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.
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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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.
On Friday, “28 Days Haunting” aired in six 40-minute episodes, documenting an investigation of the Madison Site, as well as allegedly haunted buildings in Connecticut and Colorado. In Madison, self-proclaimed “demonologist” Jereme Leonard and fifth-generation psychic medium Brandy Marie Miller arrive in Madison blindfolded, unaware of Lawson’s crimes and buildings. They are not allowed internet access over the course of the month-long experiment, so they have no resources for research.
Medium Miller announced in episode 1 that he felt two children on the stairs before entering the building.
She and Leonard record garbled voices throughout the series, including thumps, bangs, flashing lights, and voices demanding “Get out!”
On their first night at the Madison building, Miller and Leonard attempt to summon a spirit for clues to a ghost.
Miller lies in a coffin taken from the morgue museum upstairs and goes into a trance as Leonard gives a mock funeral.
Victims gather around the coffin, overcome by the feeling of a man standing at the crate’s head, Miller breaks the trance and rushes out of the room to relief. She also complains of pressure on her head.
As the series continues, Miller deteriorates emotionally, claiming that dark forces are taking advantage of her psyche. decided to stick out.
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. .
Curious ghostbuster may visit the old funeral parlor, part of the Madison Dry Goods Museum, daily from 10am to 6pm.
Please contact Susie C. Spear at sspear@rockinghamnow.com, (336) 349-4331, ext. Follow @SpearSusie_RCN on 6140 and Twitter.
