KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Do you believe in ghosts? If not, a tour of one of Michigan's most haunted sites might make you reconsider. Whether it's a door creaking open after you know you shut it, or the eerie sound of a piano in the middle of the night— it's said that someone is always awake at Henderson Castle.
The bed and breakfast sits right across the street from Kalamazoo's largest cemetery. It was built in 1895 by Frank Henderson, one of the wealthiest men in Michigan at the time.
Henderson passed away in 1899, but Francois Moyet, the Castle Guardian, says Henderson never left. He believes both Henderson and his wife, Mary, still linger.
"As you can imagine, he had a lot of unfinished business, which is taken care of now," Moyet told FOX 17.
He added that there's nothing necessarily evil about the castle's permanent residents; however, if Mary doesn't like you, she'll tell you to leave.
"We had a couple checking in, and they love the place. And, within 20 minutes, they run out and I'm like, 'what's wrong?' And they're like, 'we gotta go, we gotta go,'" he said.
Mary's old bedroom is said to have had the most paranormal activity out of all the rooms in the castle because the doors would often open and close on their own. Moyet believes she was looking for her old gems.
"We found it. So, now she's happy and she's not looking for the treasure, and therefore, there is no activity in the room like it used to be," he told FOX 17.
However, Mary isn't the only woman believed to be roaming the castle still.
The Lady in White made herself known for the first time in 1990 when a director from Kalamazoo College came to take pictures.
"This is Frank Royce playing the piano we just saw upstairs," Moyet pointed out. "And, when you get the picture back, this 'Lady in White,' which is here, trying to turn the piano music page."
A medium who came to visit the castle in the past said there's also a six-year-old girl named Christine who still lingers.
"She was on the scaffolder playing and trying to write her name on the top of the beam here with some stain and her finger, as you can see. And Frank sees her and keeps telling her not to play on the walk side," Moyet explained, adding the girl was startled, fell to the ground, broke her neck and passed away.
He says he tried sanding the beam and repainting it many times, but like the little girl's spirit remains.
"We don't need to have a fake haunted house. Here we have true, verifiable, authentic phenomena happening all the time," he said.
The Henderson Castle is hosting a Haunted Halloween Tour from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. To buy tickets or book an overnight stay, click here.
