Ghosts at Sun Oak

"I never thought  about ghosts until I moved to New Orleans. It seems that
 everyone who lives in an old house here has a ghost in residence."
 Lloyd Sensat

 "My family came from Bohemia and a spirit world was commonly discussed as
 reality.  The first time that I visited Faubourg Marigny, the ancient
 neighborhood just downriver from the French Quarter where our home Sun Oak
 is located, I felt very much at home like I had been here before."
 Eugene Cizek

Subject: Ghosts at Sun Oak

 
  When we first completed the restoration of Sun Oak, we rented a portion 
of the house.Gene also had his architecture office and studio in one of the
 service wings. One of the young architects who worked here often took his break  napping on the day bed in the petit salon ( the small cabinet room next to the office with a beautiful spiral stairway leading to the dormer bedrooms) When he was alone in the house, an elderly lady dressed in black  would appear on the staircase. He would  glance up looking from  her little black pointed toed shoes to her ghostly  white face framed in long grey hair. When his  gaze reached her face, she  would immediately vanish. His descriptions were always vivid and 
consistent. Gene & I  have never seen the lady, but have heard her walking about the house  when we are upstairs.
One evening, we were watching television in the  dormer bedroom
 and we heard loud noises in the downstairs rooms.  The crystal pendants on
 the girondelles were moving as if someone were walking on the floors and we heard the  opening of drawers on the Empire sideboard and armoires. It sounded as if chairs  were being moved. Then we heard the distinctive squeaking sounds of someone walking up the stairway but turning back midway and walking down. We  immediately locked the door convinced  that someone had broken into the
 house.  We thought that we were being robbed, so we called the police.When
 the police arrived we could not get the dormer window opened as it had been 
painted shut, so we broke the window pane and threw  the keys out unto the street  below.The police thought  that someone had been shot and quickly retrieved  the keys and rushed into the house. Everything was quiet and in its place.  We were embarassed but the police assured us that it was a common
 occurrance. After all this is an ancient house and this is New Orleans!

 Another time,  our tenants' daughter was to be christened. In the process
 of dressing the child in an ancestral christening dress, we discovered 
that one of the little fancy lace trimed  blue socks was missing.  We asked her
 mother if she knew where the sock was;  she said that the sock fairy
 probably took it.  Blue socks were always going missing.  Another pair of
 socks were found and we  proceeded to the church for the ceremony. Five
 years later, they were visiting us from Huntsville, Alabama.The young
 daughter had just lost one of her baby teeth. We told her to put the tooth
 in a little antique box so that the tooth fairy would exchange it for 
money. We told her that she couldn't put it under her pillow as the tooth fairy 
in our house was an old  Creole fairy and could not bend over to secure the
 tooth.  This was the only mention of the fairy being old.  The next 
morning, the young child was all excited as she explained to us that a sweet little  old lady dressed all in black  with pointed toed shoes had come down the
 stairs visited her during the night.  She then said, "Look what she gave
 me---a little blue sock with lace trim". The christening sock had been
 returned!

 Parapsychologists and people with special gifts to see and feel the spirit
 world have visited the house at various times.  They all have the same
 description of the ancient lady.  They say she is a good spirit and guards
 the house from evil.  Some guests have said that they have experienced 
her and other friendly spirits.  One guest recently claimed that they could 
feel a presence of  messengers from the spirit world that lived in the ancient
 Sun Oak tree in the lush tropical Creole garden behind the house.

 Lloyd Sensat and Eugene Cizek

Photo:William de Marigny Hyland at Bernard de Marigny's tomb in St. Louis # 1 cemetery. This is the oldest and most famous cemetery in New Orleans.