The Loudoun Museum

Most Leesburg, Virginia, residents are familiar with the ghost stories of the silversmith’s cabin on Loudoun St. and the Loudoun Museum’s October Hauntings tours are well known throughout the metro DC area. However, it often comes as a surprise to learn that the museum also hosts its own ghosts. As one of my favorite places in all of Leesburg, it is the only location that I can say without a doubt that I personally experienced something unexplainable.

By 1877 adjoining two story structures dominated most of the corner lot on Loudoun and Wirt Streets and the front building was utilized as a funeral home, while the back served as a casket and furniture making shop. The original Colonial Funeral Home prepped bodies on the second floor before bringing them downstairs for the formal viewing. Negotiating the sharp turn to get the bodies and caskets down the staircase was too difficult, so a chute was built between the second floor and main floor to slide the bodies from the prepping area to the first-floor viewing area. The opening has been bricked over and is still visible on the staircase wall.

One morning, a museum employee arrived early to open the building. He let himself in the side door and turned off the alarm, but made sure to lock the door behind him. As was his habit, he began the day in a back room on the first floor. He went about his business, but was startled by a loud scraping sound as if a large object were being dragged across the floor of the front room. Assuming the rest of the staff had arrived and were moving display cases, he continued his business. When he finally made his way to the front, he discovered that he was alone in the building and all the doors were still locked. The next day, the scraping noises were repeated. This time, he hurried to the front of the building expecting to find someone playing a trick on him. Again, he was alone and the building was secure.

In an effort to increase business, many furniture makers also learned the trade of embalming. The smell of formaldehyde and decaying flesh permeated the poorly ventilated workrooms. Unlike today’s commercialization of floral arrangements, the use of fresh flowers at funerals dates back to ancient times as a means of masking unpleasant odors.

Many people, usually first-time visitors to the museum, experience the smell of flowers at the top of the stairs - perhaps residuals of the Colonial Funeral Home’s choice of air freshener. It is an occurrence that is so frequent and diverse that even hard-core skeptics can’t disregard it. 

On my first visit to the museum, I paused at the top of the stairs debating if I should compliment Eric, the rugged, no-nonsense curator, on the overwhelming scent of roses coming from his cubicle. Five minutes later I was completely astounded when, as part of the tour, I learned that the building was previously a funeral home and many people experience the smell of flowers. There are no air fresheners on the second floor. Air fresheners are prohibited in the entire museum.

In 1848 the rear building along Wirt Street was purchased as a meeting hall for the Loudoun Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Meetings were held on the second floor and members climbed the winding staircase to a waiting room, now used as the museum’s library. A peep hole in the door allowed members to identify who was in the waiting room before admitting them into the meeting hall. The hall operated continuously for 50 years until it moved to 5 Royal St. SE. On a pre-investigation tour, paranormal investigators discovered the long-forgotten lodge sign in the basement of the building.   
According to a visiting psychic, an ethereal elderly black man, possibly the keeper at the Odd Fellows door, enjoys pacing the upper floors and peeking down the back staircase into the children’s area. A picture of an investigator sitting at the bottom of the staircase shows the trail of a red ball of light completely encircling him, with a definitive starting point and ending point.

The most frequent sightings and encounters are around 9 pm in the evening, as if the ghostly caretaker goes about his rounds securing the building. If someone is still working in the upstairs office, they are often startled by the sound of footsteps steadily crossing the hardwood floors as he checks on the late night workers. Although there is nothing ominous, the sound of footsteps crossing the second-floor collections room toward the museum’s office space has hastened an employee’s exit on more than one occasion.

Originally printed in "Lore of Loudoun"