Research for my next column

So I've been doing a lot of research lately for my video commentary, the next and last assignment of the semester for this blogging class. Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of time to start the research until a couple of days ago, but since I've gotten to it, I have been absolutely taken by digging this stuff up.

To explain, I have been wanting to do a blog post on the house I currently have an apartment in. It's old and fancy, and that's all I've known about it. My idea was to blog about all of the architectural details of the house ...

... Until a friend of mine told me this amazingly scary ghost story! According to him, his brother's girl friend lived in one of the smaller apartments upstairs, and that apartment has a door that leads to the attic. That door is impossible to open, but we know it goes to the attic because the closet next to the door has a slanted ceiling, like it's supporting stairs above it. Also, when you look outside, you can see a small window that is part of the area behind the mysterious attic door.

Supposedly, the girl friend of the brother of my friend would hear things at night, but since it's an old house, she didn't think much of it. For whatever reason, her and her boy friend/my friend's brother decided to investigate the attic, and they somehow beat the door open (I think, these details weren't clear at the time I was told the story). Anyway, when they got to the attic, it appeared to be a sort of house worker's quarters, like the maid or someone lived up there. They said there was a sink full of dirty dishes, a piece of furniture that was falling apart, and some dusty old clothes ... all lying amongst old school police tape!

After they did this, the girl friend started having really vicious nightmares and feeling like someone was choking her in her sleep. She moved out not long after.

The apartment I live in, which is on the main floor of the house, is not haunted to my knowledge. Nothing strange has ever happened there, and I've never gotten any weird feelings. However, if you think about it, if there was a person who kept to the house like a maid or something, they probably wouldn't haunt the main floor ... they'd haunt wherever it is they spent the most time, which is the attic.

So maybe the attic of my house is haunted, I don't know. But the girl who moved into that apartment about a month after we moved into ours ... she didn't stay long. She was there at first, then she stopped coming back home at nights. There were times when we didn't see her for weeks at a time, and then she just moved out earlier this month. Why didn't she stay there? What possessed her to break the lease (expensive to do!) and leave so quickly?

I'll never know, because I never talked to her. For all I know, it could be something personal, maybe a family emergency ... but I have to admit, ghosts and ghost stories fascinate me, so the theory she was haunted out of the apartment is the one I've focused on the most.

I will not give away my secrets, but I was able to get into the apartment after she moved out to make a video of this mysterious door and its location. It's not long, because that apartment freaks me out.

I was in that apartment before that girl moved in and before I ever heard the ghost story, just to check it out since it was vacant. Both apartments upstairs were vacant, and my boyfriend and I enjoyed looking at them and seeing the various architectural details inside that are different than downstairs. Since our property manager is kind of intimidating (she's not mean, but we know we'd never want to piss her off), and since it was night, we made absolutely sure to shut off every light before we went back downstairs. Everything was fine the next day, but as the sun started going down again, we realized that a light was still on upstairs ... and it was in the bedroom of the allegedly haunted apartment! It was weird because I know we turned it off, we double checked everything.

Another time, when my parents were visiting, we heard voices in the stair well. They only lasted for a few seconds, like a short part of a conversation. The thing is, no one else was in the entire house except for us. That was also weird, and it creeped us out for a second, but we brushed it off later.

Anyway ... so I was going to research to see what exactly might have happened in that house. Did they even have a maid/house keeper person? Was someone killed? Did someone die violently? What were the lives of these people like?

As I've gotten deeper into my research, I've come across nothing that suggests anything terrible happened in the house. It is interesting how old the house is, though, because it was built in 1889. Here's some history about the people who lived in it first:

From Buffalo County and Its People (1916):
Dr. C. Van Dyck Basten, a prominent and valued representative of the medical profession in western Nebraska, who has practiced continuously in Kearney since May, 1883, was born at Kingston, Ulster county, New York, on the 25th of May, 1859, and is one of the three surviving members in a family of five children who were born of the marriage of George W. and Esther (Bevier) Basten. He was reared upon his father's farm with the usual experiences of the farm lad and acquired his early education in Ulster Academy. For two years he read medicine under the direction of Drs. Crispell & Smith, at Kingston, and later continued his studies with Dr. W. C. Goodno, of Philadelphia, as his preceptor. Still later he entered the Hahnemann Medical College in 1879, remaining a student in that institution for two years, but owing to failing health was compelled to relinquish his studies for a time. Later he went to Iowa and completed his medical education in the medical department of the State University at Iowa City, receiving his degree in 1883. Since that time he has taken numerous post-graduate courses in New York, Chicago and elsewhere, and by continued study and investigation keeps abreast with the most scientific research and progress.

Dr. Basten began the practice of his profession at Kearney in May, 1883, and has since here remained, winning early recognition as one of the foremost physicians of this part of the state--a position which he has since retained. He is ever careful in the diagnosis of his cases and his judgment is seldom at fault in regard to the outcome of disease. His professional duties are most conscientiously performed and his sympathy and consideration are elements in his popularity as well as the skill which he displays in practice.

On the 24th of November, 1885, Dr. Basten was married to Miss Adah Seaman, of Kearney, and they have an adopted daughter, Mary Edna. The religious faith of the family is that of the Methodist church, and Dr. Basten is connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and with the Masonicúfraternity, in which he has attained high rank, being now a Knight Templar. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, and although he keeps well informed on the questions and issues of the day he does not seek office. His membership along professional lines is with the Buffalo County and the Nebraska.

So now I'm less interested in the ghost story and more interested in the history of the house in general. For example, there are lots of very nice Victorian and Queen Anne style houses in our neighborhood, but ours is the most rundown and one of the very few that have been turned into apartments. What happened? Who owns the house now, and is it still in the family? If not, why not? I just have so many questions about why the house, which was big and beautiful, has been left to basically fall apart. I know it's falling apart because I live there and have to deal with the crooked windows and the porch boards being shoved out of place due to the house basically sliding off the foundation. There are cracks all over the walls, though they are covered in a bright shade of yellow. It's sad, but I feel a connection to this house because it's just so beautiful. If I had the money, I'd buy it and put it all back together again.

Here are some other documents I found about the house and that family from Historic Houses of Pioneer Park Neighborhood. Clicking on the images will make them bigger.