History
In 1844, pioneer Oliver Damon, built the west part of Lowell Damon House and it is believed to be Wauwatosa’s oldest surviving residential building. The home stands as a classic example of a colonial style house. In 1846, after the first five rooms were built, Damon’s son, Lowell, constructed the handsome front of the home. The front of the home is done in a Greek revival style with its typical early American fieldstone foundation and red brick chimney. It has four rooms and now serves as the museum
Arrival
At 7:15 pm Gravy and Missy arrived at the Lowell Damon House. They unlocked the front door and took a look around to get a feel for the layout of the house. The house is set up very similar to a modern day duplex. The east side of the house serves as the museum and the west side serves as a vacant apartment. The museum has a kitchen and sitting room on the 1st floor and two bedrooms upstairs. The Apartment has a kitchen, living room and dining room on the 1st floor and a bathroom and bedroom on the 2nd floor.
They opened the back door of the Apartment and brought in their equipment. Base Camp was set up in the Apartment Kitchen. Immediately they started and time stamped their H1 digital recorders and Extech RHT50 dataloggers. Every member of PIM is equipped with a Zoom H1 audio recorder, which is used as a control recorder, an Extech RHT50 datalogger and a UV flashlight, which they carry on their person. Control recorders are not only used as another recording device but also to discriminate the sound contamination that an investigator might create during an investigation. Control recorders are started and time stamped first before any other equipment is started and they are turned off last to ensure any anomalous noises can be cross checked. The Extech RHT50 datalogger takes a temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure reading once a minute and is used to try and correlate environmental data with any personal experiences an investigator might encounter during an investigation.
Gravy then began to set up equipment on tri-pods while Missy went outside to take outside weather readings using the Kestrel 3500 Weather Station. The Kestrel Weather Station is a tool that measures temperature, wind speeds, barometric pressure and humidity.
Once finished taking the measurements, Missy rejoined Gravy inside. They decided to go down into the Basement of the Apartment to get baseline readings. Baseline EMF (electromagnetic field) readings were taken with a TriField 100XE EMF Detector and indoor temperature was taken with a Single-Axis EMF Mel-8704R. Missy and Gravy then walked throughout the entire house taking baseline EMF and temperature readings.
Missy and Gravy then set up equipment in the Museum. A Sony HDR-CX160 full spectrum camcorder was set up in the Museum Kitchen along with a Zoom H1 audio recorder. The Zoom H1 audio recorder is used by PIM because of its high quality and sensitive stereo mic configuration that captures high quality audio. Also placed in the Museum Kitchen were trigger objects. Trigger objects are items strategically chosen in hopes of eliciting a response. They placed a Bible, playing cards, booze, and a cigar on a table in view of the camera. A touch flashlight which is activated by two contacts being touched, thus, closing a circuit and turning the light on, was also placed with the trigger objects. The touch flashlight is used in lieu of a flashlight that has had the battery compartment or on/off switch manipulated to function in a way that is not intended and as a result, can create false positives. Lastly a Zoom H1 audio recorder was placed at the top of the stairs in the Museum.
A Zoom H1 audio recorder was also placed in the Apartment at the base of the stairs. It was decided that Missy would place a Sony HDR-XR200V camcorder on a tri-pod and carry it with her during the investigation. The camera was set up in each room as they investigated room to room.
At 8:44 pm Gravy and Missy were set to begin the investigation.
Investigation
Museum Sitting Room – 8:44 pm
Missy and Gravy made the decision to have the first EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) session in the Museum Sitting Room. Missy set her camcorder in the corner of the room facing towards the Hallway. She sat near her camcorder and Gravy sat near the Hallway.
At 8:46 pm Gravy called for several minutes of controlled silence. Controlled silence is a common practice used to tag or document the normal sounds of the building and its surrounding environmental noises. Lots of street noises, cars, people, etc. could be heard. The sidewalk is very close to the front of the house and people could be very easily heard passing by. A street festival was going on a few blocks from the Lowell Damon House so many people were walking on the sidewalk. There was also a constant flow of vehicle traffic passing by the house. The inside of the house itself made very little noise.
At 8:52 pm the first EVP session of the night began. Missy started out by asking if there were ever farm animals on the property. Gravy made reference to the fact that Missy grew up on a farm and asked if the home was ever a farm. No response was heard to this line of questioning. Although many other questions and attempts were made to communicate nothing out of the ordinary was heard.
At 9:23 pm the battery in Missy’s camcorder needed to be replaced. She had a spare battery in her pocket so she changed it immediately. They decided to end the EVP session in the Museum Sitting Room and continue into the Museum Kitchen. Missy left her camcorder in the Museum Sitting Room since there was a camcorder already placed in the Museum Kitchen.
