April 2, 2025 • 38 mins
The McInteer Villa in Atchison, KS, is a historic 19th-century mansion known for its striking victorian architecture and numerous unfortunate deaths on the property.
Special Guest: Stephanie-Adkins-Neal
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky listener Discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Years ago, my dear Friendship Coffee and I made a
trip to a small town in Pennsylvania. Our mission to
potentially buy an old haunted mansion. You see, this particular
Victorian was for sale in a town that had seen
a huge economic downturn over the last few decades, and
this mansion, built in more profitable times, had just sat.
(00:37):
It's beautiful but peeling wallpapered walls, a dusty grand spiral staircase,
a crumbling carriage house in the back, and even an elevator.
To me, this was a dream come true. Chip and
I saw so much potential in this grand old lady,
and boy did we want her for our own. As
(00:58):
we left and were slowly closing the door, for a
split second, I thought I saw someone peer around a
hallway wall, as if wondering who are those people? As
fate would have it, it wasn't meant to be. After
we sat and really discussed the logistics of owning such
a property, mainly getting to it, we decided against it.
(01:20):
It was one of the hardest decisions and one the
two of us reflect on.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Often.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
There's a lot of what ifs, But why don't we
explore the story of a home where someone did jump
forward and make such a purchase. Join me as we
travel to the mcineer Villa in Atchison, Kansas. I'm Amy Bruney,
and this is Haunted Road. A Queen Anne style red
(01:47):
brick house stands at the top of a hill in Atchison, Kansas.
Although the home is over a century years old, its
design and decorp have stayed remarkably consistent over the years.
In fact, it would be virtually impossible for anyone to
do an extensive remodel. According to the Homes National Register
of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form, its walls are just
(02:11):
too thick and strong. If anyone were to knock one over,
the whole house could come crumbling down. Over the years,
a porch was removed, a door was closed off, and
bathrooms were added. The kitchen was also updated, but beyond that,
the house today looks very similar to how it did
when it was first built nearly one hundred fifty years ago.
(02:33):
Many of its stained glass windows are original. The banisters
have detailed carvings and elaborate columns support the peaked roof
in the attic period furniture graces the five bedrooms, four bathrooms,
and the seven rooms in the basement. It's also decorated
with various mannequins and dolls, including one that's said to
(02:54):
be haunted. Her name is Esmerelda, and she's a nineteenth
century marriage made with real human hair. From the outside,
the house looks ominous with its slate black roof and
a wrap around porch that's shaded by heavy eaves. On
the north side of the house, a simple plaque declares
that this is the mcinteer Villa. It's nestled in Atchison, Kansas,
(03:18):
a town that once sat on a major stagecoach line.
Its population exploded in the late nineteenth century and now
about ten thoy five hundred people live there. And if
you're thinking this sounds familiar, that's because the mcinteer Villa
is just about a mile from the Sally House, which
I covered earlier this season. In fact, according to a
(03:40):
Ghost on Every Corner by Don Coleklasier, Atchison has an
unusually high number of haunted locations in it. The community
has been dubbed the most ghostly Town in Kansas. The
Mcenteer Villa was built in eighteen eighty nine and eighteen
ninety by John mcinteer. He was a first generation Irish
(04:01):
American immigrant who'd made a fortune as a harnessmaker.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
According to the.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Visit Atchison website, his saddle and harness shop was very
popular due to the superior quality of his work. The
demand for his goods was so high John practically had
no choice but to expand the business. He and his
wife Alice spent fourteen thousand dollars on construction for their home.
Adjusted for inflation, that was the equivalent of about half
(04:29):
a million dollars today when it was finished. It's belief
that John gave it the name of mcineer Villa himself.
He reportedly was the one who had the title etched
into the stone. Sadly, his wife Alice only got to
enjoy the new house for a little under two years.
During that time, she suffered from what the Atchison Daily
(04:51):
Globe called an intermittent fever, and in December of eighteen
ninety one, she passed away inside the villa.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Four years before.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Remarrying and his second wife was a woman named Anna Colton,
Like him. She had lost a former partner, and she
and her late husband had three children together. She and
John spent seven years in the villa before he passed
on July seventeenth, nineteen o two. After John's death, Anna
and her children remained in the home. Given that John
(05:24):
never had any biological children, it made sense for his
widow and stepchildren to keep the house. When Anna got older,
her brother came to stay with her, and after she
suffered a fatal heart attack in nineteen sixteen, even more
of her family members came to stay with him. Anna's
death made her the third person to die within the
home in twenty five years, but one of the most
(05:46):
tragic losses happened six years later, on October tenth, nineteen
twenty two. That afternoon, the family was relaxing together when
Anna's son, Charles Donovan, announced that he had a headache.
He took some medicine and then headed upstairs. His relatives
may have assumed that he was going to lie down,
given Charles's history of poor health. He was a World
(06:09):
War One veteran who'd survived about with the flu, but
while he lived, he never fully recovered from the disease.
He got sick frequently, and according to his friends, this
may have made him feel depressed. No one thought much
of it when Charles walked up the stairs, not until
five minutes later, when the sound of a gunshot rang
(06:30):
through the house. Charles had taken his own life, but
the self inflicted wound wasn't immediately fatal. Instead, it took
two hours for him to die of his injury, all
while doctors scrambled to save him. Their efforts, sadly, were
in vain. He was only thirty four years old. Given
(06:50):
how much tragedy had happened within the walls, the family
eventually moved out of McIntyre Villa, but they still owned
it and rented it to tenants, and just seven years
after Charles's death by suicide, another person died there. This
time it was a newborn girl named Ramona Jane Wood.
She was only four days old when she breathed her
(07:11):
last on September twentieth, nineteen twenty nine. By nineteen fifty two,
the home had been sold to someone who fit oddly
well with its macabre reputation. The new buyer was a
woman named Isobel Altis, but she went by Goldie. Goldie
was in her late fifties, unmarried, childless, and liked to
dress all in black. According to the Atchison Daily Globe,
(07:35):
she also took in a large number of stray dogs
and cats over the years, so naturally, the neighborhood children
and those who attended the elementary school just across the
street believed she was a witch. The truth was that
she had been born and raised in Atchison, although she
had lived out of state for some period of time.
When she was in town, she worked as a secretary
(07:57):
for the local police department. She had also spent some
time playing the violin with the Denver Symphony Orchestra. Goldie
managed to avoid any major tragedies while she owned the home,
but she did fail to restore it to its original
glory in spite of her best efforts to renovate it.
Since she couldn't afford professional repair people, she tried to
(08:18):
fix up the Mcenteer villa herself. The local paper, the
Atchison Daily Globe, reported that people often saw her on
the roof trying to patch it on her own. But
after seventeen years of home ownership, Goldie was seventy five
years old and her health was taking a turn for
the worse. She had no choice but to sell the villa,
but the new owners kindly let Goldie continue living there.
(08:42):
In her final days, she enjoyed sitting in her rocking chair,
and each day she'd call the same cab to take
her to a local restaurant for dinner. One day in
late December of nineteen sixty nine, the driver pulled up,
but Goldie didn't come to the car like she usually did.
The driver left, thinking she may have made other plans,
but when she was a no show the second day,
(09:04):
the driver called the police to request a welfare check.
The police reached out to the homeowner and he rushed
with them to the mcineer villa. As soon as he
opened the front door, he could see Goldie slumped over
in her rocking chair. Her trusty pistol was sitting on
a nearby table, and her hand was on the gun.
The owner was afraid to disturb Goldie while she was armed,
(09:26):
so he went in through another entrance. He yelled Goldie's
name as he approached so as not to surprise her,
and when he finally made it to her side, he
touched her arm to find her skin was cold and clammy.
She'd been dead of natural causes for at least a
full day after Goldie's death. The owner and his wife
(09:47):
both moved in, and they in turn also passed away
within the mcineer villa's walls. Their children sold it again.
