Out of this world: Paranormal society investigates ‘Gansett Historical Society building

Group from NY detects ‘interesting’ phenomena

By Damien Fisher

News Staff Writer

Templeton – Looking to get to the bottom of ongoing unexplained happenings, members of the Narragansett Historical Society called in the professionals over the weekend to get to the bottom of their building’s possible paranormal phenomena.

Beth Arsenault, the society’s president, said members have long experienced strange happenings in the society’s building on the Common.

Strange noises, doors that won’t stay locked and phantom footsteps have plagued the members for some time, she said.

Members of the New York Paranormal Society presented their findings of a Nov. 5 investigation of the historical society’s building Saturday night to a packed house.

Jason Stroming, founder of the paranormal society, said the group’s members went in with no expectations of finding anything supernatural, but each kept an open mind as to what they might detect.

“If you eliminate all the rational explanations first, you can get to the paranormal,” he said.

The group used video cameras, digital voice recorders, motion detectors, geophones and other devices to try to pinpoint any paranormal goings on.

Much of the equipment used by the group can be bought at electronics stores, said member Laura Pennace.

The paranormal investigation did record a few odd events. Unexplained clicks and thuds were recorded when the investigators tried asking questions to the darkened rooms.

There was even the jingle of keys when one investigator asked the shadows if anything in the building belonged to it. A video camera left alone in a room is seen to move and shake slightly on its own when the tape is played back.

The most striking piece of evidence came in the form of footsteps recorded by the group. Mr. Stroming said the footsteps were not caused by any of the humans in the building at the time of the investigation.

“That is the most interesting thing to us,” he said.

While he won’t state definitively if the building is haunted, Mr. Stroming and the other members of the paranormal society want to come back and investigate the building further. They are even interested in investigating the house next door, where similar events have been reported.

Footsteps have long been an issue in the building, Ms. Arsenault said. One historical society member, Brian Tanguay, said he once seemed to have his legs taken over by something, and he heard two sets of footsteps as he walked out of the old kitchen. The extra steps stopped when Mr. Tanguay got out of the old kitchen, and he got his legs back.

“He turned around and said ‘Look, this isn’t funny anymore,’” Ms. Arsenault said.

Other people have had the distinct impression that something is standing behind them, keeping them from approaching the many items on display, she said.

Once, Ms. Arsenault said she stood on a rug in one room and had the whole rug moved back, as though to keep her out.

Though there is no hard statement about the haunting, Ms. Arsenault is pleased by the group and its professionalism. Even her husband, a firm skeptic, likes the way the paranormal society operates.

“He thinks it’s a load of garbage, but he is impressed,” she said.

The video of the paranormal society’s investigation of the Narragansett Historical Society building can be viewed on line at www.nyparanormalsociety.com.

dfisher@thegardnernews.com