Fenwood House

This page contains spoilers!

## General

Fenwood House, originally the Lyle Homsetead, is a boarding house on the edge of Mount Absalom. It is currently run by Dorothy Harper. It is considered a historical landmark by the local Historical Society, as it is the oldest continually inhabited building in Ohio. (This is contested, as the original house burned down and was restyled in the Gothic style.)

Near the house is the Mount Absalom graveyard, as well as a large wood known locally as the burning woods.

The bell above the front door in Fenwood is the same kind used in The Golden Groove.

Fenwood House is also known as The One Who Blooms. Dot Harper affectionately calls the house 'Woody'.

Due to an old Ohio statute, Fenwood is considered a brothel, as it is a residential building that is also a business, where three or more women can live. Previous caretakers of the house have paid an exception fee for the statute.

Coffee and evening meals are included in the boarding fees.

## History

Fenwood House was build in 1796 by the Lyle's, one of Mount Absalom's founding families.

One of the later owners was rumoured to be a Union spy in the 1850s, and house was then possibly used as a Union military hospital in the 1860s.

In 1896, the house was burnt down in a fire that destroyed much of the town. It was rebuilt three years later in the Gothic style by Eliza Fenwood, and turned into a boarding house.

There have been several attempts by The Delphic Order to force a sale of the house through eminent domain - in 1989, 1996, 1997, and 2010. The motions were voted against every time. Their most recent attempt was a motion to turn the house into a museum about the town in exchange for clearing Dot Harper's supposed debts, but this was also voted against by the town council.

Previous known owners of Fenwood House are Grant Fenwood and Tim Anderson, Dot's uncles, Colin Fenwood, and Eliza Fenwood *née* Lyle.

There has been a total of twenty-two deaths in Fenwood. Eight of them were from a TB outbreak in 1896.

## House Layout

Fenwood House has three floors, an attic, and a basement. The kitchen is on the ground floor, and has three doors leading off from it - one leading to the porch, one leading to the basement, one leading to the living room.

There is a old, mysterious door that occasionally appears and disappears, and which sometimes leads to an old well.

There are rumours that the house has secret passages.

## Notable and Current Guests

Serial poisoner Deidre Abernathy stayed for several nights in 1953.

Dr. Conrad Cartwright, a paranormal psychic investigator, stayed for one night in 1973 and had a 'very productive stay'.

Frank “Giddy” Gideon, an out of work handyman, traded repairs for room and board during the notorious “Chill of ’37”.

The current tenants of Fenwood are Lily Harper, Abbie Douglas, and Rudy Peltham.

## Ghosts

According to the ghost tour (run by Wes on weekends and in summer), Fenwood House is very haunted. Supposed ghosts are Miss Lina, 'one of the friendly ones' who can sometimes be seen waving from the top floor, and Old Man Gideon, who died in 1973 and who can be heard banging on the pipes.

Known ghosts are Tim Anderson, who helped run Fenwood with Grant Fenwood, and Theodore Wesley, who didn't initially know he was a ghost.

The house itself is also possibly a ghost, and can communicate through Morse code.