The Haunted House

“The Ground is Sour,” - Stephen King

The Montgomery Manor was built January - September of 1887, overseen by family patriarch Alfred H. Montgomery as an extravagant gift for his beloved wife.

Mr. Emerson Montgomery was an undeniably handsome man, of tall stature and pale complexion. He was claimed to have had an aversion to the sunlight. Portraits and written accounts from his kept company during Montgomery’s lifetime describe his bright green eyes as being alight from deep within, as if illuminated by some internal flame. It was written that Mr. Montgomery had a particular allure, he was magnetic for people, somehow. Later he would be described as Satan himself, walking the halls of his hell castle, studying the layers of his influence with great intrigue.

Emerson Lee Montgomery was born into aristocracy. Childhood history is a blank, other than a few isolated incidents of interest. Namely, the hanging of a cat and the rumors of him pushing his mother off her third floor balcony to her death. He attended private schools, where he most likely suffered abuse at the hands of professors, but this was never confirmed on record, only rumored. Further education includes: London, New York, Berlin, Paris, Vienna. The man followed no specific course of education - Logic, Ethics, Religion, Philosophy, Social Sciences. Quite versed in natural and metaphysical philosophy. He was a brilliant man who could master any subject he chose to study.

Above all, he believed in will and influence. The power of the mind to dominate, the control of one human being by another. He greatly fancied the Principal of Excess.

When Montgomery’s father, Alfred, died and he inherited the great family mansion in 1918, he started to invite other rich and idle folks for extended visits. Lavish parties were held, where the guests were exposed to exquisite feasts of the finest food spreads, the richest of spirits and the most amusing entertainments. It was said to have paralleled the life of 18th century European high society. The masquerade balls that were held in the Grand Ballroom were talked of far and wide, the stage plays acted out for the crowds were renowned. At first it was all very casual - but then Montgomery began to slyly inject other seemingly innocent activities to the mix, such as bed hopping or more risque stage shows. At first it seemed sophisticated, but it became more and more depraved as each year began to leak into the next.

The dramatic feasts steadily morphed into acts of gluttony, the sharing of rich red wines oozed into aphrodisiacs and orgies, the shows held for entertaining the guests turned pornographic or macabre. Photographs of some of these lewd acts can still be found in boudoirs or random chests scattered throughout the remains of the house.

Drugs, sex and debauchery kept a certain type of people virtual prisoners in the house. It was becoming a paradise, of sorts, where all your wildest pleasures could possibly come true. It acted as a brothel, an opium den, a circus performance - nearly anything that set someone’s heart racing with excitement could be found in one room or another. The dear Host constantly challenged the will of his guests, dared those who stayed with him to push themselves over the edge and follow their desire. They were encouraged to do whatever they wanted to each other, no limits set but those within their own imaginations. People stayed at the house for months, for years... Isolated from the contrast of normal society and pursuing nothing else but self indulgence.

Eventually Montgomery withdrew from direct participation in his charnel house of fancies, and went behind the scenes to orchestrate and observe, like a scientist watching his collection of rats.

His quest for the extravagant and outlandish led him to stage a recreation of de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom. For this he brought in hunchbacks and dwarves, hermaphrodites and grotesques of every sort imaginable. In hindsight, this was the beginning of the end of any shreds of humanity remaining in the house. Guests, if one could call the resident perverts that at this point, had completely reverted to a feral mentality.

Those proclaimed to have once been doctors or professionals of science were free to perform experimental procedures on fellow indulgers, whether willing or unwilling. Drug addicts were left to waste away in their own hazes of pleasure. Babes were birthed and discarded just the same.

It was shortly after this time that the infrastructure of the house collapsed; no servants remained so there was no laundry done or food prepared nor delivered to the manor at all. Following suit, the generator stopped running one day and with no one thinking to tend to it, the lights were no more; leaving residents to live by candlelight or in darkness. The furnace died and influenza ravaged the community. The death toll mounted. The survivors unwilling to flee were left to fester in the dark and the cold, now commonly performing acts of mutilation, murder, necrophilia and cannibalism.

In March of 1931, the house was found to be abandoned by law enforcement and the relatives searching for long lost loved ones. Twenty-seven bodies were found inside of the house and could be identified, but there was no trace of Mr. Emerson Montgomery himself.

The Hell House name began in 1971, when a group of well known and publicized paranormal investigators were found deceased or not found at all in the house, causing quite the sensation. The second major event occurred in the early 1980’s, while the house was owned by the bank and appraisals were being ordered. The appraiser’s gruesome suicide on the property was written about in the papers for weeks to follow, in all its gory detail. In 2001, a long since dissolved company bought the structure and made proceeds by renting it out as a residence to private, wealthy individuals or families. Strange tragedy after horrible accident after dreadful misfortune happened, not one renter living in the home for more than six months before fleeing with some off-hand excuse, or some loss of life.

There was the Dandy Family, who abandoned the house after Mrs. Dandy drowned all four of their young children in the pool.

After that was Mr. Harrison Bly, the artist, renting the manor to host his galas and after-parties. Until, his body was found hanging from the loft banister in the library.

Miss Amy Torrance came into Montgomery House next, using it as a personal PlayBoy Mansion of sorts, before that night the cops were called to clean up the crime scene. The police reports mention blood spattered up to the ceiling, and bite wounds puncturing bare breasts.

Then, the Wilkes Family. Each member reported to be neatly tucked into their respective beds for the night, each of the five members neatly headless. The heads were never found, no matter that the property was searched thoroughly with cadaver dogs. It is a large parcel of land, though.

A rich, young man, whose family name has been redacted from all public records, stayed in the House for thirteen days. A close friend found him catatonic, save for him mumbling the name of his girlfriend, over and over. Later leaked interviews have him quoted saying, “she went into the woods”. The girlfriend was never located, and is considered to be deceased.

These are only the sensational stories that are worth mentioning here. Not mentioned in detail are the burgarly attempts and break ins gone horribly array, animal disappearances and confirmed deaths, and resident illnesses.

It is now known to be one of the most haunted houses in the United States history. News articles, blogs, short stories, novels about hauntings, amateur documentaries. Gossips, rumors, ghost stories around the campfires.

The manor is currently owned by a budding millionaire whose family is known to be profitable, but reclusive. He has begun renovations of the manor home in hopes of reopening it to the public as a hotel, and is constantly hiring slews of repair men, house keepers, cooks, gardeners, painters, etc. to aid with the project. They never seem to stay to finish the job they’d started.