Capital Area Paranormal Society

This beautiful historic brick home is referred to as the Crammer-Cook House. Originally built in 1877 by Charles Broeker, the Cook family took possession in 1887 where it remained in their family until the 1960s. It has changed hands over the last fifty years and is now home to a quaint boutique called Iris and Ivy.
CAPS members Dave and Trish did an interview and walk through of the property in January, and in the process Trish acquired some very interesting EVPs on their recordings. One in particular was a very loud noise that sounded like scraping metal upon metal. These unexplained noises peaked our interest and prompted us to perform an extended investigation of the premises.
The sun was just setting when we met up with Betsy and her father Steve our Iris and Ivy contacts. Betsy gave us a full tour of the location as she related some of the unexplained events that had been occurring. Some of what she described included: items being relocated, clothing visibly moving without apparent reason, lights being turned off and on, and a myriad of unexplained noises. She also described how a radio located on the first floor changed channels or volume for no apparent reason; just a few examples of the possible spirited play!
During our initial sweep, Dave's K2 meter remained flat until we reached an area on the 2nd floor by the back stairs. At the same time as the meter suddenly spiked, we picked up what sounded like a female voice on one of our recorders. This was the same room where Trish had garnered that loud scrapping sound, so we spent some time trying to figure out what could have created that metal sound. Unfortunately, we were unable to recreate anything that sounded similar.
While I was investigating the bathroom just off that room, the door closed several inches while I stood in the threshold. Although we tried several things to make it happen again, our efforts failed to recreate it.
As we had toured the basement, I was drawn to the back section. As I stood motionless, I thought I heard movement through the artificial flowers that were located there, so I decided to take some pictures. To my surprise, the first photo was completely washed out, something I have not experienced with my camera; all follow-up photos were normal however. Just as we were leaving that space, Trish' s EMF detector alarmed, briefly, almost as if something had passed by her. Upon subsequent review, we apparently caught a couple of EVPs.
At times I will admit I had a hard time concentrating on the task at hand, surveillance of any paranormal activity. Their shop was filled with so many enchanting items; let's just say that at times my eyes lit up as brightly as my flash light! That is until I returned to the 2nd floor. Although my eyes were still bright, my flash light began to dim. As I was wondering whether or not it was time to switch out the batteries, it came back to full power. I decided to ask if there were in fact any spirits, to please turn the light on or off. It actually seemed to interact on cue to my requests.
We gave a great deal of attentiveness towards the downstairs radio. On consensus, the decision was made to turn the radio on with the volume down and we placed a video camera in front to see what we could capture. When we returned, the power had been turned off, and wouldn't you know it, the camera was off too! When Dave placed his meter near the radio it alarmed briefly and everyone got the cold chills.
Later in the evening, we held 2 spirit box sessions. The first was on the second floor near the back staircase and the second was near that infamous radio. At one point we heard the words,power, and radio. I couldn't help but wonder if it wasn't a spirit playfully mocking us.
As we began wrapping up the investigation around 9:30pm, the dowsing rods were brought out. The rods were quite responsive to the questions that Betsy and Steve had asked.
Upon evidence review, we did find some interesting EVPs and an interesting orb video was captured on the second floor. I have strongly suggested that a daytime investigation of this magnificent location is warranted; although I think in place of a flash light, my equipment of choice would be a credit card!