The Haunting of Griggs Mansion

Griggs Mansion – Ramsey County, Saint Paul, Minnesota

Photograph ©Joe Hoover

Address:
476 Summit Avenue
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55102

A wealthy business man named Chauncey Griggs built this beautiful home in 1883. Mr. Griggs made his fortune in the wholesale grocery business and only stayed in Griggs mansion for a short time before moving his business to the west coast. For the most part, the home has been purchased by private home owners over the last century except for a twenty-five year period where it was used as an art school.

This house is said to have at least six entities that roam its floors; making it the most haunted home in all of Saint Paul. A few of the apparitions have been identified; however, a couple still remain a mystery.

On the fourth floor, a maid who worked in the house hung herself off of the landing in 1915. The apparition of this poor woman has appeared in full-bodied form to several of the houses employees and occupants over the years. Many who have ventured up the stairway to this floor have reported a sense of emending doom or a sense of foreboding. Some have heard the sound of heavy footsteps on the stairs themselves when no person could be seen coming up or down them; this sound is usually accompanied by the feeling of a strong presence and an overwhelming sense of fear.

A second apparition reported to haunt various parts of the house is an older gentleman whose identity is unknown. This specter is reported to appear in solid form and has been described as tall, thin and wearing a black suit and top hat. This unidentified spirit has been claimed to touch people with his icy cold hands, appear at the foot of occupied beds during the night and disappear into walls.

The apparition of a small child has appeared to a few people back in the late 1950’s. They claimed that they awoke in the middle of the night to find the see-through image of this child’s head floating above their beds and then it quickly dissipated.

The presence of two other spirits has been felt by a medium who visited the house. The spiritualist described these entities as a young woman named Amy and an older Civil War officer.

Some of the other paranormal activities to plague this house are the usual; windows and doors opening and closing on their own, light bulbs shattering for no apparent reason, items being knocked off of shelves or thrown across rooms by unseen hands and the sounds of voices or coughs coming from empty rooms.

* Warning: This home is privately owned and trespassing will not be tolerated.