Madison — Built in 1908, one of the most famous landmarks in this 2,200-person community has once again become the talk of the town and is now the world’s most famous landmark thanks to the Netflix series 28 Days Haunted. It’s a hot topic.
Home to the Madison Dry Goods and Country Store for nearly 30 years, the building at 104 W. Murphy Street in the heart of downtown has been home to a variety of businesses for decades.
And the structure is linked to one of the most horrific mass murders in North Carolina history, the Lawson family murders of 1929.
Richard Miller, who owns Madison Dry Goods, spent years collecting items for the museum above the store. In this photo, Gary “Tex” Carter cleaning the museum windows on October 28, 2003.
Kim Walker, The Lee Newspaper
In fact, Charlie Lawson, a 43-year-old farmer from Stokes County, shot and killed his wife and six of their seven children in Germanton before committing suicide that Christmas afternoon.
In 1929, the second floor of the building housed the TB Knight Funeral Parlor, where victims, including newborns, were embalmed.
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This 2008 photo shows the family grave where eight members of the Charlie Lawson family are buried near Germanton. On Christmas Day 1929, farmer Charlie Lawson killed his wife and six of his seven children before committing suicide.
H. Scott Hoffman, Lee Newspaper
Madison Dry Goods owners Richard and Kathy Miller purchased the building in 1998. Knowing the history of the building, including the former Penn Hardware Store housing, the Millers were unprepared for tales of unexplained activity. Over the past decade, it has captured the attention of paranormal investigators around the country.
Many visitors and employees who have visited the store have reported seeing a young girl in a white dress inside the building.
Photos and objects are also inexplicably moved, Millers said.
In addition, several visitors who visited the Millers and the museum on the second floor where a funeral home once operated said they were overwhelmed by the eerie feeling of not being alone. .
Locals who have investigated the scene and various Ghostbusters and bizarre sightings speculate that unexplained activity is linked to the deaths of the Lawson family.
Rumors of the bizarre occurrence reached Netflix producers, and in 2021 the production team reached out to Mr. and Mrs. Miller and invited them to join the show. Mr. and Mrs. Miller said in a news release that it was like her 28-day experiment with crossovers to the spirit world.
The Netflix production team agrees with a theory popularized by renowned paranormal researchers Ed and Lorraine Warren. These authors are associated with high-profile alleged hauntings, including the Amityville home on which the “The Amityville Horror” book and film were based.
The Warrens claimed that it would take 28 days to break through the veil between the human and spirit worlds. As such, the Netflix producers have asked Mr. and Mrs. Miller for free access to the building for his 28 days from August 12, 2021 until September 15.
The Millers closed their popular store that month. During the experiment, they were not allowed access to the store, nor were they informed of the paranormal team’s findings.
Madison Dry Goods owners Richard and Kathy Miller staged the former Yelton Funeral Home room as it was when members of the Lawson family were embalmed in 1929. Their second-floor museum is open to the public and displays many memorabilia from the era, including information and photographs documenting gruesome crimes.
Susie C. Spear, Rockingham Now
However, on October 21st, when “28 Days Haunting” aired on Netflix as part of Episode 3, the findings came to light.
Madison’s Embermer Selected as Country Focused on Family Murder
Madison’s embalmer was chosen in 1929 because Knight operated the only funeral home in the area that could hold eight bodies, plus elevator access, history says. says the house.
The murder and body preparation gained national attention, and according to old newspaper clips, about 5,000 people gathered in Madison to watch a series of hearses carry the bodies to Germanton in Stokes County for burial. .
A curious ghostbuster may visit the old funeral parlor, part of the Madison Dry Goods Museum, during its daily opening hours from 10am to 6pm.
The original elevator used for the Penn Hardware Store and Yelton Funeral Home in historic downtown Madison, according to Richard Miller, owner of the building’s Madison Dry Goods Company and curator of the second-floor museum is still working fine. On Christmas night in 1929, the bodies of the Lawson family were transported in this elevator.
Susie C. Spear, Rockingham Now
