Full of Love and Life: Myrtles Plantation - "One of America's Most Haunted Houses" & Temple

After checking out the Windsor Ruins, we began our drive to New Orleans, Louisiana, where we would be staying for the next two days. However, while we were driving into Louisiana (about a half hour outside of Baton Rouge), we stopped at this place in St. Francisville to get a bite to eat:

After a little research about the home, I've also found out that this place is considered to be one of the most haunted places in America. Ooooohh! Eerie! (I am glad I didn't know this while we were there.)

The planation house was built in 1794 and first owned by David Bradford. The history of the home and its succession of owners is very interesting. Recorded hauntings of the house have been reported since the 1950's. Books and documentarys have been written about the home and of the years of haunting experiences that people have had.

Back of the house:

The restaurant was located in the back of the house. The building that is now a restaraunt used to be where the carriages were stored and also stables for the horses. Hence it's name - The Carriage House Restaurant:

Since this place is supposed to be haunted, we decided we had better take the tour and find out what it was all about.

Our tour guide - she grew up with the family that now owns it.

We were first taken into the foyer where our guide told us about this haunted mirror, you can see some of the streak marks and fingerprints:

Anytime someone died or was murdered in the house, the casket was placed underneath this mirror. It is said that the spirits were trapped inside this mirror and at times you can see their faces. There are finger prints and streaks on the mirror that cannot be scrubbed off. In fact, the owners have replaced the glass in the mirror several times and always within a few days the streaks and fingerprints return.

There are also several accounts of hearing the piano being played when no one was around. When someone would open the door to see who was at the piano, the playing would suddenly stop. However, as soon as they would leave, the piano would begin playing again, and it's always the same chords.

The second owner of the house bought his wife this chandelier that came from a French castle. The chandelier was not for sale but whatever this wife wanted, she got - thanks to her very wealthy husband. It has since been updated with wiring.

Our tour guide told us several stories of hauntings that have happened to employees and visitors alike. Several people had been murdered throughout the history of the house, including children. In fact, when we were just starting our tour, a couple walked out of the house who were staying in one of the upstairs rooms. They said that they had heard children playing and asked a mother who was on the tour with us if it was her two boys. The mother said no. There were no other children on the grounds. Our tour guide asked them where they heard the children and they pointed to the room at the end of the house. The tour guide said that they were pointing to the nursery where the murdered children used to play.

We later asked our guide to tell us a few more stories after the tour. She told us that she, herself, has experienced it. For instance, she was giving a tour with another guide to a group of people. In one of the rooms, the blanket on the bed suddenly picked itself up and threw itself across the room. It freaked everybody out and they all jumped back across the room.

We were shown this picture of the house where it actually captured the woman named Chloe (a mistress to the second owner of the house) who haunts the grounds. Chloe poisoned the wife and two children and they all died within hours. When it was discovered that Chloe was the cause of the deaths, she was hung outside the house in one of the trees. At the time the photo was taken, there was no one posing in the picture. National Geographic came and examined the photo to disprove that there was really wasn't a ghost in the picture. They couldn't, and in fact, they found two other ghosts in the picture as well. Up by the nursery window are two small images of children - it is believed to be the two children that are said to have been murdered by Chloe.

This is a bad copy of the photo, we got to see a very enlarged version at the house. So creepy!!!

Another story: Oprah's Winfrey's producer had come to the house to do a show about the haunted house (not sure when this happened.) She checked into one of the upstairs rooms and began to spend the night there. During the night, she felt feet and nails brushing back and forth against her knees while she lay in bed. She felt the contact so distinctly that she turned on the light to see who was there and she didn't see anybody. She found out that a woman had hung herself in that room, above the bed. She called up Oprah and told her that she was leaving and Oprah asked her to stay and finish filming. The producer told Oprah that even though she was the richest woman in the world, Oprah couldn't pay her enough money to stay and then she left.

This is the current caretaker's cabin by the house. The wood that was used to build it was from the slave's sleeping quarters from the other end of the plantation.

Front of the house:

At first Kelly and I thought it would be fun for all of us to spend a night in some of the rooms, but we were already heading to New Orleans that evening and so we stuck with our plans. However, after reading more about the experiences that other people have had with the home, I am now a little freaked out about the place and am kinda of glad we didn't stay there.