Sean Paul Murphy, Writer

Sean Paul Murphy, Writer
Sean Paul Murphy, Storyteller

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 21, Recap, Pt. 1

21 St. Helens Avenue
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. This series of blogs provides an oral history of the actual haunting that inspired the book. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has prevented me from continuing my research. I prefer to interview people in person as opposed to online. Additionally, I need third party information and I don't want to pursue that until we return to something closer to normalcy. However, during the break, I have worked on the timeline of events based on the interviews I have already conducted.

If you read the individual interviews, you will have seen the common thread of people unable to date the events. I have been endeavoring to solve that problem. I have created a master timeline, anchored with events for which we have actual dates, i.e., the births and deaths of family members. Then I have been asking people to attempt to place their experiences within that timeline. It has also been very useful to keep track of who was sleeping in which bedroom at what time. My family lived in the house for twenty-nine years. People shifted from one room to another quite a bit over time. All of these details helped us place the events in a proper chronological order.

This blog, and the following ones, will serve as a recap of the information gathered to date. I feel I am about halfway through this investigation. I want to conduct a few more interviews concerning the house and the actual haunting before moving onto the deaths of my siblings Laura and Mark, in order to discern whether the entity -- or entities -- might have influenced them. Then I will pursue expert opinions to draw some final conclusions. Hopefully, those conclusions will prove helpful to other families who find themselves in this situation. Sadly, they'll be coming too late to help us.

So here goes....

THE TIMELINE, PART 1

1915 – 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.

According to records dating back to colonial times, this house seems to be the first structure built on that site.

The first 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.

Sunpapers story about John Immler
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. Charles married 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.

Before 1927 - Some time prior to 1927, the name of the street and the numerical designations of the houses were changed. I will continue to use the original address to protect the privacy of the current inhabitants.

1927 - John Immler sells the house to the Mayfort family. The Mayfort family would remain in it until 1974 for a total of forty-seven years.

Yours Truly at the Mayfort Family plot at Loudon Park Cemetery
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.

Death found the Mayfort family prior to their arrival at 21 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 had 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
Prior to their arrival at the house, John, Sr., married Florence's younger sister Mary Elizabeth Hutton, who was born in Baltimore on 9 March 1869. In addition to the surviving children, the family was also joined by Florence and Mary's older sister Annie R. Hutton, who was born in June 1863.

26 January 1933 - Annie R. Hutton becomes the first known person to actually die in the house. She was approximately sixty-years-old. She never married and had no children. I haven't gotten her death certificate, so I cannot yet report the cause of her demise. She was buried out of the house.**

Annie R Hutton Death Notice
After 1937 - 21 St. Helens Avenue gains another resident. The sister of John,  Sr.,  Katherine Mayfort Olsen, born 8 February 1870 in Baltimore, Maryland, took up residence after the death of her husband George Olsen.

After 1940 - Martin Livingston Mayfort marries Jane E. Savin, who was born on 6 Jane 1907. He moves out of 21 St Helens and sets up house with his wife a few blocks away at 3305 Lerch Drive. He was over the age of forty at the time of his marriage. The union produced no children.

9 February 1944 - Mary Hutton Mayfort becomes the second person to die in the house. The cause of death was ovarian cancer.  She was buried out of the house.

Mary Hutton Mayfort death certificate
19 Oct 1956 - Katherine Mayfort Olsen dies of myrocarditis. She died, not in the house, but instead at the Edgewood Nursing Home at 6000 Bellona Avenue. Her funeral was held out of the house.

2 November 1958 - The long-lived patriarch of St. Helens Avenue, John Mayfort, dies. 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. His services, interestingly, were not held at the house. They were held out of a funeral home.

1 September 1960 - John Clayton Mayfort dies 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. He died at Church Home Hospital. He never married and had no children. His funeral was held out of the house.