By this point there were already rumors and stories going
around that the mcinteer ville was haunted, so the new
buyers restored it and opened it up for ghost tours
and paranormal investigations these days. Visitors on those tours report
(10:10):
seeing objects move on their own. Other times they'll hear
the distinct sound of a door knob turning or furniture
dragging across the floor, but when they look into the
room nothing is out of place. They also hear disembodied voices,
distant piano music, and footsteps which sometimes follow visitors up
and down the stairs to the attic. There are many
(10:32):
reports of a baby crying, even when there's no child
on the property. This could be the spirit of Ramona,
who died in the home when she was just four
days old. Alternatively, some psychics have claimed that at some
point in the house's history, illegal abortions were performed in
the villa's basement. I'll note that there's no historical documentation
(10:53):
to verify that claim, but guests in the basement have
also reported the sound of women moaning throughout the home.
The lights often turn themselves on and off without anyone
flipping the switch. Reportedly, this happened at least once when
the villa's electricity was off, and guests sometimes see figures
in the windows when the house is empty, or lights
(11:15):
darting across the room. This activity is occasionally accompanied by
a drastic drop in temperature or a strong whiff of
either perfume or tobacco. One especially disturbing detail comes from
the people who spend the night in the master bedroom. Reportedly,
it's quite common for invisible hands to wake people by
(11:36):
tugging on their feet, or for something that's not visible
to walk across the bed, making the whole mattress shake. Additionally,
there are many accounts of shadow figures and full bodied apparitions.
These include a young man or a boy, a woman
all in white, and a different woman in a pink dress.
Goldie Altis, who died in her rocking chair, seems to
(11:59):
still enjoy sitting in it. The chair has been said
to sway on its own and if anyone else dares
to take a seat in it, her spirit will touch
or tickle that person. In general, Goldie is thought to
be friendly, show play with visitor's hair, and she's been
spotted strolling around in a black dress. Sometimes, even when
Goldie isn't visible, guests can smell her distinctive perfume permeating
(12:23):
the air, or hear violin music echoing through the house.
Charles Donovan's spirit has also been reported in the home.
He's frequently seen in the library, which may be the
room where he took his own life. It's often chillier
there than any other place in the house, and his
disembodied footsteps can be heard echoing back and forth all
(12:44):
across the second floor. Plus, you may remember the allegedly
haunted doll I mentioned earlier, Esmerelda. When people are in
her room with her, they sometimes feel a distinct sensation
of something scratching them or pulling their hair. Given the
house rich history and paranormal reports, it's only fitting that
(13:04):
we talk with the owner, So that is coming up
after the break. Okay, So I am now joined by
Steph O'Reilly, who is the owner of the villa, and
I'm gonna ask you right off the bat because I
asked you beforehand. But I feel like this is a
(13:25):
good question. How do you pronounce the name?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
That's awesome And I get this question so many times
and I'm hoping, I hope I'm doing it right. I
say mcinteer. Now I know I don't say McDonald's, but
I don't know. For some reason, I just say mcinteer.
It just sounds like that's it's supposed to be. Some
will say McIntire. I'm not quite sure, but we're gonna
go with mcinteer.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Okay, McIntire it is. And that's I think what I
said the whole first half. So that's good.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
I'm doing well, although I could be wrong.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I recorded it a few weeks ago, so okay.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
So well, welcome to the program.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
And I just I really I want to know because
I think, you know, I've talked with a few people
this season in locations i've not been to. First of all,
i've not visited you. I really would love to, especially
after learning the history and everything. It sounds like such
an amazing location. How did you come to be the owner?
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Well, I had gone to down the street. You've probably
heard of it. It's called the Sally House. Yes, so
the Sally House is like my house is on thirteenth
and Sally House is on Second Street, and so we're
very close at five minute drive if that. And so
I stayed at the Sally House one night and nothing happened,
(14:44):
which is fine. So I went back two weeks later
because I'm like, I need I need to do I
need to go back here for some reason. So anyway,
I back then you used to have to check in
at the depot and they would you'd follow them over there.
So anyway, two weeks had gone by. I'm loud. I'm
sure they just remembered like that loud girl. But they
said there's a there's a house for sale and it's haunted.
(15:07):
And I just remember I didn't ask which house. I
was just looking up houses for sale and Atchison and
I came across the house and it was gorgeous, and
I just knew that was it and it wasn't it
was it was something else. Anyway, I finally came across
this house and I couldn't stop looking at it. I mean,
it was just the weirdest thing. I live about an
hour away. I would just get in my car and
(15:28):
drive out here and look at the house. I would
look it up on like real estate dot com stuff
like that, and I would just show people like, look
at this house, look at this house. It was just
something about it. And I say, I'm not obsessed with anything,
like nothing, but there was something about this house I
couldn't get out of my head. So I called my
mom and asked if she wanted to co sign, and
(15:48):
she did not. Sometimes yeah, I'm like when it goes
in an a haunted house, She's like nope. And so
she called my dad and he said yes. It took
him like two seconds and he co signed without even
seeing it. He lived in Arizona. But so that's how
I came across, or that's how I came to own
(16:09):
the house. He was only here once. He passed away
April thirteenth will be five years. But I have his
ashes here and whenever I walk by giving a tour,
I will knock on the glass and say, Dad, stir
stuff up, oh, just because he would. That's his kind
of humor. He would find it funny. And I don't
want to exclud him because I wouldn't have it without him.
And so some people look at me like I'm Bizarred.
(16:30):
I'm like one hundred percent yes, but that was his humor.
So that's how I came. That's how I became the
owner of the villa.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
So it just kind of called to you, And I
think that's that seems to be a theme when I
speak with people who buy haunted locations. It's this kind
of almost spiritual calling to them, and I feel like
most of them are meant to be there in some way.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
And so did you necessarily know it.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Was haunted before you bought it or were you just
getting like a strong vibe from it?
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Okay, well it was already known for being haunted. Oh Okay,
Atchison is known for being one of one of the most,
if not the most haunted town in Kansas, and so
they actually there are newspaper articles and news reports of
Missus Girardi and I bought the house from the Girardis.
Mister and Missus Girardi both passed away in the home.
(17:21):
Therefore kids inherited the house. I bought it from their
four kids. So when missus, when mister and missus I'm sorry,
when Missus Girardi lived here after her husband husband had
passed away. There are articles that you know, she did
interviews with they used Haunted actress and used the house
as the backdrop or the advertising four Haunted Actresses.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Oh okay, makes sense there.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
And it's kind of cool that the stories would like
there's a story Missus Girardi would say she would hear
her husband coming in the back door from fishing or
from work, and she'd hear his keys. And just last weekend,
the back door opened twice and I'm sitting here giving
a tour and actually we're standing in the dining room.
The group had just shown up and you hear click, click,
(18:03):
and it just opens up and they're like what, like like,
I don't.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Know, you, welcome to the house.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
It's so crazy that the things that happened to her
still happened. So it's that makes it really cool to
me because it's not something that people say like maybe
if I brought in or something attached to the furniture,
maybe you know that I brought in, but it's something
that happened then. Or the whistles, like last night we
heard a plane as day whistle and that's been going
(18:31):
on since I don't know. That's one of the stories
that Missus Geordi would tell. So it's kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
When what was your first like wow experience when you
bought the location, Like when did you go, Okay, yeah,
this place is definitely haunted.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
The night I closed, oh my gosh, it was just
so crazy I did. There was no furniture in the house,
so I had some air mattresses and I was sleeping
on while I was laying in one of the rooms.
I didn't know which, you know, like when you go
into a place and we, at least I used to
and I probably still do, like where's the most active area,
what time of day is the most active, you know whatever,
and so I didn't ask what room was the most active.
(19:08):
And so I'm just sleeping and trying to sleep in
one of the rooms and I hear the door handle jiggling,
and then I hear footsteps by my head and I'm
on the air mattress, so I'm close to the floor
and I'm like, it's walking next to my head. And
my friend said, isn't this what you wanted? I'm like,
shut up, yes, yeah. Sometimes yeah, sometimes.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
You get what you wish for.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
And then you're like, maybe I didn't.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Really know what I was getting into. I love that though.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
That must have been such an exciting time though when
it actually happened and you're there, there's no furniture yet
and you just have this blank slate, and so what
were your plans? Did you intend to kind of open.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
It for ghost tours? Were you going to live there?
