Odd Attraction

9 months ago I started looking into buying a new house. I had looked at a handful until this one house had finally caught my eye, it was a gorgeous Victorian style home in the historical district of where I now live. When I had first gone into the house with the Realtor we took an average tour of the home like people generally do. The place was in rough shape in some areas, considering it had been abandoned for some 5 years and built in 1851, so I already knew some of the work that would be needed...

As I was getting ready to leave with the realtor it struck me that we hadn't gone into the basement, so I asked him to go back in so I could check it out. We walked down the stairs and took a quick walk through of the basement. When I was heading back to the stairs to get up to the first floor I noticed that underneath the stair case was the red painted shed type enclosure, this really caught my eye and drew my curiosity. I really liked the shed because i felt like there was something special about it. I thought it'd be great for all my tools being that it was roughly 16x12 shed.

A few weeks had passed and I put my bid on the house and it was accepted a few days later which really surprised being how fast it was accepted... Another couple weeks passed and I was officially the owner. I had began planning what renovations we were going to knock out first considering the budget of everything I wanted to have done to the place. Well long story short when it comes to the remodeling, we completely re-gutted the master bathroom, plaster repair on all walls, extensive yard work, and completely re-gutted the kitchen. When the plaster repair was being done we found that there was a note written into the plaster that dated September of 1865 the note was to weathered and was not legible, all I could make out was the name signed at the end of the (which was Robert) and the month and year.

Renovations had begun slowing down as the spending was going through the roof, so I took so time off of working on the house and decided to try and find out some of the history of the house which yield nothing. I could not for the life of me find anything out about the house other than the year it was built which was 1851... Come to find out the according to the date it was originally built the city hadn't even been founded yet, which makes no sense to me. No one had any answers for me, not even the city themselves.

Shortly after this is when I started to notice things. I was home alone one night (in this new house) when I was going to the bathroom which is adjacent to the stairway to the basement. I thought I kept hearing a cat growling. I thought nothing of it and shrugged it off as being a neighborhood cat outside of the house. But the same thing happened the next night so I went down stairs into the basement and was walking around and heard this growl coming from behind me, I turned and saw nothing, but when I had turned I was eye to eye with the door of that red shed. I went inside and the air felt stagnant and calm. I felt like this shed wanted me and I wanted the shed (no pun intended) it was weird and that was that for the night... About a week later me girl and I had begun discussing ideas on renovating the basement, It boiled down to an argument about the shed getting torn down out of there, I was completely against it and will not allow it. She asks me why I like the shed so much and I didn't know what to say because I don't even know why I like this thing, it'd be an eye sore to anyone else especially when you are trying to have a nice full finished basement.

A few days later I was walking down to the basement to put some paint cans down there and I found myself just staring at this shed. I snapped out of it walked inside the shed, remembering that I though I had heard a growl come from there a few night prior. I was standing in the shed just looking at the walls and ceiling when I noticed that it looked like there were scratch marks on the inside of the shed door, this took me by surprise but at the same time I felt anxious and excited which I can't explain... As I was standing down there I heard my lady yelling at me from up stairs so I ran up to the third floor and she was saying "you're an ass" and I didn't know why. she said I was trying to scare her which I was actually two floors down. She told me that when she was walking up the stairs she saw a face at floor level at the top of the staircase and it pulled back real quick as if it was a kid playing hide-n-seek... It freaked her out and I just laughed denying that something like that had happened..

