You are here: Real Ghost Stories :: A Haunted Life :: The House on Buckingham Street

Real Ghost Stories

The House on Buckingham Street

 

When I was five, my parents bought an abandoned house in Lincoln Park. It didn't have the typical characteristics of abandoned houses found in movies and such - the grass was overgrown due to neglect and the shingles had a little more wear and tear than one would like, but otherwise it had a decent interior, a semi-finished (though ugly) basement, and while the rooms were not painted in our colors of choice (my mom found them to be repulsive- deep red, navy blue, and dark green), it wasn't too bad for a first house.

Two weeks of painting and moving and finally we were set. I was given the smallest room in the house, but I was going to be gone for a few weeks that summer on a road trip out west, so my parents decided to paint my room pink. My dad was always good at drawing, and so he painted a portrait of our family dog, Mickey, on my wall, and above the light switch painted "Britt's Room". He also drew sketches of Mickey Mouse and made little red hearts. It was cute.

Unlike most of the stories posted here, I did not visibly see a ghost or shadow or watch objects move by themselves. In fact, nothing that unusual happened for awhile. But that summer a lot of mail came in for children that supposedly lived there still. My mom would give them to me instead of throwing them away. One of these was a book of fun stamps that someone had actually paid for a subscription to. I thought it was odd that the parents (or whoever) didn't cancel the subscription before leaving, but then again, the whole idea of abandoning the house seemed odd as well. They didn't even bother selling it for money. My dad told us once, "Well, the realtor said they just couldn't live here anymore and decided to leave. I don't really know why..."

As a little girl, I had what my parents called a "wild imagination". I was the kid who believed her dolls had parties behind closed doors, that the Beast from Beauty and the Beast was real and was going to eat her at night, that the photograph taken of her sitting on Santa's lap was actually a magical photograph and Santa used it to see what she was up to at all times (I actually placed it face down on my dresser when I was up to no good in order to avoid getting a spot on his naughty list), and even if I'm barely this way now, I had a lot of spooks growing up that were caused by none other than me.

But then there were the three years spent in this house on Buckingham- the Buckingham Palace, we called it, that couldn't be explained by just an over-active imagination.

Like most little girls, I had a cute little wooden vanity where I dumped all of my fake make-up and hair stuff and the works. On this particular day, I decided I was going to be Snow White, and so I hunted down an old halloween costume and began to make myself pretty. After about ten minutes, I heard someone call out my name- "Brittany..."

And I hadn't just heard "Brittany" once. I heard "Brittany" several times, each time getting louder than the last, until eventually it was "BRITTANY!".

The odd thing was, this happened often. I kept hearing someone call my name but I could never find out who it was. My parents always told me it was a neighbor or I was just hearing things, but on this day I ran out of my room, completely forgetting my plans to be a Disney princess. I didn't return for awhile. I camped out on my mom's bedroom floor.

As the years passed, things became a little more strange. My mom worked at a grocer nearby, but her shifts were awful. I typically wouldn't see her until roughly midnight, sometimes even one in the morning. Because I so young, if I felt lonely or restless, I would stay up until she came in to say good night. But other times I would crash the moment my dad tucked me in and would almost sleep through her visit. One night, however, I was just too tired to wait up and I slept like a baby- until waking with a start. I didn't even get a chance to look around for the cause- directly in front of my face were the eyes and nose of what I assumed to be my mom, but this wasn't really a face. It was like a blown up image of her features, so big that it covered the entire width of my bed, and though I couldn't really see the mouth, she seemed to be smiling.

I stared at this image for a little while. I wasn't sleepy anymore, but I wasn't sure what to think. Was it my mom? I knew it wasn't physically her, but I was reassured (for whatever reason) that I shouldn't be scared and I shut my eyes. I opened them once more and the image was still there- but I fell fast asleep. When my mom woke me up later on that night, I told her what I saw, but she said, "You must have been imagining things again..."

About a year before we moved out, I began to hear my name being called out more frequently- always by a female voice. I eventually gave up on telling my parents about it as they never really had anything helpful to say. I tried believing that they were right and it really was my imagination, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that someone was in the room with me. I always looked behind me when walking out of my room to find nothing but furniture and toys and pink walls. While outside, I would hear my name and turn around just to find Mickey circling the grass or dead leaves or something of the like. My parents never noticed anything unusual though, and so I carried on with daily life.

