Wolf Mansion - Josephus Wolf House - Portage IN Real Haunts

Recently Shared Experiences & Comments

• 

  Inaccurate "story" He did not kill anyone

  The house was built in 1875, ten years AFTER slavery was abolished. Also, Indiana was NOT a slave state. Therefore, no matter what, he wouldn't have had slaves, and their children, to kill. Also, go to findagrave and read the newspapers clippings. His wife (and grandkids) received stuff from his will, and he was on in years, in poor health, when he died in a horse and buggy accident in 1895. He lived in the house with his wife, Susan until his death.

  Posted 11/23/24

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  1 out of 1 found this review helpful

• 

  Love this house

  I spent my high school years living just a few miles from Wolf Mansion and would drive but it almost daily. I loved to just sit at the corner looking at the architecture pondering what the inside was like. I remember a dentist and his family moved there and opened a small dental practice. They weren't there long like maybe 3-6 months and one day they were gone. It stayed empty for a long time after that. I moved away in October 1992. I eventually returned to the area in 1994. I lived there until 2000 and my biggest regret to this day is I was not able to go inside and 'ghost Hunt's for lack of a better term. If given the opportunity to go inside I'd be there first to arrive and last to leave. FYI, I have seen the light in the old bell tower and spirit people in the windows while empty.

  Posted 7/31/24

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  3 out of 3 found this review helpful

• 

  Nothing Special

  I lived in South Haven from the 60’s to the 80’s. As a kid I rode my bike around that house and never saw anything even thought it looked scary. I always thought it was a great looking house and there was a bell in the tower when I was there. Like one person said. It was abandoned many years and little stores were using it off and on.

  Posted 7/4/24

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• 

  Maybe haunted? Maybe your brain’s playing tricks.

  As a local I have always loved this home. Wild mansion was like a second home when I was a kid(young teen). My parents best friends lived here and my dad actually helped build the beautiful white deck on the home. I was the older sibling and also the babysitter quite often. I’ve spent many nights in this house without any severe “haunting” feels. While there are so many stories to be told about this home both haunted and not, I think people forget this home has been so beautifully maintained over many decades and that is worth the visit alone. There is a tunnel that is said to be part of the underground/slavery etc. it’s also said it’s a connection tunnel to the other sister mansion for the kids/family at that time. It was sealed off easily over 20 years ago. As far as haunted, I know there were times doors would randomly close, creaking, and my moms friend at one point would say she felt someone touch her hand or she thought her boys were calling for her and she’d respond and they would say they weren’t even talking. There are many mysterious things with this house, Mr wolf, the passing of his young children and wife, children buried there etc, which all played part and lead to his hanging. The history is absolutely fascinating. If a visit is ever in your interest I’d say do it as the house itself is rather beautiful. The rooms are huge, especially the master. The main staircase is just beautiful, or at least it was. History created a haunted house and I suppose it either plays tricks on our brains or some actually experience odd things. But from someone who has many memories there, I’d say it has it’s questionable moments if it is or isn’t slightly haunted so check it out.

  Posted 6/28/24

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  1 out of 1 found this review helpful

• 

  Weddings

  Don't know anything about slaves or ghosts there but I know we were married there in 1980 we rented the entire house there was no one there at all the house was empty in fact we had to repair the gazebos so we could be married in it

  Posted 11/12/23

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  0 out of 2 found this review helpful

• 

  Slaves and owner

  Ok I grew up in South Haven where the mansion actually is. FIRST OFF SLAVERY WAS STILL HAPPENING in this part of Indiana at that time. The owner didn't kill slaves or many people he killed his wife his kids and himself. That IS a bell tower converted to a capula AFTER he hung his wife and himself in the tower. I have been inside there are hidden rooms and revolving walls which is really cool. It was then turned into a nursing home then a wedding gown shop and is now a residential home. The house mor the grounds have changed over the years. They shot a movie there once in which Eddie Murphy was in it. Use to park his red Ferrari in the drive while they filmed. I have tons of pics of the process. Never seen the movie though. It's said that MANY years before the property was built there. It was once a graveyard. And that's what haunted the mansion and drove Mr Wolf to go insane.

  Posted 10/20/23

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  1 out of 1 found this review helpful

• 

  Ghost

  When I was in my 30s My friend and I was driving toward wolf mansion. I looked up at the cupola and there was a little girl that looked like the girl from the movie Poltergeist. My friend put her car in reverse and we never been by there after dark again. Scared the crap out of us.