John Clayton Mayfort Death Certificate

24 January 1971 - Martin Livingston Mayfort dies of pneumonia and emphysema on 24 January 1971 at Union Memorial Hospital. His services are held at the Leonard J. Ruck Funeral Home on Harford Road. Martin's death notice is unique among his immediate family in that it mentions a religious affiliation. Donations are to be sent to a memorial fund at Grace Lutheran Church on Harford Road.

5 February 1974 - After living alone at 21 St. Helens Avenue for nearly fourteen years***, Mariam E. Mayfort dies at the age of seventy-four. She never married and had no children. The cause and place of her death remains in dispute. Her death certificate indicates that she died at Union Memorial hospital with a probable pulmonary embolus.


However, some of her former neighbors, whom I recently interviewed, firmly contend that Miss Mayfort died in the house after tumbling down the stairs from the second floor onto a landing under the stained glass window. She was apparently spotted lying there by the mailman. 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 stained glass window above the landing.
When confronted with the conflicting reports, the consensus opinion seems to be that she died in the house, but wasn't officially pronounced dead until she arrived at the hospital.



Spring 1974 - The Murphy family purchases the house at 21 St. Helens Avenue. At the time of their arrival, the Murphy family consisted of Douglas Ernest Murphy, Sr., b. 2 October 1941 in Scranton, PA, died 12 March 2003 in Baltimore, MD; his wife Clara M. Murphy; their children, Douglas Ernest Murphy, Jr.Sean Paul MurphyLaura Lee Murphy, b. 27 September 1962 in Baltimore, MD, died 15 February 1994 in Baltimore, MD; Mark Brendan Murphy, b. 26 February 1964 in Baltimore, MD, died 14 September 1999 in Flint, Michigan; and Jeanne Murphy.

Within days of our arrival, my sister Laura told her mother that she saw an old woman looking down at her from the second floor sunporch. That timing would seem to indicate that whatever was in the house was there prior to our arrival.


The Sunporch
Bedrooms:
Doug and Clara. Front West Bedroom.
Dougie, Sean and Mark. Front East Bedroom.
Laurie and Jeanne. Master Bedroom.

To see photos of the bedrooms, and a summary of the paranormal activity exhibited in them, click on the following link: The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 15, Come Inside!

We later identified the three adjoined closets between the master bedroom and the second floor bathroom as the initial center of the haunting. Not surprisingly, since my sisters Laura and Jeanne shared the master bedroom, they made first contact. Here's Jeanne describing her experience:


April 1975 - My youngest brother John Christian Murphy is born. He is the first baby brought into the house. The Mayforts had no small children. Charles Immler, the son of John and Emile, was eleven-years-old when his family moved into the house.

My mother Clara noticed an increase in the intensity of the paranormal activity after John was born.


1975 - My older brother Dougie moves from the Front East Bedroom to the Front Attic Bedroom, later known as The Hell Room. I follow him upstairs. I move from the Front East Bedroom to the Rear Attic Bedroom.

Bedrooms.
Doug and Clara. Front West Bedroom
Mark and John? Front East Bedroom
Jeanne and Laura. Master Bedroom
Dougie. Hell Room
Sean. Back Attic

Of my surviving siblings, Jeanne bore the brunt of the early haunting. Here she is discussing her early dealings with the entity -- and the bargain it struck up.


Circa 1976 - Dougie moves out of 21 St. Helens Avenue and joins his paternal grandparents about a mile away on Royston Avenue. He claims to have experienced no paranormal activity during his stay at the house.  Here is the sum total of my interview with him:
Douglas Ernest Murphy, Jr.
Sean: Did you experience any paranormal activity at the house?
Dougie: No.
Sean: Do you want to do an interview?
Dougie: No.

My younger brother Mark took Dougie's place in the Hell Room.

