LILBURN HOUSE

Built over a century ago, Lilburn is currently owned by Mr. & Mrs. John Whitney. According to Julie Whitney "most of the stories about Lilburn are not true at all" (even though she does admit to the windows opening by themselves."

According to her many of them began during the time a family named Balderson lived there. During the four years the Whitney family had lived there she had actually seen none of the occurences of which the Baldersons spoke of. She doesn't know why they have such a difficult time getting people to deliver things to Lilburn, some people are actually afraid to come up to the house.

According to what other owners have said late at night they have heard the sound of children crying, and one lady said there were times when she was taking a bath, which used to be the nursery, that she heard the door rattle and the sound of someone trying to break in.

 Up a steep, sharply curved stairway is the tower, where many of the stories originated. People talk of footsteps being heard from the room below, also the sound of feet mounting those stairs. In the tower room is where the windows have been said to open mysteriously, and, actually, they still do, despite the metal latches. But the Whitneys say that it is a weather phenomenon and connected with the changes of the seasons.

Built of grey stone, Lilburn is an imposing four-floor Gothic Revival style house with high, peaked gables, tall chimneys, and graceful arches. It is in the State Register of Historic Houses, and last year it was part of the historical society tour of homes. Julie said that she went to every effort to have the house perfect and took the society through the house herself. She was astounded when one of them came to her and asked how she got the flowers to rise up and down in the vases. Another said that no one would ever get her to come to that house agian.

 It is said that a young man hanged himself from the balustrade above the downstairs hall. Also sometimes the odor of cigar smoke is very noticeable in the library.