Dave Hazard is a long-time Leesburg resident. He recently switched careers and began a cleaning service, catering to area businesses and specializing in deep-cleaning. He usually cleans when the buildings are empty, working alone or with another employee. The best time to work is over the holidays, in the evenings and on weekends. It was on a two-day cleaning job in a lawyer’s office between Christmas and New Years that Dave had his most memorable experience.
The law office is an 18th century house that was added to and modified over time to accommodate families and businesses. Dave and an employee arrived early on a Saturday morning and began cleaning the second-floor rooms with the intention of working their way down to the main floor. As they moved from suite to suite, lights kept going out. Annoyed, they would flip the circuit breaker and continue working, blaming the electrical problems on the “Leesburg Blackouts” out-of-date electric systems. But the power failures were inconsistent. They seemed to be connected to their room-to-room movement, not to the power surge of the sweeper.
Leaving the employee to continue working, Dave joined his friend Jeff for lunch. They returned together later that day to check on the progress and organize supplies for the next day’s work.
Jeff, who considers himself a sensitive, and Dave, who considers himself a skeptic, both felt the building shake with an audible groan as they entered. Jeff exclaimed “There’s definitely a spirit here” and was immediately drawn to a large portrait hanging in the entryway. Apparently the man in the portrait is still in the building overseeing the operations and it is his spirit that was trying to make contact. Dave organized the cleaning supplies in the hall so he could continue working in the morning.
The next day was New Year’s Eve, so Dave was eager to finish the job. He arrived at the law offices early and the first thing he noticed was that his vacuum was gone. Assuming someone else was in the building and had moved it, he figured he could look for it after going to the bathroom. When he came out, the vacuum was sitting outside the bathroom door. Also, the cellar door was open and the light was on. Certain that one of the lawyers or paralegals had come in to catch up on some work, Dave gathered some cleaning supplies and moved to a back office to begin cleaning, leaving the vacuum in the hallway.
Just as Dave crawled under a desk to wipe the baseboards, the lights went out. Not again, he thought. He flipped the circuit breaker and returned to the office, but the lights were still out. Again he flipped the circuit breaker and again no lights. That’s when he noticed that the wall switch was in the off position. Dave rationalized that whoever had moved his vacuum did not see him under the desk and had turned off the light, so he flipped the switch and crawled back under the desk. This time he heard a click as the light went out.
That cinched it for Dave – Jeff is right! The building is haunted. Going to the hallway, he discovered that once again his vacuum cleaner was AWOL. More annoyed than afraid, the paranormal activity was keeping him from getting his job done. He called Jeff, asking him to come tell the entity to leave the lights on and give him back his vacuum cleaner.
When Jeff arrived, he and another sensitive friend, Marcia, immediately picked up on a dominant male figure following their movements through the building. Marcia’s psychic abilities are visual and Jeff perceives things through auditory clues. While Jeff received a barrage of jumbled messages, Marcia visualized activity, including a gentleman dressed in a business suit from the 1950s. Apparently he was an authoritative figure and was not used to being ignored. Now that he had an interactive audience, he had a lot of things to say. The unlikely foursome made their way to the attic.
At the top of the attic stairs, blocking their path, sat a vacuum cleaner, but it wasn’t Dave’s. “He says you’re not doing a good enough job,” Jeff noted with a chuckle.
Hoping that Jeff and Marcia would keep the entity busy so it wouldn’t interrupt his work any more, Dave left them to continue their walk-through while he returned to cleaning the offices on the main floor. As he passed through the doorway into a first-floor office, his hopes of working in peace vanished. The temperature changed drastically: “It was like walking through a curtain of cold air.” Something, or someone, preferred Dave’s company.
The need to complete the job outweighed any fears and Dave returned to the task of wiping baseboards. This time he was interrupted by a scream from upstairs. Rushing up the stairs to Jeff and Marcia, he found the two noticeably shaken. Jeff held out his cell phone.
At the top of the attic stairs, blocking their path, sat a vacuum cleaner, but it wasn’t Dave’s. “He says you’re not doing a good enough job,” Jeff noted with a chuckle.
