Ghost Stories of the Southern Tier 3: Phelps Mansion & Barrons Inn

Orbs

According to THEPARANORMALGUIDE.com, Orbs are brightly colored, translucent balls of light that appear in photographs of supposedly haunted places. Many people believe that orbs are ghosts, but a consensus has formed that orbs are usually an artifact of digital photography. The vast majority of orbs that show up in photographs are merely the reflection of the camera's flash off of dust particles. It is important to note that with most orb photographs, the photographer does not report having seen the orb himself while taking the picture. This supports the theory that orbs are just reflections of light off of dust particles.

However, in some small number of instances where orbs were witnessed contemporaneously with taking the picture in a haunted place, it is possible they represent paranormal phenomena. Orbs should not be confused with ball lightning

 Barrons Inn, Greene

According to numerous reports, stories and tales, one of the most haunted places in the is the Barrons Inn, route 12 in Greene.

 Now closed, several people have died on the property over the years, including a young girl who lived in the building before it was an inn. The little girls name was,  Anna-Belle.

The young girl was deaf and mute, and her family thought she was mentally handicapped and kept her locked in the basement. According to what I have been told, one night Anna-Belle pulled stones from the basement’s foundation and managed to escape. She snuck up the back stairs and her father saw her and tried to grab her, but the little girl pulled away and fell down the stairs to her death. Or was she pushed down the stairs? No one really agrees on that story, but her spirit is said to remain in the building.

Baron’s Inn has an array of ghost stories associated with the old building.  One of the woman who started the inn and her family members are said to haunt the restaurant. One, it has been said, does not like the idea of female bartenders.

Some people from the Norwich Evening Sun did a Ghost Hunting trip there in 2008, and reported 'toys playing with each other,' and the 'Feeling that energy, similar to an electrical charge, ' as two of the girls put their hands close together, in the basement.

There's a man who killed himself in the attic, someone was hung himself on a tree outside and I'm told several other spirits haunt the place.

Last year, My friends Cristina Frank and Howard Manges from WBNG TV, Action News went on a Ghost Hunt at the Barons Inn in Greene.  I spoke to Cristina about it.

 'I may be more susceptible to believing things than most people, but Howard and I both felt that there was definitely something going on there,' when talking about the Barons Inn.

'When we were in the basement, our guide told us that if we felt a cold breeze, that would signify that a spirit of a ghost as passing by. I have to say, that I don't know that I felt that, but when he was talking about the little girl, Anna-Belle and what happened to her in that basement, I most definitely felt something that felt like a hand raking across the top of my head.' said Frank.

She further said that they took pictures and saw what appeared to be an 'orb' floating in mid air. Howard, she said thought is was cool. She however called it, creepy. Watch....

http://www.wbng.com/news/video/The-Story-of-the-Barons-Inn-132908678.html

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Phelps Mansion

Sherman David Phelps arrived in Binghamton with his 2nd wife in 1854 with $100,000 in cash and opened a bank. He started the gas company, and invested his wealth in the city’s cigar manufacturers. He also ran for Mayor and won, by one vote.

Phelps is long forgotten by most, but his elegant home with its high, paneled rooms still sits beside the public library in downtown Binghamton. Things also happen inside the house: people hear strange voices, candlesticks are misplaced.  According to legend, Sherman Phelps was very a tall, dark,  austere man who wasn’t very well liked.” “I think that he built this place as his showcase.

Isaac Perry, one of the leading architects of the time was hired by Phelps to build, what some would call his 'monument to his ego.’ (Perry was also commissioned to build the Binghamton Inebriate Asylum,   later known as the Binghamton Psychiatric Society, which we will talk about on Halloween.)  The mansion is impressive with black walnut in the front hall and central staircase, rosewood and maple in the parlor and golden oak in the dining room. Each room has a different fireplace. One with laurel leaves in steel and brass. Another in the dining room has carved fruits and fish.

Ghost stories, as you can read in Elizabeth Tuckers 'Haunted Southern Tier,' about Phelps, suggest that his pride makes it impossible to leave his mansion. Robert Keller, who was not only a docent of the mansion, but also a trained medium, explains why Phelps won't leave:

‘Sherman Phelps has not gone over. He is what we call a hoverer. It seems to him that no time has passed since he died, but he can see things happening in his house. Now the things that he does sometimes can be very strange. He doesn't like people in the house, especially when we get big crowds, which we have had in the past; we've had hundreds and hundreds of people. He doesn't like that.’

I have been told of 3 or 4 pound objects that have suddenly jumped out of the fireplace.  Candlesticks have been mysteriously taken out of their holders and have been found either; across the room someplace, or placed horizontally on the non-level candlestick holders. There seems to be no way anyone can knowingly accomplish that feat.

There was the addition of an elevator to make the house wheelchair accessible. It has certain safety features that need to be engaged for it to operate. It's said the elevator travels between floors on its own. A psychic who came through on one of the house tours told her ghosts sometimes like to play with more modern things because they never had them when they were alive.

Here’s some more spooky info on Sherman Phelps and Family. All the family seemingly died within a few years of each other, and all the funerals were held right there in the house.  Robert Phelps (son) was the last to go.  And son Arthur died on Halloween day. All toll, the family of Sherman Phelps only lived in the family mansion for 12 more years. There were no decedents.

For years known as the Monday Afternoon Club, The Phelps Mansion Museum http://www.phelpsmansion.org/  at 191 Court Street,Binghamton still stands as a Gem of Binghamton area architecture. You should check it out, and see if the elevators are still operating by themselves.

You can read more about area haunting’s, in Elizabeth Tucker's Book,'Haunted Southern Tier," available at Amazon.com, River read Book Store and Barnes and Nobel in the Town Square Mall.