A Ghost On Arsenal Street

I just read a blog that had a supernatural element to it and it reminded me of a story that happened to me in a St. Louis haunted house.

A few years ago I was looking to buy a house in St. Louis and had looked at quite a few when I came across a home that met all of my needs and was priced considerably below market.  I asked my agent what was the matter with it and she told me that, as far as she knew, there was nothing "wrong" with the house.

I wrote a full-priced offer on the property located on Arsenal Street in St. Louis, MO and I moved in a few weeks later.  

The next day after I had moved in I took the day off from work to recuperate from the move.  I was laying on my bed when I heard a clinking noise coming from the bathroom.  I couldn't imagine what it was, so I got up to investigate.  I looked at all of the things in the room that could have accounted for the noise.  The window was shut and secure.  The medicine cabinet was closed.  The light bulbs were intact and the glass light covers over the bulbs were just the way that they should have been.

I went back to my bed and soon heard another, louder clink.  I then hear the sound of glass breaking in the bathroom.  I jumped up to investigate and found one of the glass light covers broken, with the light bulb still in tact.

I scratched my head and couldn't figure out why the glass light cover had broken, but didn't waste a bunch of time worrying about it.  That night as I laid sleeping I heard a commotion coming from the bathroom.  I ran to the room and found a newspaper that I had folded shut and sat on top of the ca mode scattered on the floor, the shower curtain, which had been tucked inside of the tube, pulled back and outside of the tub and a plastic soap dish, which had been inside the tub - behind the shower curtain across the room on the floor.  Hmmmm, the window was closed, the home had hot water heat so there was no wind coming from any duct work and I was alone in the house????

Over the next several days there were a couple of other odd happenings.  Door knobs shaking, doors slamming, items moved, etc.  Again, I lived in this house by myself!

I decided to investigate and called my title company and they faxed me the abstract of the title that showed where a Nicholas and Anna had bought the house together approximately 50 years earlier, but only Anna had sold the house to the people that I had bought it from.  

I asked my next door neighbor what had happened to Nicholas and my neighbor, who had lived in her house for about the same length of time that Nicholas and Anna had lived in theirs, started to cry.  She told me that Nick had died on the way to the hospital after having had a heart attack in the house.  Mystery solved.  Nick hadn't died on the way to the hospital, he had died in that bathroom!

I decided to have a talk with Nick.  I called out to him and told him that if he was there that it was cool, but that he couldn't go around breaking things.  If he happened to see a light, that he should go to it!

After our "talk" things calmed down.  Occasionally Nick would make his presence known (He especially liked freaking my son and my nephew out), but he never broke anything else.

I lived in that house for 5 years and during that time Nick came to almost be like a really quiet roommate.  It might have been my imagination, but it seemed to me that he became a benevolent force in the house.  I think that he came to like me and my family.  When it came time to move, I was sad to go.  I was going to miss the old house, but more so I was going to miss Nick.  I hope that he found peace and if it was possible and he wanted to, I hope that he moved on to a better place.

Many of you, especially ones of you who have read my other posts, are not going to believe this story.  All I can say is that I have no reason to lie.  Oh, I did disclose Nick's presence to the couple that bought the house from me.  As far as I was concerned, Nick was one of the homes best features!

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. 

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell is president of ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.  ValueList is a full-service/discount real estate and mortgage company serving the St. Louis real estate market.