Are you brave enough to spend all night inside the haunted Carlheim Manor?
– ALL TICKET ARE NON -REFUNDABLE- Attendees must be adults 18+ or young adults (16+) with a guardian present
Five times per year, Carlheim Manor is open for all night ghost hunts. Each Paranormal Investigation is led by a team from Mid-Atlantic Paranormal Investigators. Get to know Carlheim Manor room by room, while you hunt for ghosts. This is a very different experience than our typical Shocktober event that is filled with actors and screams at every turn. This is an all-night event, where you and only two dozen others are exploring the house with paranormal investigation equipment to find EVPs, Sightings and other evidence of ghosts inside of Carlheim Manor. The mansion has 140 years of history ready for exploring! All proceeds from the investigation benefit The Arc of Loudoun, a nonprofit that serves people with disabilities and their families.
Ghost Hunt Dates for 2020:
- Friday, March 13, 2020 – SOLD OUT!
- Friday, May 8, 2020- CANCELED DUE TO COVID-19
- Friday, September 18, 2020- Tickets Available
- Friday, November 13, 2020- Tickets Available
- Friday, December 11, 2020- Tickets Available Tickets are $100 per person, Attendees must be adults 18+ or young adults (16+) with a guardian present. All attendees must sign a waiver.
BUY TICKETS NOW – ALL TICKET ARE NON-REFUNDABLE
What to expect during the Paranormal Investigation
An introduction to ghost hunting, some techniques and equipment, all-night access to Carlheim Manor, and access to a team of professional ghost hunters from MAPI (Mid-Atlantic Paranormal Investigations).
Please know that the Manor itself is currently STAGED for our SHOCKTOBER haunted house fundraiser. There are props and items in the rooms, on the walls throughout the house and basement. Since you will be investigating in the dark, please be mindful of these props and do not touch them or move them during your investigations.
Things to know and bring:
Please make sure to bring a FLASHLIGHT, as the lights will be off the entire night inside of Carlheim Manor.
Carlheim Manor is a 145 year old 32-room mansion that does NOT have heating or air conditioning, please plan accordingly and dress in layers!
Please also feel free to bring any equipment that you have: paranormal investigation equipment; recording devices; cameras; video cameras; etc. Your investigators will have theirs as well, but the more the merrier.
You should bring your chargers and/or extra batteries for any equipment you bring, as many times batteries are drained quickly inside of Carlheim Manor…
Feel free to bring snacks and drinks. Coffee is provided. Visitors are welcome to bring additional food and/or drink, but no food or beverages are allow inside of Carlheim Manor, only during breaks (every hour) will guests have access to them in a neighboring cottage.
Here are some images from past paranormal investigations.
Ghost Box searching for spirits inside of Carlheim Manor
Paranormal Investigators
Carlheim Manor History:
The Carlheim Estate was bequeathed for the benefit of needy children by Mrs. Rachel Paxton (c. 1826-1921) upon her death. A trust was established in memory of her beloved daughter, Margaret, so that this vision could be perpetuated. The 16.75 acre parcel that remains today has, in various ways, fulfilled that charter since the original bequest. The latest chapter, marked by The Arc of Loudoun, began in 2009.
The “Carlheim” Mansion as commissioned by Mrs. Paxton’s husband, Charles R. Paxton (1816-1889), was designed by the nationally acclaimed New York-based architect, Henry C. Dudley and completed in the early 1870s. Dudley was a founding member of the American Institute of Architects. The construction was awarded to a local lumber merchant and builder, John Norris, who used local materials such as sandstone in the mansion and adjacent peacock house, smoke house and barns.
Carlheim was first a summer retreat and then the Paxton’s primary family home for nearly half a century. The mansion and its original out-buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. In 2004, the property became a non-contiguous part of the Leesburg Historic District. Other Paxton-related buildings still stand; the Exeter community club house was the farm manager’s house and the creamery on Edwards Ferry Road was commissioned by Mr. Paxton, on what was then part of his estate.
In 1869 Charles Paxton, a wealthy banker and industrialist from Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, came to Reconstruction-era Leesburg to purchase property on which to build a summer house. He bought a 765-acre piece of land at auction paying $50,000. The 32-room house that was erected was of remarkable size (approximately five times the size of Mount Vernon) and featured many decorative interior details such as silver hardware, elaborate plasterwork and an innovative water collection system. The exterior reflects the influence of Second Empire and Italian Villa styles, and is considered an unusual example of Victorian architecture in Northern Virginia. This part of Leesburg and north to the Potomac River is known for its subterranean limestone caverns. Remarkably, the mansion sits atop perhaps the largest of these caverns and an underground lake. The Paxton’s eventually amassed approximately 7,800 acres generally from Leesburg east to Broad Run. Most of their land in an around Leesburg was part of the vast 18th century holdings of Lord Fairfax, a portion of which subsequently become the antebellum Exeter Plantation.
From Mrs. Paxton’s death until the early 1950s, the residence was used as a convalescent home known as the Paxton Home for Children, where children recovering from illness or injury would stay during the summer months. From 1954 until 1980 it served as an orphanage and from 1980 until 2004 it served as a childcare center. The property was quiet from 2004 until 2009 awaiting its next chapter: the arrival of The Arc of Loudoun and its associated programs for children and adults with disabilities and their families. Now operating under the umbrella of the The Arc of Loudoun, we are serving needy children in ways that Mrs. Paxton could never have imagined, but of which she would surely be proud.
