Surratt House on TV

[wpbinzel]

As a docent at Surratt House for years, I have probably spent well over 300 hours in the historic House, and maybe half of it alone. I have never heard or seen anything that would suggest that it is a site of paranormal activity. I neither believe nor disbelieve in paranormal activity, but I have never experienced it there. Nor do I disparage those who say they have witnessed such activity there in the form of sounds or apparent movements as flashes of light. I have heard and seen those in the House, but I attribute them to the noise and reflections of automobile traffic given the House's proximity to a very busy road. As a docent, I am frequently asked if the House is haunted, and my response is that there are some who believed that it is, but I have no reason to think so. I was never instructed by Laurie to engage or not engage on the topic.

Off the top of my head, there were a couple of things I noticed that were misidentified in the program. The bedroom above the House's public dining room that was identified as being that of Mary and John, Sr.'s, was not theirs. Their bedroom was above the front parlor, and had to be sacrificed and converted to restrooms in order to open the House as a public museum. The room shown on the program was that of the Surratt boys, Isaac and John, Jr.'s room, which in fairness to the program, is now furnished as the master bedroom and is probably too much detail for a TV hour.

The loft that was shown, is directly above the kitchen, and is accessed through a small door in what was Anna Surratt's bedroom. (It was in the rafters above the family dining room, which are accessible in the loft, where Booth's Spencer carbines (and possibly other weapons) were hidden.) The loft is currently furnished as the room of Rachel Semus Hawkins, a slave/domestic servant of the Surratts. It is doubtful that "Aunt Rachel" (as they called her) actually ever resided in that room. While possible, it is more probable that she resided in slave quarters elsewhere on what was originally the Surratt's 287-acre property.

I would have to watch the program again more closely to see if there others.