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The Ghosts of Dake House
By Richard Senate
FATE :: March 2005

Wherever I go, I always ask the same question regarding stories of ghosts and haunted houses. Sometimes this can be a bit embarrassing, but I have come away with a great many new and previously unrecorded haunted sites in my travels.

Recently I chanced to visit the quaint community of Genoa, Nevada, and paused to explore this historic hamlet in the Carson Valley. It was the first settlement in the state, dating back to 1851. A shopkeeper gave me a funny look when I asked about local ghosts. From the expression on her face, you might have thought that I had grown a third eye or something. It didn’t faze me. I am used to such looks by now.

I was told that one of the antique stores was haunted, and some pretty strange things were known to happen over there. I resolved to visit the place and see for myself if it was haunted enough to include in my files. It was located just past the post office on Main Street, in a collection of 19th-century buildings. It was a Gothic Victorian home, with all the fancy ornaments so loved by the people of that era. Built in the 1870s, it sure looked like it ought to have a ghost or two. It now served as an antique store.

I walked up the wooden stairs and, finding the door locked, rang the doorbell. In a few moments the door opened and I was greeted by a smiling face. It proved to be the owner of the establishment, Ms. Martha Williams. I was ushered into the warm interior. I got right to the point and asked if the building was haunted. She nodded her head and confirmed that the story I had heard was indeed correct.

Ms. Williams had heard the stories of a ghost in the old house, but never really believed them until some odd things began to happen. It started when a large antique painting, an early 20th-century still life of a vase of roses, fell from its place on the wall. The nail wasn’t bent, nor was the wire that held the painting broken. Even the way the picture fell was strange. It hit a cord and pulled a plug out of the wall. Nothing was damaged in the fall. It was almost as if the painting was taken down by invisible hands.

Besides the curious misadventure of the painting, those visiting the place told of seeing an apparition. This was confirmed by a young woman who worked there. The phantom was that of a woman wandering the first floor of the old house. Others told of encountering the ghostly smell of sweet perfume in the parlor. Objects would vanish, only to re-appear after a few hours. But it was the actions of the painting that caused Ms. Williams to believe that her business might be haunted.

The painting proved to be a copy of a famous “spirit painting” produced at a séance by a well-known San Francisco medium in the early 20th century. Still others who worked at the house told of footsteps in the second floor bedrooms. The ghost, so it seemed, had expanded its wanderings.

Ms. Williams began to speculate that the ghost might well be that of her late mother, Bernice, who lived in the house for many years before its conversion into an antique store. Perhaps that was why she never felt odd in the house, as the presence was that of a close relative. But not all the encounters with the ghost were benign ...

Read the rest of this article in the March 2005 issue of FATE

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FATE Magazine: True Reports of the Strange and Unknown