Wistariahurst Museum - Holyoke MA

Findings
Wistariahurst Museum
Holyoke, MA
Historical Case

AUDIO

As with most audio clips, spirit EVPs are barely more than a whisper and are best heard while using headphone/earbuds (noise cancelling are the best to use). We selected the audio clips below so that those who do not have headphones/earbuds should still be able to at least hear that there is "something" there, although it may not be as clear as it would be with headphones/earbuds.

Audio Servants Dining Hall - 2020.10

00:00 / 00:04

The team was doing an EVP session in the servant's dining room and Liette was attempting to follow or "track" the spirit we were talking to. the spirit seemed to get away from her, so you will hear Liette state, "I'm not doing a good job tracking you, am I". You will hear the spirit respond right at 00:04

Audio Belles Room - 2020.09

00:00 / 00:06

Prior to investigating, the team does a walk-through of the property to gather information and determine equipment placement. During one of our walk-throughs, Kyra and Carrie were in Ms. Belle Skinner's bedroom. Carrie was talking about the history of one of the additions to the home that Ms. Skinner made for her nephew. You will hear Kyra reply with a "mmm" quickly followed by a voice that was not heard at the time of the walk-through that we believe says, "you can't see behind you" that begins at 00:05

Audio Stewart Bedroom - 2020.10

00:00 / 00:06

The team was in Stewart's bedroom (Belle's nephew) speaking with who we believed could be a nurse or nanny for the Skinner Family's children. We asked, "did you take care of the children here?" and received an unheard response that you can hear whispered at 00:03

Audio Stewart Bedroom - 2020.10

00:00 / 00:02

As we were finishing up our time in Stewart's bedroom, Kyra stated she was going to shut off her recorder. Someone, that we did not hear at the time, wanted to let us know that they had not left. You can hear their quiet response as soon as Kyra's sentence ends at 00:01. We believe the spirit was saying, "I'm still here".

Audio Housekeeping - 2020.10

00:00 / 00:19

While in the housekeeping area of the Servant's Quarters, Liette was using the Spirit Box (see "Equipment" and "Processes" pages for more information on the "Estes Method").
Amanda began asking a spirit, who told us his name was John, what he did during his time at Wistariahurst. You will hear Amanda's questions followed by Liette's response, that she stated exactly in the way she heard Spirit speak to her through her headphones, at 00:18

Audio Housekeeping - 2020.10

00:00 / 00:06

During the pre-investigation walk-through, Amanda and Kyra saw a man in the servant's quarters. They described him as wearing livery/servant's clothing and he seemed to be someone in charge. As we continued with our time in the Servant's Quarters, Kyra asked "John, are you the one that me and Amanda saw up here earlier?". You will hear Spirit's whispered reply begin at 00:04.

Audio Housekeeping - 2020.10.24 - #2 - Were you a footman a butler - Vocal response

00:00 / 00:04

We continued to speak with the Spirit who identified himself to us as "John" to us. Liette asks him if he was a Footman or a Butler. You will hear him very quietly reply, what we believe is, "butler" starting at 00:03.

It should be noted that the historian at Wistariahurst Museum was unable to locate a staff person by the name of "John" in the home's records, but regardless of their name, it is clear that someone was communicating with us in the servant's quarters during our investigations.

Video

The first video that we are showing you here, is coupled with a still photo. This video and photo are of a phenomenon known as "rods". These are visual artifacts that appear in photos and videos and are rarely seen by the human eye. These are largely unexplained. Some speculate that these are energy forms, that can be associated with spirits and other paranormal phenomenon. Others speculate that these are an optical illusion caused by blurred motion or an afterimage of a flying insect.
While we cannot tell you exactly what this is, we can tell you that this is the first time we have ever captured an image like this while investigating a location. We were also unable to recreate this image, though we tried to using various lighting, positioning and movement that occurred during the time this image would have been captured.

You will see an extremely quick flash of light in the video at 00:03. Use the location of the rods in the photo to identify where you should look for the rods on the banister.

While the team is investigating in the 2nd floor hallway, an orb makes its way down the back servant's hallway, into the main 2nd floor hallway and up the cabinet.

This is one of our favorite videos to date.

Please note that there are a lot of dust particles in this clip. We try to differentiate dust from orbs based on movement/flight patterns. Dust tends to move in one direction, based on air current, while orbs tend to move in different ways and almost appear to move with a purpose.

While in Stewart's bedroom, Kyra and Amanda sensed a little girl who wanted to play.
One of the games that we played with the girl was "duck, duck, goose".
During our evidence review, we captured an orb coming down from the top left of the wall at 19:33:24, appearing to tap Carrie on the head at 19:33:31 and then quickly dash back to where it came from. Almost as if it was playing, "duck, duck, goose". In this video, Carrie seems to react when the orb taps her head, but does not recall feeling anything at the time this happened.
We had a lot of fun playing with who we believed to be a spirit child, and it looks like they had fun too!

