| Haunted Staunton |
| THE HISTORY OF THE HOME INFORMATION AND PHOTOGRAPHS PROVIDED BY CINDY LEONARD It is situated on lots 5 & 6 of Southwick's addition to Staunton. The abstract to the property was in my mom's possession and is probably in the papers I haven't sorted yet.The first mention of a house was December 6, 1893 when Emmanuel Friedman lived there in a house on lot #6 (that would be the corner of Mill & Laurel). Emmanuel, although he was a banker and owned a bank in Staunton, was not very good at managing money and the property was sold to pay his debts. It was bought December 11, 1893 by Elvin E. & Calla Godfrey for $250.00. Elvin Ellet Godfrey was the first mayor of the City of Staunton in 1891 and served until 1898. And in compiling our Sawyer family history, the Godfrey & Purdy families appear in our family tree. Evidently there was another house on lot 5 that was owned by Karl Temme and in 1899 at his death it was willed to Katherine Hoffstetter; in 1903 she sold the property to Mary J. Godfrey, widow of Franklin Godfrey. Mary then sold it on Aug. 2, 1905 to Elvin E. & Calla A. Godfrey for the price of $522.50. The house on lot 5 was supposedly torn down and the house on lot 6 was added on to. About 1905 the house was completely renovated.Mr. & Mrs. Purdy lived in the house until their deaths, Elvin in Sept. 1927 and Calla in Nov. 1932. The home was willed to her nephew, Pierce D. Milton who nearly lost the home at one time. On April 28, 1945 he sold it to Burrell and Ethel Purdy, who in turn sold it on October 21, 1946 to Reno "Blackie" and Ellen DalPozzo. |
| 1909 Photograph of the Godfrey House |
| THE HAUNTING |
| When I was growing up in the house, I always felt "someone" was in the house with us. I didn't know who and to this day, I only presume it could have been one or both of the Godfrey family. There were times when I would wake up during the night and my bed was shaking as if someone were jumping on it. I wasn't moving and of course, I saw no one. That was scary enough, but there was always the second week of September haunting. The bedroom I slept in was the first room on the right at the top of the stairs. For some unknown reason during the second week of September, the door to my bedroom would fly open every night at 11 p.m. just as if someone had come rushing into the room. This would happen whether I was asleep in bed or awake and doing whatever in my room. It was scary and we never did figure it out. In fact, some of my family doubted it happened. At one time, my mom experienced an unexplained event in the house and finally believed there was something going on in there. My parent's bedroom was across the hall from the other two bedrooms. The other two bedrooms were joined by a connecting door but also each had a door out to the hallway. One night she heard the other bedroom door open and someone walking down the hall past their bedroom. Only she saw no one. The "person" walked down the hall to the bathroom, closed the door and at that point, my mom got up to do a bed check. Guess what? Everyone was in their assigned beds! She just got settled down when the bathroom door opened and she heard the footsteps go back down the hall to the other bedroom. Again, no person or shadow passed her bedroom door. Other families who have lived in this house since then have had experiences with the haunting. As for the family now living there, I have never inquired about the haunting. |
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