The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 2, The House

Yours Truly at the Mayfort Family plot at Loudon Park Cemetery

My upcoming novel Chapel Street was inspired by my experiences growing up in a "haunted" house at 21 St. Helens Avenue* in the Northeast Baltimore neighborhood of Lauraville. The entity was already at the house when our family arrived in 1974. Therefore, in this blog, I will explore the history of the house and the families that lived there before us.

I want to acknowledge that a ton of the following research was done by my niece Marion. She provided most of the information about the property. I provided most of the information about the people.

So here goes....

Before 1783, the larger Lauraville/Hamilton area of what is now Baltimore City was owned by the Principio Company, a British iron works that owned the land from the Herring Run to Back River. After the Revolution in 1783, British land was seized and sold to Revolutionary War ranked officials. Commissioners Clement Holliday and Gabriel Duval were appointed to handle the Principio Company land, and in 1785, they sold the land to Colonel Samuel Smith, Revolutionary War hero and eventually the mayor of Baltimore. He bought the property with money paid to war veterans.

Samuel Smith

In 1806, Samuel Smith sold the Principio Company land, then called Grindon in Baltimore County near Egypt** for $4000 to his brother, Robert Smith (plat #13). This deed describes a series of oaks, including a white oak on “the road leading from Samuel Taylor’s*** to Baltimore Town” (Harford Road). (It’s possible that the oaks that are/were until recently on the property at 21 St. Helens are the same oak trees listed in the original deeds, as large oak trees can live to be hundreds of years old).

As part of his will, Robert Smith gave the land in Lauraville to his brother (?) Samuel Smith in 1825. A map from 1850 shows Lauraville, and the land is attributed to Samuel Smith. To the east is “I. Taylor” who is possibly the Taylor from the early deed. There appears to be a structure somewhere on Ailsa or maybe St. Helens. It is not specific.

In 1868 Samuel Smith, John Spear Nicholas, and Andrew Wilcox sold the land to Julius W. Knock (Knox). The map does not indicate any buildings on the hill where our house will be built. There may be some paperwork missing, because the next deed indicates that Bohn Slinggoff, D. H. Emory, and John Ensor (no indication of how they have the land) sold some lots of land to Thomas Ellis.

A map from 1876 shows Ellis’ property (attributed to William Ellis). Julius Knox is still on the neighboring property to the south. There is an unimproved road running by Knox’s property, which is likely Ailsa Avenue. There is no road around St. Helens Avenue. There appear to be two building on the Ellis’ property, but they are bordering Harford Road. A map from 1877 also shows Wm Ellis’ property with one building by Harford Road, and a small building on Ailsa Avenue.

In 1883, Thomas and Mary Ellis sold two lots of land to Alexander Scott (lots 8 and 9) for $4000. A map from 1898 shows that the land was owned by Alexander. Scott, who still has two buildings on Harford Road (it looks like a house and an outbuilding with a little driveway). There are apparently no structures yet on the hill. Around this same time, the Ellis’ sold land to Pursel Bohanan. The street car line was extended to Herring Run in 1898, thus making Lauraville more accessible to Baltimore City residents.

A Plat from 1904 shows Alexander Scott’s land. The land on the hill has not been developed outside of Strathmore, Goodwood, and Hampnett. A Plat from 1909 shows the school house lot, but also shows that St Helens Avenue has not yet been extended to Morello. As yet, there doesn’t seem to be a plat indicating when the houses were built.

A deed associated with the current house from 1911 shows Alexander Scott (“bachelor”) with Pursel and Carrie H. Bohanan to John A. and Emilie (also spelled Emily) R. Immler.  Scott also sold the land to the east to Pursel Bohanan, a produce seller aged 31.

Before I move onto the Immlers, the first family that actually lived in the house, I want to spend a little time with the Bohanans. Although the order of events is a little vague, they apparently built the adjacent houses at 21 St. Helens Avenue and 23 St Helens Avenue, using the same architect and the same basic blueprint. The houses share the same bones, but their similarities have been masked by improvements and additions over the ensuing decades. Additionally, according to anecdotal evidence, both houses were inhabited by the same entity. More on that later.

John Pursel Bohanan was born on 24 May 1880 in Saint Mary's City, Maryland. In 1902, he married Caroline (Carrie) Wilhelmana Hoopes, who was born 2 November 1878 in Baltimore, Maryland. Together, they had one son, Walter Pursel Bohanan on 21 August 1904.

