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 5th. 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.
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:
