A Louisiana real estate firm is giving away a free house for anyone willing to relocate it – but there is one little catch – the house is haunted.
Sylvia McLain, the co-owner of McLain Investments, posted pictures of the house, located in Lafayette, Louisiana, on Facebook in March, saying it was up for grabs, to anyone who was willing to pick up the house and move it off the property.
She wrote that the ‘iconic home’ was built in the late 1920s to early 1930s and that it had been unoccupied for the last six months, but was ‘vacated due to development,’ after her company bought the land.
‘We have concentrated our efforts and development cost in saving as many of the trees as possible and simply do not have a place in the neighborhood for the home,’ she wrote.
‘In an effort save the history’ of it, she said her company decided to give away the home to someone willing move it off the property and restore it.
The home, she noted, ‘needs some TLC,’ but had two working air conditioners.
The Facebook post attracted hundreds of comments from people interested in taking the 2,400-square-foot house – as well as a ton of messages from former home residents and locals who noted that the house is haunted.
Locals are said to compare the house to the ‘Amityville horror house’ – the Long Island home where a man murdered his parents and four siblings while they slept in 1974, which was later said to have been haunted after the slaughter occurred.
Facebook user, Gypsy Dawn, claimed to have been the ‘last tenant that lived there before it was abandoned. The property was heaven but that house is quite unsettling if you don’t enjoy communing with the Spirit world because they speak loudly.’
The house is said to be haunted by the spirit of a 90-year-old woman, Adele Vincent (circled). She is pictured here in a family portrait taken in 1900.
Adele pictured in 1900, is said to have had a habit of checking the stove whenever someone was cooking.
One of Adele’s relatives said that while living in the house, she would hear the sound of pots jangling on the stove, even though nobody was in the kitchen. Adele (seated) is pictured with her family in an undated image.
Gary Alleman, wrote: ‘I experienced three things there that could not be explained and my friend that lived there had more than that. We actually experienced one together and we still talk about it.’
Although neither of the former residents specified exactly what happened, a woman who grew up in the home revealed her experiences.
Dawn Vallot DeClout, told the Mirror that her family bought the 160-acre plot of land the house stands on in 1860 and that her great grandmother, Adele, died in the front room in 1967. DeClout and her family lived in the house until the 1980s.
Adele, DeClout said, ‘lived to be almost 90 and she was always digging in the pots, like when you have something on the stove and someone goes and looks in the pot and stirs it around.’
None of the residents said that the spirit of Adele is menacing, angry or harmful. Creepy yes, but not harmful.
The realty company had someone lined up to purchase and move the house, however they backed out after learning it would cost nearly $80,000 to just move the structure. If the property is moved locally, it would cost roughly $50,000 to move and settle.