From: AngelOfThyNight@aol.com  
Date: Sun Nov 10, 2002 1:24 am
Subject: TONIGHT'S REPORT ON MACFADDEN'S CASTLE ON THE HILL!!!!!


Well we are alive and we are safe one of the biggest investigations for this group was a success tonight. Big in the sense that this is a place out in the woods no lights a very secured place as well as old. Tonight was a big success to accomplish such a feat just shows that this group has a potential to make anything possible. Jeff and i arrived in the old town of Dansville the town is very old from the 1700s all the homes, buildings all have the civil war or Gettysburg look to them with tall columns and village buildings side by side with the old barber shop sign and fancy looking 50s diners. The town is surrounded by hills which makes it all the more eerie.

 I did alot of research and literature work on this place and by putting bits and pieces of information I had a general location of it visible during the day the castle at night is impossible to see. We found our general streets and found an area or gate that said no trespassing, keep out a very new kind of gate so that gave it away it was the road to the great castle. We went to get a bite to eat in the village at a diner called the sunrise diner great food i had a 1/2 lb burger with mushrooms, onions ect it was fantastic and so was the blonde working there who kept smiling at both of us ha. But anyhow after we ate we drove off to an old looking street many large 4 floor homes with porches, the pioneer looking types pointed attics.

We walked to the gate and of course seeking a deer that scared some barking dogs was a great way to start the night off besides the fact 2 kids darted out in front of our car while on the way up there. We walked up this very dark road high up on the hill the road was very over grown lots of trees the first thing we encountered was a very large house to our left it was abandoned and looked to be the famous dr Jackson home called Alta vista which he resided there during the ownership of the castle back in the 1800s the house looked just like a haunted house you see in night of the demons very very large old shutters, big attic and porches all the way around. Then we came upon a second house very large colonial looking and it hung over the hill. As we walked further up the road we encounter another house to our left boarded up and Jeff said it looked like a Blaire witch house and indeed it did it was very high up on the hill and a steep road very large and all the windows were missing. We started to think we were in a ghost town lol. After another 50 feet we came around a bend and i said oh no another house but indeed it was macfadden's castle!!!

 We found it and it was the south end of the building. It looks nothing like the photos do at one time this place had hedges, a pool, tennis courts, a well taken care of gardens and now its surrounded by trees and deteriorating with time. The castle we walked around had every basement to first floor window patched up with very thick plywood most of it seemed fresh including the locked placed on a large door. We found a way in but we passed that way in because it was a 9 foot climb up but we figured there had to be an easier way in since a place of this size always has some way in that most miss. When we came around a corner we found a section of the castle collapsed Jeff climbed down into the collapsed basement and came to a dead end with debris, bricks, wood and a 30 pile of rubble including a little building which was locked and sealed when i tried to look inside. We then walked on the other side of the collapsed building and found a very small hole in the wall Jeff and i squeezed in there thank god i haven't had any beer lately lol it was tight. This led to the basement which probably was in worst shape then even the asylum or train station. Much of the wood, walls, ceiling were in shambles it looked like hell hit it. Holes in walls to other rooms ect. I assume the basement was used for treatment one room was a saloon, another a electrical or power room just general basement rooms and hallways. 

Somehow i felt watched that bothered me a little that feeling you get when something is just watching yet you cant see it. Jeff and i explored the basement to get a grip on the place generally the whole place is a rectangle with a few towers and a pentagon on each corner type of formation sort of like a castle structure. We then found a stairwell up made it to the first floor the place you could see at one time was glamorous many columns, checkered floors, high ceilings which seemed to lose there plaster and material since many piles of dust were around. Carefully we made our way to a possible lobby or Rec. room then on the opposite end the cafeteria and restaurant alot of the old equipment remains stoves, walk in freezer, counters ect. We then went to the main section climbed to the second floor which seemed to contain a hotel look a long long hallway with rooms. Each room contained a closet, bathroom and general room some rooms were larger then others perhaps a luxury suite. Keep in mind that many famous people have lived in these rooms like apartments. Some rooms had a balcony kind of scary seeing how the bars were real low and very easily someone could fall to there death. Very carefully we tread making our way up floor to floor in a way its very scary because the floor would creek, and seemed loose in some areas only thinking about how much it would hurt to fall a floor down since each floor is extremely high. 

