HAUNTED TAYLOR
Editor’s note: With Halloween fast approaching, the Taylor Press offers readers a continuing series about ghostly doings in town.
Mirrors reflect light to create images of objects placed before them, but some mirrors are not to be trusted. At Pecan Manor, if you look into a mirror, you may find something unexpected looking back at you.
New owner Jo Anna McGinnis, along with husband Tim, an electrical engineer, purchased the former bed and breakfast in 2021 from longtime owner Janetta McCoy. It wasn’t long before McGinnis began having strange experiences at the stately manor, 819 Hackberry St.
“There is a mirror in one of the bedrooms that I glanced at while cleaning one day, and I saw what I can only describe as a shadowy figure next to me in the reflection,” she said. “There was nobody in the room next to me at the time.”
It wasn’t the only hairraising experience McGinnis would have there.
“I remember when we purchased the property, I would come by frequently to clean the interior and the exterior. One day, I was outside and I looked up at the second floor, and I saw a figure, a shadow, move past the window,” McGinnis said.
Shadows are one thing, but Pecan Manor provides plenty of physical phenomena that are not so easily explained. And once again, mirrors are front and center.
“One day I was downstairs working, and I heard a loud thump,” McGinnis said. “Like something had fallen to the floor. I went upstairs, and I saw the bathroom mirror disconnected from the vanity and laid out on the hallway floor a good 4 feet away. What’s more is that the glass was not even cracked or shattered.”
McGinnis has also experienced strange occurrences in which an antique lamp turns on and off.
She is not alone in her sightings. Her oldest son has had similar experiences, and guests at the Pecan Manor have reported incidents involving mirrors and sheets being pulled off of them while sleeping.
The hauntings were so pronounced that in 2021, former owner McCoy had an overnight investigation performed by the paranormal group Truly Haunted Inc., during which an alleged apparition was captured by a Structured Light Sensor camera.
SLS cameras are said to be able to pick up movement and create corresponding shapes synced to the motion. One such image was captured in the form of a stick figure hovering over a lamp, leaving one to wonder if such an entity could be responsible for the experiences McGinnis has had with her lamp turning on and off.
The Truly Haunted investigative team also captured electronic voice phenomenon, recorded in the attic. One recording is alleged to have captured the words, “Matthew! Go rush him!”
So what makes the lovely house such a rich location for hauntings? The house, just like Taylor itself, is brimming with history.
The structure originally was built in the late 1880s by Daniel Murphy, only to be torn down and rebuilt across the street in 1905 to make room for a new high school. Murphy, an Irish immigrant, and his wife, Hannah, moved to Taylor from Palestine, Texas, around 1875.
Murphy was a key figure in the founding of Taylor, bringing the railroad to the community and establishing many of the local businesses, including a hotel, large ranch and farm holdings, the water company and the Taylor Ice Co.
The Murphys’ daughter, Grace, inherited the house in 1900. Grace married Jim Dellinger, and together they raised three children. “Big Jim” Dellinger was an important figure in the community and became chief of police in 1920, serving until 1956. There is a bullet hole in the side door (facing Ninth Street) and many have speculated that might have had something to do with Dellinger being the target of a hit. He lived in the house until his death in 1969.
Dellinger is believed to have died in one of the downstairs bedrooms. Could he be one of the spirits haunting the building? It is interesting to note the Pecan Manor’s former location, across the street, now the home of Old Taylor High, is also reported to be very haunted. This lends weight to the idea that the land itself is haunted as much as any physical construct.
The Dellinger children eventually sold the home in 1989 to new owners. The property underwent major renovations, leading to a “Community Preservation Award” by the Taylor Conservation and Heritage Society.
The structure had always been occupied as a single-family residence until purchased by McCoy in 2011, who used income created by making it a bed and breakfast to fund its restoration. When McGinnis bought the house in 2021, she continued it as such for a while, but now the house serves as a private residence.
McGinnis said she has always been sensitive to spirits, and she realized that while none at the Pecan Manor seem malicious, something needed to be done if they were to going to get along.
“After some of the experiences my son had, I just decided that I needed to set some ground rules,” she said. “I basically told them that we lived here now. We owned this place, and we were not going anywhere. The experiences have slowed down ever since then.”
