Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

“It’s a lot of fun,” I said to Emily Wright. “You call up Chris Miller and ask if his refrigerator’s running. He’ll pretend like he knows I put you up to it, but he’s bluffing—”

Emily frowned. “I don’t get it,” she said.

Emily is the new writer with the Record. I was trying to teach her how to prank Miller, but she appeared as if she had other things on her mind. What she had on her mind was questions about the E.H. Young House, and she’d figured that I was probably the person to answer them.

Emily didn’t know it as the E.H. Young House, of course. I’m the only person in Clinton County who gives directions that way. Emily asked me about the house on the lower corner of Bellefonte Avenue and South Fairview Street.

You may have noticed it; it’s a beautiful place. It sits on the southeast corner, with a huge, window-enclosed porch. The Historic Resource Survey Form (I always check to see if there’s a Historic Resource Survey Form) says it’s a “brick veneered asymmetrical dwelling”. It also notes that the building is a Queen Anne style, which is the kind of thing they noted on those old forms. But it’s generally not the kind of thing that thrills me—-I’m more interested in writing about the stories behind the buildings than the facts of the architecture.

The building was built sometime around 1900, according to the Survey Form. I say “sometime around 1900” because it could have been a couple of years off in either direction—The people who filled out the Survey Forms mostly relied on the Sanborn Maps for those dates, so anytime I see a date that corresponds to the Sanborn Maps exactly, I know they just looked at the map and called it good. But 1900 is likely pretty close.

The house was built by architect H.F. McCloskey for E.H. Young and his family. Edward Young was a cigar manufacturer who started his company in Farrandsville in 1882. He was born in Lycoming County on September 4, 1856. The company was called Young Brothers, and their shop was right down the street, at the corner of Bellefonte Avenue and West Park, about where Hangar 9 now stands. The house is the last known one in Lock Haven that was built by a cigar family.

They were the creators of their leading brand, Vest Pocket Cigars. I personally wouldn’t mind trying a Vest Pocket Cigar; I’m a little bit of an occasional connoisseur. They were made to have a classy image, as if you’d carry them in the vest pocket of your suit. I don’t wear a suit, barely ever, but I do have a vest that I go ghost-hunting in. So that would cover it, and I’d happily try a Vest Pocket Cigar, if the company hadn’t gone out of business after Young’s death in 1923.

So the next obvious question, and the thing on Emily’s mind, was,”Is the place haunted?” I get asked that a lot about buildings. I get asked that about Kentucky Fried Chicken. In this case, the answer is maybe it is, yes. I don’t know what activity has happened there, but historically, it’s possible.

When you check a place’s history to see if it’s haunted, you’re looking for unusual deaths. Not a lingering death of old age, but young and unexpected deaths. That’s what causes a haunting. And there was one in that house.

Young and his wife Rose had a son, Nelson Young. All of them are buried in Highland Cemetery together. Nelson died in 1909, possibly from a cholera epidemic. He was twenty-one years old at the time, and I think we can all agree that’s a very young age to die.

So maybe Nelson Young is haunting the place. Hope this answers Emily’s questions. Now I’m going to go sit down and have a cigar, and maybe call Chris Miller and ask if he has Prince Albert in a can.