Why is Petersburg so Paranormal? (Paranormal Petersburg, Virginia, and the Tri-Cities Area online tour stop)

Thank you to Michelle for having me stop on her blog for my new book, Paranormal Petersburg, Virginia, and the Tri-Cities Area’s online book tour. I am going to talk about ghosts and why certain places are more haunted than others.

Good question. Why do some places have paranormal activity and others, nothing, or dead zone. Dead zone is defined as a dead spot, or a period or place with no activity or excitement. That would fit a place with no paranormal activity at all. Some places are not haunted, no matter how historical or old, or even new spots. Like the old house in Petersburg from the 1700s in a chapter in Petersburg, Virginia, and the Tri-Cities Area. A paranormal group was asked by a real estate agent to prove it was. Obviously sales f a haunted house are worth more than people think. The group tried twice, and got nothing. Nada. Zip. Proving if you think you’re going into paranormal investigating for the excitement due to a TV show or whatever, many times there may end up nothing. Not even one little EVP (electronic voice phenomenon).

And yet, Petersburg has many haunted buildings and spots, particularly in the Old Towne Petersburg section. I honestly think it gives Williamsburg a run for its money in the most haunted area of Virginia. Not only there, but in the nearby cities of Colonial Heights and Hopewell, Prince George and Dinwiddie counties, and Chester of Chesterfield County, all interconnected with Petersburg, particularly due to the Civil War.

Going as far back as the 1600s, with the Citie of Henricus, the second English settlement after Jamestown, Peter Jones Trading Post where things could be delivered to the city of Petersburg, and plantations of many well-known families began. There is the 1700s, where Aaron Burr and his daughter Theodosia visited Dodson’s Tavern, following Burr’s infamous duel with Alexander Hamilton and battles by ship of the shores where Henricus is today. On July 16, 1816, fire consumed nearly two-thirds of Petersburg, a collection of wooden warehouses and homes along the Appomattox River. Brick buildings replaces many of these. How many died in that fire that still roam the newer buildings?

Edgar Allan Poe and his bride, Virginia Clemm, had their honeymoon here. They stayed on the second floor of Hiram Haines Coffee and Ale House, because Hiram was a friend of Poe’s and offered it to them. There is a legend connected to the building, that end of January, she can be seen looking from a window from that floor. All I know, neither she nor Poe answered me on my ghost box the day I investigated both the second and third floor. As for the face on the window pane that was not there to my own eyes, but showed up in my photo and you can se in the book, many young men looked like that. The former owner believed it was Poe. I don’t think so. What do you think? Do you think Poe haunts that buildings as others he has done?

Last of all, there is the Siege, where the Northern Army surrounded the city and bombarded it with cannon balls, and many stayed during that time. The Peter Jones Trading Post became a jail, not only for captured Union soldiers, but Confederate soldiers who did something illegal. Many front of buildings did not survived and were replaced. One that possibly may be the only original store front and still stands today. This was the servants’ quarters of the Friend House before it became a poultry market. People died here during this time. There was buildings that were Civil War hospitals (like the third floor of Hiram Haines). An Underground Railroad for runaway slaves. Slave auction at one end of Old Street. Last battlefield battle fought at what is the Petersburg Battlefield Park today, before Lee and his troops went to Sailor’s Creek, followed by Northern troops.

So much reason for the paranormal to exist in this area. The ground is saturated with it. What do you think?

Leave a comment on Michelle Hamilton’s blog, with your name and email, to be entered in the whole blog tour’s giveaway; which would be a signed copy of Pamela K. Kinney’s new release, Paranormal Petersburg, Virginia, and the Tri-Cities Area that will be sent to the winner.  The winner will be drawn after the last blog stop on October 5^th. The email will enable me to contact the winner, so do leave your name and email.

Pamela K. Kinney

Journey to worlds of fantasy, beyond the stars, and into the vortex of terror with the written word of Pamela K. Kinney.

Pamela K. Kinney  Blog  Facebook

Excerpt from Paranormal Petersburg, Virginia, and the Tri-Cities Area:

Poe’s Honeymoon Suite on the Second Floor

I walked into the sitting room of the suite and dropped my bag of paranormal investigating equipment and my purse on the old-fashioned couch. Two matching chairs stood on each side of the couch and an old-fashioned chest of drawers stood between the two windows that looked down onto the street, where you could see the Siege

Museum. A fireplace loomed behind the couch and, across the room, a table stood against the wall. In the other room I found a bed; however, I doubted it was the original bed Poe and his bride shared. Back in the sitting room, I took note of a female mannequin, wearing skimpy underwear and a wedding veil, perched on the ledge of the window, and she appeared to be staring out. An old-fashioned typewriter with a pair of disembodied hands on the keys nestled against the far wall just behind her dangling feet.