In the 1897 Baltimore City Directory, J. Pursel can be found living on the west side of Baltimore at 1927 Edmondson Avenue. He worked as a clerk. By the 1910 Census, J. Pursel, Carrie and Walter can be found living at 300 Stallworth Avenue. In the 1920 Census, the three of them were living at 23 St. Helens. They remained there through at least 1942. However, J. Pursel had moved to 907 Tyson Street in the Bolton Hill area prior to his death in June 1960. That was the home of his son Walter.

1925 sketch by Walter Bohanan

Walter Pursel Bohanan graduated from the Maryland Institute and became a well-known artist and art teacher in Baltimore. He would die in November 1974 of a heart attack. Although he married, Walter had no children. The Bohanan line that lived at 23 St. Helens Avenue is now extinct.

I do not know exactly how long the Bohanans lived at 23 St. Helens. As early as 1933, the house had been broken up into units. A four-room apartment was advertised in the newspaper for rent that year. By 1944, a 2nd Lieutenant Ida Broaders, stationed in Aberdeen, was living in the house. Many large homes were cut into multiple apartments around then because of the wartime housing shortage in Baltimore. The house would be put up for sale in 1958 and the advertisements indicated that it had been cut into three apartments. It was later reverted back to a single family dwelling. By 1974, when we moved to St. Helens Avenue, the house was occupied by a couple, their daughter and her husband and their children.

Now back to our house.

According to the Maryland Office of Assessment and Taxation, the house at 21 St. Helens Avenue was built in 1915. The Victorian style home had 1,940 square feet of living space above grade, and a finished basement of 912 square feet. It sat on 15,122 square feet of acreage on a breezy hilltop three hundred and sixty feet above sea level. (It is the second highest point, after Television Hill, in Baltimore City.) The paperwork seems consistent that the house was built in 1915. That said, during some home repairs, graffiti from an earlier period was found inside one of the dining room walls.

Newspaper story about John Immler.

The first actual inhabitants of the house were the Immler family. The head of the family was John August Immler. He was born in Basel, Switzerland, on 22 January 1877, and emigrated to the United States in 1892. He took Amelia (Emily) R. Quast, who was born in Dranfeld, Lower Saxony, Germany on 29 July 1879, as his wife. They married in Baltimore in April of 1901. John was a skilled engraver, but newspaper listings over the years reveal that he also dabbled in real estate. John and Emily had a son named Charles William Immler, Sr., who was born in Baltimore City on 3 December 1901. Charles would marry three times, leaving three children in his wake. Interestingly, Charles would provide the only non-extinct male line of anyone raised at 21 St. Helens.

In 1927, John Immler would sell the 21 St. Helens Avenue house to the Mayfort family. John would eventually die on 19 January 1960 in Baltimore of a heart attack. Emilie would die on 4 November 1965 in Silver Spring, Maryland. Charles William Immler, Sr., would die 2 December 1986 in Stevenson, Maryland.

Death Certificate of John August Immler

The Immlers lived in the house for twelve short years. The Mayfort family would remain in it until 1974 for a total of forty-seven years.

The family was headed by John Mayfort. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on 14 January 1867, the son of German immigrants, Martin Mayfort and Katherine Kneyer. He married Florence Virginia Hutton, the daughter of John Hutton and Katherine Goodwin, who was born in Maryland on 12 October 1867. They had four children: Catherine V.., born 4 November 1894; John Clayton, born 19 June 1895; Martin Livingston, born 17 November 1897; and Miriam E., born 13 November 1899.

According to WWI draft records, Martin Livingston Mayfort was white, native born, tall, slender, had light blue eyes, and dark brown hair. John Clayton Mayfort was single, white, tall, slender, had brown eyes, and black hair. The WWII draft record for John C. lists him as being 5’8.5” tall, weighing 175 lbs, bald with blue eyes. (Yes, according to the official records, John's eyes changed color between the wars. Probably a mistake.)

John Mayfort was a butcher, specializing in veal, who had a shop in the Belair Market. Prior to moving to 21 St. Helens Avenue, the family lived at 1313 E. Federal Street. (John's parents lived next door at 1311 E. Federal Street.) Not all of the members of the Mayfort family lived long enough to make the move to St. Helens Avenue. The mother, Florence, died on 8 August 1911 at the age of forty-three. Her early death spared her the pain of seeing the death of her oldest child. Catherine married a man named George E. Willing and died at the age of twenty-one on 15 March 1915 in Woodbine, Long Island, New York.

