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The Legend of Gracey Mansion (...or one of them, at least.)

I cannot say that what you are about to read is necessarily true. I’ve taken a little bit from here and a little bit from there in researching the tale and I have tried to put it all together into one cohesive story.  It is an accumulation of many different tales, legends and theories that have been bandied about throughout the many years that Gracey Mansion has stood at the edge of the Rivers of America.  Every house has a story behind it.  And Gracey Manor is no exception.  Unfortunately, it is a sad story that ends in lost love, madness and death.

It’s a story that starts in the early 1800’s when a young and handsome river boat captain, Yale Gracey, inherited a fortune.  He immediately left his position as riverboat captain and decided to invest his money wisely.  Not long after he found himself immensely wealthy and decided to build his dream home right on the bank of the very river he once piloted riverboats down. Not long after, many workers were building his estate in what was then the township of Liberty Square, right along side the river.  It is rumored that there were more than a few mishaps, accidents and fatalities during the construction of the mansion.  It was a long and hard two years that it took to construct the estate.  But once it was done, Yale quickly moved in with grand furniture and many oddities he collected on many of his trips throughout America and Europe.

Gracey Mansion overlooking the river that Master Gracey at one time commanded river boats (much like the one on the right) up and down.

After a while Yale became quite lonely.  He was the master of this huge mansion all by himself and no one to share his life with.  It is around this time that two women came into his life.  One was a young and beautiful girl by the name of Emily.  Some say that she was the daughter of another wealthy Liberty Square townsperson; others say she was a circus performer that Yale met on one of his travels.  In any case, it seemed to be love at first sight.  The two were inseparable.  People of Liberty Square would comment how Yale and Emily seemed perfect for one another.  Emily brought much joy to the life of Yale Gracey.

Gracey Mansion.................Haunted?

Not much time had passed when another woman entered Yale Gracey’s life.  Both Yale and Emily had an interest in spiritualism, a bit of a fad that was sweeping the nation at that time.  Together they sought a medium and psychic that they could bring into Yale’s home to help them with communication with dead relatives as well as steer them toward the future.  They thought they found such a person when they came across one Madame Leotta.  Many townsfolk felt she was nothing more than a gold digging charlatan who had ulterior motives involving the Gracey fortune, while some feared her, believing she had made a pact with dark forces.  One such theory is that she wanted to turn Yale’s home into her own spiritualist center.

Quite an imposing building.  Would it have made a good center for Spiritualism?  Madame Leotta thought so.

It’s supposedly written in Emily’s dairies that not to long after Leotta moved into Gracey Manor, Emily started to get suspicious of her and tried to warn Yale.  Yale paid no attention to what he felt were “Emily’s ramblings”.  This disagreement didn’t seem to dampen Yale and Emily’s relationship though.  For that same year Yale finally proposed to Emily.

Historic landmark, or playground for the dead?  You decide!

The wedding was a huge event that many of the townsfolk attended.  Everything in the life of Yale Gracey was wonderful…. until later that evening. In their excitement of the first night together as man and wife, Emily came up with a fun idea to play hide and seek in the mansion.  First she would hide and Yale would look for her.  It is here where events get sketchy…. Emily decided to hide in a big chest that was up in the attic.  Once she fit herself into the chest she closed the lid not realizing that it would lock on itself.  Within the small space, Emily, tragically ran out of air quickly.  For whatever reason, Master Gracey never heard her muffled cries until it was way too late.  Superstitious townsfolk claimed that Leotta used her knowledge of the dark arts to put a curse on Emily.  But no hints of foul play were ever found.

Thereafter, Yale went into a tailspin of deep, dark depression.  It has been said that after her funeral services, as Emily’s hearse was leaving Gracey Manor, Yale tossed her wedding ring onto the ground.  The hearse’s wheel ran over the ring, permanently embedding the small piece of jewelry into the ground where it can be still seen today.

Emily's wedding ring, still embedded in the ground right outside of the estate.

Yale spent his remaining time a shell of a man as Leotta seemed to take advantage of the mansion and use it as the spiritualist center that she always wanted it to be. It is said that she summoned many a spirit into the large home during her several séances that she would perform weekly for the numerous odd folks who seemed to travel from far and wide to contact the dead. As Leotta did as she pleased with Gracey Manor, Yale slowly went mad, mumbling to himself as though he were talking to several other people that weren’t there.  When he wasn’t having conversations with “imaginary people”, Master Gracey would spend most of his time alone in the attic, staring into the empty chest that Emily had tragically locked herself in.  The few friends that did venture to the home to visit him said that he seemed to age many years within the short time after Emily’s death.  Where there was once a handsome, dignified gentleman, there was now a graying skeleton of a man with deep sunken eyes that would stare off into another world.

