House 1

Built in 1850 by Thomas Grey for his family, the manor is settled in a thick forested area outside of Bethesda. Consisting of nine bed rooms, a parlor, a library, dining room, kitchen, servants' quarters and cellar, the house is a well sized estate that raised only two generations of the Grey family. Jonathan Grey and his wife, Marian, inherited the estate after his father, Thomas, passed away of natural causes. They lived in the house until 1915.

Some say that the beginning of the tragedy that befell the house was when Marian's sister married a business associate of Jonathan's. William and Abigail left for their honeymoon to England shortly after the marriage. The ship they sailed out on never returned to port and they were never heard of after that. The ship is presumed to have gone down somewhere in the Atlantic during a rough mid-summer storm.

Shortly after the presumed death of her sister, Marian began seeing a medium. Accounts indicate that the medium, who's name is not filed on record, was introduced to Marian by a member of the Bethesda Women's Auxiliary club. The medium was reputed to be a gypsy from eastern Europe. Marian began seeing the woman in earnest for a few months before she invited the medium to live with them. Also around this time, Jonathan and Marian's young seven year old daughter was taken out of the boarding school she had been sent to due to deteriorating health conditions. Historians believed that she had somehow contracted tuberculosis from other students at the boarding school.

Shortly after the medium moved in with Jonathan and Marian, the women of the auxiliary club held a séance in the cellar to contact Marian's deceased sister. Historical accounts of the séance indicate that more than just the sister was contacted, and that a violent entity was called into the house on that fateful night. Embarrassed by the séance, his wife's actions, and upset by the cost of paying the medium and keeping her in his home, Jonathan threw the gypsy woman out on the street. There was some speculation that after this action, the medium placed a curse on the home.

Three weeks after the medium was gone, Marian woke in the middle of the night. She slit her husband's throat in his sleep with his shaving razor. She gathered all the cutlery in the kitchen and killed the two maids, house keeper, and grounds keeper; each with a different knife, slitting their throats in their sleep. She then went to her daughter's bedroom and slit her throat as well. Authorities found Marian the next day when her husband was reported missing from work. She was sleeping covered in blood, cradling her dead child's body in the child's bedroom. She was taken to a mental institution in Bethesda that day claiming that she had to make reparations and break the curse on their family.

Grey Manor stood abandoned to the elements until 1962 when a new family moved in. Ernest Green and his wife and twin sons moved into the home intent on repairing it to it's original beauty. Construction began immediately after they moved in.

The sons, Matthew and Jacob, were ten years old. Accounts indicate that the boys found an antique Ouija board in the cellar with some other artifacts from the Grey family. Shortly after using the Ouija board, the boys were institutionalized as they began displaying erratic and sometimes violent behavior. The boys had to be separated, sedated, and sent to different institutions after they murdered some of their fellow patients. At home, Ernest and his wife, Lily, began to fear for their own safety as frightening messages were left for them in various rooms of the house. Tools began disappearing and showing up in different locations of the home, and especially the knives were constantly being misplaced. After a frightening event where Mr. Green reported nearly being stabbed with a knife that flew at him the family left the house.

In 1994 the house was bought by a business man as an effort to revitalize it and convert it into a hotel. Again, as soon as the house was bought construction began. The business man did not live in the house, however many accidents were filed by the construction crews. One man was reportedly pushed off a ladder while installing light fixtures in one of the upstairs bedrooms. As multiple accidents occurred, many workers refused to return to the site. The project was abandoned, half finished after the business man went bankrupt.

Since then there have been no other residents of the house. The home is currently owned by the First National Bank. Our team spent two weeks in this home, and here are their stories.