Death notice for Catherine Mayfort Willing

I don't mean to belittle the grief John Sr. must have felt, but he seemed to take things in stride and soon married Florence's younger sister Mary Elizabeth Hutton, who was born in Baltimore on 9 March 1869. John, his new wife Mary, and his children John, Martin and Miriam moved into 21 St Helens in 1927.  To make things even cozier, they were joined by Florence and Mary's older sister Annie R. Hutton, who was born in June 1863.

Okay, okay. I know people frequently married the siblings of a deceased spouse back in the day. My own great-grandfather Frank Murphy, was expected to marry one of his spinster sister-in-laws after the death of his beloved wife Loretta. (He opted against doing so.) However, I wonder about the familial politics here. Why did John marry Florence's younger sister Mary? Wouldn't it have been more socially acceptable to marry her older sister Annie instead? That's what would have happened in a Shakespeare play or Jane Austen novel. It isn't like Annie had a problem with him. She moved in with them. Perhaps John kept her around as a spare in case Mary predeceased him. He obviously liked the Hutton stock. Sadly, the answer to those questions are now lost in the mist of history.

Sons John and Martin followed their father into the meat business. John Clayton worked with his father at the shop in the Belair Market. Martin became a meat seller working for others. Sometime after 1940, Martin married Jane E. Savin, who was born on 6 Jane 1907. He moved out of 21 St Helens and set up house with his wife a few blocks away at 3305 Lerch Drive. Martin would die of pneumonia and emphysema on 24 January 1971 at Union Memorial Hospital. His wife Jane would die on 14 January 1987. The death notice said that her passing was "sudden." I do not have her death certificate. I wish I did. What constitutes "sudden" with an eighty-year-old woman?

Death Certificate of Martin Mayfort

If John Senior was keeping Annie Hutton around as a potential replacement for his second wife, he would soon be sorely disappointed. Annie would earn the distinction of being the first person to die in the house on 26 January 1933. Sadly, I do not have her death certificate. However, her bedroom did not remain empty. John's sister Katherine Mayfort Olsen, born 8 February 1870 in Baltimore, Maryland, would move into 21 St. Helens Avenue after the death of her husband George Olsen in 1937.

I wonder how Mary Hutton Mayfort must have felt having her sister Annie replaced in the house by her sister-in-law Katherine. That, however, was not a situation that would last forever. Mary was the next person to die in the house. She died of ovarian cancer on 9 February 1944.

The next resident of the house to die was Katherine Mayfort Olsen. She passed away on October 19, 1956 of chronic myocarditis, Fortunately, she did not pass away at the house itself. She went to meet her maker at the Edgewood Nursing Home at 6000 Bellona Avenue.

The circle was getting smaller.

Just over two years later, on 2 November 1958, the long-lived patriarch of St. Helens Avenue, John Mayfort died. Like his sister Katherine, John's cause of death was chronic myocarditis. However, he also suffered from senility. He was ninety-one-years old and died in the house, like his wife Mary and sister-in-law Annie.

With their father solemnly removed to a one room condominium at Loudon Park Cemetery, only John Clayton and Miriam remained living in the large house at 21 St. Helens Avenue -- although the house was left solely to John Clayton. (Hiss, boo, dad.) If the siblings were millennials, or at least baby boomers, that would have resulted in some long delayed partying. Sadly, John Clayton Mayfort's freedom from parental supervision would be short-lived.

Death Notice for John Clayton Mayfort

John died of a laundry list of internal injuries which seemed consistent with an automobile accident or a bad fall -- although no accident was listed on the death certificate -- on 1 September 1960. He died at Church Home Hospital. They had operated on him the day before to no avail. (If you ask me, John's real cause of death was being admitted to Church Home Hospital, which, thankfully, is now closed.) Although John didn't die at 21 St. Helens Avenue, he did something even creepier. He had his funeral out of the house.

Holding funerals in private homes was once a common practice. Everybody did it, including my own family. But it was not a common practice in Baltimore in 1960. It wasn't a common practice with the Mayfort family either.  Florence Virginia Hutton Mayfort's funeral was held out of a funeral home in 1911. The funeral of Catherine Mayfort Willing was held out of a funeral home in 1915. All of the members of the family who lived at 21 St Helens Avenue -- stepmother Mary Hutton Mayfort, aunt Annie Hutton, aunt Katherine Mayfort Olsen and even dad John Mayfort -- all had their services at funeral homes. John Clayton Mayfort was the exception. What the hell, dude?****

There's only one room in the house well-suited for a funeral: The front living room. Now, when I think of that room, I always imagine John's polished coffin sitting on a stand before the large front window. That's where we had a sofa. That's where I would make out with my first girlfriend after my parents went to bed. Yuck.

My late sister Laura and her husband Frank sitting on a sofa 
at the location where John's coffin probably sat.

