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| Third Avenue, circa 1880 Source: WV History on View |
The Huntington, WV of today is vastly different than the Huntington, WV of 1875. Third Avenue, between 9th and 10th Streets, was a mere dirt road, filled with pedestrians and horse-drawn wagons eager to complete their shopping and take care of other errands in one of the city's main business districts. But beside one such shop, Chase and Burdick, was a house. A HAUNTED house.
For over two weeks, the occupants of the house experienced a mysterious phenomenon. Every night at 9pm sharp, there would come a tapping at every window in the building, both upper and lower floors. The taps would start at one window, and when they reached 12...not one more or one less...they'd move on to the next. Witnesses said it sounded like a small hammer striking a nail.
Four brave fellows gave up a Saturday evening to try to solve the mystery, standing guard at four separate windows. At 9pm, the tapping began at a front window on the second floor, then proceeded to make its rounds. No explanation was given as to what was causing the strange sound.
An article in the Huntington Advertiser notes that members of Huntington's Spiritualist movement were convinced the tapping was the result of a deceased person, desperately trying to communicate with the living. An elderly Black woman living in the rear of the nearby Third Avenue Hotel, had a more specific cause in mind. She claimed that a man was killed on the spot where the house stood, back about 15 years prior (so, around 1860). It was this man's spirit who was the one trying desperately to communicate or make his presence known.
I don't know if an explanation was ever discovered for the mysterious window tapping, but I do hope that after nearly 150 years, the phantom tapper finally got his message across to someone and is now at peace.
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| Huntington Advertiser 4 March 1875 |
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