A Grewsome Experience in Tarrytown, NY

Some ghost stories arrive with impeccable documentation—detailed locations, verifiable witnesses, corroborating records. Others come to us shrouded in mystery, their origins as elusive as the spirits they describe. This tale of a haunted Tarrytown house falls squarely in the latter category, and perhaps that’s fitting for a story this chilling.

Published in The Idaho Statesman on September 1, 1907, as part of a series on hauntings, this account describes events so disturbing that an entire household—parents, children, servants, and brave young men—abandoned their newly rented home after just a few nights. The author remains anonymous, the exact location unidentified, leaving us with only the testimony itself: doors that opened on their own, furniture that moved without hands, a watchman who fainted at what he witnessed, and most horrifying of all, the recurring vision of a murdered woman materializing from a dark stain on the floor. Whether you believe every word or suspect embellishment in the retelling, the story captures the very real terror that could grip a Victorian-era household when confronted with the inexplicable. We present the account here in its entirety, exactly as it appeared over a century ago.

One can’t help but smile at The Idaho Statesman‘s commitment to the delightfully archaic spelling “grewsome”—perhaps the editors in 1907 Idaho felt that “gruesome” was just too newfangled and modern for a proper ghost story. Or maybe someone in the composing room just had a fondness for Chaucer.

Below the break we present the “grewsome experience” as it originally appeared.

*The Idaho Statesman*, September 1, 1907

An experience which my sister’s family once had is perhaps the strangest of all.

They rented a house in Tarrytown and moved in, my sister and her husband, her two boys and three daughters and the servants. For some reason they did not immediately furnish or occupy a large room on the second floor. My sister’s husband locked all the doors and windows and they went to bed rather early the first night. They were much surprised the next morning to find every door unlocked and standing wide open. My brother-in-law could not understand it, but finally concluded that he must have been mistaken about having locked up. He locked up carefully that night and the doors were standing wide open the next morning.

Then they decided that some one must be entering the house each night with keys. So they notified the police and the house was watched the next night. The watchman was a new man in Tarrytown, but he was very vigilant, and he marched continuously around the house with drawn pistol. He saw no one enter the grounds, and yet when 2 a. m. came he glanced toward the front door and saw it standing wide open.

He rang the bell and aroused the entire family, who helped him search the house. but they found no one, so they went to bed again; the door was closed and the watchman continued his vigil.

That day a couple of friends of my nephews came to stay for a few days. They had been told of the strange occurrence and came ready to help find the intruder. They were healthy, fun loving boys of about the same ages as my nephews, viz., 19 and 20.

My sister decided to let the four young men sleep in the large second story room which had so far been unoccupied at night.

When they were getting the room ready a large dark spot was observed upon the otherwise clean floor near the window. A rug was thrown over it.

The four young men sat up until a late hour, swapping yarns, singing, playing the banjo and having a general good time. At the suggestion of one of the newcomers the doors of the rooms and even the front door were barricaded with furniture.

Tables, chairs, bureaus were piled against each door after it had been carefully locked.

The boys awakened in the morning, having slept rather badly, they said, and found that every article of furniture had been carefully and noiselessly removed and that the doors again stood wide open. The watchman was found in a dead faint in the yard. He had seen the front door open and had seen the furniture moving about inside, with apparently no one touching it. He resigned his post, and the boys volunteered in his place.

Two watched outside the house and two inside. They kept a bright light burning in their room on the second floor, and two of them sat there behind locked and barricaded doors.

About 2 o’clock one of the boys, a visitor, said to my sister’s son, “I see something coming out of that rug.” My nephew looked and acknowledged afterward that his hair stood up with fright.

Very slowly a rocking chair appeared on the rug, and in it the form of a young woman. Her head was lying back over the chair and her throat was cut.

My nephew and his friend could do nothing but clutch each other’s hand and sit still, almost petrified with fear, until the vision faded. Then they saw the furniture removed from the door, the key turned in the lock and the door opened.

When it was wide open they ran out into the hall. Looking down the stairs, they saw the front door opened, and they hurried down to meet the other young men. Those two had been watching the window of the second story room and had seen the same vision that the two inside had seen.

The next night the entire household camped out in that room and witnessed the same scene again. They moved out the next day.

Know this haunted Tarrytown house? We’re dying to hear more about it! Write us at ghost.editor@sleepyhollowcountry.com.