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Korner's Folly photo by Kala Ambrose

Unlike the Winchester Mystery Mansion in San Jose, California, the Korner’s Folly home in Kernersville, North Carolina was deliberately designed with style in mind. At the Winchester House, Sarah Winchester, upon the advice of a psychic, had carpenters build new rooms in her house twenty-four hours a day until her death. This ongoing construction was supposed to confuse and trick the angry spirits who had been killed by Winchester rifles from locating Sarah Winchester in her home and haunting her.

Inside the Winchester home, doors open to several- story drops below and staircases lead to the ceiling, going nowhere. The entire house winds around like a maze and by the time you’ve walked through it, you’ve walked over a mile. The effect is eerie, confusing and at times maddening.  While Korner’s Folly also has a variety of unique rooms and twists and turns, the effect feels very different; it’s charming and each rooms pulls you into an experience for the senses.

Jule created Korner’s Folly for an entirely different reason and ghosts were the furthest things from his mind.  A talented artist, Korner wanted the house to be a showplace for his work, both artistically in size and scale and to give prospective clients an idea of the various types of interior design that he could create in their homes and buildings.    The house has twenty-two rooms and there’s no easy way to describe them. Each room is unique; some fit for royalty, palatial in scale. There are trap doors, over fifteen different styles of fireplaces, cubbyholes to tuck away in, murals, and a library.

Science has explained to us that all matter is energy and with hauntings, we often see land and homes that hold the emotional energy of the occupants who lived in a home for a long period of time. We can “feel” a sad house, or a happy home and sense the energy in a building or on the land.  When something very unsettling and negative occurs, such as a battle, the emotional energy of this event stays on the land for a long time. Likewise, when a family has lived in a home for a long time where children played and great joy and love was radiated for years, it can be felt as well.

When energy, negative or positive is expressed in one area for a long period of time, it leaves an energy imprint and objects in the home like furniture can hold the emotional energy in the home. With over seventy-five percent of the furniture in Korner’s Folly being original to the home, the energy of the Korner family is felt throughout the rooms and around the property. Read the rest of this entry »

Beekman Arms Rhinebeck New York

The Beekman Arms Inn located in Rhinebeck, New York, was established in 1766 and is recognized as the oldest operating Inn in the country. A gentile piece of history, the Inn allowed the 4th Regiment of the Continental Army to practice on its front lawn in preparation for the American Revolution. Over the years, the Inn has seen its share of action and honored guests, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Benedict Arnold, William Jennings Bryan, and Franklin Roosevelt have all slept here and all of the above have enjoyed a drink at the Inn’s Tavern, including most recently Bill Clinton.

Located in the center of the Village of Rhinebeck, the Inn is charming and inviting and as an added treat, has been updated to accommodate modern amenities. The result is pleasing and comfortable and welcoming to any traveler and the Inn continues to provide hospitality with the grace and allure of the old traditions.

On a recent journey to Rhinebeck, I stayed at the Beekman in the Townsend House. The room was spacious, comfortable and to my surprise, included a fireplace, a writing desk, two wing back chairs and a decanter of sherry waiting to warm me from the evening air. The room also had an enormous walk in closet, so large that it included a sink, a mini fridge and enough room to store 10 to 12 suitcases or trunks.

Settling in to sleep that evening, I woke at 3:30 am to the sounds of hearing heavy boots stomping across the floor in the room. Alarmed, I sat up and turned on the light next to the bed, as I assumed that the sound was coming from my husband, who must be up and moving something around in the closet. As I turned the light on and sat up in bed, the noise stopped. Calling out to my husband, I heard a snorting next to me and turned to see that he was deeply asleep next to me in bed. Fully awake at this time, I sat up for a few minutes, thinking that I must have been dreaming and that the sound I had heard had come from a dream.

This further perplexed me, as I am a person who has been able to remember at least three dreams every night of my life since I was a young girl and I teach about dreams and dream interpretations. I wake each morning and review my dreams and categorize them into dreams that are teaching me something, dreams from the other side communicating with me, and dreams from my subconscious that help me to work out what is going on in my life. There are also dreams that mean nothing, that occur when one is not feeling well or ate something too heavy before going to bed.

As I sat in bed thinking about how I woke up, what troubled me was that I remembered the dream that I had been having, and it had nothing to do with a man stomping around and walking. That noise, had actually entered into my consciousness and interrupted my dream and woke me up, with the feeling that someone was in the room. Taking a sip of water, I looked at the clock which now read 3:45am and I resigned myself to going back to bed, as tomorrow was an early day. As I turned off the lights and prepared myself for bed, the stomping of the boots began again! This time, I knew it wasn’t a dream. Read the rest of this entry »

USS North Carolina

Commissioned in 1941, the USS North Carolina was considered to be one of the world’s most formidable ships.  During WWII, the North Carolina participated in every major naval offensive in the Pacific, earning fifteen battle stars, and was known as the protector of aircraft carriers, including saving the USS Enterprise in 1942.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor using 353 Japanese fighters and torpedo planes.  Four battleships were sunk and four others damaged. Two destroyers and three cruisers were sunk and almost three hundred and fifty aircrafts were destroyed or severely damaged.  Over 2,400 men were killed and more than 1,200 injured. The overwhelming devastation was a huge shock to the nation.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, almost all of the Pacific fleet was destroyed. The first wave Japanese attack inflicted most of the damage and the second wave returned to demolish anything left standing. Japan and the U.S. were in peace talks at the time, so the attack came as a surprise, as no declaration of war had been delivered before the attack. With this act, the U.S. then declared war and entered World War II.

The surviving sailors in Hawaii were in a state of despair; they had lost many of their friends along with their ships and they were isolated on an island far away from the mainland. The attack had been swift. Reinforcements and supplies were going to take months to arrive in Hawaii. Feeling alone and grieving, the men waited for seven long months for reinforcements to arrive. Read the rest of this entry »