  Posted 5/22/22

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  5 out of 6 found this review helpful

• 

  Truth to the story

  First of all, slavery WAS "abolished" in Indiana in 1816, but that was difficult to enforce in those times. There are slaves listed on plenty of records during the time. Slavery being abolished DID NOT require the slave holders to turn those people loose. They still belonged to their owners. The Wolf farm was established well before 1865 and it spanned several MILES, but the new home was built in 1865, which was after total abolishment. If you know history, you know that isolated slaves continued in slavery because nobody clued them in or came to free them until a good deal of time had passed, depending on how isolated they were, and what the owners could get away with. There is another Wolf family mansion right up Wolf Road, and one of the same family over on Froberg Road. It was ALL Wolf family land in between. So the story goes that Mr. Wolf would hang out in the cupola to watch his "non-slaves" working in the fields. ( In census type records these "non-slave" slaves were listed as servants or hired hands, anything but the slaves they weren't supposed to be.) If Wolf spotted visitors he did not recognize coming up the road, he would ring the bell that was there at one point to alert the non-slaves to go down into the various tunnels that ran from the house out into the fields. The REASON the tunnels were built off of the new house was so that Wolf could continue using his non-slaves and hide them quickly if need be. The slave quaters were also in the basement of the home. Remember that slaves were not allowed to read or write or to hear of any politics referencing their plight in life. It was intentional to keep slaves ignorant of the outside world. As far as the house, I, as well as most of the neighborhood children in the area, have been all over that mansion. It was abandoned for many years and was many different businesses off and on in between. There are a couple of doors in the basement that opened into rooms and passages that lead to bricked tunnels, which were caving in so much when I was a kid that you really couldn't go far. Years later as an adult I went in the basement while there with friends who were hired to do repairs to the home just prior to the present owners. The doors look to have been closed off for good. The current owners living there were giving tours for an astronomical price for a while. They try to say that none of the history is true, and that there are no tunnels under the home that I know are there because I have been in them. I would hate to give a family a bad name as being illegal/legal slave holders if they have never done such a thing. There WAS a bell at one time. Wolf hung himself in the cupola for some reason or another, and the light in the cupola came way after the fact. There was no electricity at the time the Wolf was built, and in fact, gas lighting would have been a home improvement that would have come 20 years after the home was first lived in. The story of Wolf hanging himself has been passed down by people who lived in the area way before I was born. I'm sure there has been some embellishment, but it's all plausible. The mansion has always had a scary vibe to it, and I have lost more than one of my dad's jumbo fishing lanterns in that house running for my life from the spooks that reside there. One summer evening after it had become abandoned once again, my bothers and I rode our bikes up there right before dark. We parked in front and dared each other to go knock on the door. I have always loved that front door, especially the sound of that old wooden screen door screeching open. And I never could figure out why on earth there would be a carving of a bowl of fruits on the door. Anyway, I opened the screen door and knocked once with the intention of turning and getting the heck out of there. No longer had my knocking knuckles left the door did the door swing open violently! I mean slam against the wall violent. My brothers peed their pants and rode off without me, leaving me standing at the pitch black gaping mouth of house I knew from prior visits was haunted. When I came to my senses, I turned and ran down the steps letting the screen door slam behind me. I was drunk with fear and shaking so badly that all I could manage to do was drag my bike as my wobbly legs ran to the road. As I looked over my shoulder, the big door had been closed again. Don't tell me that place isn't haunted.

  Posted 3/26/22

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  11 out of 12 found this review helpful

• 

  Not haunted.

  So this house was built 10 years after slavery was abolished....awkward.

  Posted 12/19/20

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  7 out of 8 found this review helpful

• 

  Touched...by.... something

  I took a tour in 2010 and stood in the kitchen in a corner alone and felt like someone or something grabbed me on the side of my stomach.... i let one of the owners know while on the way to another spot in the house and he was interested... i also tried to record using a brand new knock off go pro camera but itd freeze every 2 seconds n could not save any footage i also had to take out the battery n put it back in for it to work again.

  Posted 11/24/20

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  5 out of 5 found this review helpful

• 

  !!!!!!!!!!! Help help help!!!!!!! Help!!!!???

  On Saturday June 20th approximately 2:45 a.m. Has anyone noticed a mysterious object walking which believe on four legs unidentified animal the beach into the water and sat there bouncing up and down no noise and the closer I got the object stop in the water as if it was giving me eye to eye contact has anyone else witness this mysterious object at whihala beach Indiana????

  Posted 6/21/20

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  1 out of 4 found this review helpful

• 

  This is the true story is

  Okay no im actually someone who lives in the town of the wolf mansion yes there was slaves in 1875 so who commented that it would be illegal no it was not it was illegal in the east of the state we are the north the real story was that the Wolf house was a ending/starting to one of the underground trailers were they would help slaves escape Joshephus Wolf fell in love with one of his slaves and had intercourse and got his slave pregnant the town found out and actually chased him and killed his love after his love was killed he was heartbroken where he did kill alot of people but they were not his slaves it was town people then he ended up killing himself so thats the REAL story

  Posted 11/28/19

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  12 out of 20 found this review helpful

• 

  I’ve been here

  Let’s just day I heard many voices. Many angry souls and crying souls. It’s terrifying! I don’t recommend going late at night.

  Posted 9/26/19

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  2 out of 3 found this review helpful

• 

  The Wild Mansion is haunted.

  Whoever wrote this made up the story. There is no bell tower. It is a cupola so the owner could view his property. A young daughter was driving her pony cart around the house. It flipped over and killed her.

  Posted 5/10/19

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  9 out of 12 found this review helpful

• 

  Slaves

  Fyi.. Slave part is a farse.. Slavery was abolished in the state of Indiana by state constitution by 1820.. Meaning it would have been illegal. Js

  Posted 4/5/19

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  10 out of 15 found this review helpful