. During the investigation, they capture a wispy human-shaped shadow bolt from the left side of the hall to the right side and they hear an audible yell from a woman. They also hear footsteps in Mary's room. They hear the sounds of doors shutting while in the Masonic Temple. They capture an EVP of a man saying "Ran for help." Could this have been John Witters?
The Central New Hampshire Paranormal Society and Boston Paranormal Investigators investigated the mansion in 2014. They share on the BPI blog, "The session in the bedroom was interrupted by Eric Perry who took David out of the room for a minute. David came back in and informed us that there was an incredible amount of activity in the basement and that they eventually had to leave as several of the group members just sighted a full body apparition of a little girl." So the rest of the group heads to the basement and they didn't see the apparition but, "We were asking several questions about the little girl entity and when we played back a set of three questions. We heard an audible ‘yes’ when we asked if she like animals." And they continue, "After another short break we headed to the Ball Room. A large room that was directly below the Masonic Temple and an addition attached to the backside of the property. The site for the addition sat on what was once Mary Houghton’s garden and we could have told you that in retrospect because the room smelled of flowers. You can imagine the excitement from the group when we walked into this grand room and all smelled the same sweet scent...After another break it was time to head to the third floor. This is where the servants quarters were located including the room of John Widders, the Chauffeur who in his guilt shot himself in a barn formally on the property. We spent about 20 Minutes in his bedroom...The Freemason guides indicated that although his presence was felt around the house, it came and went periodically. During our time in the room, one of the investigators meters constantly went off, but other than that it was pretty quiet. That is, until we moved over to the next room. We started asking for anything/anyone to give us a sign, specifically for John Widders. Several of us took photos which led to one of the more interesting ones of the night. The photo of the potential shadow person or black mass that can be seen in the anomalies section of the report. After this point, a spirit box that was on and had been left by the other group started getting active. Immediately we all turned toward the box and were startled by what could not be mistaken for anything other than ‘Get Out’. We confirmed this with one another before we heard it again. As we started to get uneasy it took a third time for us to pack up and immediate leave the floor. We did not want to be where we were not welcome."
Irene Loewenson wrote in The Williams Record in October of 2019, "Williamstown resident James 'Cricket' Wondoloski, [estimates] that he has spent the night in the purportedly haunted North Adams mansion 13 times. Wondoloski would stay in the mansion with a group of friends who were also interested in ghost-hunting. On his first overnight, he and his friends saw a lantern-like light float up the stairs and heard creaking but did not see anyone walking. Then, the light went out. 'We all freaked out,' he said. 'And then we were quiet and we could hear footsteps right above our heads… We went up, and there was nobody there...It was quite fun to go...Sometimes a lot of things happened. Sometimes nothing happened.' On more eventful nights, he has felt a 40-degree gust of air in the middle of summer, heard a girlish giggle and been scratched on the back of his neck, he said. His friend reported feeling a tug on his ponytail."
The Houghton family endured a tragedy no family should ever have to experience. Is the pain from the car accident somehow locked into the house, trapping those connected to the accident? And what about the Masons? Were they just interacting with the former owners or did they conjure some entities themselves? Is the Houghton mansion haunted? That is for you to decide!
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