This video comes from what is called the "Leather Room", due to the fact that the walls are covered in hand-painted leather "wallpaper".
This room was Mr. William Skinner's room during his later years in life and is in the original part of the home.
In this video, you will see both dust and orbs move within this room. The orbs that we found to be of interest are:

The orb that enters the room from the hallway 1st floor hallway at 19:33:15. Look for it about halfway up the right side of the door. It then moves up the left wall
The orb that at 19:33:23 starts at the back left of the sofa and moves upward across the portrait

This video was captured while the team was investigating in another part of the house. At 19:52:54 you see an orb move out of the "Leather Room" and up the hallway toward the front of the house.
This 1st floor hallway is in the original, and oldest, part of the home.

This is another fun video that we found when we reviewed evidence.
The team was taking a break in between investigating floors. As we started to enter the formal parlor, where we had set-up our Communication Center for the night, you can see several orbs come to join us on our break.

The first orb comes from the top of the shelf, on the right side of the hallway, at 18:55:02. It moves from the top of the shelf, across the hall and immediately into the doorway of the formal parlor
At 18:55:13 the second orb moves quickly from the top right of the screen (from the library), does a curly-q mid-hallway and then swoops into the formal parlor doorway
The third orb moves from the top left corner of the frame at 18:55:22, dips down and swoops into the left wall before disappearing

Photos

Upon arriving to our 2nd investigation, one of the staff from Wistariahurst met us and reported that upon her arrival, she noticed lights were on somewhere on the 2nd floor. She stated that the house had been closed due to COVID-19, so other than some maintenance workers, no one had been in the home. She later verified with the workers that they were sure they had turned all lights off before leaving the home.
We entered the home together and moved as a group to the 2nd floor where we found two lights that we on.
The first one was in Stewart's bedroom closet. It was determined that the light in this closet waws on a pullcord and not a motion sensor or something else easily turned on.
The second light on was in Ms. Belle Skinner's bathroom. The photos below show the two lights on either side of Ms. Skinner's bathroom sink. These lights turn on/off with ceramic pulls at the bottom of the lights (in the circle of the 2nd photo below). The light on the left side of the sink was on, but the right one was turned off. We were unable to turn the light off using the pull chain.
We were informed days after the investigation that the bulb had to be twisted off in order to turn the light off.

The next set of photos were taken in the Formal Parlor, on the 1st floor and in the oldest part of the home, during our pre-investigation walk-through. Amanda was picking up on someone who "loved Chirstmas" and she could "see" this room decorated for Christmas with garlands, pine and candles. We were later told that Ms. Belle Skinner's favorite holiday was Christmas.

When we take photos of spaces, we do them in sets of 3. This helps us to determine any small changes int he environment that may occur from second-to-second.

In this series of photos, the first photo shows a mist entering the space under the right window. The second photo shows the space is still in the room but has changed shape. The third photo shows the mist has disappeared and the space is as it usually is.

Findings Wistariahurst Museum Holyoke, MA Historical Case

AUDIO

The team was in Stewart's bedroom (Belle's nephew) speaking with who we believed could be a nurse or nanny for the Skinner Family's children. We asked, "did you take care of the children here?" and received an unheard response that you can hear whispered at 00:03

We continued to speak with the Spirit who identified himself to us as "John" to us. Liette asks him if he was a Footman or a Butler. You will hear him very quietly reply, what we believe is, "butler" starting at 00:03.

It should be noted that the historian at Wistariahurst Museum was unable to locate a staff person by the name of "John" in the home's records, but regardless of their name, it is clear that someone was communicating with us in the servant's quarters during our investigations.

Video

You will see an extremely quick flash of light in the video at 00:03. Use the location of the rods in the photo to identify where you should look for the rods on the banister.

While the team is investigating in the 2nd floor hallway, an orb makes its way down the back servant's hallway, into the main 2nd floor hallway and up the cabinet.

The orb that enters the room from the hallway 1st floor hallway at 19:33:15. Look for it about halfway up the right side of the door. It then moves up the left wall

The orb that at 19:33:23 starts at the back left of the sofa and moves upward across the portrait

This video was captured while the team was investigating in another part of the house. At 19:52:54 you see an orb move out of the "Leather Room" and up the hallway toward the front of the house. This 1st floor hallway is in the original, and oldest, part of the home.

This is another fun video that we found when we reviewed evidence. The team was taking a break in between investigating floors. As we started to enter the formal parlor, where we had set-up our Communication Center for the night, you can see several orbs come to join us on our break.

The first orb comes from the top of the shelf, on the right side of the hallway, at 18:55:02. It moves from the top of the shelf, across the hall and immediately into the doorway of the formal parlor

At 18:55:13 the second orb moves quickly from the top right of the screen (from the library), does a curly-q mid-hallway and then swoops into the formal parlor doorway

The third orb moves from the top left corner of the frame at 18:55:22, dips down and swoops into the left wall before disappearing

Photos

Findings
Wistariahurst Museum
Holyoke, MA
Historical Case

This video was captured while the team was investigating in another part of the house. At 19:52:54 you see an orb move out of the "Leather Room" and up the hallway toward the front of the house.
This 1st floor hallway is in the original, and oldest, part of the home.

This is another fun video that we found when we reviewed evidence.
The team was taking a break in between investigating floors. As we started to enter the formal parlor, where we had set-up our Communication Center for the night, you can see several orbs come to join us on our break.