Deering Estate Historic Ghost Tours bring chilling chapters of SoFlo history to life – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports
Looking for chills that don’t come from the AC? Head over to Deering Estate. Its historic ghost tour promises plenty of scary stories and maybe even a few guests who refuse to be ghosted. Deco’s high-spirited Alex Miranda is on the scene with more.
On the 1,000-year-old hallowed grounds of Deering Estate. I’m here in front of the Richmond House which was built in 1896. Plenty of time for people to die but now it has opened it’s beautiful but creepy doors to guided ghost tours.
Eric Vanderlaan: “Cross the rods for yes.”
Guest 1: “Mine just moved.”
Guest 2: “Mine keeps moving.”
Guest 3: “Mine is moving close. OK, there it is.”
Once the sun sets, the Deering Estate in Miami turns into a spooky spot for those who dare to conjure up the past.
Vera Farmiga (as Lorraine Warren): “There’s something in the attic.”
But unlike the horror movie “The Conjuring”…
Tori Scott, museum educator, Deering Estate: “All of the spirits here have been very pleasant. Yeah, this is their home. One of the guests actually encountered an experience with a spirit of a younger age, so she believed it was a little girl, and she actually felt her leg being compressed.”
…the paranormal activity on Charles Deering’s 460-acre estate started way before the 1900s.
Tori Scott: “The history doesn’t start with Charles or the Richmonds. It actually starts with our Indigenous groups that inhabited the land. There were just a lot of people that passed through here, and many believe that their spirits continue to linger and/or connected to the space or the land itself.”
Right when the darkness starts to creep in, the historic ghost tour heads out.
And guests are welcome to bring their own spirit detecting gadgets, or use Deering’s for some investigating.
Tori Scott: “It has colors on it, so if it goes to red, then you know there’s something around.”
Guest 1 (spirit detecting gadget): “At the head of the table. Are you sitting here?”
Eric Vanderlaan: “This will not do that at your house.”
Guest 1 (playing with the spirit detecting gadget): “What are you eating? Probably steak or like pasta or something.”
Eric: “I’ve been investigating this place for about 10 years and got some stuff I can’t explain, so there’s definitely something going on here.”
After the boat basin and the first floor, it’s time to go up.
Tori Scott: “And then, on the second floor, we have our paranormal investigator, does the investigations, a group investigation with them.”
Eric Vanderlaan: “My name is Eric. I’m with War Party Paranormal Research team. We use equipment to see if we can get any intelligence activity, like a data logger like this. It’ll sense [electromagnetic fields], motion, but this is the cool feature I like. I just turn on it, and that’s what I got. Oh dominate.”
Group of guests: “Dominate?”
Frank Barbato: “We were in a room with maybe 15 people, and when they played the recording back, we clearly hear somebody say, ‘Get out.’ We were in his office…”
Anita Barbato: “They asked, ‘Do you want us in your office?’ It said, ‘No.’”
Frank Barbato: “It’s kind of fun to get yourself in the mood, for Halloween and, you know, spookiness, and it’s a fun event. It’s harmless, too.
Anita Barbato: “There’s so much history here at Deering, too.”
Well, intelligence is sometimes hard to find even with these gadgets.
You can take part in these super interesting and creepy tours every Wednesday through Oct. 23 for $45.
FOR MORE INFO:
Deering Estate Historic Ghost Tours
16701 SW 72nd Ave.
Miami, FL 33157
305-680-5219
Website
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