MONTGOMERY HOUSE
Location: Once situated at 1965 Duffy Street, the Montgomery House rested in a residential section of Port Washington, Wisconsin, 12 miles from Milwaukee on Interstate 43. Now rezoned as a commercial area, the property is now the site of a veterinary clinic.
Description of Place: Built in 1898 atop the foundation of an earlier one-story cottage, the two-story white Colonial had five bedrooms, garret windows, two fireplaces and a pitched roof. Toward the end of it's existence, it had fallen into a derelict state of repair and condemned.
Ghostly Manifestations: Through the Fifties to the Eighties, the Montgomery House was the local reputed haunted house in Port Washington, Wisconsin, but like so many "reputed" haunted houses in the world, there are only stories of what people think is haunting the house, but no real stories, only the tales passed down by "a friend of a friend of a friend." When news came that the house was going to demolished, the Milwaukee Paranormal Society arrived to do an investigation. Their analysis of the house consisted of little more than "creaks, groans and a few supposed orbs," and they insisted the house should be removed from all the haunted house website lists on the Internet. However, as soon as their news hit their website, Port Washington responded in a rush to protect their little urban legend. Parents who knew the house, teenagers who had actually broken into the house and even a few police officers reported they had evidence that the decaying edifice was indeed haunted.
Most of the stories revolved around the appearance of a ghostly brunette girl who was picked up around town, mostly in the vicinity of the former Keanan Cemetery, and then being let out near the Montgomery house where she often vanished into the night or from somewhere along the drive. In stories reminiscent of "Resurrection Mary" from South Chicago or "Bloody Carrie" from Staten Island, this unnamed ghost, previously never reported in the media, had been seen and described consistently since 1954. None of these drivers knew each other, nor did they know of her existence. This is definitely a manifestation that was not perpetuated by the media like "Resurrection Mary." These reports were not accumulated and compared until 2003 when the news was revealed that the Montgomery House was not haunted and these witnesses came together to repute the false finding. Cab driver Frank Somers gave the young girl a ride in 1954 and she vanished from his back seat. Staci Lambert, Carol McCormick and Brandon Byrne were all passengers of the same bus ride that passed the cemetery and saw the same specter of a faceless girl standing outside the cemetery in March 1963. On August 18, 1970, police officer Patrick Mitchell was passing near the Montgomery house when he reported a suspicious figure racing around the Montgomery house and gave chase after it, only watching it disappearing through a locked back door.
On Halloween 1998, a group of teenagers knowing the reputation of the house used it as a location for a costume party. Now well into his Thirties, J.T. Lambert was one of those kids with a brief glimpse into the house. He recalls it as a dirty and trash-strewn house barely illuminated by candles and party lights and filled with damaged and soiled pieces of forgotten furniture. Amidst the partygoers, he recalls meeting a young girl named Abby Montgomery. Dancing with her was like carrying a block of ice, but she had vanished into the partygoers without a word. Looking back now, J.T. rationalizes that she was the ghost of Montgomery House.
With these sort of finally published claims, the Milwaukee Paranormal Society booked and planned for a new in-depth investigation, but by time they returned to 1965 Duffy Street, all they found was an empty muddy lot resting between a McDonalds and a Laundromat.
History: The Montgomery family was once one of the wealthiest families of Port Washington, but they departed the area in the 1940s and sold the house by long distance. It was the scene of a 1995 amateur horror movie named Demon Blood and used as the locale for a local short-lived syndicated series TV-series called "Afterlife." It was demolished in 2003; since then, the apparition of a strange girl in a long dress has been wandering the area confused.
Identity of Ghosts: It is believed Abby could be Abigail Montgomery; in 1900, she had poisoned herself after the death of Cornelius Byrne, her lover who had died in an explosion on Lake Michigan. It is believed that she had wanted to join Cornelius in the afterlife and that she returns to the house to wait for his return. As late as January 2005, employees of the veterinary clinic now on the site have reported a strange girl wandering in the kennel areas, oddly suppressing the barking noises of the caged animals.
Source/Comments: Step by Step (Episode: "Dream Lover"), Phenomenon loosely based on the Resurrection Cemetery in Justice, Illinois, Montgomery house in Chilliwack, British Columbia, the Andrew House in LaPorte Indiana and the Phelps House in Stratford, Connecticut.