The Allen House, in Monticello, Arkansas was planned by local businessman, Joe Lee Allen, to be the most impressive house the town had ever seen. Built in 1906, by renowned architect Sylvester Hotchkiss and builder Josia Barkley White, it was outstanding. A combination of Queen Anne, Gothic, and Neo-classical styles. The home occupied 8,000 square feet with a full attic and three stories, complete with a wrought iron fence. It was more of a mansion than a house, and remains one of the most beautiful houses in all of Arkansas.
Joe Lee moved his family in, his wife Caddye and their three daughters and by 1919, he owned the house outright. He owned a livery stable in Monticello, and he was a rather successful businessman. As his wealth grew, so did his ventures, and he had his hands in a variety of businesses. As time went on, he came to own a hotel, a private school and even became the President of the Commercial Loan and Trust Company. He sold vehicles and horse-drawn buggies.
But, not everything in their lives would be beautiful. In 1914, Joe Lee and Caddye’s second daughter, Ladell, married Boyd Randolf Bonner. They had a son together, Allen “Duke” Bonner, but later divorced and Ladell resumed living with her parents in the Allen House.
In 1917, Mr. Allen died of a heart attack, while demonstrating an automobile to a potential buyer.
Ladell’s son, Allen, became a humor writer, and in 1944 he died of pneumonia in New York City. Four years later, in June of 1948, Boyd Bonner died in Los Angeles, California. Consumed by her grief, Christmas night, Ladell took a mercury-cyanide laced glass of punch to the master suite and drank it. She died on January 2, 1949.
After the death of her daughter, Caddye had the master suite sealed, and it remained untouched for 37 years.
Although Caddye Allen died in 1956, the remaining heir kept the master suite closed; even after renovating the home and converting it into apartments, which were rented out.
Tenants began reporting strange things happening. Hazy figures appeared in photographs, furniture would be rearranged with no explanation. Several folks reported seeing a lady sitting in a turret window.
Author, Carolyn Wilson, lived in one of the apartments with her husband. Her experiences inspired her to write a novel that took place in a mansion, much like the Allen House. Her novel, The Scent of Lilacs
Several paranormal groups have also investigated the Allen House, and have not walked away disappointed. They spotted images of a woman believed to be Ladell, in mirrors and photographs. They have seen the ghosts of three little girls playing in the downstairs area. (It is believed that the three girls are the Allen sisters.) All of this in addition to the usual sound of footsteps, crying and moaning, which could not be explained.
A couple living in the apartments claimed they had an experience where a closet door would not open. It felt as though someone (or something) was holding the door closed by the knob. They also heard someone giggling. Another person claimed they had been trapped in the bathroom, unable to open the door.
The heir to the Allen House died in 1985, and his widow sold the house. The new owners, either unknowingly, or without care, opened the master suite for the first time since 1949. A bottle of cyanide still sat on a shelf in the closet.
The house changed hands a few times over the years and fell into disrepair. In 2007, Mark and Rebecca Spencer purchased the house after falling in love with it on first sight. Since then, they have reported seeing doppelgängers of their own family members in the house. They have also reported an old crank Victrola running on its own with the turntable getting faster and faster instead of slower.
In 2009, eighty-two letters were discovered underneath a floorboard. The letters, exchanged between Ladell and a man named Prentiss Hemingway Savage, chronicle a romance that went on during the final months of Ladell’s life. They believe this is now what led to her suicide.
Still fancy a visit to the Allen House? Schedule a Tour, or other event here.
Looking for another ghost story? Might we recommend The Sallie House.