Unidentified voices, phantom footsteps, objects moving on their own and visitors being physically touched. Who are the spirits haunting this former hotel turned care center? Proud of His Hotel Built prior to 1890 and originally known as the Cottage Hotel, Malvern Manor has had many owners and many names through the years. Owned by Dr. George A. Avrill and his wife Helen for several years in the late 1800’s and into the early 1900's, the hotel underwent major renovations including the addition of the second floor adding 9 sleeping apartments, the addition on the north end, the installation of a heating system and a new dining room. By all accounts, Dr. Avrill was proud of his hotel and took every opportunity to show it off. By 1914, Dr. Avrill was living in California and the hotel started seeing changes in ownership every few years through the 1930s. Although the building continued to be used as a hotel and restaurant through those early years, it did sit unoccupied and vacant several times between owners. Stability once again came to the hotel in 1940 when it was purchased by R.K. Piper and renamed the Piper Hotel. New Life as a Nursing Facility In 1956 the building was converted into a 46 bed skilled care facility and renamed Nisha Cottage. By all accounts the facility was clean, modern and well-run. Patients were well cared for and the owners received glowing praise from both the community and state health officials. In 1975 the owners built a new 50 bed facility at a different location and ‘The Cottage’ was repurposed as a facility for patients not needing skilled nursing care. Claims of Abuse and Neglect By 2005 the facility, now named the Heritage House, while still providing very good care to 10 patients, had been plagued by numerous health and fire code violations and was forced to close. There has been a lot written on-line about abuse and neglect of patients during the time the building was a care center. However I have not found anything in my research to indicate any wide spread abuse or neglect occurred, either during it’s time as Nisha Cottage or it’s time as the Heritage House. In fact, I have found the opposite. Reports indicate that, even when it was being forced to close, the Heritage House was providing good care to the individuals who resided there. Paranormal claims include hearing unidentified voices and phantom footsteps, objects moving on their own, lights flickering, and being touched, pushed, and pinched. On-line claims also suggest that a spirit named Grace, who supposedly spent her life at the facility, along with another woman who was committed to the facility by her husband, haunt Malvern Manor. I doubt the validity of both of these stories. The building was not a care center long enough for anyone to spend their life there and, it was a skilled care center. It was not an insane asylum or poor farm. Individuals were not ‘committed’ to the facility but were placed there when their health required skilled around the clock nursing care. During our tour of the building, the current owner, who provided an extensive history of the building and the paranormal claims also did not mention either of these stories. There is also the story about Inez Gibson, a 12 year old girl that hung herself in her bedroom closet just before Christmas, 1900. It has been reported that the Gibson’s owned and lived in Malvern Manor at the time. My research indicates that the Gibson family, including Inez, actually lived five houses from the Manor. We investigated Malvern Manor on April 25, 2022. It was a beautiful day with temps in the mid-50’s falling to the mid-30’s through the evening. The sky was clear and there was no precipitation. After setting up 4 static night vision cameras we began holding EVP sessions throughout the building. After a slow start, we began having some activity including a lot of rempod activity on the first floor near the nurse’s station and in the reception area. We also captured unexplained voices and the sounds of the phantom footsteps. While claims of seeing a creeper have not been made, we clearly saw one near the nurse’s station after some rempod activity. Unfortunately we did not capture it on video. We did not see any objects moving on their own, and we did not encounter Grace. However, we caught just enough activity to agree that Malvern Manor is haunted. My research sources are listed below. If you have additional information about the history of this location, I would love to hear about it!
Sources: United States Census Malvern Leader Newspaper Des Moines Register Newspaper Iowa Beacon Newspaper Malvern Historical Society
0 Comments
|
AuthorI have been looking for ghosts in haunted locations across the country since 1977. Previous Blogs
All
|