A victorian style home in Hudson Valley specifically Nyack, New York was led to believe to be so terrifying, and a place where strange yet unexplained things happened that it was legally declared haunted. It was the first house in the world that was ever declared haunted by the New York Supreme Court in 1991. It is called the “Ghostbuster Ruling,” yes, you read that right the “Ghostbuster Ruling,” in the Stambovsky v. Ackley case.
The house itself was built around the 1900s and was used as either a boarding house or a family residence throughout the years. Though in the 1960s, a woman named Helen Ackley took up residency in this house along with her family without knowing its history. Very strange occurrences would happen around the house and none of her neighbors would believe it when she told them about it. Things from a guest dying in her house from a brain aneurysm to constantly everyone being woken up something shaking their beds violently. In order to prove their theory further that this house was haunted Helen asked the spirits who they thought were shaking their beds and waking them up not to the next morning. Due to them not having school and to let them sleep in, they were not shaken awake the next morning. Mere coincidence or work of otherworldly spirits?
Even living with being woken up abruptly every morning, they have learned to live with the spirits in the house for over thirty years. Telling anyone who would listen about their stories not caring if they were believed or not, but her story was published, it was called “Our Haunted House On The Hudson.” She recounted all the things that happened to her and her family. Like, believing there was more than one spirit living with them and some would leave little trinkets for her kids. Other times, typical “haunted” things like objects being moved around, or even doors slamming randomly.
When the family wanted to sell the house to a buyer they did not disclose the house’s history, causing the buyer to back out of the deal. This case was sent to court, Stambovsky v. Ackley, where it was ruled that the house be made legally haunted.