Thanks, John.

I would later attempt to commit suicide in that very room, but we'll get to that later.

With John's death, the house passed to Miriam Mayfort and her brother Martin. Martin did not move back into the house. He remained in his home with his wife a couple of blocks away until his death in 1971. When he died, the house passed into the sole possession of Miss Miriam Mayfort.

Miriam moved into 21 St Helens Avenue with her family when she was twenty-six-years old. She found herself the sole owner of the estate at the age of seventy-two. What do we know about her? First, she never married. Also, according to census information, she never seemed to work outside of the house. Neighbors report she was of medium height and build. She is remembered as being warm and kind. She would make cookies for the neighborhood kids, and give them flowers from her extensive gardens -- where she spent a lot of her time during the spring and summer. I do not know what faith her practiced, but we found Christian Scientist books in the closet.

Next door neighbor, Missy Weiss Martin remembered Miss Marion very well. As a young child, she played many card and board games and dominos in the upstairs sunroom and the adjacent bedroom. She said Miss Marion was adamant about not buying school raffle tickets but rather donate to the cause itself. Missy does not remember how Miss Marion died, but she remembers that, when they heard the news, it was the first time she saw her mother cry.

Mrs. Agnes Jackson, who lived across the street starting in 1962, says Miriam was always very nice. She gladly took a cat for them when it began fighting with their other pets. She actually had a number of cats. Mrs. Jackson also remembered that Miriam had a typewriter, and was always typing, but she has no idea what she was writing.

Perhaps: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy?"

Nah, probably not.

The stained glass window above the landing.

One thing, however, I couldn't get anyone to back up now was the story I heard from everyone when we first moved in: That Miss Miriam died tumbling down the stairs from the second floor to the landing beneath the large stained glass window. Supposedly, the mailman saw her through the front door and called the fire department.  The fire department then used a ladder to enter the house through the stained glass window to get to her.

That's the story we always heard, but one important part of it wasn't true. Miriam Mayfort did not die on that landing. She died in Union Memorial Hospital with a probable pulmonary embolus. A pulmonary embolus is a blood clog blocking an artery in the lungs, which is usually dislodged from a leg. That certainly could be the byproduct of a fall, but no accident is listed in the death certificate.

The place of Miss Mayfort's death -- or fatal misfortune -- grew in significance to us over time as we became aware that the haunting was initially centered in a series of connected closets on the second floor near the top of those stairs.

We often wondered if she had fallen -- or whether, perhaps, she had been pushed.

(CORRECTION: Normally, I have not been making changes in the text of these blogs, only adding corrections in footnotes, because I consider my inaccurate impressions indicative of my family's lack of dialogue about the haunting until recently. In a sense, you are going on a journey of knowledge along with me. However, I feel the need to add this point about Miss Mayfort's death because not everyone reads the footnotes. I recently added the funeral of a popular woman in the neighborhood attended by people who knew Miss Mayfort. They are adamant that she died on the landing on the stairs. That she was taken out of the house dead. Their explanation for the death certificate is that she must not have been "officially" declared dead until then.)

Death Certificate for Miriam Mayfort

I know I have been a little snarky about the Mayfort family throughout this blog, but, trust me, I am very sympathetic to them. When I look at them, I see the Rosenbergers, the family of my maternal grandmother. John Mayfort didn't seem that different from my great-grandfather John George Rosenberger.***** They were both born of German immigrant parents, and, when they died, they had all of their adult children, save one, living with them in their house. Additionally, the Rosenberger family, as a whole, seemed equally disinclined toward marriage and reproduction. For that matter, is the St. Helens Avenue branch of the Murphy family much different? There were four brothers. I was the only one of them who married (to date.)

I also feel sorry for Miss Miriam. For decades at 21 St. Helens Avenue, she lived with four or five of her loved ones. However, she rattled around that big old house alone for the last fourteen years of her life. That must have been sad. Even if the house wasn't haunted.

So? What did we learn?

I was hoping to find some evidence of the haunting in our research. I expected to see deaths by suicide, murder or unexplained means. That proved not to be the case. Instead, I discovered that most of the people who resided at 21 St. Helens Avenue before us lived very long lives. John Mayfort was ninety-one. Amelia Quast Immler was eighty-seven. Katherine Mayfort Olsen was eighty-six. Charles William Immler was eighty-five. John August Immler was eighty-three. Miriam Mayfort was seventy-five. Mary Hutton Mayfort was seventy-five. Martin Livingston Mayfort was seventy-four. Annie Hutton was seventy. John Clayton Mayfort was sixty-five. Geez, in my family, we were lucky to get through our thirties!

