Spooky House Tour

Spooky House Tour

Every year in October, the town of Sutherland, Alabama chooses the creepiest house in the surrounding area to tour. This year the board choose the Ivy Grove Manor. The morning of the tour, there were lines around the block for miles. There was a large iron gate around the property. The owner of the manor Mr. Glenn unlocked the gates for the tourist to drive inside. Mr. Glenn was a tall lanky man with gray hair and wore dark glasses. As we entered inside the gate there were seven tombstones around dead oak tree. The yard was cleanly kept, and the grounds were newly black topped. There was a mysterious looking mist that surrounded the manor. Beside it was a lake with two angel statues on each side. It was a cold morning, and the air was still. The sky was gray and puffy white clouds hoovered over the tall manor. In 1942, the Douglas family was tortured and murdered inside the manor. It was said that Mitchell Douglas who was the patriarch of the family, was a ruthless businessman that dealt with many unsavory characters in his business dealings. At the manor lived Mitchell's wife Lily, her mother Sarah, and their five children ranging from ages eighteen to four years old. There was a knock on the door one night before the family went to bed. Mitchell with a glass of wine in his hand, went to open the door. Four men with handguns and masks pushed their way into the manor. The men heard about Mitchell keeping large sums of money inside a safe wall in the house. When Mitchell didn't tell them where the money was, they tortured and killed him. The men then went around the house shooting and killing the rest of the family. They caught all four of the men and one of the men was a man named Paul Thornhill. Paul was accused of stealing from Mitchell's company and was fired two years earlier. Paul claimed he didn't steal anything, but he was still fired. He became bitter and wanted to seek revenge on Mitchell. The seven tombstones in the front entrance of the manor belonged to the Douglas family. In the past people who lived around the manor claimed they could hear women screaming and lights blinking off and on at dusk dark. When we arrived at the manor, there were dead oak trees surrounded the home. Moss covered most of the outside of the home. Ivy vines ran wild along the sides of the manor. The windows looked dark and dirty. There was an eerie feel to the house that sent shivers up my spine as I looked around the place. Mrs. Scott our tour guide began to tell us of the story of the Douglas family. No one wanted to purchase the manor because of tall tales about it being haunted. When we went inside the house it smelled damp and of mold. The front door squeaked loudly when it was opened. The manor was dusty inside. There were cobwebs covering the ceilings and walls. The old stairs up to the bedrooms were rusty and the floors made an unsettling sound when we walked over them. All the furniture was covered with dusty floral fabric. The curtains to the windows had dry rotted. A woman in the back of us screamed because she said she saw a rat. There was a young boy that got away from his parents running around the manor.

“Everyone stays together please!” said Mrs. Scott.

A woman got out of line and took the young boy by the hand pulling him back in line.

“Stop Mommy!” he screamed.

“Behave Timothy!” shouted the Woman.

I don't know why parents choose to bring young children on house tours. Small children have very little patience and always have to keep moving. Mrs. Scott took us upstairs and my husband Terry got a sneezing fit. He and I both went back downstairs while the rest of the tourist stayed upstairs.

“This damn dust is killing me!” said Terry.

“I'm sorry dear,” I said. “Would you like to go outside to get some fresh air?'

“Yea,” said Terry.

I felt so sorry for my husband. It was my bright idea about going on this tour. Terry eyes had turned red and puffy. He took a neckerchief from his front pocket and began to blow his nose. I opened the front door to the house, and we stepped outside. Mr. Glenn was sitting outside in one of the pooch chairs smoking a cigarette.

“Are you folks enjoying yourself?” ask Mr. Glenn.

“It's okay.” I spoke.

“The dusk is making my allergies act up,” said Terry.

“I apologize for that,” smiled Mr. Glenn.

Mr. Glenn told us that he always admired the Ivy Grove Manor. His grandfather and Mr. Douglas were good friends. Mr. Glenn grandfather would bring him here as a child to play with the Douglas children. He said he always admired the manor. When the property was placed on auction, he purchased it as his own. Mr. Glenn decided to keep the property as is inside and wanted tourist to come from around to see it.

“It was a special place to me,” said Mr. Glenn. “When I was a child”.

He took a couple more pulls from his cigarette. Mr. Glenn hated what happened to the Douglas family. He had grown quite found of the youngest Douglas's daughter name Paula. She was nine years old when she was killed. The door opened to the manor, it was Mrs. Scott and the rest of the tourist. Mr. Glenn stood with Mrs. Scott and thanked everyone for coming. The young boy who was running around inside, snatched away from his mother and began running around the driveway.

“I don't miss those days,” I said.

Terry and I laughed as we walked to our car. It started to drizzle a little bit. Then it quickly turned into a down pour. We were behind the woman with the rambunctious little boy. He let the window down on the passenger's side of the car where he sat. He stuck his small little hand out of the window to feel the rain. When he tried to stick his head out his mother let the window back up quickly. The mist around the Ivy Grove Mansion still lingered behind. There was nothing about the manor that made us feel it was haunted. It's a nice place to visit if you don't have allergies.