On Main Street in Monticello, Arkansas, sets the historic and haunted Allen House. The house was built in 1906 by well-known architect Sylvester Hotchkiss and builder Josiah Barkley White for the Joe Lee Allen family.



A lovely combination of Neoclassical, Gothic, and Queen Anne styles, about 8,000 square feet and comprised of three stories and a full attic, the house is now considered to be haunted by a mother and son pair of spirits.



In 1917, at the age of 54, Mr. Joe Lee Allen, a very successful businessman and respected citizen of Monticello, died of a heart attack during the demonstration of a motor vehicle for a sale. His family consisted of wife Caddye and their three daughters: Lonnie Lee, Ladell and Lewie Manker. A son, Walter Edwin, died as an infant.



In 1914, Ladell married Boyd Randolph Bonner of Indiana. He was the owner of a “billiards hall” in Dumas, Arkansas according to his draft registration card of 1917. Their son, Elliott Allen, was born in November of 1915.



The tragedy leading to the paranormal activity occurred on Christmas day night in 1948 when Joe Lee’s daughter, Ladell Allen Bonner, committed suicide by drinking mercury cyanide in the master suite. Following her death, her mother Caddye sealed up the master suite and the room was not entered for nearly forty years. Ladell’s son, Allen Bonner, had died several years previously in 1944 in his late twenties. A few months later, her sister Lewie passed away. A multitude of love letters found under the floorboards in the attic by the current owners of the property point to a failed affair with a married man, Prentiss Hemingway Savage, as a probable motive for her suicide. The last letter was dated just a few weeks before she took her own life.



Reports of paranormal activity have been recorded since the 1950s. The home was divided into rental apartments in 1956. Many reports of entities appearing in photographs, furniture being moved, and a lady sitting in a window have occurred. The sounds of footsteps on the upper floors are often heard as well as crying and moaning.The entities are believed to be Ladell and her son.



Several professional paranormal investigations have been conducted at the Allen House over the years. The current owners of the home, Rebecca and Mark Spencer, have gotten rather used to the paranormal activity. Mark recently wrote a book about the Allen House entitled A Haunted Love Story, The Ghosts of the Allen House.

References and Additional Information:

http://www.esapi.net/Investigations/MOAR022710/MOAR022710.html

http://www.arkansas.com/things-to-do/haunted-arkansas/legends/

http://www.allenhousetours.com

http://mymonticellonews.net/news/local_news/article_e2340b5c-b1cf-5120-9282-0d969e3896b9.html