Does that mean the house isn't -- or wasn't -- haunted?

No.

I think everyone who experiences a haunting views it through the lens of their worldview. My default worldview is evangelical Christian. Therefore, in line with evangelical thought, I instinctively reject that entity in the house is human in origin. However, someone with a less dogmatic spiritual view, would look at all of the deaths in the house and assume that the entity is the soul of one of the deceased. Some members of my family strongly believe there is more than one entity in the house, and that one of them is definitely female. People with a materialistic worldview would tend to view the events strictly in terms of energy or natural but unexplained phenomenon. If I manage to get the stories of all of my family members, you will see aspects of all of those views.

Perhaps the Mayforts never triggered the entity the way our family did. Not that I believe we deliberately triggered it. However, entities like poltergeists have historically been triggered by the presence of people in early puberty. That would be true of us. However, the Mayforts were all adults when they moved into the house. That could be it.

The lack of public discussion about a haunting from the Mayforts does fit my perception of the entity. As I always say about the experiences of our family: It wasn't one haunting, it was seven. (Ten, if you include the nieces -- and I will.) We all experienced it differently. The entity seemed to act in a way to isolate us psychologically and spiritually. It seemed to feed on it. (It is telling that the reproductive lines of the bulk of the people who lived in the house have gone extinct.) Perhaps it was getting what it needed from the Mayforts without any, what I call, "shows of force." It certainly had Miss Miriam to itself for fourteen long years. Maybe she was like us during the height of our haunting, smiling and "normal" during the day,  but viewing sundown with growing dread....

Sadly, the research also fails to give any evidence to why the entity seems to be strongly attached to the property itself, yet it can still make its presence felt elsewhere. Even within the house itself, it seemed stronger and more attached to certain rooms than others.

The lack of an obvious paper trail is irrelevant. It is impossible to gauge was going on inside that house from the outside.

I recently talked with an old neighbor of ours from St. Helens Avenue. I told him about our supernatural experiences at the house. He seemed surprised and more than a little skeptical. He said he was friends with the current residents, and they never mentioned anything strange.

I had to smile.

That doesn't mean anything.

Until that moment, none of us had mentioned our experiences to him either, and we had known him much longer than the current residents.

It is a house of secrets.

And death.

The back of the house, circa 1974

Once again, a shout-out to my niece Marion for all of her work on this blog. I would also be remiss if I didn't thank my wife Deborah, who went out into the field with me to research this entry.

Notes:

*21 St. Helens Avenue was the original address of the house when it was built. The street name and number has changed, but I use the original address to protect the privacy of the current owners.

**Egypt is probably the name for land east of Hamilton on Old Harford Road

***Samuel Taylor (1776-1845)

****I was completely wrong about funerals being held at the house. Further research shows that Mary Hutton Mayfort, Annie Hutton and John Mayfort, Sr., were all buried out of the house.

*****After the initial posting of this blog, I learned that my great-grandfather John George Rosenberger, much like John Mayfort, wanted to marry his widowed sister-in-law Cecilia Antionette Kostohryz Ritter after the death of his wife. George did not, however, achieve the same success as Mr. Mayfort. Cecilia wouldn't marry him -- despite the fact that he took her on a few bus trips to warm her up.

Additional blogs about the haunting:

The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 1, An Introduction
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 2, The House
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 3, This Is Us
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 4, Arrival
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 5, Methodology
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 6, Clara's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 7, Clara's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 8, My Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 9, My Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 10, My Tale, Pt. 3
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 11, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 12, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 13, John's Tale, Pt. 1 
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 14, John's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 15, Come Inside!
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 16, Marion's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 17, Marion's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 18, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 19, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 20, Lisa's Tale
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 21, Recap, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 22, Recap, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 23, Recap, Pt. 3

The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 24, Bad News Betty

The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 25, Joe's Tale

My novel Chapel Street was inspired by the haunting. You can currently buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & Noble.

Learn more about the book, click Here.

Listen to me read some chapters here:

Chapel Street - Prologue - My Mother
Chapel Street - Chapter 1 - RestingPlace.com
Chapel Street - Chapter 2 - Elisabetta
Chapel Street - Chapter 3 - The Upload
Chapel Street - Chapter 4 - The Kobayashi Maru

Let's stay in touch:

Follow me on Twitter: SeanPaulMurphy
Follow me on Facebook: Sean Paul Murphy

Follow me on Instagram: Sean Paul Murphy
Subscribe on YouTube: Sean Paul Murphy