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Like?
Speaker 1 (19:51):
What was your intention?
Speaker 3 (19:52):
My you two wasn't to never live here. I mean,
it's it's a big house. It's a gorgeous house, but
it's not I never intended to and I won't live
here because I live an hour away, and well, I
will go to locations and investigate. And I always just
kind of joked like, oh my gosh, if there were
a place for sale and haunted, how amazing would that be?
(20:14):
And I, you know, it just happened to just I
don't know if it's luck or what it was, but
come across this house and so I don't know what
took place. I don't even think they knew all of
the deaths that were in the home. It's had nine
that I know of nine documented deaths. I don't know.
I know every owner that's lived here has died here,
So I do not.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
I don't want to live here, right, What.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Did I think well, my kids, they might appreciated it
for business, like, oh, add another number. I mean that
sounds weird.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
No, that's fair though, I mean.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
I'm gonna go somewhere, so why not the villain. I
don't know, it sounds that sounds a little morbid, but
it's still new. Things happen and it still freaks me out.
The footsteps will always make me uncomfortable. Last night, I
had a small event here and we heard it. Well,
I was coming get in the hallway on the second floor,
and I tell everyone, I don't like that second floor.
(21:08):
If I'm here spending the night by myself, I don't
like that second floor, and I won't come up here
if I'm spending the night loan. But if there's one person,
even if a friend of mine is here and they
go to Walmart, I'm fine. I will go anywhere in
this house. But so there were people here last night,
but I'm the only one walking down the second floor
hallway and I heard I thought was kind of like
a lady moan or hum or something. So I lean
(21:32):
over the banister and I'm like, who made that noise?
Nobody did, and so I got on. I have cameras
all around the house since I don't live here for security,
but also they pick up the craziest stuff. So I
got on the camera and it's a baby. It sounds
like a newborn wow, crying and I have obviously I
haven't posted it yet, but I'm going to today. But
(21:53):
it's just so new stuff like that. We've captured babies crying,
but this is a it's a different kind of cry.
I don't know. It's so new things all the time,
glowing eyes and where are those coming from? I don't know.
Oh my goodness, there's so many different things that happen,
and I'm sure maybe it's, you know, with all the
people coming in, maybe it's somebody brought something, or maybe
(22:15):
I did, or maybe it's something attached to this stuff.
I don't know. So I'm not the best at explaining
like what or who is at the villa because we
also there's something that mimics people, and that's so I've
heard my dad talking, but I don't think it's him,
and that sounds weird, but I just don't. I just
don't think it. I just feel it's not him. Somebody's
(22:35):
captured a little girl on the second floor, and I
just don't feel it's a little girl. But for some reason,
when we go to the basement and I hear a kid,
I feel it's a kid. So I don't know. If
I don't think I have a gift, some people will
say yes, No, I don't know. I think the more
places I go, it feels like it's something is opening
up a little bit more that I can. I'm hearing
(22:56):
more my friends that I were talking about the other day,
like we are hearing more things just out loud, just
sitting around. And I don't know if it's if we
are opening ourselves up more or we're just hear more
and we know the house better. I don't know what
it is. But still the new things that happen are
it never gets old. I'll just say that that's what
I mean.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
No, that's fair.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
I mean so I think I know, just on a
personal level, having investigated so many different places, I feel
like over time, I wouldn't say that I'm, you know, psychic,
but I do think you just start to get kind
of not necessarily more open, but you're just aware of
that different feeling the more you're around it, Like you know,
I can usually yeah, I can usually walk into a
(23:39):
location even if I'm not there on like a ghostly
on ghostly business, you know, I'll walk in and be like, whooh,
there's something here, you know, like I can just feel
the difference, And I just think you acquire that over time,
So that might be part of it. And I do
think there's a big There's something to the fact too
that you're there so often that they feel more comfortable
(24:00):
around you, and so that could be it too. But
my question is like, so what did you furnish the
place with? Did you bring in antiques?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
And everything I did? So nothing came with the house. Well,
there is a rocking chair that one on a lady
had passed away in nineteen sixty nine, Goldie or Isabel Altis,
so that came with the house. Everything else I brought
in and Facebook Marketplace, antique stores, estate sales. Estate sales
are my favorite because I'm not a haggler. Yeah, I
(24:31):
will not ask for I'm like, there's the price, I
will take it. So they're my favorite because you can't haggle. Yeah,
I don't know, but I I it's been so much
fun and it's not my we like where I live
it or my house. It's very like bright colors modern.
It's the more weird the better. That's just my taste.
(24:53):
And so this was like very different. But it's been
so much fun because it's just so unique. It's just
the ornate, the woodwork, it's just crazy. And also the
furniture is a little more, is a little daintier, and
I don't have to ask for help and moving it.
So that's what I love the most about it. But no,
(25:13):
it brought all of it in getting on zillow. If
anyone types in thirteen oh one Kansas Avenue can see
what it looked like when I bought it. You can
see the shag carpet, tan walls, and it's still even
though I didn't do anything to the house constructurally, just painting,
having the walls painted and bringing in different furniture. You're like,
what room is that? It looks completely different. I love
(25:35):
that because it was in this it was decorated for
the seventies, which I get. But I'm glad they had
the shag carpet because when we pulled the carpet up,
all we've done so far is just vacuum.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
So they covered up wood floors. I imagine, right, They
love doing that in the seventies, they covered up.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
All those beautiful wooden floors.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Oh my gosh, yes, yes, and then the popcorn ceilings.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Oh yeah, that's always great too. Yeah, it's so funny.
I live in a three hundred year old house and thankfu, yeah,
it's an adventure, but thankfully it's part of like a
historic preservation effort, so everything is still original inside. But
I'm watching where I live because I live in New England,
and I'm sure you see this too, you know, some
(26:18):
of these.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Old houses, especially lately.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
This happened back in the seventies where people were either
gutting or tearing down Victorians by like like on a
crazy level.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
And now here, at least.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
In New England, people are moving into these Victorians and
they're just they're ripping out everything, painting them white, putting
in these big, like open air modern kitchens.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
And I'm like, we're doing the same thing we did
in the seventies.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
And it's like, you know, you know what's funny. You
say that because I have my real estate license, and
so right before I got on the call with you,
I was down the street showing a house to my
friends who want to see this house forever and it's
for fail now and so we go in. It's I'm
trying to think it's around the same time period as
(27:06):
my house, so late eighteen hundreds. But you go in
and it's all white and all brand new, and then
I was like, that had a little bit of the
exposed original brick, but that was it, and it made
me kind of sad. Yeah, I think now that I
get it, like, don't touch it.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Yeah, I just you know, I consider like someone like
you and like me.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
We're like we're stewards for history at.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
This point, like right, you know, whenever you think of ghosts,
like you are preserving that house and so that on
its own is such a wonderful undertaking. So cheers to that,
no matter what happens there on a ghost level.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Thank you. That's funny also because I will say, like,
you know, I can't obviously make the spirits appear. There
are going to be quiet nights. But you know, people
will write in the books downstairs if they experienced something,
but a lot of people will write, oh it's more
active if steps here, or it was quite until step
showed up, And I'm like, that's not true. People, So
(28:07):
I know that a lot of people ask me to stay,
and I'm like, I just like me. They do what
they want, when they want, how they want. Yeah, I
don't ask questions.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
It's funny though we I'm sure you probably already do this,
But like when I investigate a location, I always have
the owner kind of introduce me so they know that
like I'm supposed to be there, you know, because there
is sometimes they do get this comfort level with someone
who's associated with the property, either like an owner or
(28:38):
an employee or someone who lives there, and until they
kind of give them the go ahead, the ghosts, I
feel like sometimes are like, well I don't care about
these people, you know, So I.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Have never thought about that, that is, I haven't because
it's so it's when I start my tours, when people
check in and if they haven't been in before, obviously
I walk into the house, but we always go to
we start around the main staircase before we go to
the servant staircase, and so we're at the mainsrecase and
it's ninety five percent of the time it's like we
hear the footsteps coming around the landing, like who's here,
(29:08):
who's here? So that makes sense, like maybe I should
start doing that, because it's like they're coming around going
who's here today, who's Yeah, Yeah, that's a great idea.
