Just to clarify, The Big House was at Camp Casa Mare a mile from the haunted house. Although we also had lots of ghost stories about the Big House and it also had a tragedy. The haunted house the original poster posted about always gave me the creaps even before I heard the story.
In case anybody was curious about the Big House ghost stories...
In the early 1900's there was a railroad that connected Galveston to Houston and ran all along the coast line. It was the main means of transportation. The family that owned the railroad was the Scott's. They built the Big House and even installed a section of the railroad to swing down todville road to pick up school children and take them to school. The original benches can still be found at Camp Casa Mare (although sadly they sit under a tree behind the pool since few people understand their importance).
The story says the Scotts had 2 girls, Tunis and Ruth. Tunis had down syndrome and in those days people with downs were sent off to "prisons" to be kept out of site out of mind. Well, the Scotts did not send Tunis off, but they did hide her on the 3rd floor when company was around. As the girls grew up Ruth fell in love with a ship's captain and they got engaged. He would ancor his boat just off the coast and row in to visit. One day Ruth was standing on the balcony watching her future husband row in when Tunis shoved Ruth off the balcony. Some say she was jealous of Ruth for being normal and other versions of the story claim she was also in love with the ship captain since she got to see few people outside of her family. Either way Ruth landed on the balcony and stained the patio with blood. To cover up the stain a huge compass rose was painted on the patio and had to be touched up every couple of years. So of course ghost stories popped up that Tunis was still wandering camp.
The Scott's later sold the mansion to another family (also by the name of Scott's but no relation). The second Scott's family donated the Property and mansion to the Girl Scouts.
The Big House was torn down in 1995, but not after protesting girl scouts chained themselves up to the building and managed to secure a court order to save the mansion. Unfortunately they were too late on the court order. Due to protests demolision dates were kept secret and only one wall was left standing by the time the order came down. The girl scouts tried to save the compass rose but it crumbled. A new galley (kitchen) has been built on the same location with a small replication of the compass on the patio.
As far as ghosts are concerned...I had many nights as a girl telling this story and even brought a quiji board down 3 halloweens in a row but never saw a ghost...15 years and counting (I still teach sailing down there).
In case anybody was curious about the Big House ghost stories...
In the early 1900's there was a railroad that connected Galveston to Houston and ran all along the coast line. It was the main means of transportation. The family that owned the railroad was the Scott's. They built the Big House and even installed a section of the railroad to swing down todville road to pick up school children and take them to school. The original benches can still be found at Camp Casa Mare (although sadly they sit under a tree behind the pool since few people understand their importance).
The story says the Scotts had 2 girls, Tunis and Ruth. Tunis had down syndrome and in those days people with downs were sent off to "prisons" to be kept out of site out of mind. Well, the Scotts did not send Tunis off, but they did hide her on the 3rd floor when company was around. As the girls grew up Ruth fell in love with a ship's captain and they got engaged. He would ancor his boat just off the coast and row in to visit. One day Ruth was standing on the balcony watching her future husband row in when Tunis shoved Ruth off the balcony. Some say she was jealous of Ruth for being normal and other versions of the story claim she was also in love with the ship captain since she got to see few people outside of her family. Either way Ruth landed on the balcony and stained the patio with blood. To cover up the stain a huge compass rose was painted on the patio and had to be touched up every couple of years. So of course ghost stories popped up that Tunis was still wandering camp.
The Scott's later sold the mansion to another family (also by the name of Scott's but no relation). The second Scott's family donated the Property and mansion to the Girl Scouts.
The Big House was torn down in 1995, but not after protesting girl scouts chained themselves up to the building and managed to secure a court order to save the mansion. Unfortunately they were too late on the court order. Due to protests demolision dates were kept secret and only one wall was left standing by the time the order came down. The girl scouts tried to save the compass rose but it crumbled. A new galley (kitchen) has been built on the same location with a small replication of the compass on the patio.
As far as ghosts are concerned...I had many nights as a girl telling this story and even brought a quiji board down 3 halloweens in a row but never saw a ghost...15 years and counting (I still teach sailing down there).