The last major event that took place happened shortly after I switched rooms with my mom. I decided (one day) that pink was a sissy color and blue was more my style and my mom had a light blue room. Since we were moving out shortly, she agreed and most of the incidents stopped. I still heard my name every now and then but it was becoming more and more rare, and I definitely stopped seeing faces in the middle of the night. But one odd thing came in a dream.

I'm sure that at least some of you remember the veterinarian Barbie- the one that came with the little plastic dog and cat and a little white case with medical tools inside. I had a big cardboard box stashed in my closet where I would put all of my Barbie things, and one night, after securing all of my toys in this box, I had a dream that, in essence, my little plastic cat became possessed, and out of a jealous rage that I played with the dog more, ran away. The last scene in my dream was of it turning its head towards me and showing me red beady eyes before walking out of my room robot style. I woke up a little freaked (I mean, red eyes? Come on.) but thought nothing of it- until I looked in my box and the cat was gone.

Even after packing and cleaning and searching through everything, I had never been able to find my cat. I don't honestly believe that the thing ran away, either, but it is a little strange. It hadn't been thrown away, given away, or stolen by any of my friends. I didn't really have friends at that time, so no one really ever came over, and I had played with that very cat just a couple days before it went missing. I was pretty bummed. We moved to a nice little house a couple cities over (more stories to come if you are interested), and I couldn't shake this strange feeling that I was forgetting something important. I even had dreams about it. But passing it off as nothing, I moved on with my life.

My senior year of high school came around, and while in the car with my dad, I decided to tell him about all the crazy stuff I went through as a child and all the stunts I pulled. After a bit of laughing and a "tease Brittany because she kept hearing her name all the time and saw faces" session, my dad's facial expression suddenly became serious, and he said, "Remember your old bedroom?"

I nodded, and asked what this had to do with anything.

"Well, don't get me wrong. I don't think our house was haunted or anything. But I know why the house was abandoned. The realtor told me that the former owner had committed suicide in one of the rooms- your old room before you switched with your mom. The one I spent countless hours painting so that you could decide later you didn't want it anymore. Anyway, yeah. I didn't really want to tell you or your mom because I didn't want to scare you guys, but now you know. I'm sorry..."

We never talked about it again.

Other hauntings by frenchpoet

Hauntings with similar titles

Find ghost hunters and paranormal investigators from Michigan

Comments about this paranormal experience

The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, frenchpoet, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

bumblebee55 (1 stories) (40 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-10-12)
Hey, I have this WQLN teddy bear my dad gave me when I was little, and it's really freaky. It doesn't LOOK scary or anything, but it literally moves BY ITSELF. I have it on this little desk by my bed, and I always keep it facing my window. Well, yesterday, I was reading a book, and after a while I looked up and my bear was facing almost completly to the left, facing my alarm clock. My alarm clock has also been acting weird latly, too. Like a few times, the time on it would go back a few minutes. And this morning, I woke up about 7:15 AM, and I keep my alarm on through the weekend, and this morning I woke up and the volume was muted and the radio station I normally keep it on is 90. 5 but it was on the radio station for WQLN, which is where I got my freaky teddy bear. I don't know what's up with that, maybe it's just a coincedence, I don't know. 😕
Jarret (1 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-01-09)
I live in Linoln park on Cleveland street which is like 9 blocks away from buckingham street and I was wondering if you could give me the address of this house so I can check it out.
Bellissima (12 stories) (792 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-01-07)
Hi frenchpoet. I enjoyed reading your story. You really did have some weird things happening there, thankfully weird and not so much frightening! I'm curious about the big face you saw over your bed, that's so strange. You said it looked like your Mom but it's just such an odd thing! You had a feeling of security from it, maybe she happened to be thinking about you at that time. That's a puzzler! Thanks for sharing your story.
frenchpoet (10 stories) (61 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-01-06)
whitebuffalo,

Thank you so much for your suggestion! Maybe I'll look into that book. All I know is that I shouldn't take the dream literally (that would be funny) and it probably did have a lot to do with the fact that I was moving away. It could also have a lot to do with what Anna12 said, or maybe it's a mixture of the two lol. I am sure I forgot a lot of important details. I was about 8 or 9 at time time. =/
whitebuffalo (guest)
 
17 years ago (2008-01-06)
Anna, (Excuse me please, frenchpoet. I have a question for Anna) For the sake of a bit of tutelage here, could you point out the part of the dream that caused you to feel that a young man committed suicide in this dream? I only ask as I am fairly new to this and could use help (not just in this area, too! 😊).
I do not see anything in the reading of the comments or the story itself that is a red flag for "death" or "violent death", and am just wondering. We all need a little help from teachers, and I think I am there now with your interpretation.

