Is Glen Cove Mansion Haunted?

Just in time for Halloween, here could be a real ghost story.

For years, members of the staff of Glen Cove Mansion Hotel and Conference Center in Glen Cove say they've seen unexplained paranormal activity going on throughout the Gold Coast Era Mansion, once home to the Pratt Family.

Kim Flammia, one of the front desk receptionists, said she's convinced something strange is going on: "suddenly you'll look up from your computer screen and you'll see an apparition...All of a sudden, you'll get a weird feeling over you and all of the computer monitors will shake for about 30 seconds and then it will all go back to normal."

A number of people said they've seen a ghost of a man in a brown suit—who some believe is Mr. John Pratt—wandering the main hallway before disappearing. 

Stranger still, Flammia recounts stories from the Pub 1910 staff—where the ghost assumed to be Mrs. Pratt is seen most frequently. Flammia said that the ghost will actually change the jukebox music selections and turn on the TV in the pub at night to watch CSI.

Those who are convinced of the ghost, say it's the spirit of Mrs. Ruth Baker Pratt, the former owner who passed away in the Mansion in the 1960s. They also say she loved the mansion so much that she decided to stay around after she died.

So besides Ghostbuster's, who do you call to varify a ghost haunting? Patch spoke with Psychic/Medium Porcha Williams, who did a reading on the house to try and communicate with the spirit. Through the tour, Williams picked up several different spiritual impressions and said she sensed a powerful female spirit all throughout the house.

Williams said she picked up powerful energy from a mysterious fog pattern which only forms on one window inside Mrs. Pratt's former study. The staff has changed the window out several times, but the unexplained fog pattern always returns. Williams says this is Mrs. Pratt making her presence known.

"She want's us to know she's still Queen of the Castle, so to speak," said Williams.

For further evidence, Patch talked with Huntington resident Kerriann Flanagan Brosky, who has seen her share of haunted houses on Long Island, in fact she wrote two books about them.  

Brosky is professional photographer and author/historian who has investigated over 60 houses and buildings said to be haunted for her book Ghosts of Long Island: Stories of the Paranormal and the sequel Ghosts of Long Island 2.

Brosky works with paranormal investigator Joe Giaquinto, who is also a psychic himself, from Hampton Bays.

They used ghost photography and electronic voice phenomena called EVPs, which they said are the recordings of voices of ghosts. During their visit to the mansion last year for the book, they photographed images of "orbs" where the ghost is most seen. Orbs are translucent balls of light that appear on film, according to Brosky, and are believed to be spirits using energy to make themselves visible on camera.

They also captured EVP sounds they believe to be spirit's who still live in the house.

In the wake of movies like Paranormal Activity 2, that depict terrifying hauntings, everyone interviewed at the Mansion believes these ghosts are peaceful and don't mean harm.

"I don't think they're hear to threaten anyone," Flammia said. "I think this is just their residence and they're probably stuck here."

"It's a good presence, said Brosky. "It's someone that loves the house, and she likes to come back for parties and different things."

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