Description Of Place: ".... a grand edifice of Italian Renaissance perfection amidst the untamed ferocity of the American South, Gracie weathers the wild with a hide of stone and brick guarded by ninety foot spires supporting a many spired and decorated roof populated by sculptures and friezes around a wood and glass cupola with a domed roof. The house sees all and knows all with its many windows with an interior is as grand as a French palace with high ceilings, baroque furnishings and inter-continental objects du art spanning all the cultures of man. Great expense was involved in the creation of this most luxurious mansion...." From the diary of Master Edward Gracey - 1873

Ghostly Manifestations: If one visits the Haunted Mansion in the midst of Disneyland and feels that the mansion with its old decrepit exterior and pseudo-paranormal activity seems to hearken to a real haunted location, they might not be surprised to learn that the man who designed the attraction actually based the attraction on a real haunted site located hidden deep in the bayous and swamps of Eastern Louisiana. Its mother is actually the barely known Gracey Mansion - unknown to the living, but popular in the realm beyond the grave.

Louisiana is proud of all its paranormal locations. From the LaVeau House and Mineuercanal Hall in New Orleans to the Oak Valley Plantation on Vacherie, the state is the home of both Cajun and Voodoo ghosts and legends, but what Gracey lacks in intensity, it makes up for volume. 999 ghosts are reported and claimed here. Activity ranges from the physical to the sensory. Whispers come from empty rooms, and visions of people have been seen in empty parts of the house. Several objects have taken on a life of their own. The hall from the foyer to the grand dining room is called the Armory because of the eight historical suits of armor standing at attention along the way. A former caretaker once reported hearing the metal creak of armor against armor as if one of the empty helmets had turned to watched him pass. A housekeeper in the grand study thought she heard a subtle roar from the lion-skin of a long dead beast. At night, phantom organ music comes from the ballroom.

Ghosts both invisible and translucent haunt the grounds and scream from the confines of their graves. Fishermen straying close to the property at night from the waters of the Tammany Creek have reported seeing vague balls of light amidst the far woods of the estate. With the lights come the voices of people - many people - talking and laughing from out of the night. The sounds are not quite human and instead have the empty quality of non-corporeal individuals. A black horse-drawn hearse has been reported several times barreling over the empty dirt roads by the state police since 1953.

Although long abandoned, caretakers and cleaners still tend to the mansion, but they don't live there. Traveling from as far as five miles away, the estate-employed caretakers sometimes skip a day to a week between duties and with good reason. No one wants to be there longer than they have to, but somehow, duties are sometimes still carried out by unknown hands. Windows were found closed before hand by persons unknown when bad weather was reported. One housekeeper noticed a bust had turned to watch her as she replaced linens. Another caretaker overheard old dance music from another time in the ballroom. There is a sensation of a solitary powerful presence holding sway over several spirits accompanied by sensations of dread. A carpenter heading up to the attic stopped en route and stormed out of the house not because of something he saw or heard, but because of an undeniable feeling, a sudden stress attack, that he shouldn't be there.

On December 4, 1976, a group of teenagers traveling to New Orleans in a van stopped to give a ride to a drifter on Highway 41. Their Great Dane cowered in inexplicable fear in the back of their van as the drifter showed them the way to his home at Gracey. As night was approaching and the dirt roads confusing in the dark, he offered them a chance to stay over  at Gracey, but after one look at the depressingly desolate estate, the four young adults consisting of two boys and two girls turned down his gracious offer and continued on their way. As yet, the four kids and their dog have no idea as to who or what offered them rooms at Gracey.

In October 2002, Olivia Kendall, the daughter of an U.S. Navy Officer stationed in New Orleans, was pursuing a musical career. One of her friends knew of Gracey Mansion by reputation and suggested it as a place to film a music video. The venture started promising and continued uneventful as they got through the gates, entered through a window and treated the mansion as their personal playground. However, as rock music started playing, and the walls started pulsating with the sounds of West Coast rap at full volume, aggravated and peace-seeking spirits started screaming from the walls and Olivia and her six associates found themselves scrambling in fear to escape the mansion.

