Professional ghost tracker visits Rengstorff House

By Lauren McSherry, Town Crier Staff Writer

Top, Rengstorff House, a historic Victorian home located in Shoreline Park, is reputed to be haunted.

If you’re going ghost hunting, bring a camera and tape recorder, wear a T-shirt, and don’t forget an open mind.

That’s what staff photographer Joe Hu and I learned Sunday afternoon when we accompanied professional ghost hunter Gloria Young on an investigation of Rengstorff House, a restored 1867 Victorian home in Mountain View that is open to the public and renowned for being haunted.

Young explained that the T-shirt allows you to feel temperature changes that indicate a “presence.” The camera picks up light outside the visible spectrum, while the tape recorder captures voices of the dead, called electronic voice phenomenon. The open mind, in my opinion, keeps you from becoming too scared.

Docent Charles Grant, who showed us around, said the house is at the top of the list of haunted places for many people because the public can enter without an invitation.

Passersby have allegedly seen the silhouette of a woman in a window. Visitors and residents claim to have heard thumping on the stairs and a child crying. They’ve felt cold draughts with unknown origins and seen lights flashing and doors opening and closing. Psychic Sylvia Brown conducted a séance in the house and reported seeing the apparition of an angry man in a wheelchair, his leg severed in a farming accident and the strangulation of a man in an upstairs bedroom.

Having conducted more than 200 investigations since the early 1990s, Young isn’t afraid of what she might find. Ghosts are usually mischievous or playful rather than evil, she said.

Young started ghost hunting by visiting graveyards at night as a hobby. Now, she runs Ghost Trackers, a Santa Clara-based non-profit that conducts investigations for homeowners as a public service. She also counsels homeowners on how to live with a ghost.

“Most of the time I tell them to try talking with the ghosts and to ask them to stop scaring the children and share the house,” Young said.

The first thing she does when she begins an investigation is to look for man-made explanations for paranormal experiences. Walking through Rengstorff House, she noted passing cars, the grandfather clock’s chimes and park visitors roaming the gardens.

Although Rengstorff House was moved from its original location and then restored, it’s not uncommon for ghosts to move with a house, especially if it was their favorite place, Young said.

Grant led us through the dining room, study, music room, sitting room and formal parlor. The upstairs bedrooms, where most of the hauntings have occurred, are closed to the public.

After the tour, Young returned to the formal parlor, where Grant and I had heard a loud thump earlier in the afternoon. Rengstorff family members were not only married here, they were also laid out for burial in the same area, near the room’s front-facing window.

Young moved from the parlor to the front hallway, where she felt a change in the air. She said the parlor seemed airy and pleasant, but the hall felt denser. She returned to the parlor and turned on the tape recorder.

“Are you here?” Young asked. Her question was met by silence. “What is your name? Can you show yourself?”

The lights flickered.

“Can you do that some more?” she asked. The lights flickered again.

“Thank you,” she said. “I appreciate you letting us into your house.” She turned off the recorder. “I would definitely say there is something here in the parlor and front hall,” she said, adding it felt like a male presence. A woman would close a door, roll something across the floor or move an object on a table.

Hu and I remained unconvinced. Had a ghost made the lights flicker? Or was it faulty wires?

Two photographs taken in the dining room show translucent orbs near the ceiling. Are they the result of lens flare from the camera? Or are they a ghostly manifestation?

“For a ghost to show itself is very rare,” Young said. “They have to muster up all that energy for fussing with the curtains, moving up the stairs or making voices.”

Rengstorff House is located at 3070 N. Shoreline Blvd. in Mountain View and is open to the public 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays. For more information, call 903-6392 or logon to www.r-house.org.For more information on Ghost Trackers, logon to www.ghost-trackers.org.