That night I went to bed and noticed my bracelet was gone which I always wore, that thing never came off not for showers or anything else It had been on my wrist for over two years with out ever being taken off. I Got out of bed and looked high and low for my bracelet and could night find it for the life of me, this made me upset because it had a lot of sentimental value to me... I couldn't sleep now because I couldn't stop thinking of where it could be, so I decided to clean stuff up. I got some of my tools and headed for the basement to put them away in the shed. I put my tools ups on the dusty old red painted shelves inside the shed and laid on the floor staring at the ceiling trying to figure out what could have happened to my bracelet. As I was laying there I felt very calm until I heard that growl sound again, this time coming from outside of the shed, although this time I felt terrified. I laid there very quietly, quiet enough I could hear my own heart beat. A heard a cling, like something had fallen right next to my ear on the ground and it freaked me out because I was being silent and just listening. I hopped up real quick and saw that my bracelet was laying right there on the ground next to where I was laying. I was in disbelief because I was down there every night and would have surely seen it. So i put my bracelet back on close the shed door and when I was walking up the stairs I heard the growl again only this time coming from the shed I had just walked out of.


I told my lady what had happened and she told me that she had also heard growling when she was in the bathroom adjacent to the staircase to the basement... It's just weird and I don't know what is going on, all I know is i have this odd attraction to this shed as if it somehow apart of me...

To this day I still hear the growl and the pull I feel from this shed. I don't know what is going on... I'll give updates if anything else happens because things are still happening.

Have any of you had odd attractions before?
Ask me questions too if you'd like, in case there is anything I didn't explain clearly!

reply to post by slapjacks

hi man..
Try to laugh out loud and shout "thats very funny, got me there" or something similiar to express the fact that the source has been noticed, this can work for ghosts,gnomes,trolls, or even the occasional trickster,,
this may sound bananas, but it really works, lots of folk tales tell about these means, to stop paranormal bullying.
and if this is only in your heads, try to make a symbolic offering,maybe honey,,
if they arent real, you still have done everything you can, and if they are real, they may accept your offering and quit hassling you....

reply to post by solve


It's not that I feel hassled though, It something that is attracting me and has done so. I don't feel any sense of danger whatsoever.

Tear that darn thing to the ground, chop it to pieces with an axe, burn the pieces and pour the ashes into a river.

Only thing that will defeat the notorious poltershed entity.

reply to post by H1ght3chHippie


I love your enthusiasm but I don't want to tear the thing down, that's the problem.

reply to post by slapjacks


Bookmarked this thread so I could follow it.
I love threads like this...what city/state are you in?
How about some pics of the house and the shed?
Looking forward to what happens next.
Keep a journal...it may be the source of a nice short story.
Best wishes to you.
Robbie

Good story.

reply to post by ropaq50


I'm at work right now But will post some pictures of the the shed when I get home. I live in West Kankakee IL.

Applying logic over urges and acting accordingly .. isn't that what distinguishes man from animal ?

Now give yourself a nudge and get over with it.

Originally posted by ropaq50
reply to post by slapjacks

 

Bookmarked this thread so I could follow it.
I love threads like this...what city/state are you in?
How about some pics of the house and the shed?
Looking forward to what happens next.
Keep a journal...it may be the source of a nice short story.
Best wishes to you.
Robbie

I agree fully with pics and so on. If that note is still around, would love to see pics of that as well as the scratches in the shed. Man, that growling would terrify me something fierce and I've been in the paranormal investigation field since 2002 XD. Something about animal spirits (cats and dogs mainly) that freak me out. I'm sure that stems from that Pet Cemetery movie of Stephen Kings, however. Human spirits I can handle fine unless they're pure malevolent, but animal spirits? Oh lordie no. No no and no. I just picture this ghost with red or black eyes and drooling and fangs..... nightmares for me tonight now,

Seriously though, pics would be an amazing addition to this. I wonder if someone was killed in the shed? Like maybe it used to be outside at one point ages and ages ago and now it's replaying somehow. Though if you're both hearing the growling around the house, it's definitely not just residual. It sounds active and cognizant to me. creeeeepy.

reply to post by sarra1833


I'll have pics later, But yes it's odd. only a few time have I felt pure terror usually when i'm walking back up stairs from the basement almost like something is going to grab me and pull me back down there... As for a killing that's possible, which is was I found it very odd that I cannot find out any history of the house and the city doesn't seem to know anything either... It's left me at a dead end for research on the property.

reply to post by slapjacks


That is odd how no one in the City has any info on the house. Not the library or Chamber of Commerce or City Hall or anything? I trust you checked all resources. I wonder if there is an old folks home there; maybe some of the long time residents of the City who live there would have any information? Or what about prior owners if you know who they are? Ah, how about any historical societies for even the County itself? All County records even could have some information.