I like it.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Yeah, I mean, it couldn't hurt to try it, you know,
because that'll help. Like if I'm in a place and
nothing's happening, I almost the almost the first thing I
do is call the owner or call someone who's familiar
with them and be like, can you come over here
and talk to them for me?
Speaker 1 (29:32):
So that is so nice.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
And then there's me. I'm like, I'll sell you and
it'll be a daycare center.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
I just oh, I love that. I'll sell you and
you'll be a daycare center.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Can you imagine the daycare center that moves in something?
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Yeah, people show up like you know what this was?
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Right? Like I love that?
Speaker 2 (29:58):
So okay, So how many so you say like this,
you have this place for ghost tours and whatnot. And
then so you have investigators coming in regularly and they
get to stay the night and they get to investigate,
and I'm sure you have ground rules right that, like
they have to be respectful and all of that fun stuff.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Yes, yeah, so that's great.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
So they come in and I mean, I love that
there are locations out there. People always ask like, how
do you get to investigate? How do you like, how
do I get started? And I love a place like
yours where it's like, yeah, you know, go support this
loving business, but also like go get your feet wet,
like this is the way you're in a controlled environment.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Like I just love that.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Yes, of course I have another question, though, what is
it about Atchison? So I did the Sally House already
this season weirdly, and when I found this place because
I was kind of researching, like I'm like, what locations
do I want to do? I didn't even realize they
were in the same town until I started really digging
in and I was like, oh my gosh, so what
(30:55):
is it?
Speaker 1 (30:55):
What's going on there? Steph?
Speaker 3 (30:57):
You know, I don't know. It's so weird because well,
Levenworth is the next town over, and my friends and
I we went to Levenworth yesterday and we're like, and
there's a prison and there's just big old buildings and cooled.
I'm like, so, who did the voting? What makes Atchison
the most haunted town in Kansas? And that's and I
don't know what makes it the most haunted. People say,
(31:20):
like the limestone in the water. I know there's limestone
in my basement. The Missouri River is right here, so
maybe that's it. I honestly don't know.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Yeah, I just think it's so interesting. And now it
also seems like the town has kind of leaned into it.
Is that correct, Like they have they control like the
Sally House tours and everything, so like the local government
is kind of they realize that that is bringing people
to the town.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Do they work with you regularly?
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (31:47):
They do. Oh, I just I love them. They're they're
just like haunted Atchison has been. In the beginning, it was.
It wasn't the easiest in the very beginning, just because
the new person. And I don't think I don't know
if people knew what I knew or didn't know what
I was doing, or you know, stuff like that. And
it's also a religious town. There's the college, and so
(32:11):
just I try, you know, I just need not well yeah,
I do need to be respectful, for I didn't want
to be obviously disrespectful to like, not everyone enjoys ghost hunting,
not everyone is a not agrees, but yeah, and I
want agrees about ghost hunting. So I wanted to make
sure the first couple of years, I was just it's
still kind of quiet. I still don't go around saying, hey,
(32:31):
look at me, look at me. I've had the house
seven years and it still feels like I'm the new
person out there because people still haven't heard about me,
which has also been nice because everything's been word of mouth.
So with that being said, the Chamber has been just
backing me up. And there are other locations in Atchison.
There's actually a new place that's going to start doing
investigations too. It's the antique store downtown called back Road Atlas.
(32:55):
So I mean they're embracing all of the haunted stuff
and not just during Haunted Sea. They will help me
out throughout the year since ghost are twenty four seven,
not just you know October. Yeah, so they've been amazing.
They've been amazing. Yeah, I also not it also doesn't
hurt that like Veliska or Malvern two hours door to
(33:18):
door and I am all for I'm one of those
weird people that think everyone should have a participation trophy.
I mean, I'm just that. So I just I will
spread the word on other places too, because you know,
if things are two hours away, like make a weekend
of it, or like go to my house and the
Sally House. You know, I just tell people don't just
do what may do all or spend more than one
(33:41):
day at a location, because you'll probably get more activity. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
No, I mean I love that you kind of do
like a little haunted vacation and kind of make a
few stops. And I mean I love that area in general.
It's just you know, I think it's kind of off
the beaten path and it's very interesting and you know,
having traveled through it many times because I keep finding
myself there even though I have not been to Atchison yet,
it's just it's a really interesting, like kind of got
(34:06):
a great small town feel. I love it there in
the summer. I think it's fun and you're right, it's
just like it's nice that they're kind of backing you
and they see the value in that.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Yes, and that you know, other people will not only
just be here, they will like I would do a
little boutique clothing for yes, right, and ask for their
business cards to put in my break room because I
just think when people are taking it three, there are
still stores open, so go like it helps support Atchison too,
So I think that that with the Chamber, I think
they just work with everybody and so that's that makes
(34:39):
it so nice that like if I want to have
or there is a tour group coming there and they
have nothing to do with Haunt stuff, but they're like
Saint Patrick's Day and mister mcinte is very irish. Yeah,
things like that. So like tour groups will come through
for that and just for the history of their architecture.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Yeah, and that's great.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
It's nice that it's not just for Haunted, even though
that's ninety nine percent of with the business.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
So okay, so if people want to on that, not
if people want to visit, like what do they do?
I'm guessing on social media you also probably post a
lot of this evidence that you're getting too, right.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
I do, I post and lot some of it is.
Lots of it actually is when I'm here by myself
and things just seem to happen. I don't know if
they do it. I think it's more active during the day.
People ask all the time, you know, if it's more
actually in the day or not. I think it's more
active during the day, probably because you know, I'm not
paying attention. So I will post things like that, like
I'm at the dining room table and something is just
(35:32):
whistled very loudly at me, and I'm like what, Which
is so nice? With the cameras because I won't investigate
by myself. I'm very brave, but that's with other people.
So when I'm here alone, maybe they know that too,
and so I will post things that happen when I'm
by myself here. But also I have a thing on
(35:53):
my website that there are cameras throughout the house and
I've will change them up. But three people can watch
cameras from their home for ten dollars a month for
like three cameras, and so they can like investigate from
home too. They don't have to even be here. Yeah,
that's creaty is nice. That's what I do at the
Paranormal Circle.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
I have cameras.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
I have them up in my attic on a bunch
of haunted artifacts and stuff.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
So I do the same thing.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
It's like you can just you can investigate from the
safety of your own home.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
So there you go.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Well, that's great, Okay, So if people want to visit
what is like your website and everything how can they
get in touch with you?
Speaker 1 (36:30):
What's the deal there?
Speaker 3 (36:32):
They can go to eighteen eighty nine Macinturvilla dot com
and my phone numbers on there. They can text me,
call me, send me a message, and there's a calendar
on there. People can just book online. I book seven
days a week. I only mark off I think two
weeks around Christmas time, but other than that all year long.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Well that's lovely.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Well, I'm really glad to finally have gotten to speak
with you. I'm looking forward to hopefully visiting in the
near future so I can see this for my I've
got a tour Atchison and see all that that town
has to offer. It's got quite the reputation, a lot
yet amazing. Well, thank you so much for taking the time.
And I really do appreciate it. You've been lovely.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
Yeah, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Today the Macinteer Villa feels frozen in time. It's still
decorated with period furniture and it's on the National Register
of Historic Places. It's also a home where history can
come to life, perhaps literally, because to all appearances, the
people from the villa's past have never left it behind.
