Joseph W. Russ, Jr., House - Marianna, FL
N 30° 46.647 W 085° 14.168
16R E 668792 N 3406267
The historic Joseph W. Russ, Jr., House in Marianna, Florida, USA, is one of the most beautiful old homes in Florida. And there are claims that it is also one of the most haunted.
Waymark Code: WMBRVF
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 06/18/2011
Views: 2
"...pictures of the house often capture a shadowy figure who appears to be looking out from the tower windows. He is one of several manifestations that the Big Bend Ghost Trackers organization says inhabit the historic house.
The Russ House was built in 1895 by Joseph W. Russ, Jr., a successful Marianna merchant who also held large land holdings in the county. The beautiful columns and rounded two-story porches were added during a renovation in 1910. For 100 years now they have graced the gentle hill that overlooks the intersection of Lafayette and Russ Streets in Marianna.
The yard of the house is hallowed ground. Although the Russ House itself had not been built at the time, the intersection of Lafayette and Russ Streets was where the heaviest fighting of the Battle of Marianna began on September 27, 1864. The area was then known as Ely Corner and it was here that the Union 2nd Maine Cavalry rode into heavy fire laid down by Confederate troops. Several men were killed and wounded within view of the house.
Over the years the house's glory days drifted past and it became a weathered gray and gloomy place that sparked many stories of ghosts and the supernatural. Some former residents of the home concur and others are not sure.
The Russ House certainly has seen its share of tragedy over the years. There were scandals over marriages, a fortune lost in the great crash of 1929 and its builder, Joseph W. Russ, Jr., committed suicide in 1930, evidently despondent over the loss of the family fortune in the Great Depression.
Former residents described mysterious sounds and unexplained sights in the house. One, in fact, recommended that Chamber of Commerce employees think twice about working alone in the house after dark!
The Russ House was renovated and restored in the 1990s and is now publicly owned. The strange happenings in the house, however, have continued.
When the Big Bend Ghost Trackers spent time in the house to verify the stories, they were impressed by the results of their nvestigation and concluded that there are at least 2 ghosts roaming the house. They believe the ghost of a man haunts the area of the elevator, which opens and closes on its on from time to time for no reason. They also detected cold spots and a motion detector went off, even though no one was in the room. They also detected a scent of old-fashioned powder or perfume on the stairs.
Other eyewitnesses report that they have seen a mysterious man with a mustache standing at the top of the stairs and, of course, the shadowy figure has been photographed looking out of windows."
-- Source