I hoofed it to the Sample-McDougald House this morning… the house looks a lot less spooky during the day. At night, the place looks ominous. It’s a historical landmark that’s currently being restored very slowly… According to the Pompano Beach Historical building page (scroll to the last entry, to see what it looked like before the building was moved, and had a decent coat of paint) it’ll be opening as a museum sometime this year after it’s renovated.

The neat thing about the house is that it was relocated to where it is now about a year ago. They lifted the whole place onto skids, closed dixie highway for bit, and rolled it a few miles up the street to where it’s at now… on top of a huge cinderblock basement. A basement in Florida is a big deal… they had to build the land up since we’re right at sea level. if you look closely, you can see that the house is up on blocks, waiting for more sand to fill it in. I think that basement would be a great bunker to go play in as a kid… something you can’t see is the chain-link fence surrounding the place… it’ll keep all but the most tenacious kids out.

I was tempted to put some glowing red eyes in the cellar area there. I wonder if ghosts followed the house up the road, or if they’re stuck at the old pre-move location… doomed to spook a strip-mall or a used car lot. The patch of land is an empty lot right now… is it worse to haunt a place that’s empty, or one that is busy?

for a slightly different angle, and a larger pic – http://scottobear.com/lj/newt/haunted2.JPG