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CONTACT:

Rene Staub

Marketing Director

Farnsworth House

(717) 334-8838

        The Farnsworth House in Gettysburg is known to be one of the most haunted inns in America and features a variety of ghost presentations, telling tales of spirits that roam the house and the historic town.

 

Its latest addition will take visitors back in time when Victorian widows and families attempted to communicate with the dead. Featuring an ornate Victorian room with an oval table that seats 12, the show begins when guests enter to view the numerous antiquities and curiosities, including an assortment of taxidermy, antique portraits, fossils, and period personal effects that will put visitors in the mood to venture into the unknown. The Victorian attired host will then transport guests into the world of the 19th century, leading the séance as mediums would have done almost 150 years ago.

 

The show is for entertainment only, with an array of parlor tricks from the time period, including “smoke and mirrors.” The illusions make the audience feel as though the room is filled with spirits as they attempt to solve an authentic Gettysburg murder mystery from 1879. The audience will experience 10 minutes of complete darkness as “spirits enter the room” to play with their senses.

 

Some ghost stories from the inn are also told within the presentation to compliment the séance and give validity that things truly do go bump in the night at the establishment. Perhaps one may not be able to distinguish what is real or not real in the darkness of the séance room with the reported “no less than 14 spirits” that haunt the property.

 

The word séance comes from the French, meaning seat or session, from the Old French word seoir, “to sit.” In French, as it did in English, the word came to be used specifically for a meeting of people to receive spiritualistic messages. This form of contact is very relevant to Civil War era history. Spiritualism was born just less than 15 years prior to the Civil War, starting with the Fox sisters in Hydesville, N.Y. They became famous for conversing with a ghost that haunted their home. Communicating through a series of knocks, the sisters came to the conclusion that there was a man killed in their house and buried in the cellar.
 

Though there are many proven psychics and mediums throughout the world, the Civil War era was filled with hoaxers that would help console the living when death engrossed our divided nation. Mary Todd Lincoln held frequent séances at the White House after the death of their son, Will. Mrs. Lincoln continued to see mediums after the death of the president. A famous spirit portrait shows her seated with a ghostly image of President Lincoln standing behind her. These portraits were later proven to be fakes, and merely artistic work of photographers.

 

The Victorian Séance Room has sittings available year-round. September features seating on Friday and Saturday evenings at 9 p.m., 10:30 p.m. and midnight. October will bring additional sittings throughout the week for the Halloween season and will start daily operation after Memorial Day for the summer season. Call (717) 334-8838 for reservations.