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Surprise Visitors: Strange Events May Suggest Ghostly
Presence At The Suffolk Visitors' Center
By Phyllis Speidell
The Virginian-Pilot
© Friday, October 31, 2003
SUFFOLK — A year ago, the city's visitors' center moved into North Main Street's Prentis House, one of Suffolk's oldest buildings.
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The original, 200 year old Prentis House, located in Suffolk, VA,
before it was refurbished for the Visitors' Center.
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Everybody expected the creaking stairs and weird noises typical of a 200-year-old house, especially one that had looked for years like a haunted house right out of the movies.
What they didn't expect were footsteps where nobody was walking, doors slamming by themselves, faucets inexplicably left running, lights that wouldn't turn off and a copy machine with a mind of its own.
"I have never felt frightened, but I have felt a warm aura escorting me to the back door and even to my car when I leave the building," said Angela Koncz, the visitors center coordinator.
Lynette Brugeman, the city's director of tourism, has said that a resident ghost could be an interesting addition to the staff.
That kind of thing gives the house an extra dose of romance, said Larry Weinstein, president of Science and Reason in Hampton Roads, which investigates supernatural claims.
"Obviously, I don't want to say that the people didn't see what they saw or hear what they heard," said Weinstein, a physics professor at Old Dominion University. "And I haven't been there, so I can't make an authoritative statement. What I can say is that there are frequently physical explanations for lots of these phenomena."
Not quite spooked, the employees and volunteers hold a leery affection for what some staff members still suspect might be a supernatural colleague.
"It's only spooky when you are here by yourself," said Theresa Earles, the tourism coordinator. "A ghost actually makes working here a little more adventurous."
As Earles and Koncz prepared to greet trick-or-treaters at the Prentis House tonight, they recalled a few of the eerier encounters.
There were the footsteps that they heard thudding up a narrow staircase — but nobody was there. Doors in the recently renovated building swinging open. A brass chandelier that turned itself on even after being switched off. Custodians arriving to clean in the morning and finding the hot water running in the new bathrooms — though the taps had been turned off the night before.
"Old houses have an interesting collection of noises," said Weinstein. "And one of the things that happen is that once people decide a house is haunted, everything is explained by the ghost."
A few visitors, especially in the parlor and conference rooms, indeed have asked if the house is haunted.
"We always wonder, but a ghost is more of a conversation piece than a threat," Koncz said.
The Federal-style three-story house with an English basement was a solid home befitting the status of its best-known owner, Peter Prentis. The son of a local judge, Prentis was the clerk of Nansemond County Courts in the mid-1800s.
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The oldest standing home in Suffolk, the three-story structure is
shown under restoration in compliance with the Association for the
Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.
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After remaining in the Prentis family for generations, the house was left vacant and deteriorating for 45 years until Chip Wirth, a Chesapeake contractor, refurbished it last year.
The crew working on the renovation hung up paper skeletons, and one wore a Halloween mask to peer out at passers-by. One chalked on a wall the word "REDRUM" — "MURDER" spelled backward, a reference to Stephen King's horror tale, "The Shining."
Peter Prentis' portrait now hangs where "REDRUM" once was.
Records show no dramatic deaths in the house, although there are accounts of an 1821 murder of a town constable, John Shelton, a few doors away, outside The Gardner Store just up the street.
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The restored Prentis House (click on image to enlarge).
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Stories aside, Koncz said she believed that if there is a Prentis House spirit, it's probably a child, given how it seems to clamber up steps, slam doors and delight in disconcerting a house full of adults — especially at Halloween.
Still, there's probably a less ethereal explanation.
"While there are certainly phenomena that you can't explain after the fact," Weinstein said, "just because you don't know what it is doesn't mean it's a ghost."
Reach Phyllis Speidell at 483-9161 or phyllis.speidell pilotonline.com.
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