LIVING HISTORY
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sister, Rose, called in the note, giving the Jones family a week
to get out of the house.
Rose moved in with her older sister, Isabelle. According to
Rose’s obituary, she died at the house in 1954 at the age of 86.
The house became known as the “Boston House” around
the time of Rose Whitney’s residence there. Boston Avenue,
the tiny side street that runs parallel to the Indian River,
might have been the reason for its name, but it is more likely
that the street was named for the house. It may have been
called the Boston House because Rose Whitney hailed from
Massachusetts. Perhaps she didn’t want her home to be
known by the name given it by its previous owners, whom
she had tossed out on the street.
Rose Whitney left assets totaling $115,000, a small fortune
at the time. Boston House was put up for auction after her
death, but it didn’t sell, and its zoning was changed from
residential to commercial.
Local history has the McCarty family, who lived next door,
purchasing the house but never living there. There is a gap
between 1954 and 1975 when the occupants were unknown.
The Dourneys’ research indicates that the house, then zoned
commercial, was sold in 1975 to the engineering firm of Wood,
Beard and Associates, who sold it in turn to Leonard Cottem,
an accountant, and his wife, Diane, in 1976. Rumors that Cottem
held séances there could not be substantiated.
STRANGE EXPERIENCES
In 1983, Cottem sold the house to Kendall Phillips and his
law partners, who planned to use it as offices for their firm.
Phillips and his partners took the renovation on themselves,
and that is when he noticed some odd things taking place.
“The seller, Leonard Cottem, had disclosed to us that he
had witnessed instances of paranormal activity,” says Phillips.
“We bought the house with our eyes wide open. He told
us that the engineers in the firm didn’t like to work on the
third floor after 5 p.m.”
As they were painting and renovating the house, Phillips
noticed that paint and materials they would put away
at night were missing in the morning. Then workers in the
building would notice changes in temperature in the building,
and hear noises whose source they couldn’t determine.
One of Phillips’ partners had an office on the second floor,
accessible only by key.
“He came down one morning and said, ‘Did you go into
my office?’ ” says Phillips. “I told him no. He had put a draft
overlay on a table, and when he returned, it had been rolled
up into a carrying tube.”
Another time, his young daughter watched a word processor
type random letters on a monitor even though it was
turned off. He dismissed that, but as he and his daughter
were leaving the building, another worker came running out
to tell him that the same thing had just happened to her.
SELF-TYPING KEYBOARDS
At one point, a legal assistant got the scare of her life when
her keyboard elevated off the desk and an office plant bent
over. Once, they heard the sound of books crashing to the
floor in one of the upstairs rooms.
Phillips was working in the second-floor office and smelled
a flowery perfume so strong it was overpowering. When he
sought out the source, none of the other workers in the building
were wearing perfume.
Phillips says most of the activity takes place on the second
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