Hoping that Jeff and Marcia would keep the entity busy so it wouldn’t interrupt his work any more, Dave left them to continue their walk-through while he returned to cleaning the offices on the main floor. As he passed through the doorway into a first-floor office, his hopes of working in peace vanished. The temperature changed drastically: “It was like walking through a curtain of cold air.” Something, or someone, preferred Dave’s company.
The need to complete the job outweighed any fears and Dave returned to the task of wiping baseboards. This time he was interrupted by a scream from upstairs. Rushing up the stairs to Jeff and Marcia, he found the two noticeably shaken. Jeff held out his cell phone.
“It rang,” he explains, “and when I looked at the text message, this is what it said.” A message inexplicably from Jeff to Jeff said I don’t want them in my house.
Unsure how Jeff’s phone could text itself, the three began to wonder what they were dealing with. They decided to see if they could find any answers in the basement.
A portion of the basement is finished and houses law records and case files. A back section, which is original to the house, is unfinished and is “dark and nasty.” At the bottom of the stairs in the finished section sat Dave’s vacuum cleaner. Dave has no idea how the heavy, upright Hoover had silently traveled the flight of stairs. Jeff remained with the vacuum, listening to the male entity repeat “I don’t want them in my house,” but Marcia was drawn to the dark, unfinished section.
When she returned, Marcia claimed that a young, black girl was cowering in the back of the basement, crying uncontrollably. It was suddenly clear to Jeff who the male entity didn’t want in the house. Decades of incessant crying had grated on the nerves of the undead and the undead had enough. He had finally found someone to listen to him and he wanted the crying girl out of the house.
Jeff got the impression that the young girl hid in the basement to avoid beatings. “They hurt me,” she said through her sobs. As they pieced the mystery together, Marcia’s cell phone rang.
Within Marcia and Jeff’s intuitive circle is a friend that specializes in cleansing homes of spirits that need to move on. Marcia had not heard from this friend in a long time, but on the morning of New Year’s Eve he tells her that he has been thinking of her for the past hour and felt he needed to call her. Between the two of them, they decided that the building needed more than baseboards cleaned.
Marcia was talked through her first cleansing and she believes that they successfully helped the sobbing girl move on. They ask the male if he would also like to move on and Jeff clearly senses that the male is content to remain in the house. Almost as an afterthought, Jeff receives the distinct impression that the male would like it if they could bring his deceased wife back to the house to be with him. “We just send them toward the light,” says Jeff. “We don’t bring them back!”
Prior to the spiritual cleansing, Dave went back upstairs to finish the office cleaning. Strange lights from a front office caught his attention and he went to the doorway to find the cause. A chandelier in the front room was swinging in a circular motion. As he watched, it stopped swinging. So much had happened this New Year’s Eve that Dave was unfazed by the house’s newest paranormal activity.
Dave returned to cleaning and again noticed strange light patterns dancing around the room. He went back to the doorway and the chandelier was again in motion, this time in a pendulum swing. As he watched, the light alternated between rotating in wide circles and swinging in a broad pendulum arch.
There is a pause in Dave’s story-telling as he watches me carefully. We both know that he’ll have to repeat everything at another time because I’ve become so engrossed in the story that I have neglected my notes. My untouched sandwich sits in a nest of cold fries, but I’m too fascinated to bother with being hungry. We took a break for a couple of bites and to recharge the parking meters before settling in to hear the rest of Dave’s stories.
“Jeff says I’m a bridge-personality,” Dave tells me. “I create a safe space where people and entities feel comfortable.” As a mother and daughter who just spent the previous hour chatting with a complete stranger, we had to agree that Dave’s amicability encourages open communication. Obviously we are not the only ones that think so.
The Honicon Spirit
Two years ago, Dave invested in a home on Edward’s Ferry Rd. with his friend, Michael. The house was built in the early 1950s by the popular developer, Claude Honicon. They loved the intricate detailing and craftsmanship of their stone bungalow so much that they took the time to investigate the architect. The deeper they delved into Claude’s story, the more attached they became to the house.
According to Honicon’s obituary, he was once the wealthiest man in Loudoun County, known not only as a developer, but also as the owner of a majority of the stone quarries in Loudoun County. He arrived in Loudoun County in the early 1940s and quickly established himself as one of the largest landowners in the area. Through uncertain circumstance, when he died in 1975 he was basically homeless and penniless, living in the stone pump house that he had built for his Market Street subdivision, Honicon Court.
