Is Landon House Overrun by Haunts?

Historic Landon House in Urbana, Frederick County, is allegedly haunted by a bewildering variety of ghosts, depending on the source consulted.

To put it another way, many popular beliefs linked with ghosts have come to be associated with Landon House, for example:

Anomalous sounds. At Landon, these include a little boy’s voice; adult screams, prayers and cries of anguish; and the barks, pants, whimpers and snuffles of dogs.

Anomalous sensations. At Landon, these include cold spots, taps on the shoulder, and the feeling of being watched.

Physical anomalies. At Landon, these include doors that close by themselves, rocking chairs that rock by themselves, and lights that move without a visible source.

Apparitions. At Landon, these include a woman with a lantern, a woman (perhaps the same one) who haunts the rooms of children, various Civil War soldiers, and an old man in the basement who sometimes is visible as only a torso and head.

Several of these are referenced, apparently by a trespasser, in an anonymous January 2018 post to the Landon House page at Haunted Places.org:

i went with friends just to have fun and see how it was, When we walked in i felt like I was being watched, a flow of anxiety started to hit me, as we walked in the door closed behind us causing me to jump, we walk upstairs and I swear I saw or heard someone in there. We looked out the window and we headed to the basement, and oh my god, i felt very uneasy and a presence, it was dark and I felt it was cold when it was 80 degrees out, we left but I ended up cutting my hand and my friend stepped in bush with thorns and I don’t wanna go back, But I do at the same time. We shall see.

My favorite of the alleged manifestations is the woman who loves children. Here is Alyce Weinberg’s description, from her classic 1979 book Spirits of Frederick.

In Urbana, a ghostly figure often came in from the balcony to tuck in a little boy who lived in the Landon house years ago, or so the lad said. If his mother was late coming to kiss him goodnight, she would find everything secure. Even the candle snuffed out.

“The lady tucked me in,” the child would tell his mother in the morning. What lady? His mother was the only lady in the house.

This house, with 1754 on the door, is wide enough for ten pillars to stretch proudly from ground to roof past two verandas. A rocking chair was often observed rocking gently on the upstairs porch just outside the boy’s room. And a moving spot of light was seen at night, in the cellar and in unoccupied rooms, by anyone returning home late.

Weinberg seems to associate both the rocking chair and the moving light with the ghostly nanny, whom she does not attempt to identify, and she mentions no other manifestations at Landon House.

In the same year as Weinberg’s book, however, the authors of Ghosts and Legends of Frederick County conclusively identify the nanny and say that her husband also haunts the place. They also connect both wife and husband to Landon’s Civil War history.

In 1862, Landon served briefly as the headquarters of [Confederate] General J.E.B. Stuart, until overtaken by northern troops.

… Stuart was accompanied by a Colonel Luke Tiernan Brien, his chief of staff. Brien, a native of Frederick County, liked the area so much that almost 20 years after the war he and his wife purchased 180 acres of rich farm land surrounding Landon, calling the estate Tyrone.

Since the deaths of the Briens in the early 1900’s, there are those who say that Landon is haunted. Porch rockers move for no explainable reason, and on occasion an old man has been seen walking in the basement.

Recently, while in the basement, the grown son of the present owner and a friend were frightened by the appearance of the upper torso and head of an old man floating about.

The old man is believed to be the ghost of Colonel Brien.

However, Mrs. Brien is usually the more visible of the two. Children are often tucked into bed and when questioned, they insist that an old woman wearing a shawl was in their room. On one occasion, the young daughter of a house guest was even served a glass of milk [Italics mine].

You needn’t be a life member of the Society for Psychical Research to realize that a ghost who fetches milk from the kitchen, pours a glass, and carries it unspilt to the bedside of a child – who willingly drinks it, without harm – is a remarkably material ghost, so it’s a shame we have no evidence for this claim.

In any case, Col. Brien's wife, though she is resolutely unnamed in most Landon House accounts, was Mary Virginia Brien (1829-1907). She is buried beside him in a Catholic cemetery in Urbana -- alongside their only child, Annie Isabelle Brien (1854-1904), who may have been both childless and unhappily married, and who died young. Annie may be a better candidate than her mom for the position of ghostly nanny.