A year later, a boy delivering fliers by bicycle found himself lost in the back roads of St. George. As he stopped to gather his bearings at the locked gates of Gracey, he stuck his head through the darkened iron gates looking for a living person for directions. Although he doesn't recall seeing anything, something pushed him backward onto the ground and he sped off on bicycle leaving a trail of fliers as looked for the highway.    

Almost immediately after that, real estate agents Jim and Sara Evers ended up at Gracey looking at the homes in the area as they headed for an outing with their children. Welcomed inside by who they expected was the owner, they reportedly spent the night amidst flitting images, odd sounds and psychokinetic activity that couldn't possibly have happened. Sara, however, had an unavoidable feeling that she was somehow linked to the mansion, possibly through a relative.

History: The many storied Gracey Mansion has a long and complicated history with a family spanning centuries. Captain Ambrose Gracey was a young captain of a merchant clipper ship that carried goods to New Orleans in the Nineteenth Century. He kept assurance from pirates to keep safe from attacks and often returned with more goods than he started with. His wealth allowed him to build Gracey up river from New Orleans Bay on land safe from flooding near a small cemetery which swelled in size over many years. Reportedly, unauthorized cremations occurred at Gracey long before they became lawful in 1876. Ambrose connected the mansion with a tunnel to a burial crypt and designed rooms with secret passages for smuggling loot and goods safely under the noses of the British Navy.

While in London, he met and loved Juliet des Moulins who he took as his bride. He expanded the house for several children, but only had one son in his lifetime. His pride and heir was young George Gracey who spent much of his life searching and exploring the house's secret passages.

Privately schooled, George Gracey became even wealthier than any other local family. His close friend, known only from records by the name Ramsley, got into trouble in Europe and escaped to America to become George's most trusted confidante and manservant. George extended the family business into the south's largest shipping company. He scored a coup by marrying a beautiful girl named Abigail, the daughter of the French Ambassador, and again extended the house as it had become an in-spot for visits by pirates. Abigail proved to be very fascinated by the occult and converted an upstairs room into a séance room for her spiritual advisor, Madame Guinevere Leota.

George and Abigail had three children, but the two eldest children died, leaving Edward, the youngest, the sole heir. Abigail died of grief over the death of her children, and upon her death, George sealed off the séance room with Madame Leota's crystal ball and possessions still inside it. Young Edward collected animals as a child and his father saw to his son's future. He transferred vast amounts of money to the Bank of England solely to maintain the estate. The mansion could never be sold without the deed which he concealed. Property taxes were paid in perpetuity from the local courthouse.

Ramsley meanwhile oversaw responsibility of schooling and the training of seven-year-old Edward. George had political ambitions for his son, and Edward at fifteen traveled to Boston for schooling and joined a Boston law firm at 24, but he proved to be more a romantic than an aggressive leader, a trait which infuriated his father.

Edward returned home after his father's death to run the shipping firm. He joined the local elite and became under Ramsley's tutelage host of numerous grand and extravagant parties featuring only the most elite. The parties continued for several years and then just suddenly and inexplicably stopped. Gracey vanished from sight as did Ramsley. There were rumors of an old gypsy woman wandering the grounds. Servants and staff claimed afterward that Gracey Mansion "took on a life of its own," and the haunting stories began....   

As of 2005, reports of the deed surfacing have been reported, but as yet, these claims have yet to be substantiated.

Identity of Ghosts: As yet, no one has attempted a serious parapsychological study at Gracey Mansion. Ninety-two percent of the forty-eight acres are covered by graves and headstones with the odd crypt or mausoleum. From 1812 to 1872, bodies were moved up here to be buried from New Orleans (where burial is impossible) with some even cremated long before cremation was accepted. Some graves of persons of noble birth were even shipped from Europe to be buried here for numerous reasons. Supposedly, members of the European aristocracy were often denied blood relatives internment in family tombs because of long-standing family feuds. Graves for pets and servants accompany tombs for the elite and the middle class. Apparently, the legend for the 999 ghosts of Gracey comes from the reported 999 tombstones covering the property.

Source/Comments: The Haunted Mansion (2003)/ "Superstition" Music Video by Raven-Symone. Description based almost entirely on the movie, but with inspiration and influences from multiple locations.

Olivia Kendall from "The Cosby Show"(1984-1992)

Bridget Brno, who appeared in "The Haunted Mansion," also played a ghost in "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody."

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