The Old Harden House of Camden, NY
My Inlaws Moved into One of Upstate New York’s Most Haunted Houses
The Realtor failed to mention that amenity to them.
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In 2001, my inlaws bought a beautiful Victorian home in Camden, New York. It was dilapidated and needed repair, but they fell in love with it and decided to move in and fix it up.
However, they were unaware of this house's history, except that it was built in 1840 and had been vacant for eight years.
The property search revealed that the place had changed hands multiple times, and residences in the house were short-lived.
They chalked it up to the fact that the house was old and needed restoration.
Regardless, for $34,000, this 1840, four-bedroom, two-bath, three-story house with a round room lined with tall led windows was a house flipper’s dream!
Move-in day foreshadowing.
On move-in day, I noticed their two dogs, Autumn, and Spuds, were particularly jumpy and nervous.
Autumn was an elderly Cocker Spaniel who was typically very mild-tempered and sweet. But not that day. Something about her was different.
She pulled against her collar and leash, refusing to go into the house at first, and so was carried in and set down in the foyer. She lay down by the front door, emitting a low growl as if to warn anyone nearby she was unavailable for petting.
I figured Autumn was out of sorts because of the new place, new smells, and new sounds; it makes sense, right?
Later in the day, as we were unloading the last of their things out of the U-Haul, we heard Spuds, their 5-year-old Lasa Apso with a severe underbite, barking hysterically.
His high-pitched bark echoed off the old wood and marble floors, filling the house with a warning that something was wrong.
We ran towards the bark to find Spuds standing in the center of the round room, focused intently on something.
My no-nonsense mother-in-law looked at her barking dog and then in the direction towards which he was barking, but nothing was there.