END TIME: 9:27 pm
Museum Kitchen – 9:29 pm
At 9:29 pm Gravy and Missy began the next EVP session for the night. During this EVP session Missy and Gravy tried to make it very clear that they were not there to harm or make any entities that may be there go away. They stressed that they were only there to communicate with anyone who would be willing.
They also commented on the various items that were placed in the Kitchen, such as the stove, sink, china hutch, and the spinning wheel. There was a large spinning wheel in the corner of the Kitchen and Gravy asked what it was used for. However, there was no response heard or recorded.
After many attempts to communicate no evidence was captured. They decided to move upstairs to the bedrooms in the Museum to continue on with the investigation.
END TIME: 9:56 pm
Museum North Bedroom – 9:58 pm
At 9:58 pm Missy and Gravy sat down in the Museum North Bedroom. Missy placed her camcorder near the doorway to ensure she would capture the whole room.
Gravy and Missy observed several minutes of controlled silence. It was noted there were still a lot of people walking along the sidewalk and lots of traffic noise. They decided to continue with an EVP session.
This room is clearly a children’s room. There are toys, rocking horses, a baby buggy, a crib and many other items that would belong to a child in this room. For this reason Missy decided to start out by making reference to the fact that she is a mother and has children of her own. Gravy tried to play a game of “shave and a haircut” and asked to hear two knocks in response but nothing was heard.
At 10:22 pm they decided to switch over to the South Bedroom across the Hallway.
END TIME: 10:22 pm
Museum South Bedroom – 10:23 pm
This bedroom is set up to look like it belonged to the husband and wife that would have lived there. Missy placed her camcorder in the corner of the room facing the doorway so that she could capture the whole room.
After observing controlled silence, Gravy and Missy started an EVP session by introducing themselves and explaining why they were there and that they had permission to be there for the evening.
It was decided to try a different approach and they had a normal conversation while still paying attention to any noises or voices that would be out of the ordinary. This is a common technique used to entice an entity into trying to join in on their conversation or try and get their attention.
Nothing was heard so they made their way to the Apartment to resume the investigation there but first stopped at Base Camp to take a quick break.
END TIME: 10:36 pm
Apartment Living Room- 10:54 pm
Missy placed her camcorder in the Apartment Living Room in clear view of the Living Room facing into the Dining Room. They began five minutes of controlled silence. There were some neighbors behind the house in a neighboring home that were having a bon fire and could be heard. Some street noise and people could also be heard. Compared to the Museum side of the house, this side of the house was a bit quieter.
At 10:59 pm Gravy began an EVP session by again explaining why they were there and they had permission to be at the home.
They again tried the normal conversation approach without success. It was decided to try investigating the upstairs of the Apartment.
END TIME: 11:33 pm
Apartment Bedroom – 11:35 pm
Missy placed her camcorder in the Apartment Bedroom facing the doorway and into the Apartment Bathroom.
Again they observed five minutes of controlled silence and could very clearly hear the bon fire party that was going on at the neighboring house.
At 11:40 pm they began an EVP session. Many questions were asked during this EVP session but nothing out of the ordinary was heard or seen. They decided to try one last EVP session of the night by walking through the house both on the Museum side and the Apartment side to see if any activity would happen.
END TIME: 11:45 pm
Entire House – 11:46 pm
During this EVP session Missy left her camcorder in the Apartment Kitchen. Gravy and Missy then went through the entire house room by room stating that this would be the last chance if anyone would want to communicate. They stayed for approximately three minutes in each room for a short EVP session.
No activity happened so it was decided to pack up the equipment and end the investigation for the night.
END TIME: 12:15 am
Conclusion
The investigation for this historic building was very interesting for PIM. Although the claims were not substantial, the Lowell Damon House is an interesting building with wonderful exhibits and antiques. Even though this investigation did not produce any evidence of the paranormal, PIM looks forward to continued research at this location.
The Lowell Damon House is a very special place with many antiques and artifacts to remind us of a simpler time. The Milwaukee County Historical Society has taken great care to bring visitors face to face with treasures of our past. For this reason it was absolutely important that none of the displays in the Museum be touched. Missy and Gravy paid extra attention to where they placed equipment and how they moved about the building as to not disturb any of the historical pieces. It is always PIM’s intention to leave each place they investigate exactly how they found it. We are interested in the historical value of each place just as much as we are interested in paranormal research. It is an honor to investigate a place that holds so much historical value in our community!
PIM would like to thank the Milwaukee County Historical Society for allowing PIM the opportunity to investigate this wonderful historic location. We look forward to working with you again very soon.
