Out with the old: Construction begins at 'haunted' 'Extreme Makeover' site

[Carol]

By Aimee Dolloff

MILBRIDGE, Maine ? Excavators started by taking a few nibbles out of the roof and walls, then proceeded to demolish the Ray-Smith family residence. The demolition paved the way for ABC?s "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" to begin building a new place to call home for the family of Brittany Ray, Ron Smith and their three children.

Click below to watch a video of the demolition
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"Extreme Makeover" episodes typically have multiple story lines about the featured family and their home. In the case of the Ray homestead, which was built in the early 1900s by Brittany Ray?s great-great-grandparents, the house is believed to be haunted by one or more ghosts with a fondness for sharp objects.

"The haunting in Brittany Ray and Ron Smith?s house really stands out," Marcus LiBrizzi, author and University of Maine at Machias professor, said Tuesday.

Brittany Ray and Ron Smith both are teachers in the area. Members of the community nominated them to receive an "Extreme Makeover" home.

Despite the rain, more than 500 people participated in Tuesday morning?s rush of builders and volunteers marching to the site to officially begin work. A sea of maroon and white brought up the rear as about 300 Narraguagus High School students and employees showed up to support two of their own.

Construction on the home must be completed by Sunday when the family returns from Walt Disney World in Florida where ABC sent them on vacation. The show is expected to air early next year.

Work on the foundation already has begun. Some earth moving could be done Monday, because the new house isn?t being built on the site of the old structure.

About 30 workers from N.S. Giles Foundations Inc. of Bangor stood by to begin foundation work as soon as ABC crews were done filming the house demolition.

Before the razing of the haunted house began, both the old house and the new house site were blessed Tuesday by Pentecostal lay minister Charles Kelley of Unionville Church of God at the request of Brittany?s father, Gary Ray.

LiBrizzi was at the "Extreme Makeover" site to tell media outlets about the book he wrote that includes a chapter devoted to the Ray house haunting. The book, titled "Dark Woods, Chill Waters: Ghost Tales from Down East Maine," came out last week. The theme of its stories is particularly frightening and gruesome supernatural horror.

He referred to the ghost or ghosts in Ray?s house as "spectacular, even bizarre."

The resident spirit is believed to have an affinity for sharp objects as the family has returned home to find scissors standing upright on the counter, shirt pins or a threaded needle balanced on their points.

The story goes that Brittany Ray?s great-great-grandmother Etta Mitchell had a fear of sharp objects.

"On four occasions, they found household scissors standing upright on a Formica countertop," LiBrizzi said. He added that there are stories of the house being haunted even before the Ray-Smith family moved in.

The climax of the ghostly activity and perhaps most disturbing is when the ghost manipulated the needle in the thermostat, he said.

"One eerie night in November, Brittany [Ray] woke up to find the furnace racing madly out of control," LiBrizzi said. "I speculated if it was manipulating other sharp objects, [the ghost] probably did so to the needle in the thermostat."

Since LiBrizzi wrote "Dark Woods, Chill Waters," there have been indications of another spirit in the house, whom the author believes to be Augustus Mitchell, Ray?s great-great-grandfather.

LiBrizzi said Etta and Augustus Mitchell reportedly had a strained relationship, and the strange occurrences with sharp objects possibly could be explained as Etta Mitchell protecting herself, or Augustus Mitchell tormenting her.

Kelley said his blessing had nothing to do with attempting to remove the ghosts from the house.

"It wasn?t any kind of exorcism," Kelley said, noting that he has no formal experience with ghosts.

The Ray family asked that the history of the home be considered in the blessing and in the building of the new house. Kelley said he hopes that the Ray ancestors will be able to find some peace.

"I kind of hope they?re laid at rest [with the old house]," he said.

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[Carol]

Another article regarding this topic...


Marcus LiBrizzi, author of ?Dark Woods, Chill Waters: Ghost Tales of Down East Maine,? stands in front of an allegedly haunted Milbridge house as demolition work begins.

'Makeover' starts on family's new haunt
Workers with a TV show began demolishing a Maine farmhouse Tuesday -- after a spirit reading.

MILBRIDGE ? Some folks around this Down East town might be happy to see an aging farmhouse demolished to pave way for a new home being created by Ty Pennington and the cast of ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."
It turns out the farmhouse where two local teachers and their three young children had resided since the 1990s was haunted, according to a professor.

Marcus LiBrizzi, an English professor at the University of Maine at Machias, said the current owners, Brittany Ray and Ron Smith, reported that sharp objects in the home were manipulated in the years they lived there.

They discovered pins, needles and even scissors balanced end on end inside the home, said LiBrizzi, who describes the creepy occurrences in a book, "Dark Woods, Chill Waters," published this month by Down East Books.

"It got to where the family would be cutting meat and they'd rush over to wash the knives and put them away. Nothing could be left out, not even a tack or pen. It's kind of a series of bizarre and threatening activities," he said.

An ABC spokeswoman confirmed that the Milbridge home marks the first time "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" has dealt with a haunted house.

The hauntings were believed to be caused by the spirits of either Ray's great-great-grandmother, Etta Mitchell, or Mitchell's husband, Augustus Mitchell, or perhaps both, LiBrizzi said. Etta Mitchell was known to be frightened of sharp objects, he said.

Brittany Ray and Ron Smith, who've been whisked away to Disney World while their new home is being built, were not available for comment Tuesday.

But Brittany Ray's brother, Jeremy, said the family does indeed believe that the spirits of Augustus and Etta Mitchell, the home's original owners, reside there. The family has come to believe that the spirits of "Nana" and "Gus" are protectors.

Over the years, the family would find pins that were left out stuck in wax candles, and scissors that were not put away were found stuck in a countertop, said Jeremy Ray, who lives in Saco.

But the incident that reassured the family that the spirits weren't sinister happened once in the middle of the night. Brittany was awakened by a presence in the bedroom and sensed something was wrong, but she couldn't wake up her husband, her brother said.

She raced downstairs to find that the temperature had topped 100 degrees inside the house because of a malfunctioning furnace, he said.

Jeremy Ray said he believes the spirits have no objection to the destruction of the home, which has a failing septic system, no insulation, a cracked foundation, an outdated furnace, a leaky roof and ancient electrical wiring.

Just to be sure, "Extreme Makeover" filmed a spirit reading held in the house Monday night to get the spirits' approval, he said.

Bulldozers razed the house Tuesday, and hundreds of volunteers prepared to start building the new residence.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story ... 5&ac=PHnws