Personal and Paranormal: Hammond Castle
Here’s
another paranormal post for you guys, but this one is definitely more personal for
me. I’ve been a fan of ghost hunting
shows for years, Ghost Hunters in particular. I even got to meet Jason Hawes
and Steve Gonsalves at Comic-Con last year.
In 2012, they aired an episode about Hammond Castle in Gloucester, MA.
Here’s a bit of background about the place. John Hays Hammond, Jr. was the son of a
wealthy mining engineer. His family
traveled a lot, so he became fascinated with history and other cultures. He was
also interested in science. When he was 12, his father introduced him to Thomas
Edison, and he asked so many questions that Edison invited him to his
laboratory. He eventually attended Yale University, and while studying there he
was taken under the wing of another great inventor: Alexander Graham Bell. He remained close with both men until their
deaths. Upon graduation, he got a job at the patent office. Edison had once
given him advice that if he wanted to be an inventor, the patent office was the
place to be, as he could see which fields might be worth pursuing. Hammond then founded the Hammond Radio
Research Laboratory on his family’s estate in Gloucester. He actually had over 800 patents in his name,
both foreign and domestic, the majority of his inventions being in radio
control and naval weaponry.
When he married his wife Irene, he built a castle on his
family’s land as a wedding gift. He
filled it with artifacts he picked up in his travels, even using some materials
from historical buildings in its construction.
It is believed that some of these items held on to the energies of the
previous owners, hence the paranormal activity people have experienced there
(we’re talking apparitions, disembodied voices, and objects moving on their
own). Hammond, like many others in his
time, was also interested in spiritualism.
However instead of using it to communicate with deceased relatives, he
wanted to use science to prove its validity.
I mentioned the place to my then-boyfriend, and we decided
to go check it out. When we got there,
we started going through the rooms and we got to a room where the bridal party
gets ready when they rent the place out for weddings (there was an
old-fashioned wedding dress hanging on the wall and everything.) He said “I guess we’re in the right place,
then” and he got down on one knee and “kinda” proposed. I say “kinda” because I said yes before he
could finish getting the words out.
Needless to say, this place has been scratched off my
paranormal bucket list in a very special way.
My now-husband and I got to make an amazing memory there. Whether or not
you believe that Hammond the mad scientist still haunts his former home, its
well worth the drive to check out collection of inventions and historical
artifacts he left behind.
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