Ghost Hunting at Haven Bakery
I got to go on an interesting ghost hunt a couple of nights ago, to a very scary place. A group of my boyfriend’s college mates invited my boyfriend to go with them to a haunted house, and I asked to tag along. We pulled into the vegetation shrouded driveway at around midnight. An old, faded, partially-hidden-by-trees, huge business sign stood high on our left. It said rather happily, Welcome to Haven Restaurant and Bakery. We were in the right place.
Even though there is a huge iron fence blocking public entrance, there is a secret way in. Once we were inside, an amazing two-story structure loomed before us, about 100 ft up the drive. In the dark (you know that midnight kind of dark), it reminded me of an old cotton plantation mansion. Dilapidated, of course. Like the one in the movie, Fletch Lives, but with broken out windows, and broken down walls. Up the road another 200 ft or so is a house, I am told, where a former owner lived. Also there is a barn on the property. I saw neither the barn nor the house, and to be honest, I didn’t want to that night. I was creeped out enough.
The vegetation skirting the grounds was thick, and jungly. To the right, somewhere inside all the greenery, a rushing brook could be heard. The sound of croaking frogs was deafening, until they stopped and left an eerie silence - but that was later. To the right of the Bakery are public restrooms, very much like they’d have in a park, or at the beach. It made me think that at one time the Haven Restaurant and Bakery must have been an incredibly beautiful, charming, refreshing place to come for an outdoor or indoor brunch. I imagined outdoor seating, possibly with umbrellas, and cute little bistro tables and chairs. People would sit out there, by the bubbling brook, eating their fresh hot scones, and just-baked-this-morning Danishes, and drink hot chocolate or just-brewed coffee. Kids would be running around in their Sunday best - little girls with Shirley temple curls, and lacy dresses.
We went inside the Bakery and took a look. Interestingly, the old bakery stove is still there, as is an authentic stainless steel bakery rack. I didn’t look closely, but I’ll bet there are lots of telltale signs of a sudden departure, and no one eager to reclaim property from there. I heard tell one girl found a teddy bear there which belonged to the daughter of the previous owner. I also heard rumor that there was a table there with blood on it - never wiped off.
There happened to be present another ghost-seeking group at the same time we were there. One of their bunch, a pleasant young man came to share with us of another nearby haunt. He seemed well-versed on the goings on in the area, so I asked him what the story was about The Haven Bakery and Restaurant.
He told us that a former owner had lived there with his small daughter. They ran the restaurant, a busy establishment, and were happy as jays. One day the owner had to go out of town for business. He left his daughter in the care of one of his employees. Unfortunately, while dad was gone, young daughter went down into the basement and somehow, I think accidentally, ended up hanging herself, and dying. When dad came home and heard about his dead child he went insane with grief, and rage. He went into the restaurant and killed several employees and customers. Then he stacked the bodies in the same restrooms I mentioned a few moments earlier. He then went into his house, and hung himself dead. It is said that the hook he hung from is still exactly where it was - in the living room I believe.
I don’t know if it’s true. I intend on going to the local area library and finding out if such a massacre really took place in that out-in-the-country community. I did feel the place was eerie and probably haunted. One of the guys we were with said his friend had felt someone touch him on the back while going up the stairs…and another girl had fallen into the basement - was pushed is more like it - and immediately was attacked by a wire that started wrapping itself around her legs…I have read that the hanging girl’s apparition can be seen in the basement. As well as the father, and other figures hanging around the place.
Me, myself? While standing in one of the rooms (which struck me right off as being one of the creepiest) I was suddenly covered with gooseflesh, while a chill ran up my spine. At that exact moment the frogs stopped croaking and someone said, ”It’s not a good sign when the frogs go quiet like that.”
We didn’t stay long, about an hour, but I would love to go back and do photos, and recordings. After I visit the library though. Regardless, I feel something IS there. That’s all for now.
Till later - happy hauntings!
Gina