I think, though, frenchpoet that as you were so young when you had this dream there were a different set of values and thoughts for you. Some things have inevitably changed as you grew older and maybe something was there that you can no longer remember, or just that you do or did not think was important.
Or, I could be totally off the track on this. I do not know. It is a difficult thing to think you know what is going on in someone else's head, and dreams are no exception. With me not being psychic, and just feeling things, that makes it harder. Sylvia Brown has a book about dreams that may be a good read for you and your roommate, actually. I know the word dream is in the title, but I can not remember the entire thing.
Thank you.
frenchpoet (10 stories) (61 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-01-06)
whitebuffalo,

Thank you for your interpretation! You are probably right but I wasn't too sad about leaving. I didn't really like living there and in our new house, my parents were giving me the entire upstairs (it was basically a finished attic but it was nice and big), and I didn't really have friends where I was living currently. My parents hated the house too, so that's why we were moving. I'm an only child so I don't know. It could have been that I was attached to the house and just didn't realize it because I was excited to get my new room. That makes sense. =)

Anna12,

I'm glad you enjoyed my story. =) Your interpretation could be right also. I usually ask my room mate to interpret my dreams because I'm bad at it. But my little toy cat was angry in my dream so I'm not sure. It just might be one of those things that I will never figure out.😊 I sometimes wonder if my dog ate me toy cat, but then I would find the remainders of it lying around. Mickey is a shi-tzu and he's a small guy... He can't really do a lot of damage. Thank you!

I really appreciate all of your comments and I'm glad you weren't bored by my story! 😜
Anna12 (1 stories) (44 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-01-05)
Hello!
I adore your humor in this story. Your dream made me laugh for quite a while! But yes, that was quite frightening at the same time. I'll tell you a little bit about this dream of yours.
A man suicided himself in your room, most beings who commit suicide end up as lost souls bound to Earth until they finish their buisness up here. Light shining through doors/windows/cracks/etc signifies a new beginning or place (as whitebuffalo said). Maybe your ghost finally moved on and was telling you this through your dream.
I really hope this helps! I'm stuck though on the reason of the disappearance of your Barbie cat. Best of luck!
whitebuffalo (guest)
 
17 years ago (2008-01-04)
Hello again, frenchpoet.
I have a question about the recount of your dream. Did I read it right that you were dreaming that you woke up, and in fact you were still dreaming?
I have been reading and rereading your comment and I seem to have more questions than answers for you. I can only assume that you either had something going on in your life at the time that was laying heavily on your mind, be it that you were all moving or whatever.
It appears that all this dream is doing is pointing that out. It is hard to say, as it was so long ago. But from what I have learned while learning about dreams, when someone (thing) leaves you in a dream it signifies something moving on. Yeah, I know it sounds like I am trying to be as vague as possible to avoid the facts, right? The door with the light shining around it would generally signify a new beginning, but in this case that would be a given too. You were moving, and therefore a new beginning of sorts.
Actually, what I am wondering is if your entire family moved at that time. I mean, there was no divorce that caused one parent to be somewhere else? An older sibling going off to college, or work in another city and not moving with you? Did you fear leaving your "old" friends as you would be leaving them behind? A neighbor who you felt close to?
Thank you.
Tonith (1136 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-01-04)
Great story. Kids do have vivid imaginations but I think what was happening to you was more than just that. My heart aches for poor souls that have taken their lives. Many think they will find peace but end up with the same restlessness on the other side because they didn't work out their issues here or so the scenario goes.
FRAWIN (guest)
 
17 years ago (2008-01-04)
Hi frenchpoet. Thank you for a very interesting story, I enjoyed it tremendously. Take care.