I'm Amy Bruney and This was Haunted Road. Haunted Road
(37:53):
is a production of iHeartRadio and GRIMM and Miles from
Air and Minky. Haunted Road is hosted and by me
Amy Bruney, with additional research by Cassandra de Alba.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
This show is.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
Edited and produced by supervising producer Rima el Kali, with
executive producers Aaron Menke, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. Learn
more about this show over at Grimandmild dot com, and
for more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky listener Discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Years ago, my dear Friendship Coffee and I made a
trip to a small town in Pennsylvania. Our mission to
potentially buy an old haunted mansion. You see, this particular
Victorian was for sale in a town that had seen
a huge economic downturn over the last few decades, and
this mansion, built in more profitable times, had just sat.
(00:37):
It's beautiful but peeling wallpapered walls, a dusty grand spiral staircase,
a crumbling carriage house in the back, and even an elevator.
To me, this was a dream come true. Chip and
I saw so much potential in this grand old lady,
and boy did we want her for our own. As
(00:58):
we left and were slowly closing the door, for a
split second, I thought I saw someone peer around a
hallway wall, as if wondering who are those people? As
fate would have it, it wasn't meant to be. After
we sat and really discussed the logistics of owning such
a property, mainly getting to it, we decided against it.
(01:20):
It was one of the hardest decisions and one the
two of us reflect on.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Often.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
There's a lot of what ifs, But why don't we
explore the story of a home where someone did jump
forward and make such a purchase. Join me as we
travel to the mcineer Villa in Atchison, Kansas. I'm Amy Bruney,
and this is Haunted Road. A Queen Anne style red
(01:47):
brick house stands at the top of a hill in Atchison, Kansas.
Although the home is over a century years old, its
design and decorp have stayed remarkably consistent over the years.
In fact, it would be virtually impossible for anyone to
do an extensive remodel. According to the Homes National Register
of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form, its walls are just
(02:11):
too thick and strong. If anyone were to knock one over,
the whole house could come crumbling down. Over the years,
a porch was removed, a door was closed off, and
bathrooms were added. The kitchen was also updated, but beyond that,
the house today looks very similar to how it did
when it was first built nearly one hundred fifty years ago.
(02:33):
Many of its stained glass windows are original. The banisters
have detailed carvings and elaborate columns support the peaked roof
in the attic period furniture graces the five bedrooms, four bathrooms,
and the seven rooms in the basement. It's also decorated
with various mannequins and dolls, including one that's said to
(02:54):
be haunted. Her name is Esmerelda, and she's a nineteenth
century marriage made with real human hair. From the outside,
the house looks ominous with its slate black roof and
a wrap around porch that's shaded by heavy eaves. On
the north side of the house, a simple plaque declares
that this is the mcinteer Villa. It's nestled in Atchison, Kansas,
(03:18):
a town that once sat on a major stagecoach line.
Its population exploded in the late nineteenth century and now
about ten thoy five hundred people live there. And if
you're thinking this sounds familiar, that's because the mcinteer Villa
is just about a mile from the Sally House, which
I covered earlier this season. In fact, according to a
(03:40):
Ghost on Every Corner by Don Coleklasier, Atchison has an
unusually high number of haunted locations in it. The community
has been dubbed the most ghostly Town in Kansas. The
Mcenteer Villa was built in eighteen eighty nine and eighteen
ninety by John mcinteer. He was a first generation Irish
(04:01):
American immigrant who'd made a fortune as a harnessmaker.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
According to the.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Visit Atchison website, his saddle and harness shop was very
popular due to the superior quality of his work. The
demand for his goods was so high John practically had
no choice but to expand the business. He and his
wife Alice spent fourteen thousand dollars on construction for their home.
Adjusted for inflation, that was the equivalent of about half
(04:29):
a million dollars today when it was finished. It's belief
that John gave it the name of mcineer Villa himself.
He reportedly was the one who had the title etched
into the stone. Sadly, his wife Alice only got to
enjoy the new house for a little under two years.
During that time, she suffered from what the Atchison Daily
(04:51):
Globe called an intermittent fever, and in December of eighteen
ninety one, she passed away inside the villa.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Four years before.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Remarrying and his second wife was a woman named Anna Colton,
Like him. She had lost a former partner, and she
and her late husband had three children together. She and
John spent seven years in the villa before he passed
on July seventeenth, nineteen o two. After John's death, Anna
and her children remained in the home. Given that John
(05:24):
never had any biological children, it made sense for his
widow and stepchildren to keep the house. When Anna got older,
her brother came to stay with her, and after she
suffered a fatal heart attack in nineteen sixteen, even more
of her family members came to stay with him. Anna's
death made her the third person to die within the
home in twenty five years, but one of the most
(05:46):
tragic losses happened six years later, on October tenth, nineteen
twenty two. That afternoon, the family was relaxing together when
Anna's son, Charles Donovan, announced that he had a headache.
He took some medicine and then headed upstairs. His relatives
may have assumed that he was going to lie down,
given Charles's history of poor health. He was a World
(06:09):
War One veteran who'd survived about with the flu, but
while he lived, he never fully recovered from the disease.
He got sick frequently, and according to his friends, this
may have made him feel depressed. No one thought much
of it when Charles walked up the stairs, not until
five minutes later, when the sound of a gunshot rang
(06:30):
through the house. Charles had taken his own life, but
the self inflicted wound wasn't immediately fatal. Instead, it took
two hours for him to die of his injury, all
while doctors scrambled to save him. Their efforts, sadly, were
in vain. He was only thirty four years old. Given
(06:50):
how much tragedy had happened within the walls, the family
eventually moved out of McIntyre Villa, but they still owned
it and rented it to tenants, and just seven years
after Charles's death by suicide, another person died there. This
time it was a newborn girl named Ramona Jane Wood.
She was only four days old when she breathed her
(07:11):
last on September twentieth, nineteen twenty nine. By nineteen fifty two,
the home had been sold to someone who fit oddly
well with its macabre reputation. The new buyer was a
woman named Isobel Altis, but she went by Goldie. Goldie
was in her late fifties, unmarried, childless, and liked to
dress all in black. According to the Atchison Daily Globe,
(07:35):
she also took in a large number of stray dogs
and cats over the years, so naturally, the neighborhood children
and those who attended the elementary school just across the
street believed she was a witch. The truth was that
she had been born and raised in Atchison, although she
had lived out of state for some period of time.
When she was in town, she worked as a secretary
(07:57):
for the local police department. She had also spent some
time playing the violin with the Denver Symphony Orchestra. Goldie
managed to avoid any major tragedies while she owned the home,
but she did fail to restore it to its original
glory in spite of her best efforts to renovate it.
Since she couldn't afford professional repair people, she tried to
(08:18):
fix up the Mcenteer villa herself. The local paper, the
Atchison Daily Globe, reported that people often saw her on
the roof trying to patch it on her own. But
after seventeen years of home ownership, Goldie was seventy five
years old and her health was taking a turn for
the worse. She had no choice but to sell the villa,
but the new owners kindly let Goldie continue living there.
(08:42):
In her final days, she enjoyed sitting in her rocking chair,
and each day she'd call the same cab to take
her to a local restaurant for dinner. One day in
late December of nineteen sixty nine, the driver pulled up,
but Goldie didn't come to the car like she usually did.
The driver left, thinking she may have made other plans,
but when she was a no show the second day,
(09:04):
the driver called the police to request a welfare check.
The police reached out to the homeowner and he rushed
with them to the mcineer villa. As soon as he
opened the front door, he could see Goldie slumped over
in her rocking chair. Her trusty pistol was sitting on
a nearby table, and her hand was on the gun.
The owner was afraid to disturb Goldie while she was armed,
(09:26):
so he went in through another entrance. He yelled Goldie's
name as he approached so as not to surprise her,
and when he finally made it to her side, he
touched her arm to find her skin was cold and clammy.
She'd been dead of natural causes for at least a
full day after Goldie's death. The owner and his wife
(09:47):
both moved in, and they in turn also passed away
within the mcineer villa's walls. Their children sold it again.