The more Michael and Dave learned about Claude Honicon, the more empathetic they became to his financial and social ruin, speculating what had caused such a wealthy man to fall. Interviews with people who remembered Honicon led them to believe that his ex-wife and a zealous lawyer had something to do with his downward spiral. One woman claims to have fed Honicon in his final days. According to her, he retained the manners of a Southern gentleman until the very end.
Michael and Dave began thinking of Honicon in personal terms, chatting with him as they moved about the bungalow. Michael claims he feels a presence walking through the house and he once felt someone brush up against him while he was painting the living room. Although Claude Honicon never lived in the Edward’s Ferry Rd. house, the men’s empathy seems to have drawn him to the house.
One afternoon, Dave worked in the basement office while Michael did yard work. Suddenly Dave heard a metallic BOOM, like a hammer hitting the side of a hollow barrel, followed by footsteps in the hallway directly above him. He went upstairs to make sure Michael was OK only to discover that Michael was still in the yard and had been there for at least an hour. They both searched the house and found nothing suspicious. The front door was still locked from the inside, the windows were all secure and the only way out was through the yard where Michael was working.
Last year Dave’s kids gave him a necklace, a silver knot hanging from a black cord that symbolizes their belief in and support of their father. Dave established a nightly ritual of placing his glasses on the windowsill and hanging the necklace on the back of the chair. He woke up Easter morning and the necklace was not hanging from the chair.
Unsure how Jeff’s phone could text itself, the three began to wonder what they were dealing with. They decided to see if they could find any answers in the basement.
A portion of the basement is finished and houses law records and case files. A back section, which is original to the house, is unfinished and is “dark and nasty.” At the bottom of the stairs in the finished section sat Dave’s vacuum cleaner. Dave has no idea how the heavy, upright Hoover had silently traveled the flight of stairs. Jeff remained with the vacuum, listening to the male entity repeat “I don’t want them in my house,” but Marcia was drawn to the dark, unfinished section.
When she returned, Marcia claimed that a young, black girl was cowering in the back of the basement, crying uncontrollably. It was suddenly clear to Jeff who the male entity didn’t want in the house. Decades of incessant crying had grated on the nerves of the undead and the undead had enough. He had finally found someone to listen to him and he wanted the crying girl out of the house.
Jeff got the impression that the young girl hid in the basement to avoid beatings. “They hurt me,” she said through her sobs. As they pieced the mystery together, Marcia’s cell phone rang.
Within Marcia and Jeff’s intuitive circle is a friend that specializes in cleansing homes of spirits that need to move on. Marcia had not heard from this friend in a long time, but on the morning of New Year’s Eve he tells her that he has been thinking of her for the past hour and felt he needed to call her. Between the two of them, they decided that the building needed more than baseboards cleaned.
Marcia was talked through her first cleansing and she believes that they successfully helped the sobbing girl move on. They ask the male if he would also like to move on and Jeff clearly senses that the male is content to remain in the house. Almost as an afterthought, Jeff receives the distinct impression that the male would like it if they could bring his deceased wife back to the house to be with him. “We just send them toward the light,” says Jeff. “We don’t bring them back!”
Prior to the spiritual cleansing, Dave went back upstairs to finish the office cleaning. Strange lights from a front office caught his attention and he went to the doorway to find the cause. A chandelier in the front room was swinging in a circular motion. As he watched, it stopped swinging. So much had happened this New Year’s Eve that Dave was unfazed by the house’s newest paranormal activity.
Dave returned to cleaning and again noticed strange light patterns dancing around the room. He went back to the doorway and the chandelier was again in motion, this time in a pendulum swing. As he watched, the light alternated between rotating in wide circles and swinging in a broad pendulum arch.
There is a pause in Dave’s story-telling as he watches me carefully. We both know that he’ll have to repeat everything at another time because I’ve become so engrossed in the story that I have neglected my notes. My untouched sandwich sits in a nest of cold fries, but I’m too fascinated to bother with being hungry. We took a break for a couple of bites and to recharge the parking meters before settling in to hear the rest of Dave’s stories.
