Ghost Stories & Paranormal Encounters

How “They” Loved “Their” Home…..

Birmingham, Alabama, sprawls out, around and over, miles of hills and valleys. Before the first white settlers came to the area, the  Native Americans that lived in the region, would travel the area by negotiating the hill tops going around the valley. They stayed out of the valley, due to the fact that they believed that dark spirits resided there.

The Gulf Coast of Alabama, was settled much earlier, in the 1600s and early 1700s, than the mid and northern sections of the state, due to the exploration of the Spanish and the colonization by both the Spanish and the French.

With the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the expanding white settlers migrated up into the central portions of the state. Many were granted large tracts of land to farm, commonly known as “plantations”. The area that spawned Birmingham, was originally known as Elyton, founded in 1813. There were two brothers, who were granted large adjoining tracts of land, one tract was the land which is now East of Downtown Birmingham, and one was on the West. The plantation on the West side is still standing, known as the Arlington Home. Arlington Home, is on the register of National Historic sites, it is a museum to the Antebellum era, the home and gardens are open to the public for tours.

With the coming of the Civil War, the decline of the South, and the Reconstruction of the South, many things changed. No more were there plantations producing great amounts of cotton or the like. Speculators came from the North, as it became known that the area outside of Elyton, was rich with large deposits of iron ore, coal and limestone.

No other place in the world has such significant deposits of these three minerals in such close proximity. With this discovery, a new city was planned and founded in 1871. The city grew very fast, as did the industries. Between 1902 and 1912 four large office buildings had been constructed in the heart of downtown, on the corners of 20th Street and 1st Ave. The impressive group of early skyscrapers were constructed of what was the new I-beam steel, which lead to the nickname, “The Heaviest Corner in the World”. Of course, with all of the growth and all of the industry, came people. Many of these people were becoming very prosperous. So most of the new construction of homes, were homes of a very large and grand scale.

Beautiful Victorian manors, many styles, most still standing, all along the streets and boulevards which were developed with the growing city.In those days the city boasted several trolley lines which ran up into the residential areas on the hills surrounding downtown.

My story takes place in what was one of the first exclusive neighborhoods of the city. It is called Glen Iris Park. Glen Iris Park was the first development to require that all of the homes be to a certain grandness. All of the homes face the park, making a ring around the central park area, the outside of the park is walled with red brick,gates are at the entrances, pillars at the gates hold what used to be gas lights, and gas lights ring the entire park, in fact, this was the first neighborhood in the early city to be light by gas lights. The homes are all now marked with Historic Register plaques, the first was constructed in the 1880s the last one in 1923. It is in this home I had my experience with “Them”.

I was seeking an apartment on the beautiful,historic Southside, with all of the historic homes and large beautiful trees. At this time I worked on Southside and attended college there, too. Through my job at a bookstore, I heard about a lady who had an apartment for rent. I called her, met with her and her daughter, at their home in Glen Iris Park. Until I went to meet her, I was unaware of the existence of the Park. When I drove in I was very impressed with the setting.

I found the home immediately because it was the first one on the right as you entered the park. It was from my favorite era, the 1920s. “How beautiful! How Perfect!” I thought. It was a fabulous Tudor style home, stucco and red brick with a pitched slate roof. It turned out to be quiet large on the interior, with many attributes from the era in which it was built. Arched doorways,casement windows, wooden floors, many built-in closets and cupboards in the hallway. Beautiful tile work in the bathrooms and kitchen. As it was built on a hillside, what had looked like two stories when I first arrived turned out to be three, as it had a garage and storage/work shop area under the house, the garage was accessed from the back.

She showed me the apartment, which had been the maids quarters, and was the entire third floor of the home. It consisted of a large bedroom/sitting room, a bathroom and a deluxe 1920s kitchen (it still had a 1920s top loading circular dishwasher, too! It worked!). The apartment had its own entrance through the kitchen, up a flight of metal stairs. I was very excited and happy to be moving into such a beautiful place!

My landlady worked for the Board of Education, so she had Summers off. On day she tells me that she will be going home to South Alabama for visit to her parents, “Please, keep an eye on everything while I am away” she asked.  “Of course, I will, have a great time, and don’t worry about anything.”, said I. I knew that she was divorced and had an ex-husband, who she was a bit afraid of coming over and maybe taking things from the house.

While she and her daughter were away, I would check the mail, and take it down to her home. I could access the main part of the home, by opening a door in my living/sleeping area and descending a staircase. One weekend I did not have to work, and I was taking advantage of sleeping late. I was awakened by the sound of the hallway closets opening and closing and what sounded like furniture being moved in the living room. It was pretty loud to wake me, a deep sleeper. I sat up and listened for a few moments, looking out of the window, trying to see her car in the driveway. “Oh, well” I thought “She’s back and must be putting away her luggage. Maybe she brought home some new pieces of furniture or something from her parents house, or an antique shop, or whatever.” So, as I was not ready to get up, I just laid back down,blocked out the noise and went back to sleep.

Later, I got up, took a shower, got dressed and decided to go down and talk to her about her vacation. I opened the door to the landing and called “Ouida? Ouida? Are you back?” as I descended the staircase, “How was your trip?” I got to the bottom, expecting to see the living room furniture rearranged. To my surprise, all of the furnishings were just as they had been! I proceeded to walk all though the house, looking for Ouida and her daughter Echo and any sign that they were back. Not a sign! Everything was as it had been the last time I had been down! Then I became disturbed to think that the evil ex had been there while the home was under my watch! Oh, my! What if he had taken something that I could not discern?

From then on I could not wait until they arrived home from the trip! After a few more days they did return. I went immediately to her and explained what had happened. “I am so sorry!” I said ” I am sure that you should look around to see if “He” took something. It never occurred to me that he could have pulled into the back and come up the basement stairs.” “Don’t worry!” she said “It was just “Them”. “They’ve” done that before, when I have been here. I know what you heard, I have heard it, too. At first it scared me, but, when I figured out what it was, I just accept that “They” are doing it because “They” love this house, and “They” want to be sure that everything stays in good order and true to the place.”

Then she told me the story of how she and her ex had purchased the home from the original builders and owners of the house. They had to go though much effort to have permission to build their home in the park due to the last one being constructed was in 1910. They had built the home with great care to the details and fabulous materials. It was their dream home. They had lived in it their entire married life of fifty years. They had to sell the home due to the wife becoming unable to live outside of a nursing facility. So they had hoped to sell the home to a nice young couple, who reminded them of themselves. She told me that the lady had passed away and shortly after that the man had passed away, too.

“Yes, they loved each other and the home they made here so much, they came back here.” she said “I have never felt threatened by them, but, I have asked them to stop moving things around”. She was right, I never felt threatened, all I ever felt was a strong sense of serenity about the place, it was almost like an enchantment. Just, at times, “They” were a little loud and wished to let “Their” presence be known. Not all hauntings are bad things.

I have more encounters like this one to share. Thank you for reading my story, and if you are ever in Birmingham, don’t forget to take a little drive around Glen Iris Park.

Written by Camille Love for TrueGhostTales.com, Copyright 2009