Ep. 586 - Houghton Mansion and the Masons

History Goes Bump: Ghost Tours For The Mind

Diane Student

Travel, History, Places & Travel, Paranormal, Haunted, Society & Culture, Ghosts

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Houghton Mansion in North Adams, Massachusetts was named for the family that commissioned its construction. Their biography is ripe for ghost stories with a tragic car accident leading to further deaths from broken hearts and suicides. The house then spent nearly a century hosting a chapter of the Masonic Order. The Masons have always carried an air of mystery around their organization with rumors of bizarre rituals, sacrifices and hidden knowledge. Many former Masonic temples and centers pop up on haunted lists and we have featured a few. Join us for the history and hauntings of the Houghton Mansion. The Moment in Oddity features Indiana Bell Building rotation and This Month in History features the Astor Place Riot.

Check out the website: http://historygoesbump.com

Show notes can be found here: https://historygoesbump.blogspot.com/2025/05/hgb-ep-586-houghton-mansion-and-masons.html

Become an Executive Producer: http://patreon.com/historygoesbump

Music used in this episode:

Main Theme: Lurking in the Dark by Muse Music with Groove Studios

(Moment in Oddity) "Vanishing" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

(This Month in History) "In Your Arms" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Outro Music: Happy Fun Punk by Muse Music with Groove Studios

Other music used in this episode:

Music: Dark Secrets (DECISION) by Sascha Ende
Link: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/246-dark-secrets-decision

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	History tells the story of the world and of our lives.
0:21.3	Sometimes that history goes bump in the night.
0:32.3	Broadcasting from the center of oddity and the supernatural in central Florida.
0:39.1	It's the History Goes Bump podcast.
0:47.3	Hello, you sputacular people.
0:49.6	Welcome to this 586 episode of the History Goes Bump podcast.
0:55.8	Ghost tours for the Theater of the Mind.
1:00.8	I'm your host, Diane. And this is Kelly. Kelly, on this episode, we are bringing a location that was suggested by our listener, Nicole Carterelli, and that is the Houghton Mansion in North Adams,
1:05.8	Massachusetts. And it just so happens that this property was bought by this little group, I'm sure nobody has ever heard of them.
1:14.6	You know, the Freemasons?
1:15.9	Ah, okay.
1:17.0	And they held it for 90 years and built one of their temples right behind it.
1:22.0	And, you know, we've had a lot of listeners who've asked us, hey, are you ever going to cover the masons?
1:26.7	We want to hear about the
1:27.6	masons. We'll be doing that on this episode since they were there for such a long period of time.
1:32.5	So we'll get into that because that group has long fascinated me probably for decades. I've
1:37.2	been reading about them. So I'm looking forward to discussing all of that. Before we get into
1:40.9	the history and hauntings at the Houghton Mansion, we want to welcome into the Sputacular Crew, Jared, Layla, who makes me want to sing the song by Eric Clapton.
1:49.1	Layla. Oh boy, here we go. She'd probably go running, screaming from the Sputacular Crew.
1:54.7	Anne Reagan, the Golden Retriever, who we got to meet in person. We sure did. Thank you so much for
2:00.2	joining the Spooktacular Crew. And now this moment, Audity.
2:13.1	The moment in Audity was suggested by Dewey Oxburger. The Indiana Bell Building was constructed in 1907 and stands at 240 North Meridian Street,
	...

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