“Jeff says I’m a bridge-personality,” Dave tells me. “I create a safe space where people and entities feel comfortable.” As a mother and daughter who just spent the previous hour chatting with a complete stranger, we had to agree that Dave’s amicability encourages open communication. Obviously we are not the only ones that think so.
The Honicon Spirit
Two years ago, Dave invested in a home on Edward’s Ferry Rd. with his friend, Michael. The house was built in the early 1950s by the popular developer, Claude Honicon. They loved the intricate detailing and craftsmanship of their stone bungalow so much that they took the time to investigate the architect. The deeper they delved into Claude’s story, the more attached they became to the house.
According to Honicon’s obituary, he was once the wealthiest man in Loudoun County, known not only as a developer, but also as the owner of a majority of the stone quarries in Loudoun County. He arrived in Loudoun County in the early 1940s and quickly established himself as one of the largest landowners in the area. Through uncertain circumstance, when he died in 1975 he was basically homeless and penniless, living in the stone pump house that he had built for his Market Street subdivision, Honicon Court.
The more Michael and Dave learned about Claude Honicon, the more empathetic they became to his financial and social ruin, speculating what had caused such a wealthy man to fall. Interviews with people who remembered Honicon led them to believe that his ex-wife and a zealous lawyer had something to do with his downward spiral. One woman claims to have fed Honicon in his final days. According to her, he retained the manners of a Southern gentleman until the very end.
Michael and Dave began thinking of Honicon in personal terms, chatting with him as they moved about the bungalow. Michael claims he feels a presence walking through the house and he once felt someone brush up against him while he was painting the living room. Although Claude Honicon never lived in the Edward’s Ferry Rd. house, the men’s empathy seems to have drawn him to the house.
One afternoon, Dave worked in the basement office while Michael did yard work. Suddenly Dave heard a metallic BOOM, like a hammer hitting the side of a hollow barrel, followed by footsteps in the hallway directly above him. He went upstairs to make sure Michael was OK only to discover that Michael was still in the yard and had been there for at least an hour. They both searched the house and found nothing suspicious. The front door was still locked from the inside, the windows were all secure and the only way out was through the yard where Michael was working.
Last year Dave’s kids gave him a necklace, a silver knot hanging from a black cord that symbolizes their belief in and support of their father. Dave established a nightly ritual of placing his glasses on the windowsill and hanging the necklace on the back of the chair. He woke up Easter morning and the necklace was not hanging from the chair.
Desperately searching the bedroom and then the entire house, Dave dreaded admitting to his kids that he lost the necklace. When his kids arrived, his son also helped him look for the necklace, retracing their steps again and again. They finally gave up and decided to take a walk around Leesburg, stopping at Esoterica to replace the lost necklace. When they returned to the Honicon bungalow, the necklace was hanging on the back of the chair, just as it should be.
Dave doesn’t consider himself especially intuitive to either of these instances and tried to explain everything rationally. It was only after he exhausted all rational explanations that he finally admitted to himself that he had experienced something extraordinary.
Originally printed in "Lore of Loudoun."
Dave doesn’t consider himself especially intuitive to either of these instances and tried to explain everything rationally. It was only after he exhausted all rational explanations that he finally admitted to himself that he had experienced something extraordinary.
Originally printed in "Lore of Loudoun."
We just bought a Claude Honicon house on Edwards Ferry - While I'm not convinced about his ghost, I'm interested in learning some more of his history and planning to stop by the Balch library as a first step, but this guy Dave seems like he did quite a bit of research of his own. Are you still in contact with him? If you have any resources please reply to this message with a way to contact you and I'll get in touch. Also, any idea where to get a copy of "Lore of Loudoun?" Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHey philg:
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear from someone in a Honicon. They're beautiful homes. I moved from Leesburg soon after the first edition of Lore of Loudoun was published. The first edition sold out in a matter of days and I never printed a second edition, but most of the stories are in this blog. I am working on the unprinted stories with a publisher to try and get an expanded version back on the market. I did not stay in contact with Dave. Sorry. The folks at Balch are very helpful...come to think of it, they may have a copy of Lore of Loudoun. Also, I donated a couple of copies to the Loudoun Museum.