Finally, one evening, Master Yale Gracey could no longer take the anguish and hung himself by a noose in the attic.  He was buried on the grounds, where mysteriously, a red rose is left on his freshly dug grave every day, even to this day.  Who leaves the rose?  No one knows or has seen the stranger.

The Master's final resting place.  Notice the mysterious rose left by an unkown admirer.  Spooky, huh?

Leotta didn’t live too long after Gracey’s passing.  There are no actual records of her demise, but as legend states, it may have involved her being beheaded.  Whether it was by accident or by murder, it is not certain.  She was also buried on Gracey Mansion’s estate, not too far from where Master Gracey is buried.  It is said, that her tombstone “watches” people as they enter the mansion.

The final resting place of the mysterious Madame Leotta.  Is she still keeping an eye on things out here?

The spiritualist center was no more.  But, a few others have bought the property and used it for different services.  It has been both an asylum for the mentally ill and a funeral parlor.  The grounds were used as both a local graveyard as well as a resting place for famous people (the pirate Bluebeard, as well as his many wives, were entombed there when no other cemetery would take them).

Two crypts containing the long departed.  The one on the right is that of famed pirate Bluebeard and his many wives.  Guess he was a busy guy.

A secret passage I found just around the corner from the crypts.  From the surge of cold air flowing from it and the faint sounds of singing I didn't dare go in.

Soon a few more graves popped up here and there.  Past residents of the mansion?

"I love the dead" - Alice Cooper

Some dying of natural causes, others of  a more dubious fate.

"The Dream is Dead" - Type O Negative

There’s also a pet cemetery that the townsfolk of Liberty Square built nearby.  Nobody seemed to stay at the mansion indefinitely.  No one would own it for very long.  Many would move out quite hastily.  Some would disappear completely!

Ernesto Fredrico Zangz is not burried here.

After a while, people would stay away from the mansion.  Up until recently when a renovations crew started to do some work on it (see tarps in photos?) Gracey Mansion was left dormant for many, many years.  (Of course no one has seen any of the work crew since the day they started  the work.  Either they abruptly up and left or simply disappeared….. If you believe that.)

Notice the scafolding and tarps.  Odd thing was there hasn't been a construction crew seen here since the first day of renovations.  Where did they go?  Do you really want an answer?

If you are one who enjoys spooky folklore, then you may be interested to hear that there are many ghost stories involving Gracey Mansion.  No, really!  There are!  There are tales of a ghostly bride that inhabits the attic, strange lights that can be seen in the windows at night, the sound of music coming from the graveyard, the sound of a tormented hound howling into the night, odd characters seen hitchhiking nearby and portraits of former inhabitants that change.  These stories have been told over and over and over again at many a campfire and Halloween party.  There’s even a legend of the spirit of Madame Leotta, who’s disembodied head is imprisoned in her fortune teller’s ball still commanding the dead to rise from their graves.

Beleive it or not, Hollywood has been working on thier own spin on the Gracey legend.

The Gracey estate's cemetery.  Notice Madame Leotta's grave at the far right.  Did any of you see it move? No...really!  I saw it move... honest!!!

After reading many of the legends, stories, theories off of the net, I decided to go there myself with camera in hand to see if any of the stories are true.  During my time spent there, not much happened….. Until that evening.

As I was taking pictures of the small graveyard at the side of the mansion, it suddenly got very cold.  I could actually hear the howl of a dog.  And I could have sworn that Madame Leotta’s gravestone moved and looked at me.  But there’s a rational explanation for all of this.  Of course it’s going to be cold!  The mansion is right on a river.  The weather can change instantly…right?  And what about the howl?  The mansion is near a small wooded area.  Of course there’s going to be some form of wildlife in there.  And as for the tombstone…. Well, that was probably my wild imagination taking over my mind.  Right?

Needless to say, I did get some strange images on my photos when I got them developed.  Probably just some sort of reflection bouncing off my lens.  Or is it more than that?  Is the ghost of old Master Gracey still haunting his home, challenging visitors to find their way out? Naaawwwww, it’s all just one big ghost story.  Isn’t it?

Double-Zoinks!!!  There's another!!!  Let's get outta here, Scoob!!!

Zoinks!!  Where'd that come from???

The End

(Note: much of this fictional tale has been derived from many Haunted Mansion fans and their own stories on the net and put together by myself into my own idea of a cohesive story about Master Gracey, his bride, Emily, and Madame Leotta.  I don’t claim to be the originator of this story, just readjusting it for my own fable.  NONE of these photos were lifted from ANY other webpages without permission!  They are all original photos taken by the webmaster of this site.  Do not take or post these pictures without my consent.  If you want more information on the greatest Haunted Attraction of all time, Walt Disneyworld’s Haunted Mansion, click on the link below.)

Doombuggies.com

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