The horror writer in me expected them to begin typing at any minute.

I took some pictures with my camera, then employed my pendulum to see if anyone or anything was there and asked if they would swing it back and forth.

Not moving my arm or hand—as I told them, they had to do it—the pendulum went immediately into a heavy swing. After I thanked them and asked them to stop, it came to a standstill. Did that mean Poe and Virginia were there? Or could it be the first owner, Richard Rambaut, the man the psychic sensed? Maybe Hiram himself or even someone else?

Next, I took out the recorder, turned it on, and began an EVP session.

Nothing was noted from the regular EVP session on the second floor when I listened to it later at home, except when I knocked on the table and asked, “Can you do a knock like that?” I did not hear it live when I was present in the house; but on the recording, I heard two knocks exactly like mine, lighter and from elsewhere in the room.

When I used the ghost box for a session, I got interesting results. I’d asked

if Edgar Allan Poe or his wife Virginia were in the room with me; I didn’t receive an answer. Maybe they had been so happy honeymooning here, they felt no reason to return to the building to haunt it. And to be honest, I did not sense Poe at all that day.

“Is there anyone else with me?” I asked.

A man’s voice came across the ghost box. “Yes.”

“Richard Rambaut, are you here?”

“Yes.”

“Can you speak in French to me, Richard, to prove it is you.”

“Oui.”

“Why are you haunting this building? Can you tell me?”

“No.”

Either he knew why and did not want to tell me, or he really had no idea why. Maybe, since he’d committed suicide, this caused the doors to the other side to remain closed to him.

I asked, “Can you give me the date of your death?”

There was an answer, but too low to hear. I asked for the date of the spirit’s death again and I heard a partial, “18—”

Then I heard a partial word, sounding like “threat…” The rest cut off or the spirit couldn’t get the balance of it out.

Was this still Richard? Perhaps another spirit? Had he been threatened, or was he threatening me?

I asked if the spirit that had said the name Derek, down in the Rue Morgue, was on the second floor with me. I got an answer to this question with “Yes.”

Who was Derek? I wanted to know, but received no answer.

I asked if Haines was there. Again, I received no answer.

I asked what the spirits thought of Jeff, who now owned the building, or any of the workers downstairs. Nothing.

Then another word popped out. “Fort.” Civil War maybe? I asked, but no one answered me. Maybe this was from a Confederate soldier who had been hospitalized in the building during the Siege.

I left the room to snap more pictures and a “Hello” came out from my box that I’d left with the recorder hear it until I listened to the recording at home. When I drew closer to the room a few minutes later, I heard a man’s voice loud and clear, “Hello!”

I called out, “Hello?”

No one answered me. It was on my recording, but it did not sound as if it came from my ghost box. Had one of the spirits missed me? Richard?

The Derek person?

I used my EMF meter, hoping the ghosts would register on the dial as well, but nothing happened. Finally, after a few more pictures shot in the sitting room (one of the photos of the fireplace had a shadow in it, and yet no shadows were in the picture before or afterwards), I grabbed my flashlight, EMF meter, recorder, and ghost box, and slung the camera around my neck.

Paranormal Petersburg, Virginia, and the Tri-Cities Area Book Blurb:

Travel to Petersburg, and the rest of the Tri-Cities area of Colonial Heights, Hopewell, Prince George, Dinwiddie, and the nearby areas of Ettrick-Matoaca and Chester to discover what spirits, monsters, UFOs, and legends await the unwary. Find out why the War Between the States is still being fought at Petersburg Battlefield. Why the lady in blue might be still haunting the rooms at Westover Plantation. What the phantoms at Peter Jones Trading Post will do to keep from being photographed. Learn about runaway slaves still hiding on the top floor above the Blue Willow Tea Room. Figure out why the ghostly soldiers enter Centre Hill Mansion January 24th, only to leave again. What phantoms share the Hiram Haines Coffee Shop and Ale House with the living? Is the Goatman still stalking young lovers? Meet the ghosts of Violet Bank Museum that are still greeting guests at the house. All this and many more, haunt these cities and counties. The dead refuse to give up their undead residency.

Pamela K. Kinney’s Bio:

Author of Haunted Richmond, Haunted Richmond II, Haunted Virginia: Legends, Myths and True Tales, and Haunted Historic Triangle: Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown & Other Haunted Locations, Pamela K. Kinney has written fiction that enables her readers to journey to worlds of fantasy, go beyond the stars, and dive into the vortex of terror.  One of her stories proved heart-stopping enough to be runner up for 2013 WSFA Small Press Award.  As Sapphire Phelan, she also writes bestselling paranormal romance with dark heroes and heroines with bite!

Where to buy Paranormal Petersburg, Virginia, and the Tri-Cities Area:

Schiffer Publishing

Amazon

Barnes and Noble