History 21 The Podcast - 1.20 Our Haunted House

What’s it like living in a haunted house? Jenn Shoemaker and her family (along with a couple permanent, ghostly residents) lived at 403 Van Buren in Anoka for four years. Hear how they came to own this beautiful home, the surprise of finding that their new house was on the Ghosts of Anoka Tour, and all the supernatural occurrences they experienced along the way.

Hosts Rebecca Desens, ACHS Executive Director, Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator and Erin McBrien, ACHS Archivist.

403 Van Buren

Background on a house on the Ghosts of ANoka Tour

Built in 1859, Jenn & Scott Shoemaker took on restoring the history and beauty of this 162 year old Anoka home. In only two years, they remodeled the kitchen back to a farmhouse kitchen, as well as the stairwell, upstairs hallway and side porch. The owners believe the kitchen and inlaid borders on the hardwood floors are some of this home’s enduring features. When they moved in, the garden was non-existent, the yard consisting only of dead grass and piles of rocks. Since then, they have reworked the yard for beauty, as well as to work with their large family.

Window to the past: In 1940, Carl Jenson rented the home and lived there with his wife, two children and sister-in-law. Carl moved to Anoka from a farm in Fairfax. In Anoka, he opened and ran the “Jenson 5c to One Dollar Store” located on 114 E. Main Street while his wife worked as a “sales lady” by his side. Today, 114 E. Main Street is home to Jenson’s Department Store, still a family

Go on the Ghost Tour

403 Van Buren in 2016 when the Shoemaker family shared it on the ACHS Home & Garden Tour

Peep the beautiful hardwood floor boarder detail of the home.

Anoka County Library Minute

The Haunting of the Anoka Masonic Lodge by June Gossler Anderson (133.1 AND). Anderson was a guide on the Ghost Tour in 2007 and became the historical society’s designated history columnist for the Anoka County Union Herald in 2009. She was contacted by the Anoka Masonic Lodge to document the paranormal activities in their building and put the puzzle pieces together in this book.
Twin Cities Haunted Handbook: 100 Ghostly Places You Can Visit in and Around Minneapolis & St. Paul by Jeff Morris, Garett Merk, and Dain Charbonneau (133.109776 MOR) is an excellent guidebook for those who want to set out on their own ghost tour. Each entry includes a brief history of the location and the ghost story that merited its inclusion in the book. There are several Anoka county locations, as well as noted landmarks like the Mall of America and the Minnesota State Capitol. Discover ghost stories in places you never knew had had a resident ghost or visit some seemingly charming yet creepy sites just outside of the Twin Cities such as Taylors Falls, Red Wing, and Menomonie, Wisconsin.

Adult Fiction

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (FICTION JAC) This classic of the horror genre tells the story of an academic and three of his guests, who move into a haunted house for the summer to record, for research purposes, any paranormal happenings. They begin to experience unusual events that become terrifying and one of the four of them appears to be possessed. No less an expert than Stephen King calls The Haunting of Hill House as one of the greatest horror novels ever written.
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (FANTASY MOR) Noemi Taboada travels to an estate called High Place in the Mexican countryside to help her newlywed cousin, who fears a dark fate. Noemi’s fearless, a useful trait when confronting her cousin’s authoritarian husband and his father, the patriarch of a fading mining fortune. The youngest son in the family might be her only hope of unraveling the family’s secrets. The critically acclaimed book, an unconventional haunted house tale, won several high-profile awards last year, including the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror novel.
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (FICTION HIL) is the story of Arthur Kipps, a solicitor, who recounts his own experience years earlier visiting the home of a recently deceased woman to settle her estate. What begins as a routine professional errand on an English Moor quickly descends into a series of harrowing ghostly encounters that chill Kipps to the bone decades later. Hill wrote an understated British ghost story that mastered the art of atmosphere and pacing. The Woman in Black was made into a film starring Daniel Radcliffe in 2012, which we also have available for you on DVD (DVD WOM).

Children’s Fiction

Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Dowling Hahn (J FICTION HAH). Molly and Michael dislike their spooky new stepsister, Heather. The newly formed family moves into an old church that was converted into a private house. As their new home was a church, the property adjoins a cemetery haunted by the ghost of Helen, a girl who drowned over a hundred years ago. Helen eventually possesses Heather. Molly and Michael must come to her rescue. Hahn, a former school librarian and the queen of ghost stories for the elementary and middle school set, stormed onto the scene with this book. She’s written 30 others that are just as popular.
Ghostly Reunion by Thomas Kingsley Troupe (J FICTION TRO) is part of Troupe’s popular Haunted States of America series of historical horror novels, each of which is set in a different state in the country. Ghostly Reunion is set in Hibbing, Minnesota. Robby and his cousins escape their boring family reunion to visit an old bus museum in town, finding more excitement than they wanted. When Robby replays a video he recorded of his museum visit, he hears a ghostly voice whispering to him, looking for a lost item. Will the ghost of a WWI soldier search for eternity or can Robby and his cousins assist the old ghost?
Coraline by Neil Gaiman (J Fantasy GAI), who wrote this story for his daughter and described it as “refreshingly creepy.” It’s the story of a girl who, with her family, moves into a house that’s been converted into flats. Although she’s been warned not to enter a locked door to another flat in the building, her curiosity wins the day and she opens it. On the other side she finds a parallel world to her own, complete with “other parents.” Then her real parents disappear. This book is filled with quirky characters, while remaining a properly frightening haunted house story. It also contains a great message on how to be brave. The 2009 stop-motion animated movie is available on DVD (DVD J COR).
How to Build a Haunted House by Frank Tupta (E TUP) This delightful picture book for preschool-age children and early readers tells the story of a community of ghosts, mummies, and assorted other monsters who build a haunted house for a vampire family in need before the sun rises in the morning. It’s full of hilarious illustrations and funny rhymes. Your child will want to read it over and over.