By this point there were already rumors and stories going
around that the mcinteer ville was haunted, so the new
buyers restored it and opened it up for ghost tours
and paranormal investigations these days. Visitors on those tours report
(10:10):
seeing objects move on their own. Other times they'll hear
the distinct sound of a door knob turning or furniture
dragging across the floor, but when they look into the
room nothing is out of place. They also hear disembodied voices,
distant piano music, and footsteps which sometimes follow visitors up
and down the stairs to the attic. There are many
(10:32):
reports of a baby crying, even when there's no child
on the property. This could be the spirit of Ramona,
who died in the home when she was just four
days old. Alternatively, some psychics have claimed that at some
point in the house's history, illegal abortions were performed in
the villa's basement. I'll note that there's no historical documentation
(10:53):
to verify that claim, but guests in the basement have
also reported the sound of women moaning throughout the home.
The lights often turn themselves on and off without anyone
flipping the switch. Reportedly, this happened at least once when
the villa's electricity was off, and guests sometimes see figures
in the windows when the house is empty, or lights
(11:15):
darting across the room. This activity is occasionally accompanied by
a drastic drop in temperature or a strong whiff of
either perfume or tobacco. One especially disturbing detail comes from
the people who spend the night in the master bedroom. Reportedly,
it's quite common for invisible hands to wake people by
(11:36):
tugging on their feet, or for something that's not visible
to walk across the bed, making the whole mattress shake. Additionally,
there are many accounts of shadow figures and full bodied apparitions.
These include a young man or a boy, a woman
all in white, and a different woman in a pink dress.
Goldie Altis, who died in her rocking chair, seems to
(11:59):
still enjoy sitting in it. The chair has been said
to sway on its own and if anyone else dares
to take a seat in it, her spirit will touch
or tickle that person. In general, Goldie is thought to
be friendly, show play with visitor's hair, and she's been
spotted strolling around in a black dress. Sometimes, even when
Goldie isn't visible, guests can smell her distinctive perfume permeating
(12:23):
the air, or hear violin music echoing through the house.
Charles Donovan's spirit has also been reported in the home.
He's frequently seen in the library, which may be the
room where he took his own life. It's often chillier
there than any other place in the house, and his
disembodied footsteps can be heard echoing back and forth all
(12:44):
across the second floor. Plus, you may remember the allegedly
haunted doll I mentioned earlier, Esmerelda. When people are in
her room with her, they sometimes feel a distinct sensation
of something scratching them or pulling their hair. Given the
house rich history and paranormal reports, it's only fitting that
(13:04):
we talk with the owner, So that is coming up
after the break. Okay, So I am now joined by
Steph O'Reilly, who is the owner of the villa, and
I'm gonna ask you right off the bat because I
asked you beforehand. But I feel like this is a
(13:25):
good question. How do you pronounce the name?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
That's awesome And I get this question so many times
and I'm hoping, I hope I'm doing it right. I
say mcinteer. Now I know I don't say McDonald's, but
I don't know. For some reason, I just say mcinteer.
It just sounds like that's it's supposed to be. Some
will say McIntire. I'm not quite sure, but we're gonna
go with mcinteer.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Okay, McIntire it is. And that's I think what I
said the whole first half. So that's good.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
I'm doing well, although I could be wrong.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I recorded it a few weeks ago, so okay.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
So well, welcome to the program.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
And I just I really I want to know because
I think, you know, I've talked with a few people
this season in locations i've not been to. First of all,
i've not visited you. I really would love to, especially
after learning the history and everything. It sounds like such
an amazing location. How did you come to be the owner?
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Well, I had gone to down the street. You've probably
heard of it. It's called the Sally House. Yes, so
the Sally House is like my house is on thirteenth
and Sally House is on Second Street, and so we're
very close at five minute drive if that. And so
I stayed at the Sally House one night and nothing happened,
(14:44):
which is fine. So I went back two weeks later
because I'm like, I need I need to do I
need to go back here for some reason. So anyway,
I back then you used to have to check in
at the depot and they would you'd follow them over there.
So anyway, two weeks had gone by. I'm loud. I'm
sure they just remembered like that loud girl. But they
said there's a there's a house for sale and it's haunted.
(15:07):
And I just remember I didn't ask which house. I
was just looking up houses for sale and Atchison and
I came across the house and it was gorgeous, and
I just knew that was it and it wasn't it
was it was something else. Anyway, I finally came across
this house and I couldn't stop looking at it. I mean,
it was just the weirdest thing. I live about an
hour away. I would just get in my car and
(15:28):
drive out here and look at the house. I would
look it up on like real estate dot com stuff
like that, and I would just show people like, look
at this house, look at this house. It was just
something about it. And I say, I'm not obsessed with anything,
like nothing, but there was something about this house I
couldn't get out of my head. So I called my
mom and asked if she wanted to co sign, and
(15:48):
she did not. Sometimes yeah, I'm like when it goes
in an a haunted house, She's like nope. And so
she called my dad and he said yes. It took
him like two seconds and he co signed without even
seeing it. He lived in Arizona. But so that's how
I came across, or that's how I came to own
(16:09):
the house. He was only here once. He passed away
April thirteenth will be five years. But I have his
ashes here and whenever I walk by giving a tour,
I will knock on the glass and say, Dad, stir
stuff up, oh, just because he would. That's his kind
of humor. He would find it funny. And I don't
want to exclud him because I wouldn't have it without him.
And so some people look at me like I'm Bizarred.
(16:30):
I'm like one hundred percent yes, but that was his humor.
So that's how I came. That's how I became the
owner of the villa.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
So it just kind of called to you, And I
think that's that seems to be a theme when I
speak with people who buy haunted locations. It's this kind
of almost spiritual calling to them, and I feel like
most of them are meant to be there in some way.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
And so did you necessarily know it.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Was haunted before you bought it or were you just
getting like a strong vibe from it?
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Okay, well it was already known for being haunted. Oh Okay,
Atchison is known for being one of one of the most,
if not the most haunted town in Kansas, and so
they actually there are newspaper articles and news reports of
Missus Girardi and I bought the house from the Girardis.
Mister and Missus Girardi both passed away in the home.
(17:21):
Therefore kids inherited the house. I bought it from their
four kids. So when missus, when mister and missus I'm sorry,
when Missus Girardi lived here after her husband husband had
passed away. There are articles that you know, she did
interviews with they used Haunted actress and used the house
as the backdrop or the advertising four Haunted Actresses.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Oh okay, makes sense there.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
And it's kind of cool that the stories would like
there's a story Missus Girardi would say she would hear
her husband coming in the back door from fishing or
from work, and she'd hear his keys. And just last weekend,
the back door opened twice and I'm sitting here giving
a tour and actually we're standing in the dining room.
The group had just shown up and you hear click, click,
(18:03):
and it just opens up and they're like what, like like,
I don't.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Know, you, welcome to the house.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
It's so crazy that the things that happened to her
still happened. So it's that makes it really cool to
me because it's not something that people say like maybe
if I brought in or something attached to the furniture,
maybe you know that I brought in, but it's something
that happened then. Or the whistles, like last night we
heard a plane as day whistle and that's been going
(18:31):
on since I don't know. That's one of the stories
that Missus Geordi would tell. So it's kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
When what was your first like wow experience when you
bought the location, Like when did you go, Okay, yeah,
this place is definitely haunted.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
The night I closed, oh my gosh, it was just
so crazy I did. There was no furniture in the house,
so I had some air mattresses and I was sleeping
on while I was laying in one of the rooms.
I didn't know which, you know, like when you go
into a place and we, at least I used to
and I probably still do, like where's the most active area,
what time of day is the most active, you know whatever,
and so I didn't ask what room was the most active.
(19:08):
And so I'm just sleeping and trying to sleep in
one of the rooms and I hear the door handle jiggling,
and then I hear footsteps by my head and I'm
on the air mattress, so I'm close to the floor
and I'm like, it's walking next to my head. And
my friend said, isn't this what you wanted? I'm like,
shut up, yes, yeah. Sometimes yeah, sometimes.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
You get what you wish for.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
And then you're like, maybe I didn't.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Really know what I was getting into. I love that though.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
That must have been such an exciting time though when
it actually happened and you're there, there's no furniture yet
and you just have this blank slate, and so what
were your plans? Did you intend to kind of open.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
It for ghost tours? Were you going to live there?