I'm in Southern Illinois on the Indiana side. If I had my own car, I'd SO set up a time to go check out your place with my cofounder, though he's in the Northern Illinois area (Dupage County). I'm sure there are some amazing valid paranormal organizations around your area who no doubt would jump at the chance to investigate your place providing you want that to happen. It's always worth a shot and great organizations usually have the means to do a more indepth 'history' search.

reply to post by sarra1833


I've looked everywhere. Still nothing, I've maxed out my known resources... I've been meaning to get up in the attic lately to do a little exploring just haven't gotten around to doing it yet in hope to find some answers to anything about the place... The only thing I found in the house during renovations were a couple pictures in between the walls, which was cool and all but they weren't anything special from would i could tell, they were really damaged and looked like that had exposure to heat at some time.

reply to post by sarra1833


I'll have to look into that because I would love to know the history of the place.

reply to post by slapjacks

Ask yourself (don't ask us) why you have any issue REALLY with tearing down the shed. You mentioned that it kind of messes with your ability to remodel the basement.

If you feel like you are being irrationally drawn to keep it, especially in light of the odd experiences occurring around it, then why not take control and just rip it down? If you give in to this against your better judgement and reason, then you are giving it permission to continue.

You're in charge. But you need to decide what YOU want.

buy some white kid gloves if possible before handling any old documents, letters and/or pics you'll find in the attic. that way the oils from your fingers won't do any damage. Is there an old chest of sorts up there that you know of? People used to keep items of worth (letters, deeds, etc) in chests and the like for good solid safekeeping.

You're dealing with a house which was around during the Civil War time. I'm not too sure how much activity was seen around Kankakee, but the 1860 to 1865 period was a hard one for many folk; everyone was involved in the war in some way or the other

I found a good site online with some info. I'll copy pasta some here but I'll also link you to it; it's found about half way down or so. Unsure how effective probate records would be but perhaps you can find something else on that page as well? I also found something on Land and Property which is before the Probate records part:

www.familysearch.org...

Land and Property

Original land records are held in the office of the County Clerk . See Illinois Land and Property for more information about using land records.

Online Resources

Beginning 1820 Land Patent Search See Illinois Land and Property for more information about this database.
Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales Database
1796–1907 U.S. General Land Office Records found at Ancestry.com ($)
Illinois Public Land Purchase Records This record extract includes over 538,000 land sales from the 19th Century. Each entry includes the purchaser's name, purchase date, number of acres, price per acre, and in some cases the purchaser's sex and residence. Available at www.ancestry.com ($)
Kankakee County Federal Township Plats



Probate Records

Original estates and wills are held in the office of the Circuit Court Clerk. Digital copies of original Kankakee County probate and will books are available online as part of the Illinois Probate Records, 1819-1970 (FamilySearch.org)

See Illinois Probate Records for more information about using probate records.

_______

Try to google or look up census' for your area too from the 1860's and onward. Those include names of those who lived as well as the address where they lived. True, addy's can change over time BUT if you can find old maps from the era, you should be able to puzzle together the then-address to today's layout.

reply to post by JustSlowlyBackAway


I like it because it is good place for me to keep my tools... The layout of the basement is like the layout of the house, there are different rooms. so really the only thing that would make it stick out would be that it's obviously old and painted red... With the weird stuff aside i find the shed to be useful. No body else likes it though.

reply to post by sarra1833



Thanks I'll take a look at that... As for the attic I feel like there is something up there but I haven't been up there yet just because the access point is so small I can hardly get through there... I'd really like to try and get up there one night this week though and crawl around (it's more of a crawlspace type attic)because the roof is flat and we have 12 foot ceilings

Here is a front image of the house.. More pics coming later