On the 3rd floor we did encounter something unusual i asked a spirit to give me a sign that its there i felt it much cooler on that floor and i thought i heard foot steps and a mans voice its very hard at times to tell when in the distance you can here a motorcycle from the road below but i will tell you this a door seemed to making a creaking sound it was pretty eerie we both looked at eachother like what was that. We moved on forward and i seen which door it was coming from it was a door still in tact on its hinges. Even though the higher you go there is no boards or windows the wind could blow through the problem was is the wind was not blowing from the direction that the door was moving. Every time i turned my head it creaked. Putting it together i figured that was my sign something was with us we came to a room where the door moved to a room which i would have crossed but it wasn't in good shape i honestly think that a spirit was trying to warn us not to go past this door so i took its advice and listened. 

We made our way up to the 4th floor and finally the 5th and up some steep winding stairs to the observation and sundeck. Coming to a tower doorway there was a collapsed canopy which we climbed under. The deck was enormous such a beautiful sight looking at the whole town up above you have this feeling like at any moment you could fall the trees surround the place which are as high as the deck if not higher. The deck i found interesting the large chimney, a standing flag pole still, a collapsed tower, another tower in still good shape with a steeple. The deck was very over grown with high grass. Then my camera stopped working right the flash button broke on it how i do not know but it did not work properly hence why i ask for extra photographers lol. Jeff started filming from the deck and we worked our way out of the hotel going down was not as bad accept looking way down at the stair wells that wind around with no railings made it even more adventurous. 

We did work out way out of the place as Jeff filmed and went to some of the areas so yes folks you will get to see some of the footage outside and inside this place. More or less i expected it to be bigger but the place is very high up so what lacked in the length was earned in height. We then were walking back when we noticed a odd storage shed way up higher on the hill why it was put that steep and high up beats me. We then worked out way back to the houses walked up to each one looked inside the window and on there long porches all i can say is wow folks i sense a spring investigation to look around each of these houses there large an very eerie looking. We then made our way back to the car and down the road surprisingly we were blessed with good weather and here i dressed to warm and i could have worn shorts tonight lol show the ghost all my tattoos sighs. 

I made sure i took alot of photos of the place they will be good i am sure the unfortunate thing about this place is how it now looks compared to the photos i posted on the website the other thing is that in the spring they want to make it a elderly home and it looks like remodeling is underway since there is fresh electrical working underway in the basement with fresh light bulbs down the hallways. All in all it was a good night it took over a hour to get there we ate, checked it out got back home all in a little over 5 hours. This is a place with much history but not only that i think happy spirits that roam these rooms i could feel it. There was a time that i heard something like running down the hall when we were walking up to the observation deck and its quite possible that the spirits of old still haunt this place.

 I will try and plan another investigation to Dansville for the houses in the spring and maybe just maybe a quick tour of this castle if the town does not fix it up yet it would be a great place to just sit in the dark with no lights and wait to hear voices, walking, ect once Jeff and i have more equipment we can actually pinpoint the areas with the highest activity. One thing odd is we seen no beds not much furniture a few chairs, wooden desk even a safe but no general hotel room essentials. Anyhow i wish more had showed but all in all we conquered we had adventure and it was interesting as well as fun. Of course the large torn apart mutilated animal in the road was paranormal in itself lol. Our next investigation will be the Aquarama Bayliner which will do within the next week before winter break. I will try to post the pictures from this place when i have the money it will take time but ill keep everybody posted. peace
Rick 



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*****I do apologize for the lack of photos on the castle. My one investigator that took footage backstabbed me and did not share the photos and one of my cameras from this place i took the film developer had messed up on but we will make a return trip or 2 to make up for this. *****
Update we made our return trip and got many multiple apparitions including an angelic figure so more trips will be planned in the future.


From: Jeff
Date: Sun Nov 10, 2002 1:33 am
Subject: Macfadden's CASTLE INVESTIGATION


We had GREAT weather for this which made it even better.

Right from the get go the pictures we have posted are deceiving. 
This is really not a large hotel at all. It only has one main 
entrance in the front with one main staircase and elevator in the 
middle.

Time has really took its toll on this place. Part of the hotel in 
the back has completely collapsed.

It was extremely peaceful throughout aside of the BUCK on the guys 
front lawn on the way up the path that startled us then sneezed when 
we were leaving <lol>

Dansville is a quaint little town with a nice diner Rick and I 
partook in for a quick meal and after gaining ground on the hotel 
made me think how amazing it really was up on this hill looking over 
the whole town. I was expecting more but, the three extremely large 
houses on the property just before the hotel had an appeal all their 
own...like the one higher up the hill had a "Blair Witch Project" 
quality about it.

All in all it was worth the trip to see this place that holds so much 
ownership history to it. For as prestigious as it was boasted, 
believe it or not their really was not much to the place. Any 
typical holiday in dwarfs it easily.