Bedrooms.
Doug and Clara. Front West Bedroom.
John. Front East Bedroom
Jeanne and Laura. Master Bedroom
Mark. Hell Room
Sean. Back Attic

January 1982 - Laura gives birth to her daughter Natalia Marie Valenti.
Laura, Natalie, Frank
February 04, 1982 - Laura marries Natalia's father Frank.  She leaves 21 St. Helens Avenue. They move to a 2nd floor apartment on Frankfurt Avenue, then later to 3020 Roselawn. Jeanne is alone in the Master Bedroom.

Bedrooms.
Doug and Clara. Front West Bedroom.
John. Front East Bedroom
Jeanne. Master Bedroom
Mark. Hell Room
Sean. Back Attic

Christmas 1982 - My father Douglas Ernest Murphy, Sr., suffers a nearly fatal brain aneurysm. He survives, but over time behavioral changes become noticeable.

May 1983 - I attempt suicide in the living room of the house. Until very recently, I viewed my suicide attempt as being unrelated from the haunting. Now, after hearing about other suicide attempts and suicide events, I am not as certain.  Here I am discussing the event:



For a much fuller account of this incident, read the following chapter from my memoir, The Promise, or the Pros and Cons of Talking with GodChapter 15 - Quarter To Midnight

My sister Jeanne also wrestled with suicidal impulses at the house:


It is hard to tell when my brother Mark began show symptoms of the mental illness which would eventually drive him to take his own life. However, he later told friends that, while he was living upstairs in the Hell Room, that he could hear the voices of his mother and grandmother talking about committing him to an institution. Those voices were not real. That said, it is unclear whether he simply imagined them or whether that was the first recorded instance of the entity using mimicked voices.

Mark, Christmas 1986
Mark would leave the house prior to December 1985.

June 26, 1985 - Jeanne leaves to go to England. She would remain for two months. Then she would return to Baltimore in August before returning to England. In England, Jeanne would meet her future husband Jon.

Between December 1985 - February 1986 - Clara's best friend Ted wanted to talk with one of his late aunts through the Ouija board. Clara invited him over to the house. They took the Ouija board up to the currently unoccupied Hell Room and tried to communicate with the woman. This is how Clara describes the event:


I recently talked to Ted on the telephone. He has little memory of the incident. Regardless, the paranormal activity at the house increased exponentially after the Ouija board session. My younger brother John noticed the escalation:


During my first twelve years at the house, I never knowing experienced anything paranormal. I heard stories about our old church organ playing -- and I might have heard that once -- but I never experienced anything I couldn't explain away. After the Ouija board incident, the entity quickly made itself known to me. That wasn't surprising since I was sleeping across the hall from the Hell Room.


However, the entity didn't limit itself to noises and bumps in the night. The entity in the house wanted to hurt or possibly kill us. John found that out firsthand in Hell Room.


John first told me about this incident right after I had completed the first draft of my novel Chapel Street at a meeting my sister had called to finally discuss what had happened at the house. When he first told the story, he added, "If I had been standing a couple of inches over to the right in front of the window, I would have gone right out of it. And everyone would have thought I had killed myself because I was at the age when people killed themselves."

That statement inspired me to start this series of blogs. Because I also experienced something I call a suicide event. I define a suicide event as an involuntary incident that would be naturally mistaken as suicide if it played out to it's natural conclusion. Here's what happened to me:


That incident essentially fueled my novel Chapel Street. In the book, the hero Rick Bakos finds himself sleepwalking each night closer and closer to a death that would be mistaken as suicide.  These incidents also make him doubt the supposed suicides of other family members. That's where I find myself now too.

Well, this to be a good enough place to stop for now.  I'll be back with another entry soon.

Here is Part 2: The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 22, Recap, Pt. 2

The Hell Room
Notes:

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

**In an earlier blog, I said only John Clayton Mayfort had his funeral from the house. I was mistaken. Most of the members of the Mayfort family were buried out of the house.

***Miss Mayfort did have a number of pet cats.

****In my mother's defense, that wasn't the first use of a Ouija board in the house. My sister Jeanne used one during sleepovers with her friends.

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

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.

Watch the book trailer:

  

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