Haunted Brunswick Maryland: Frederick County/ Brunswick Heritage Museum Ghost Expedition 2017

Although present day Brunswick is best known as a B&O Railroad boom town, it has experienced multiple histories. Brunswick once hosted the world’s largest rail yard upon its completion in 1907.

Originally home to the Susquehanna Indians, the first settlements were established in 1728. The area became known as Eel Town because native Americans would fish for eel in the Potomac River.

In 1753 a land grant of 3100 acres was given to John Hawkins by King George II. The grant was named “Hawkins Merry-Peep-o-Day” because the sun could be seen in the early morning directly over the Catoctin Mountains.

Leonard Smith acquired part of the land from 1780-1787 naming the area “Berlin” as many German immigrants settled there.

The area continued to develop as a small river town and gained importance as an area trading post with the advent of the C&O canal. The construction of the B&O railroad from Point through Berlin to Hagerstown further cemented the area as a center of commerce.

In 1832, the Post Office renamed the town “Barry” as another town named Berlin existed on the Eastern shore. During the Civil War, Confederate forces used Barry as staging area for raids in Maryland. Union forces camped in the town following the battles of Antietam and Gettysburg.

With the construction of B&O rail yard in 1890, the town was incorporated as Brunswick. The ensuing railroad boom through 1910 transformed the small river town beyond recognition. Many of historic structures were built over the 1830-1930 timeframe.

The rail yard scaled down yard operations at Brunswick as the railroads declined in economic importance. The Brunswick historic district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

The Brunswick Heritage Museum celebrates the town’s legacy as a major rail hub for the historic Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad.

The museum is located in a building dating to 1904 and that once housed the Improved Order of Red Men, a drinking society whose origins trace to the secret patriotic societies before the American Revolution.

For many decades the building was owned by a chapter of international fraternal society called the Fraternal Order of Eagles.

It is unclear when haunting legends took form at the Brunswick Museum.Haunted activity had been described as occasional since the museum was established in 1980. Activity appeared to escalate in 2010 during construction on an elevator; various encounters reported include:

Our 2013 ghost expedition experienced audio reflections that seemed suggestive of a friendly non-corporeal curator, and this was consistent with encounters reported in other paranormal investigations.

There were several instances where audio reflections correctly identified exhibits investigators were viewing on the second floor Electromagnetic Field (EMF) meters alarmed near the Red Men exhibit. However no source of elevated EMF could be found with industrial meters The third floor of the museum was once a speakeasy and contains a small theatrical stage. Late in the night, the speakeasy buzzer had inexplicably activated itself. There was no one on the floor at the time

The 2017 ghost expedition will attempt to build on earlier findings using a more advanced suite of audio equipment to include compressors, vocal processors and equalizers along with preamplifier-mixers

The expedition will also seek to obtain electronic voice phenomena via several methods to include: direct voice (DV); direct radio voice (DRV) and direct electro acoustic voice (DEAV). The investigation will also conduct the Maryland Transcommunication Experiment

The investigation team will also be joined by reporter Andi Hauser from WUSA9 (Washington) and her television crew





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UPDATE: The investigation appeared to obtain evidence of drop-in communications through direct radio voice that responded to control questions acknowledging the name of a local reporter and historical names of the town. However, there were several other instances of audio as well. Random event generator (REG) trending was found to be statistically significant indicating medium-to-high levels of psi functioning. The ghost expedition aired on Halloween Day (Oct 31, 2017) on CBS WUSA9 Great Day Washington





REFERENCES:

About the Brunswick Museum. (2017). Brunswick Potomac Foundation. Brunswick Heritage Museum.

Brunswick Historic District. (1979, Aug 29). Maryland’s National Register Properties, F-2-9. Maryland Historical Trust.

Brunswick Historic District. (1979, Aug 29). National Register Information System ID: 79001128. NP Gallery Digital Asset Management System. National Park Service.

Brunswick, Maryland. (2017, Jul 26). Wikipedia.

Easement. Brunswick Museum 40 W. Potomac Street, Brunswick MD, Harpers Ferry Quad, Frederick Co. Maryland Historical Trust.



Englar, B. (2010, Jun 16). Group probes paranormal activities at rail museum. The Frederick News Post.

Englar, B. (2010, Jun 29). Possible signs of ghosts found at museum. The Frederick News Post.

Englar, B. (2010, Oct 20). Museum plans ghostly night. The Frederick News Post.

Granville-Barger, R and Cooper, A. (1991). A Chronological History of Berlin-Brunswick, Maryland 1634-1990. Brunswick Citizen.

Koenig, C and James, P. M. (1976, Jan). National Register of Historic Places Nomination: Brunswick Historic District. NR-552. Maryland State Archives.

Koenig, C and James, P. M. (1976, Jan). National Register of Historic Places Nomination: Brunswick Historic District. F-2-9. Maryland Historical Trust.

NBC4 Washington. (2010, Jul 5). Maryland Museum Haunted by Ghosts?: Paranormal activity caught on tape. NBC4 Washington.

Obituary: Dr. JGF Smith. (1970, Mar 16). Frederick News Post. Archived in Newspapers.com.

Thomas, C, and Merchant, M. (2017) Smoketown History: Brunswick, MD. Facebook.





IMAGES:

James, P. M. (1978, Dec). 40 W POTOMAC STREET. Brunswick Historic District (Berlin, Barry). Maryland State Archives.



Burgoyne, M. (2011, Oct 21). BRUNSWICK MUSEUM 3RD FL. Photo: Brunswick Railroad Museum. In Best Railroad Museums for Kids. CBS Baltimore.

EAST POTOMAC (c. 1940s). Brunswick Main Street.

Brunswick Heritage Museum. (2013, Jan 2). BRUNSWICK RAIL STATION (c 1970s). Facebook.

Maryland Paranormal Research ® (2013, Oct). RED MEN EXHIBIT: Brunswick Heritage Museum, Brunswick Maryland. Flickr. All rights reserved.

Maryland Paranormal Research ® (2013, Oct). HERITAGE EXHIBIT: Brunswick Heritage Museum, Brunswick Maryland. Flickr. All rights reserved.

BRUNSWICK RAIL YARD WORKERS WITH ENGINE 1005 (c 1890s). Brunswick Main Street.

Gardiner A. (1862, Oct). BERLIN (NOW BRUNSWICK), MARYLAND. PONTOON BRIDGE AND RUINS OF THE STONE BRIDGE. Photograph from the main eastern theater of the war, Battle of Antietam, September-October 1862. Civil War photographs, 1861-1865 compiled by Hirst D. Milhollen and Donald H. Mugridge. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

ANDI HAUSER. (2017). WUSA9 Great Day Washington, Lifestyle Correspondent. Twitter.

Google Street View. (2013, Sep). 1 N. MARYLAND AVE. Google Inc.

