"Haunted" house to open for tours and art gallery | Business

SALISBURY – For 18 years David Harrison had listened to tenants who lived in a rental house he owned talk about having strange experiences and seeing things they couldn’t explain in the old house on Highland Avenue.

There were stories of a mysterious black cloud that would appear in a hallway at night, voices speaking in a whisper about a fire, and the sound of children running up and down the stairs.

Harrison, who owns Harrison’s Florists a block away on Holmes St., never believed the stories, until about a year ago.  Now he wants everyone to know about the paranormal activity he says takes place frequently at the house.

Harrison is opening the house as an art gallery, “and more,” as his sign says.

The art gallery will feature the work of well known local artists such as Betty Sedberry, Curtis Waller, Clyde, Glenn Yost, Mark Brincefield, and others.

The “more” part refers to the tours Harrison will give in which he will lead visitors through the house at night telling them the stories he’s heard from his tenants.

“I’m the landlord of a paranormal house,” Harrison told WBTV.  He says he was finally convinced when he figured out that his tenants were all describing similar occurrences, even thought they had never met or talked to each other, and that the stories spanned several years.

On story involves a young married couple who lived in the house with their two children.  The father had come home late.  His wife and children were fast asleep, until he woke his wife to ask about the house guest he saw at the bottom of the stairs.  He described her as an elderly woman.  The wife was stunned and told her husband there was no house guest and that no one else was in the house.

Another  tenant who lived in the house several years later told a similar story, according to Harrison.

Another involves a young man who spent his childhood in the house.  He told Harrison that after his family had moved out, he was followed by a cloud of black smoke.  He said it was so frightening that his parents called the family priest to talk to the young boy and calm his fears.

Harrison was contacted by local ghost hunters who wanted to get a look inside the house.  The group is called the Carolina Association of Paranormal Studies,  located in Rockwell.

According to Harrison, the group set up their recording and detecting equipment several times and actually captured voices on tape whispering what they say sounds like the words “fire,” “by the window,” and “get out.”

He also says they captured a short image of a cloud forming in the hallway that appeared to take on the shape of a woman or child.

On his own, Harrison had discovered at least one clue to the home’s past.

While working on the house he found that there was a drop ceiling below the home’s original ceiling.  Looking more closely he discovered that the rafters of the original ceiling were burned, some severely.

The house was built in 1910.  Harrison says he can trace the history to about 1950, but doesn’t know anything about the house prior to that date.  He says there were no fires after 1950.

He says the only other experience that he has had personally involved a bottle of Windex window cleaner that disappeared from inside a room where he was working alone one day.

“Did spiritual energy pick it up and hide it,” Harrison asked.  “I don’t know, all I know is that I searched the whole house for it and I can’t figure out what happened to it.”

Harrison, who always has a knack for unique business ideas, decided that the time was right to open the house for tours.

Recently a ghost tour of downtown Salisbury has been started and, according to Harrison, there is a lot of interest in the house.

Harrison plans to offer the tours, by reservation only, beginning on June 18.  The art gallery will be opened beginning on June 25.

"The two actually play off each other very well, the art gallery with the paranormal activity," Harrison added.

He says guests on the tour will be able to see the art, hear the paranormal stories, and maybe, even have a first hand experience with the paranormal.