Woodrow Haunted Manor

Last night when I was plagued with insomnia, I was perusing social media (I know, bad idea), and I came across someone in a local “night out” Facebook group inquiring about a supposed haunted house in the community of Woodrow, just south of Lubbock, TX. I am very familiar with Woodrow, as I grew up there, so I had to dig a little further about what house this person was talking about. And the comments made it easy – someone posted the address, and I was off to the races on doing my own little “investigation” about the house. Apparently, anyone who has lived in it was driven into mental illness and left (if they survived). The house has had 3 owners in its short life.

Disclaimer: I know people are skeptics when it comes to paranormal activity. I know we can debunk a lot of what people are claiming to experience. But I still find it fascinating and for some reason, am drawn to abandoned buildings. I guess it’s the mystery behind the walls and wishing those walls could talk to us.

Turns out it is a very familiar house that was built in 1994, when I was the ripe old age of nine years old. The house isn’t far from where I went to school, built in a rural area next to an intersection on a highway where many wrecks and deaths have happened. They have since built an overpass to combat wrecks, but it had to take so many deaths for the state to look into it. That is a blog post for another day!

Now, you’re probably asking, what is the point of this? Well, for starters, when the house was being built, we all wondered why in the heck someone would want to put it where it was. “We all” as in my family, who lived in the area. It’s not the greatest location for what I stated above, and it’s near a highway. If I had my choice of where to build, I don’t think I’d want it close to a busy road. Before doing my insomniac research last night, I had no idea the house was considered haunted, and all the stuff listed below had happened (with the exception of one story that was big in the news.) But what really shocks me, long before I ever knew about the house’s history, is that the place always gave me a creepy vibe, even when I was a child. It’s not even an old house, but there was something about it that just sent a chill down my spine. Was I clairvoyant – eh, probably not, but since reading about it last night, I can’t get it off my mind.

The building of the house started off bad – construction caused more wrecks. It is rumored that the place was built with drug money (rumored, mind you, I’m not for certain of this). And in the house’s short life, many things have happened within it.

To start things off, a man in a custody battle for his children was shot dead in the field next to the house by a sheriff’s deputy who thought he was wielding a knife. His kids were in the house and saw the whole thing happen. This is confirmed – a true story that happened just a few years after the house was built. The family abandoned the home not long after the incident.

Another story states a young girl was killed at the top of the stairs and died on the landing. This one is unconfirmed, so take it as you will. I feel like we would’ve heard about this story in the news, and before looking into this house, I never heard about it.

In the early 2000’s a veterinarian bought the home. This is disturbing, so trigger warning all around. Apparently, she built a clinic on the north side of the house where there was a large shed and a garage. As the house drove her into insanity, she began to perform experiments on animals and eventually, the state veterinarian board ruled malpractice and took her license away. The kennels remain in the garage and shed. People who visit the house say there is a sinking and heavy feeling in their chest when they go into the shed with the kennels. This is also a confirmed story that was in the news. I don’t want to go into further detail about the experiments she performed, as I am a lover of animals, and it is far too disturbing to put in my blog.

After she was driven from the house, a man bought the place to move his family to the area. His wife took one look at it after purchase and said nope! He turned it into a business, making it into a haunted house around Halloween season for people to come through. It is no longer in use, its last year being 2021. Their Facebook page cites the reason is extreme vandalism to the place. Now the property just sits vacant, decaying, and attracting vandals and people likely up to no good.

The supposed hauntings and house’s history have drawn attention from all over – ghost hunter societies have spent the night and performed their own investigations – the county ghost hunting society ruled the house is one of the most haunted places they have ever investigated. Hmm… do ghost hunter shows even come on anymore? It’d be cool to have them come look into it!

Is this country home haunted by all these stories? Are the souls of the victims of the many wrecks at the intersection plaguing the property? Or are humans just imaginative creatures, conjuring up stories of abandoned places to keep ourselves entertained? The mystery is exciting… scary… thrilling… and we won’t ever honestly know the answers.

So… this post was about the haunted place but also, I’m a writer, so I’m looping this back to my little mind and my writing ideas. I’m thinking about writing a scary book based loosely on this house. I’ve written a horror series before, years ago, and am really considering doing another. Researching this house has got my imagination running. Big problem – I have like 1,000 ideas already in front of it, the main one being to finish Book 2 in the Respect the Wind Series. That will be top priority, but who says I can’t work on two ideas at once? Being a writer is tormenting – but having too many ideas is always far better than having writer’s block!

The pictures I’m posting are not mine – they are from the realtor listing for the property (It is not on the market). If I do hit the ground running with this idea, I’ll drive by and take some of my own pictures… and may even inquire with the owner about possibly walking the property, if I don’t chicken out first!