The Sweet Up and Down

I thought the night was eventful.

After listening to various songs (Outside by Staind from the Family Values Tour, Drive by Incubus and various Bloodhound Gang) I got an urge to go to 87, an old abandoned house just outside of Baldwin. Randy, too, wanted to go so after I got off work and called Audrey, Randy and I headed out to Baldwin. We knew we'd have to park a ways away and ended up parking about a quarter mile away and walked down the dark gravel road to the driveway to the house. We hopped over the fence and trudged up the driveway which is also quite a walk. The house still stood at the top of the hill, decaying, like it has since the 1850s.

We followed the driveway along the southern part of the house and checked the graves to make sure they were still unbothered. Although the small rock wall that surrounded the headstone was a bit more ransacked, the stone was still there--in six pieces--but still there. Randy hadn't been up to the house in over five years and I haven't been since the summer of 2006 but time is started to show on that property. Only a couple barns remain, and two have collasped. All the windows to the house have been broken which could be a sign of vandals or just time itself. A brief storm came through, getting me and Randy rained on but it soon passed and we decided to up to the house and see if we could get in.

With all the rain that has passed through the area, the grass around the house was up to my hips and may have been crawling with God only knows. We got to the porch and noticed the northeast side of the house has settled more and is noticably detached from the rest of the house. While the house was wide open, Randy and I were unsure about the safety of the house so we just glanced inside then went back to the car. We were talking about why we seem drawn to the house and while neither of us really believe in it, we began wondering if somehow, in a past life, we were someone in the family that used to live there. While we know we're trespassing, we don't cause any damage and when we actually get there, we feel really comfortable there. It's almost like a home away from home.

For more information on 87, you can read the entry on it in Watch This Space to get a better idea of the history, house layout and what I would do with the property.

Until next time, I remain...
~Brian

The Devil House was once located at the intersection of 93rd and Paulen Roads in Shawnee County. Rumor had it, a family used to live there who practiced Satanism. One night, their daughter snuck out and rode to Topeka on a white horse and was beaten and raped. She was able to make it back home but discovered she was pregnant. When the baby was born, the mother, ashamed of the bastard child, took the baby and drowned it in a nearby pond. The girl snapped, murdered her parents and then rode away on the white horse never to be seen again.

While that's a good story I do find some flaws in it. 1)Why would Satanists really care about a "bastard child?" That's more of a God-fearing, Christian thing. 2)But when this story would've happened (1890-1927), Topeka would've been a good distance away and would've taken most of the night to ride there and back. 3)A murder like this would've made the Topeka paper and even the Richland paper, a small town near the House but no verification has been found. While I do believe this all could happen, I think it's pieced together from different legends.

When I first saw the Devil House (part of the Kansas Devil's Triangle of Rochester Cemetery, the Devil House and Stull Cemetery), it was very imposing. The house was all boarded up and one small NO TRESPASSING sign was nailed to boards on the second floor. When me and a group of friends went to the house in the daytime, we explored more of the grounds. We saw the foundation of what we figured was a barn or stable and several watersheds. As we walked down a trail through the woods, we actually came across a pond which tied in with the story. Unfortunately, Randy got scared and ran away so we didn't explore any further but came back at night and explored the house.

At night, the house seemed much more imposing. Since the exterior wall were a yellow color, the house really stood out in the dark. All the doors and windows had been boarded up so we walked around to the back where the cellar door had been busted down. You could see remnants of previous visitors littering the small staircase to the door. The basement was completely made of dirt and dirt basements are creepy. We could see a couple of mice roaming around and two good-sized holes were made in the above ceiling for access into the actual house.

We were able to climb into the first floor fairly easily and could see the damage inflicted by vandals and time--mainly vandals. We calmly walked around looking in vain for some evidence of what supposedly transpired at this location but found nothing and were unable to gain access to the fabled third floor where the Satanic rituals and killings took place. Sadly, the house was torn down and replaced with a newer house. So any mystery associated with the Devil House will remain a mystery, only a memory to those who know the truth.

Until next time, I remain...
~Brian