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Like?
Speaker 1 (19:51):
What was your intention?
Speaker 3 (19:52):
My you two wasn't to never live here. I mean,
it's it's a big house. It's a gorgeous house, but
it's not I never intended to and I won't live
here because I live an hour away, and well, I
will go to locations and investigate. And I always just
kind of joked like, oh my gosh, if there were
a place for sale and haunted, how amazing would that be?
(20:14):
And I, you know, it just happened to just I
don't know if it's luck or what it was, but
come across this house and so I don't know what
took place. I don't even think they knew all of
the deaths that were in the home. It's had nine
that I know of nine documented deaths. I don't know.
I know every owner that's lived here has died here,
So I do not.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
I don't want to live here, right, What.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Did I think well, my kids, they might appreciated it
for business, like, oh, add another number. I mean that
sounds weird.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
No, that's fair though, I mean.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
I'm gonna go somewhere, so why not the villain. I
don't know, it sounds that sounds a little morbid, but
it's still new. Things happen and it still freaks me out.
The footsteps will always make me uncomfortable. Last night, I
had a small event here and we heard it. Well,
I was coming get in the hallway on the second floor,
and I tell everyone, I don't like that second floor.
(21:08):
If I'm here spending the night by myself, I don't
like that second floor, and I won't come up here
if I'm spending the night loan. But if there's one person,
even if a friend of mine is here and they
go to Walmart, I'm fine. I will go anywhere in
this house. But so there were people here last night,
but I'm the only one walking down the second floor
hallway and I heard I thought was kind of like
a lady moan or hum or something. So I lean
(21:32):
over the banister and I'm like, who made that noise?
Nobody did, and so I got on. I have cameras
all around the house since I don't live here for security,
but also they pick up the craziest stuff. So I
got on the camera and it's a baby. It sounds
like a newborn wow, crying and I have obviously I
haven't posted it yet, but I'm going to today. But
(21:53):
it's just so new stuff like that. We've captured babies crying,
but this is a it's a different kind of cry.
I don't know. It's so new things all the time,
glowing eyes and where are those coming from? I don't know.
Oh my goodness, there's so many different things that happen,
and I'm sure maybe it's, you know, with all the
people coming in, maybe it's somebody brought something, or maybe
(22:15):
I did, or maybe it's something attached to this stuff.
I don't know. So I'm not the best at explaining
like what or who is at the villa because we
also there's something that mimics people, and that's so I've
heard my dad talking, but I don't think it's him,
and that sounds weird, but I just don't. I just
don't think it. I just feel it's not him. Somebody's
(22:35):
captured a little girl on the second floor, and I
just don't feel it's a little girl. But for some reason,
when we go to the basement and I hear a kid,
I feel it's a kid. So I don't know. If
I don't think I have a gift, some people will
say yes, No, I don't know. I think the more
places I go, it feels like it's something is opening
up a little bit more that I can. I'm hearing
(22:56):
more my friends that I were talking about the other day,
like we are hearing more things just out loud, just
sitting around. And I don't know if it's if we
are opening ourselves up more or we're just hear more
and we know the house better. I don't know what
it is. But still the new things that happen are
it never gets old. I'll just say that that's what
I mean.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
No, that's fair.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
I mean so I think I know, just on a
personal level, having investigated so many different places, I feel
like over time, I wouldn't say that I'm, you know, psychic,
but I do think you just start to get kind
of not necessarily more open, but you're just aware of
that different feeling the more you're around it, Like you know,
I can usually yeah, I can usually walk into a
(23:39):
location even if I'm not there on like a ghostly
on ghostly business, you know, I'll walk in and be like, whooh,
there's something here, you know, like I can just feel
the difference, And I just think you acquire that over time,
So that might be part of it. And I do
think there's a big There's something to the fact too
that you're there so often that they feel more comfortable
(24:00):
around you, and so that could be it too. But
my question is like, so what did you furnish the
place with? Did you bring in antiques?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
And everything I did? So nothing came with the house. Well,
there is a rocking chair that one on a lady
had passed away in nineteen sixty nine, Goldie or Isabel Altis,
so that came with the house. Everything else I brought
in and Facebook Marketplace, antique stores, estate sales. Estate sales
are my favorite because I'm not a haggler. Yeah, I
(24:31):
will not ask for I'm like, there's the price, I
will take it. So they're my favorite because you can't haggle. Yeah,
I don't know, but I I it's been so much
fun and it's not my we like where I live
it or my house. It's very like bright colors modern.
It's the more weird the better. That's just my taste.
(24:53):
And so this was like very different. But it's been
so much fun because it's just so unique. It's just
the ornate, the woodwork, it's just crazy. And also the
furniture is a little more, is a little daintier, and
I don't have to ask for help and moving it.
So that's what I love the most about it. But no,
(25:13):
it brought all of it in getting on zillow. If
anyone types in thirteen oh one Kansas Avenue can see
what it looked like when I bought it. You can
see the shag carpet, tan walls, and it's still even
though I didn't do anything to the house constructurally, just painting,
having the walls painted and bringing in different furniture. You're like,
what room is that? It looks completely different. I love
(25:35):
that because it was in this it was decorated for
the seventies, which I get. But I'm glad they had
the shag carpet because when we pulled the carpet up,
all we've done so far is just vacuum.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
So they covered up wood floors. I imagine, right, They
love doing that in the seventies, they covered up.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
All those beautiful wooden floors.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Oh my gosh, yes, yes, and then the popcorn ceilings.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Oh yeah, that's always great too. Yeah, it's so funny.
I live in a three hundred year old house and thankfu, yeah,
it's an adventure, but thankfully it's part of like a
historic preservation effort, so everything is still original inside. But
I'm watching where I live because I live in New England,
and I'm sure you see this too, you know, some
(26:18):
of these.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Old houses, especially lately.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
This happened back in the seventies where people were either
gutting or tearing down Victorians by like like on a
crazy level.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
And now here, at least.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
In New England, people are moving into these Victorians and
they're just they're ripping out everything, painting them white, putting
in these big, like open air modern kitchens.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
And I'm like, we're doing the same thing we did
in the seventies.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
And it's like, you know, you know what's funny. You
say that because I have my real estate license, and
so right before I got on the call with you,
I was down the street showing a house to my
friends who want to see this house forever and it's
for fail now and so we go in. It's I'm
trying to think it's around the same time period as
(27:06):
my house, so late eighteen hundreds. But you go in
and it's all white and all brand new, and then
I was like, that had a little bit of the
exposed original brick, but that was it, and it made
me kind of sad. Yeah, I think now that I
get it, like, don't touch it.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Yeah, I just you know, I consider like someone like
you and like me.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
We're like we're stewards for history at.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
This point, like right, you know, whenever you think of ghosts,
like you are preserving that house and so that on
its own is such a wonderful undertaking. So cheers to that,
no matter what happens there on a ghost level.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Thank you. That's funny also because I will say, like,
you know, I can't obviously make the spirits appear. There
are going to be quiet nights. But you know, people
will write in the books downstairs if they experienced something,
but a lot of people will write, oh it's more
active if steps here, or it was quite until step
showed up, And I'm like, that's not true. People, So
(28:07):
I know that a lot of people ask me to stay,
and I'm like, I just like me. They do what
they want, when they want, how they want. Yeah, I
don't ask questions.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
It's funny though we I'm sure you probably already do this,
But like when I investigate a location, I always have
the owner kind of introduce me so they know that
like I'm supposed to be there, you know, because there
is sometimes they do get this comfort level with someone
who's associated with the property, either like an owner or
(28:38):
an employee or someone who lives there, and until they
kind of give them the go ahead, the ghosts, I
feel like sometimes are like, well I don't care about
these people, you know, So I.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Have never thought about that, that is, I haven't because
it's so it's when I start my tours, when people
check in and if they haven't been in before, obviously
I walk into the house, but we always go to
we start around the main staircase before we go to
the servant staircase, and so we're at the mainsrecase and
it's ninety five percent of the time it's like we
hear the footsteps coming around the landing, like who's here,
(29:08):
who's here? So that makes sense, like maybe I should
start doing that, because it's like they're coming around going
who's here today, who's Yeah, Yeah, that's a great idea.