FRAWIN ❤
frenchpoet (10 stories) (61 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-01-03)
I'd love if you could interpret my dream for me. =)

I don't remember all the details, but I do remember that I was lying on my bed, sleeping, because it was during the night. Something bad was happening, so I woke up and sat upright holding my covers at my waist, and looking at my plastic cat as it walked robot style out of my room. I knew that it was angry at me. I assumed it was angry because I have always loved dogs more than cats and so I played with the plastic dog more, but that was never specifically addressed in the dream. My door was cracked open and light was shining through but it seemed more like it was leaving forever... But it was still a bad feeling. The cat turned to look at me halfway through my room and it had red beady eyes that glowed a whole lot. I was terrified when I woke up. I didn't immediately searched for the cat because I knew it would be impossible for the thing to come to life and just leave, but when I did look for it later that day, it was gone, and I mean GONE. And you know how it is when you start packing before a big move and you find things you forgot you even owned... I never found my toy.

I actually have not heard anyone call my name since I was in elementary school. Now I either hear strange noises or have very detailed dreams.
whitebuffalo (guest)
 
17 years ago (2008-01-03)
Hello frenchpoet.
In your fathers defense, I can see why he did not let anyone know about the suicide. I, too, am guilty of allowing my family to move into a home that had a death in its walls. In MY defense, I had no idea that my daughter saw as much as she did, 😊 and had no thoughts that move would cause us to begin a new phase in our lives...
I would love to take a try at telling you what the dream meant, but what you have written is more of an "essence" of the dream, with not enough detail to see what was going on then. Dream interpretation is an art, one that is difficult to learn, but fun to try. If you could fill in some details? Otherwise, all that any one could do is guess at its meaning.
I may have missed this, but do you still hear any one saying your name?
Thank you for your story.
frenchpoet (10 stories) (61 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-01-03)
When I moved to my new house, I continued to hear my name being called out everywhere- in my bedroom, at school, when I was outside, etc., and one day I was sitting in the middle of my room (my bedroom was the second floor- the attic, essentially), and I said, "SHUT UP ALREADY!" And I know that may have been a bad idea, but I was nine years old and I kept hearing my name for years and I just got fed up. I never thought to ask, "What do you want?" or anything like that. But the voices did stop.
melonlover (3 stories) (50 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-01-03)
That's quite odd there was definately a weird spirit in that house! Also I'd love to hear your other stories! And if it ever happens again someone calling your name try answering back maybe? Anyway good luck 😁 ❤ melonlover
frenchpoet (10 stories) (61 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-01-03)
luvparanormal,

At the time, I was really young (I turned six just after we moved in) and we moved to a different house when I was eight. I found out about a year ago that someone had committed suicide, but I have thought about it. I'm not sure where to start though! I know that a pregnant woman and her boyfriend purchased the house after us and my dad always used to drive by it after we moved for whatever reason. I don't know if they are still there or if they moved, too. I did try to look for obituaries for Lincoln Park (I still remember the house address) but nothing came up for that house... But I may have been going about it all wrong. 😕
frenchpoet (10 stories) (61 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-01-03)
Thank you for your comments. 😊

I wasn't mad when he told me simply for the fact that I'd rather think someone had died in my room and maybe there was a haunting rather than I was crazy or hearing voices (and seeing faces), but it does creep me out to think that I slept and played in a room where someone took their own life.

I'm curious though if anyone knows what that dream is about? It's creepy and even though I know it's not really to be taken literally, I was wondering what it had to do with any of this, if anything.
luvparanormal (12 stories) (268 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-01-03)
wow that was a good one. I cannot believe that your dad would even think of getting the house klnowing that there had been a suicide in it. I know I would have said thanks but no thanks, that's for sure. I do have a question after that did you ever do any other research on the house or property?
KimSouthO (27 stories) (1960 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-01-03)
What a fabulous story! It is pretty obviou that you where receiving visits of some kind.

Often it seems that those who commit suicide, die in a violent manner or have an abrupt end to life often stay behind for whatever reason.

I am glad your dad finally told you what had occured in the house. I do hope that whoever was stuck there has been able to cross over and find peace.

God Bless 😁
mustang (5 stories) (749 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-01-02)
Hi frenchpoet. Wow! I would have been really freaked out if I would have known, about the suicide, WHILE still living in that house. Thank God your Dad decided to tell you after the fact. It stinks though that he knew all along about the suicide but yet he said you had an over-active imagination. That would have upset me. Well, even though it was pretty spooky, it sounded harmless. Harmless are not, I still would not want to live in a haunted house. Thanks for sharing your story. ~Shelby ❤ 😊

To publish a comment or vote, you need to be logged in (use the login form at the top of the page). If you don't have an account, sign up, it's free!

Search this site: