This historic house in North Carolina was recently purchased by one of our friends. During renovation the workers experienced paranormal phenomena such as doors opening mysteriously and unexplained footprints. When we learned about the history of the house we decided to check it out.
Date: October 5, 2019
Location: Rockingham, NC
Investigators: Chris, Matt, Kate, El
Video Investigation:
Location History
The Leak-Scales house was built ca. 1870 for Walter F. Leak. He was a founder of the county’s first textile mill and was also in the NC Senate. The >5400 sq. ft. house currently has three kitchens and 10 fireplaces, and retains much of the original architecture.
In 1899, Leak’s children moved the entire house 100 yards from its original location. The house stayed in the family for many years and you can feel a sense of the history there. It is embellished with medallions, features a beautifully wide staircase, and has high ceilings and large bay windows. It also has a claw foot tub and a funky stove that pulls out of the wall.
We wanted to investigate because the workers renovating the house had already had some odd experiences. I had been to the house and loved the historic architecture and figured it was a good place to ghost hunt.
Our Experience
Rockingham is about 2 hours from where we are based, so our trip began in the afternoon daylight. We started out by examining the outside of the property. Lighting had recently struck the front yard and the burn mark was still noticeable in the grass.
Matt fired up the drone and we took some aerial shots and footage of the house. The birds were intent on attacking the drone so we had to cut that short.
The owner and workers agreed to be interviewed about their experiences.
Charles and Dylan told us about the front door opening unexpectedly. They were sitting in one of the front rooms eating lunch, when the heavy front door opened. There was no one there, and it shut slowly on its own.
We tested out the door and it was a very heavy door that stuck a bit as it closed. It seemed unbelievable that it would be able to open and close smoothly with no one involved.
They also related that one day they had left the kitchen cabinets open, and the next day found them all closed. I’m pretty sure this was just the owner closing them, but we left some of the open just in case we could catch something.
An Unexplained Footprint
Charles had pointed out the still-visible footprint on the dusty floor. He claimed it had appeared one day and it was odd because it was a bare footprint, not a shoe print. Since they were doing renovations it would have been very strange for someone to walk around barefoot, and the house was not accessible to anyone except the workers and the owner, who lived elsewhere.
My best guess at the footprint is that there may have been squatters using the house. Some of the windows weren’t secured and a person could have entered, although being barefoot is an odd choice. It also could have been there for quite a while, but it looked pretty fresh.
We added some baby powder to the area to see if we could catch more footprints. Nothing appeared that evening, though we left powder on the floor for the workers to check the next time they went in.
The Almost-Unexplained Phenomena
Our group split up into pairs so that we could investigate different areas of the house. Chris and Kate started off in the back kitchen and Matt and El began upstairs. We used a slew of equipment – laser grid, digital recorders, EMF meters, and temperature readers.
During one video recording, we had placed a temperature reader on a fireplace mantle. Afterward, we noticed the temperature had gone up about 8 degrees. But that may have been due to Chris standing near it (maybe she puts off a lot of heat?).
The mother-in-law suite drew me with its ashen walls and detailed outlines of former hangings.
We were momentarily mesmerized by the fireplace. A black garbage bag had been taped over it, and was rustling eerily. Most of the fireplaces were blocked off so it seemed out of place. However we realized the flue was open so it was just drafts from the chimney.
On the drive home, we were listening for EVP’s on the digital recordings and did a double take. There was a low loud rumble in the recording, but we later determined it was probably a semi truck driving by. The road by the house is not wide, but it seemed to be a popular truck route.
Did we capture paranormal evidence?
No, but we only spent a few hours in this creepy old house. Maybe we’ll go back and do an overnight visit.
One more thing I’m still perturbed by. There was a dried gourd hanging in a tree in the backyard. What the hell.