More than thirty years later, in his book Ghosts of Maryland, Mike Ricksecker provides additional speculative backstory for the ghostly nanny, tied to Landon House’s pre-Civil War history as a girls’ school. Moreover, Ricksecker provides Landon’s human ghosts with some ghost dogs, for company.

The apparition of a woman dressed in white and wearing a shawl is known to try to tuck in children on the second floor. Some think she’s from the Shirley Academy days while others think she may be the wife of Colonel Luke Tiernan Bryan, Stuart’s chief of staff who bought 180 acres of land around Landon after the war. It’s believed it is his spirit that has been seen walking around the basement. Ghost dogs that died in the early 1900s when then [sic] owner kept a pack of them in the basement have been heard on the premises as well when no other dogs were around.

Though the segment oddly was titled “The Spirits of Antietam” – thus named for a battlefield 30 miles away – Landon House was featured on Season Five, Episode 9 of the Biography Channel TV series My Ghost Story, which aired 30 Nov. 2012. Wikipedia describes the segment: “A lady with a lantern and an EVP of a little boy are captured at a Civil War-era mansion.”*

EVP stands for Electronic Voice Phenomena, the on-site audio recordings prized among 21^st-century “paranormal investigators” – but anyone who’s read this far knows that already!

Landon House’s haunted history has come a long way since 1973, when the house’s longtime owner completed a detailed report, seeking National Register of Historic Places status, and mentioned – you guessed it – no ghost stories whatsoever. A half-century later, Landon House’s entry at Haunted Places.org throws a little of everything into the mix.

Built in 1754, this home was used as a Civil War makeshift hospital after a deadly battle nearby. Witnesses have heard phantom screams, cries, and prayers, or the sounds of soldiers begging for help. In the basement, where slaves once were kept and abused, folks have reported cold spots, taps on the shoulder, and the feeling of being watched. Apparitions of soldiers also have been seen throughout the house and grounds.

While unsigned and unsourced, this brief entry at least provides a helpful reminder of the house’s slave-era origins. Whether or not atrocities occurred in the basement specifically, atrocities certainly occurred inside and outside the house and all over the property, part of the larger atrocity that was slavery.

Too often, we forget that slavery stains almost every pre-Civil War building, farm, industry and institution, Landon House included. The ghosts of this old mansion may or may not exist as described, but slavery certainly existed, and it haunts us still. 

Today Landon House is surrounded by suburban sprawl but is still visible to passer-by, most of whom don’t know about its odd history. It’s just north of the Landon Crossing shopping center on Urbana Pike, which is just west of Fingerboard Road, a.k.a. Highway 80. Remember, it’s private property, so look only from the road.

*I have yet to see this segment, but will update this article when I do.

Sources:

"Annie Isabelle Brien." Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15530430/annie-isabelle-brien. Accessed 16 Nov. 2021.

Cannon, Timothy L., and Nancy F. Whitmore. Ghosts and Legends of Frederick County. Illus. Darby Pannier. Frederick, Md.: Self-published, 1979; rpt. 1990. See “Local Haunts,” Page 17.

“Landon House.” Haunted Places.org. https://www.hauntedplaces.org/item/landon-house/. Accessed 16 Nov. 2021.

"Mary Virginia Brien." Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15530439/mary-virginia-brien. Accessed 16 Nov. 2021.

“My Ghost Story.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Ghost_Story Accessed 16 Nov. 2021.

Ricksecker, Mike. Ghosts of Maryland. Atglen, Pa.: Schiffer Publishing, 2010. See Page 115.

“Stancioff House.” Maryland Historical Trust. https://mht.maryland.gov/nr/NRDetail.aspx?NRID=283&FROM=NRMapFR.html. Accessed 16 Nov. 2021.

Stancioff, Marion Mitchell. National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form, dated 10 Nov. 1973. Certified by Arthur C. Townsend, State Historic Preservation Officer, 24 Oct. 1974. PDF accessed 16 Nov. 2021 via Maryland Historical Trust. https://mht.maryland.gov/nr/NRDetail.aspx?NRID=283&FROM=NRMapFR.html.

Weinberg, Alyce T. Spirits of Frederick. 1979. 2nd ed., 1992. Photos by C. Kurt Holter. Illus. by Audrey. Self-published; graphics and typesetting by Greenleaf Graphics, Frederick, Maryland. See “Phantom Lady,” Page 57.