The $1.85M mansion in N.Y.’s Ghostbusters ruling
Big Victorian retains its ‘legally haunted’ status from 1991 landmark case
The spirits that inhabited Helen Ackley’s mansion on the Hudson River have apparently vanished into thin air. Why? Ghouls just wanna have fun.
After Ackley and her family moved out 30 years ago, the three friendly phantoms also vacated because the new owners weren’t as entertaining, they later complained through a medium.
The realtor for the eight-bedroom Victorian mansion about 60 kilometres north of NYC, in Nyack, N.Y., bears that out: “I have not, nor have I heard of subsequent owners experiencing anything unusual,” Nancy Blaker Weber told the Star. “To me, the house feels warm and welcoming, and it is a beloved house from all the owners who have lived there.”
The “perfectly restored beauty” is a sanctuary “to nurture the creative spirit” with its soft natural light, spacious yet intimate interiors and Hudson River views from almost every room, said Weber, a broker with Howard Hanna | Rand Realty who’s listing it for the third time.
Currently owned by American singer/rapper Matisyahu, the 130-year-old home has been renovated to complement the original arched doorways, stained glass, exposed brick and inlaid hardwood floors, Weber noted. The house also retains its “legally haunted” status from a 1991landmark court case known as the Ghostbusters ruling.
The ghost story dates back to the late 1960s when Ackley, husband George, and their large family moved into the three-storey clapboard house on a — fittingly — dead-end street in the village of Nyack, about 35 km north of Manhattan.
In a 1977 “Reader’s Digest” article called “Our Haunted House on the Hudson,” Ackley wrote that ghosts would leave little trinkets and coins, and one would shake her daughter’s bed to wake her for school every morning. Another time, a phantom sat in mid-air, watching with approval as Ackley painted the living room.
But for all her ghost-boasting, Ackley neglected to say boo about the trio of phantoms when she tried to sell the estate in the late 1980s. Spooked by a neighbour’s account, the interested homebuyers were allowed out of the deal after taking the case to the New York Supreme Court.
Justice Israel Rubin ruled that
Ackley was required to disclose the hauntings, which he said would be tricky for potential buyers to discover.
“Who you gonna call?” he asked.
Years after she’d sold the house to someone else, Ackley, who died in Florida in 2003, reconnected with the spectres through a paranormal researcher and channeller, according to son-in-law, Mark Kavanagh. Two ghosts who called themselves Sir George and Margaret complained life wasn’t much fun since the Ackleys left, so they were moving on, Kavanagh recounts on his website.
He also describes his own encounter with a ghost when he moved in with the family before marrying daughter Cynthia. A “presence” who appeared in the moonlight as a “womanly figure in a soft dress” sat on the bed to check him out as marriage material, Kavanagh recalled.
The house has since changed hands a few times, including in the late 1990s when it was purchased by Toronto-born filmmaker Adam Brooks and his wife.
The home’s wide, wraparound porch overlooking the Hudson River has been a favourite spot for owners, according to the agent, who also cites the dining room for its “very special” light, original built-ins and view.
The cook’s kitchen, master bathroom with hand-crafted copper soaking tub, and inground spa pool, are also among the highlights, she said.