I like it.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Yeah, I mean, it couldn't hurt to try it, you know,
because that'll help. Like if I'm in a place and
nothing's happening, I almost the almost the first thing I
do is call the owner or call someone who's familiar
with them and be like, can you come over here
and talk to them for me?
Speaker 1 (29:32):
So that is so nice.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
And then there's me. I'm like, I'll sell you and
it'll be a daycare center.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
I just oh, I love that. I'll sell you and
you'll be a daycare center.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Can you imagine the daycare center that moves in something?
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Yeah, people show up like you know what this was?
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Right? Like I love that?
Speaker 2 (29:58):
So okay, So how many so you say like this,
you have this place for ghost tours and whatnot. And
then so you have investigators coming in regularly and they
get to stay the night and they get to investigate,
and I'm sure you have ground rules right that, like
they have to be respectful and all of that fun stuff.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Yes, yeah, so that's great.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
So they come in and I mean, I love that
there are locations out there. People always ask like, how
do you get to investigate? How do you like, how
do I get started? And I love a place like
yours where it's like, yeah, you know, go support this
loving business, but also like go get your feet wet,
like this is the way you're in a controlled environment.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Like I just love that.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Yes, of course I have another question, though, what is
it about Atchison? So I did the Sally House already
this season weirdly, and when I found this place because
I was kind of researching, like I'm like, what locations
do I want to do? I didn't even realize they
were in the same town until I started really digging
in and I was like, oh my gosh, so what
(30:55):
is it?
Speaker 1 (30:55):
What's going on there? Steph?
Speaker 3 (30:57):
You know, I don't know. It's so weird because well,
Levenworth is the next town over, and my friends and
I we went to Levenworth yesterday and we're like, and
there's a prison and there's just big old buildings and cooled.
I'm like, so, who did the voting? What makes Atchison
the most haunted town in Kansas? And that's and I
don't know what makes it the most haunted. People say,
(31:20):
like the limestone in the water. I know there's limestone
in my basement. The Missouri River is right here, so
maybe that's it. I honestly don't know.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Yeah, I just think it's so interesting. And now it
also seems like the town has kind of leaned into it.
Is that correct, Like they have they control like the
Sally House tours and everything, so like the local government
is kind of they realize that that is bringing people
to the town.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Do they work with you regularly?
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (31:47):
They do. Oh, I just I love them. They're they're
just like haunted Atchison has been. In the beginning, it was.
It wasn't the easiest in the very beginning, just because
the new person. And I don't think I don't know
if people knew what I knew or didn't know what
I was doing, or you know, stuff like that. And
it's also a religious town. There's the college, and so
(32:11):
just I try, you know, I just need not well yeah,
I do need to be respectful, for I didn't want
to be obviously disrespectful to like, not everyone enjoys ghost hunting,
not everyone is a not agrees, but yeah, and I
want agrees about ghost hunting. So I wanted to make
sure the first couple of years, I was just it's
still kind of quiet. I still don't go around saying, hey,
(32:31):
look at me, look at me. I've had the house
seven years and it still feels like I'm the new
person out there because people still haven't heard about me,
which has also been nice because everything's been word of mouth.
So with that being said, the Chamber has been just
backing me up. And there are other locations in Atchison.
There's actually a new place that's going to start doing
investigations too. It's the antique store downtown called back Road Atlas.
(32:55):
So I mean they're embracing all of the haunted stuff
and not just during Haunted Sea. They will help me
out throughout the year since ghost are twenty four seven,
not just you know October. Yeah, so they've been amazing.
They've been amazing. Yeah, I also not it also doesn't
hurt that like Veliska or Malvern two hours door to
(33:18):
door and I am all for I'm one of those
weird people that think everyone should have a participation trophy.
I mean, I'm just that. So I just I will
spread the word on other places too, because you know,
if things are two hours away, like make a weekend
of it, or like go to my house and the
Sally House. You know, I just tell people don't just
do what may do all or spend more than one
(33:41):
day at a location, because you'll probably get more activity. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
No, I mean I love that you kind of do
like a little haunted vacation and kind of make a
few stops. And I mean I love that area in general.
It's just you know, I think it's kind of off
the beaten path and it's very interesting and you know,
having traveled through it many times because I keep finding
myself there even though I have not been to Atchison yet,
it's just it's a really interesting, like kind of got
(34:06):
a great small town feel. I love it there in
the summer. I think it's fun and you're right, it's
just like it's nice that they're kind of backing you
and they see the value in that.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Yes, and that you know, other people will not only
just be here, they will like I would do a
little boutique clothing for yes, right, and ask for their
business cards to put in my break room because I
just think when people are taking it three, there are
still stores open, so go like it helps support Atchison too,
So I think that that with the Chamber, I think
they just work with everybody and so that's that makes
(34:39):
it so nice that like if I want to have
or there is a tour group coming there and they
have nothing to do with Haunt stuff, but they're like
Saint Patrick's Day and mister mcinte is very irish. Yeah,
things like that. So like tour groups will come through
for that and just for the history of their architecture.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Yeah, and that's great.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
It's nice that it's not just for Haunted, even though
that's ninety nine percent of with the business.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
So okay, so if people want to on that, not
if people want to visit, like what do they do?
I'm guessing on social media you also probably post a
lot of this evidence that you're getting too, right.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
I do, I post and lot some of it is.
Lots of it actually is when I'm here by myself
and things just seem to happen. I don't know if
they do it. I think it's more active during the day.
People ask all the time, you know, if it's more
actually in the day or not. I think it's more
active during the day, probably because you know, I'm not
paying attention. So I will post things like that, like
I'm at the dining room table and something is just
(35:32):
whistled very loudly at me, and I'm like what, Which
is so nice? With the cameras because I won't investigate
by myself. I'm very brave, but that's with other people.
So when I'm here alone, maybe they know that too,
and so I will post things that happen when I'm
by myself here. But also I have a thing on
(35:53):
my website that there are cameras throughout the house and
I've will change them up. But three people can watch
cameras from their home for ten dollars a month for
like three cameras, and so they can like investigate from
home too. They don't have to even be here. Yeah,
that's creaty is nice. That's what I do at the
Paranormal Circle.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
I have cameras.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
I have them up in my attic on a bunch
of haunted artifacts and stuff.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
So I do the same thing.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
It's like you can just you can investigate from the
safety of your own home.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
So there you go.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Well, that's great, Okay, So if people want to visit
what is like your website and everything how can they
get in touch with you?
Speaker 1 (36:30):
What's the deal there?
Speaker 3 (36:32):
They can go to eighteen eighty nine Macinturvilla dot com
and my phone numbers on there. They can text me,
call me, send me a message, and there's a calendar
on there. People can just book online. I book seven
days a week. I only mark off I think two
weeks around Christmas time, but other than that all year long.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Well that's lovely.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Well, I'm really glad to finally have gotten to speak
with you. I'm looking forward to hopefully visiting in the
near future so I can see this for my I've
got a tour Atchison and see all that that town
has to offer. It's got quite the reputation, a lot
yet amazing. Well, thank you so much for taking the time.
And I really do appreciate it. You've been lovely.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
Yeah, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Today the Macinteer Villa feels frozen in time. It's still
decorated with period furniture and it's on the National Register
of Historic Places. It's also a home where history can
come to life, perhaps literally, because to all appearances, the
people from the villa's past have never left it behind.
I'm Amy Bruney and This was Haunted Road. Haunted Road
(37:53):
is a production of iHeartRadio and GRIMM and Miles from
Air and Minky. Haunted Road is hosted and by me
Amy Bruney, with additional research by Cassandra de Alba.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
This show is.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
Edited and produced by supervising producer Rima el Kali, with
executive producers Aaron Menke, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. Learn
more about this show over at Grimandmild dot com, and
for more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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