As curator of the Howard County Historical Museum, in a former church dating back to the 1800s, she knows the sounds and sensations a building steeped in decades of history can make.
Creaking wooden floors.
Random knocks and pings.
Unexpected drafts blowing coolness past her.
But footsteps when she's in the building alone, after closing time?
"That was a little unnerving," she says. "And I have had other people hear it too, so I know I am not hallucinating."
Griffith says she was working in her office in the basement of the museum when she heard footsteps on the floor above.
She went upstairs to investigate and saw no one.
It has happened periodically in the three years the Dorsey Hall resident has been working at the museum on Court Avenue, in Historic Ellicott City.
"I have never felt afraid, really. But I will hear a strange noise now and then and It surprises me more than it scares me. I still hear the footsteps now and then," she says. "I don't like to be the last one around to close up."
By chance, Griffith was approached by Colin McGuinn, an investigator for the Greater Maryland Paranormal Society and a frequent visitor to the museum, which fosters his love for history and his native Howard County.
"Colin asked if I would be willing to have the group come in to do an investigation," Griffith says. "I said, 'Sure, why not?' "
In the last year, the museum was also visited by investigators from the DC Metro Area Ghost Watchers and a Baltimore-based paranormal investigation team.
The former had "a few subjective experiences, but little objective findings to report at this time," according to its Web site. The latter team's investigation results were still being reviewed, Griffith said.
The waiting game
On Sept. 25, a crisp fall Friday night, complete with a bright moon above, a dozen members of the Greater Maryland Paranormal Society, arrived about 8 p.m. at the church to set up nearly $5,000 worth of audio and video recording equipment, and to sit and wait in the dark.
And wait.
And wait.
Amid the show and tell that make up the exhibits of the county's history, wires snaked from bell tower to basement, cameras were installed into corners, duct tape was plentiful and batteries charged. Rubbermaid bin after Rubbermaid bin of equipment was set up by a skilled team of technicians. A 36-pack of Duracell batteries is on hand for use in eight digital voice recorders.
"This is the part they don't show you on TV," says McGuinn, referring to the popular "Ghost Hunters" cable TV show that chronicles the investigations of The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS).
"Can you tell me about the pipes in the building? Any smells? Anything unusual?" Elyse Caudill asks Griffith, reading off a questionnaire used at the onset of each investigation.
Griffith says there are times when the printer in her office will turn on and off on its own.
Around 9:30 p.m., GMPS founder Bill Hartley relays the lingo of 'lights out.'
"We're dark," he calls into walkie-talkies that bring his voice to GMPS members positioned throughout the building. One team of investigators sits on the sooty floor of the boiler room basement, another sits in a former Sunday school room on the first floor and another sits amid the wooden pews of the church's worship area.
For 15 minutes, everyone sits in silence, including Griffith, the curator, who takes a seat in the former bell tower entrance.
Then the questions from investigators begin.
"If you are here in this room, can you give us a sign?" asks an investigator in the dark, encouraging any spirit in the room to walk toward an instrument used in their investigations called a K-2, which will change the machine's green light to a different color if an electronic field is sensed.
Cathy Yeakel has been a part of GMPS since the group began three years ago.
"I've always been curious about the other side," says Yeakel, of Glen Burnie, who works for an environmental consulting firm. "For me, I like to be able to rule things out."
Fear cage
McGuinn says earlier readings with an EMF detector (electromagnetic field) "were off the chart" in Griffith's basement office in the fluorescent lights above her desk. Not uncommon in an office setting, he says, but such a reading is indicative of a "fear cage," which can cause one to feel dizzy or nauseous in the workplace.
In the dark office on the night of the investigation, McGuinn places a small flashlight on the ground in the middle of the room.
"You are more than welcome to turn it on," he says, speaking to any spirit that may be listening. "Can you let us know you are here by turning the flashlight on?"
The flashlight remains off.
"Ninety-eight percent of the time this is what it is like, you sit around and nothing happens," McGuinn says, noting most paranormal investigators, including GMPS, set out to debunk theories rather than to prove them.
In the basement boiler room, investigator Lori Bruther is asking questions, too.
"Did you go to Sunday school here?" she asks. "How old are you? Do you feel threatened by having me here? I really would love if you could come toward the green light. We are all your friends."
By 10:30 the teams are ready for a smoke break and to stretch their legs. They file out of the church and talk of investigations of the past in North Carolina, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
"This is one thing you never see on the TV shows, all the down time," says Hartley, the founder of the group.
After the break, Bruther's team sits in the former Sunday school room, but the only activity they hear is the noise coming from Main Street, where the Judge's Bench is hosting a live band and noisy patrons on the sidewalk.
Meanwhile, in the worship area sitting on a pew, Hartley and Caudill attempt to get spirits to communicate with them using divining rods. As they take turns asking questions and holding the metal rods, the rods twist and turn, dimly lit by the portable flashlight that glows green from an earpiece on Hartley's ear.
"I am not moving them, I am just holding the handles," Hartley explains.
"Is it cool? Yes," Caudill adds, referring to using the divining rods. "Is it evidence? No."
By 1 a.m. investigators are ready to call it quits.
By Oct. 1, the hours of footage and digital recordings were reviewed and no paranormal activity was discovered, according to McGuinn.
Nevertheless, Hartley ruled the night a success, ghost or no ghost.
"Everybody did their job and had fun," he said.
That's wild! I just wrote a post about a month or so ago about the most creepy towns I've ever been to with the most "weird" feelings and Ellicott City was near the top of the list!
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