Completed in 1900, Rockcliffe Mansion is an enormous house located on a big hill about one-half mile west of the Mississippi River in Hannibal, Missouri. The beautiful manor was built by lumber baron, John J. Cruikshank for his second wife, Annie, and their four daughters. The family lived in the beautiful mansion until John’s death in 1924. Many believe that John J. Cruikshank still resides at Rockcliffe Mansion.

After John’s death, his widow, Annie, released the staff, packed a few belongings, and moved in with her daughter next door. The 30-room home stood empty for 43 years. Empty, that is, except for the elaborate furnishings, artwork, marble and tile fireplaces, Tiffany lamps, and even personal belongings of the Cruikshanks.

I remember my mother telling me about the caretaker of the house allowing her to roam through the rooms freely when she was a child. Many other local children would sneak inside on a dare to run up to the third floor to grab a piece of an old wall map hanging in the school room of the mansion. Strangely, none of these children vandalized Rockcliffe in any other way. None of the gorgeous hanging chandeliers were even damaged in any form.

In the late 1960s, the family decided to have the mansion razed. Two weeks before the date of destruction, several local families saved Rockcliffe. Upon entering the mansion, underneath the years of dirt and dust, many beautiful and fine artifacts and furnishings were discovered still intact. These items have been restored and remain in the mansion to this day.

Rockcliffe Mansion has changed hands several times over the last few decades, and remains open for tours and more. I actually had the opportunity to spend the night alone in the mansion one Halloween a few years ago. I have to admit, I encountered no ghosts.

Others tell a different story:

My daughter worked at Rockcliffe as a guide while she was a student in high school. She often talked with the caretakers at that time, Mary and Jerry McAvoy, about the possibility that the mansion might be haunted.

Mary had no doubt that she had encountered the spirit of John J. Cruikshank many times while staying at the home. She “would hear him come in through the servants’ entrance at 2 o’clock in the morning.” Mary went on to say that he would come in, slam the door, and wake up them up, always trailing the smell of cigars. Every morning Mary had to remake John J. Cruikshank’s bed because there would be an indentation of a man’s body as if someone had been sleeping there.

An interesting experience occurred in the winter of 2004 when a film crew came to Rockcliffe Mansion. One early morning when the crew came out of their bedrooms to begin filming, the equipment was already working by itself, and not even plugged in to an electrical source. In some rooms, the equipment wouldn’t even work at all.

Mary and Jerry were not frightened, though. Mary says, “I just felt so protected.”

References:

www.rockcliffemansion.com

https://alonewitheachother.blogspot.com/2009/05/what-story.html

www.Hannibal.net