30 - The Vander House

Every town and city has an Elm Street - Freddy Krueger

Every place has its own superstitions. Every place has its own myths. Every place has its own haunted lands. In my hometown Hanlon, that place is a house. We always called it, “The House” but someone who was into town history might call it the Vander mansion. Hanlon is a town that could never quite be a city.

The town was founded 150 years ago. Tradition talk about how a wagon train heading to California got stuck in the mud and the settlers decided that stopping here was as good a place as any. We tend to believe that they should have just kept going, cause as then, I would call this place a mud pit. As many small towns it grew up around travel and trade from the populated east coast, and the settlers, prospectors, and trappers in the west. The city is build on a mostly flat plain that turns to swamp after a good rain. Those who were able to get ahead built their homes on the only hill in the area. This hill area is also known as “ The gold mine”. This was based on a rumor that the only reason anyone in this town was able to get wealthy was by finding a gold mine under their homes.

Of all the houses on the hill the most extravagant was the Vander Mansion. Horace Vander, made his money through trade and setting up the Vander General Store in town. He , like many of his generation, saw building a big fancy house as the ultimate sign of prosperity and wealth. Legend also speaks of an old man who told Vander that building his house at the top of the hill was a bad idea and that the hill was haunted. Vander of course did not heed this warning and set about building his home anyway.

The first death, was recorded on day four. One of the construction workers hit a well shaft that went down into the ground and fell in. According to the notes there should have been no shaft there, as no one would construct a well at the top of a hill. The body was never recovered as the men could not get down deep enough to get it. Estimates show that the shaft goes approximately 75 feet down and was purpose built. After seeing the well shaft Vander decided to integrate it into the house and it became part of the deep cellar of the house.

The second death was a young child named Randy Quinn. His parents and the Vanders were friends and they were having a picnic outside when little Randy went running around the house. Reports differ as to why, Randy’s mother said he was chasing after the family dog Rex Mrs. Vander says that Rex was laying on the blanket the whole time and Randy ran off on his own. After a few minutes and not hearing the child the mother and Mrs. Vander went looking for him. He was never found. Officially it is still considered a missing person's case, but everyone knows that he died.

After the second death Mrs. Vander decided that this was not a house she wanted to live in anymore. She and Vander were divorced sometime shortly after the Quinn boy was lost. After she left Mr. Vander started talking about voices and ghosts from walls. Before he hung himself, and became the third death, he told a customer at the general store “The boy lives in the basement with me now, but I make sure never to go down there and disturb him.” After the Suicide of Mr. Vander, the police did a top to bottom search of the house. They found nothing. They even sent a group down the well shaft all the way to the bottom. They found nothing but an underground river and a circle of rocks.

A couple Steve and Linda Watson, purchase the house approximately 20 years later. They did their best to do a complete renovation including plugging up the well shaft. They knew about the rumors that the house was cursed but they chose not to believe it. After all, everything has a logical explanation. Things were quiet for awhile. Then Steve killed Linda. No one knows how he did it, but she was laying in the basement, in the place where the well would have been. According to the official documentation she had a heart attack, I like many others believe that she was in fact scared to death. Steve Watson was found in his bedroom, hung by the neck up to the ceiling. Under him, was a note that contained the following message. “ The creature took my Linda and ate her soul. The child has told me how to save her, but to have her I must her kill. Please understand that this was the only way.

After the death of Steve and Linda Watson, the Vander house was never occupied again. In Fact it became so infamous for being cursed that the entire neighborhood around it fell into neglect. A once beautiful place filled with the rich and elite, simply rotted away. The “Upper Crust” eventually moved to Green Valley area and the hill was allowed to just rot.

Since this time many attempts have been made to take the hill back over and build new homes on it. Now the town will never say “No you can't build there it's haunted and we don't want anyone to die and cause more issues and news”, but they stop every attempt. They even stopped a group of college students who wanted to head down the well shaft a few years ago to date the site and figure out why it’s there. The house has been quiet for a long time. That is, till Kevin Raymen went missing.