House Crazy Sarah loves haunted house movies – especially ones based on true stories! Take for example The Conjuring (2013). It was the first movie in a series of purportedly real life cases of hauntings investigated by famed ghost hunters Ed & Lorraine Warren. In the original movie, the Warrens come to the aid of the Perron family, who experienced increasingly disturbing paranormal events in their farmhouse in Rhode Island in the 1970’s.
Last year, the real-life house from The Conjuring was bought by a young couple named Cory and Jennifer Heinzen. They are planning on opening their doors to fans of the movie and paranormal investigators. How fun would it be to visit this old haunted place?
The real life house the movie was based on looks nothing like the Hollywood version depicted in the film…
But it definitely has a certain old world creepiness about it.
The real Conjuring house was built in 1736 and originally sat on 200 acres of farmland. The farmhouse has 14 rooms and is also referred to as the “Old Brook Farm” or “Old Arnold Estate.”
The famous house is located at 1677 Round Top Road in Harrisville, Rhode Island.
Look at this cool old photo House Crazy Sarah found of the house in Victorian times:
Here’s some back story:
The farmhouse was owned by the Arnold family through eight generations of kin. During those decades, the family endured many tragic deaths and the ghosts of those unfortunate souls are said linger in the home.
Here are just some of the tragedies that occurred on the property:
- John Arnold’s wife is said to have hanged herself in the Arnold Barn at the age of 93.
- Then John Arnold was said to have hanged himself in the home’s attic in the 1700’s.
- 11-year-old Prudence Arnold was tragically murdered on the property and the crime was never solved.
- Two people reportedly drowned in the creek on the property.
- Four men were found frozen to death on the property.
- Bathsheba Sherman is said to have hanged herself on the property. Her spirit is supposedly the most active apparition in the old house.
Bathsheba’s grave:
The young couple who now own the home purchased it from long-time resident Norma Sutcliffe. Norma claims to have frequently seen an apparition of an elderly woman gliding through the home. She also reported walls that would shake and lights that would flicker.
But nothing she experienced rose to the level of terror that the Perron family endured.
Carolyn and Roger Perron and their five daughters moved into the house in 1971 and almost immediately experienced bizarre happenings in and around the house.
Here’s what the house looked like in the 1970’s:
The girls were terrorized by menacing apparitions who verbally threatened them. It soon escalated to ghostly pinches and slaps. Carolyn even claimed she was stabbed with a knitting needle.
The Perron family:.
The Perron’s called in the famous clairvoyants Ed & Lorraine Warren for help. The Warrens held a seance at the farmhouse. But instead of placating the ghosts, the seance just stirred things up.
The Perron’s said that a broom would move from place to place or even disappear altogether. Small piles of dirt would materialize on freshly cleaned floors.
Oh horror of horrors! That would be House Crazy Sarah’s undoing!
The family then experienced horrendous smells in the house – smells of rotting flesh.
The Perron’s claimed their beds shook at precisely 5:15am every morning.
Who needs an alarm clock when you’ve got time-conscious ghosts?
These fascinating interior photos were taken by Frank Grace [source below].
The creepy attic:
The basement stairs:
Some of the worst ghost shenanigans are said to have happened in the dirt floor cellar:
When Roger Perron had to go down to the cellar to make furnace repairs, he would feel a cold, stinking presence beside him.
Yikes!
But this haggard old house is about to enter a new chapter due to these two young love birds:
They hope to encounter just as many frights and demons as past owners. Lucky for us, they want to share those special experiences with the general public as well!
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Sources:
allthatsinteresting.com/conjuring-house
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conjuring
mundoseriex.com/uncategorized/the-real-house-of-the-conjuring-will-be-open-to-the-public
ournewenglandlegends.com/podcast-115-trick-or-treating-at-the-conjuring-house
Ps….. check out this other infamous old Rhode Island house
