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“For paranormal enthusiasts, arguably Atchison’s biggest draw is the infamous Sallie House, scene of a dark haunting which some believe continues to this day. Yet there is another haunted location, just five minutes away from the Sallie House, which deserves investigation every bit as much: the historic McInteer Villa.”

THE STEP BY ESTEP GUIDE TO… McINTEER VILLA

All Photography © Sarah Streamer

People visit Atchison, Kansas for lots of reasons. The mid-western city is perhaps best known for being the birthplace of legendary aviator Amelia Earhart. Apparently, the house still stands, and is now a museum, although I’ve never been able to find it. (Sorry, couldn’t help it!) I first visited the Villa in early 2021, prior to spending a few nights at the Sallie House to research a future book project. I had reached out to the Villa’s owner via social media, and she extended me a friendly invitation to drop in and get a guided tour. I had driven through the night from my home in Colorado, taking around ten hours to reach Atchison, and was running on an unhealthy mixture of caffeine and enthusiasm. The McInteer Villa sits at the top of a moderate hill. It stands out from all the other houses in the neighborhood, not least because it *looks* like a haunted mansion, if ever I saw one; the sort of building where countless episodes of Scooby Doo took place. Standing outside in the front yard is a skeletal horse drawing a card. Other skeletons can be seen riding a bicycle. It’s immediately obvious that when it comes to spooky, the owner has really gone all in. Speaking of the owner, she greets us at the door with a smile. It soon becomes apparent that Stephanie is nothing less than a force of nature, with boundless energy and enthusiasm for her haunted home. She bounces from room to room, then floor to floor, showing off the place and talking my team-mates and I through its history.

The Villa was built in 1889 at the behest of local entrepreneur John McInteer, who built his fortune in the livery trade. McInteer, an Irish immigrant with a strong head for business, was also a savvy investor in real estate, and owned a number of different properties spread throughout the region. He used some for business purposes, and several others as personal residences, of which the Villa was one. Unlike many of today’s homes, which tend to be built out of lightweight materials such as wood, the McInteer Villa was built to last. Much of the construction is brick, made to stand the test of time. There are two floors, a huge basement, and a capacious attic with a turreted tower. Stepping inside is like going back to the Victorian era. Stephanie has gone to great lengths to furnish as much of the house as possible in period-appropriate style.

There have been several deaths in the Villa over the course of its lifetime, but two in particular stand out. One was an eccentric lady named Isobel Altis, who died at the age of 75. Her body was found sitting in a rocking chair in one of the downstairs front rooms, the day after her death (which was, according to the doctor who examined her, a peaceful one). She was, by accounts, an eccentric but good-hearted woman, who was known among local children as the lady who owned “the scary haunted house on the hill.” It is believed that she still haunts the McInteer, dropping in decades after she died to keep a protective eye on the home she loved so much in life.

A more tragic death was that of Charles, a former soldier who shot himself in the Villa’s second-floor library. There were stories concerning him being depressed and possibly suffering PTSD as a result of his wartime experiences.

His ghost is also said to be active there and can sometimes be heard pacing back and forth when the library is empty. Of course, it seems that every historic old house has a ghost. The McInteer, however, is more paranormally active than most. To rattle off a complete list of the phenomena which have been reported there would take an entire book (I should know, I’m in the process of writing one!) but some notable examples are the sound of a baby crying when there was no child in the house; heavy dragging noises coming from the second floor; doors slam of their own volition; knocks and raps coming from inside the library; and, in one of the creepier pieces of video evidence I’ve ever seen, a skeleton up in the attic slowly turned its head to face the locked-off video camera, before its eye popped out and its hat fell off. It’s tempting to dismiss this as simply being gravity at work, but the skeleton in question had been sitting in place for weeks without moving, before this spontaneously happened. What caused the head to suddenly begin turning and twisting? It is something that, while not demonstrably paranormal, certainly could be, and the footage is creepy enough to spark a nightmare or two. https://www.facebook. com/1889mcinteervilla/ videos/233317678760488 It took less than an hour for my friends and I to fall in love with the Villa. Fortunately, Stephanie granted us permission to come back for a return visit later in the year and spend several days living at the McInteer and researching it. With the benefit of hindsight,

© Sarah Streamer

we could have chosen our dates a little more wisely: it was the Fourth of July weekend, when the entire state of Kansas was letting off enough fireworks to repel an alien invasion. (Talk about “Independence Day”). Unfortunately for my fellow paranormal investigators and I, this meant that most of the audio recordings we made after dark were contaminated beyond all means of salvaging. Adopting the philosophy of “if you can’t beat them, join them,” my colleague Mike Taylor purchased a small arsenal of

fireworks himself, and proceeded to let them off in the street outside the McInteer. The end result: a near miss when one of his rockets veered unexpectedly off-course and set fire to a length of garden hose connected to the house. Fortunately, prompt action averted disaster, and the Villa remains standing.