A couple months ago in March 2 friends and I were at the Whaley House from around 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on a Friday night. I brought with me a tape recorder so I could record and talk as I walked around the house. I would stay in each room for a couple of minutes and move on, then go back and do the same thing over and over. Then after being upstairs for some time, my friends and I decided to go downstairs to the court room. We were the only people downstairs at that time besides 2 of the workers who were upstairs and it was about 7:30 p.m. My two friends sat on one of the benches and talked as I walked around the court room looking at the pictures as I recorded. When I got home that night and listened to the tape, there was nothing really strange until I got near the end of the tape when I was in the court room. I can CLEARLY hear a child crying and screaming and it's as if there's panic in the house. Then I hear a man screaming, "*Someones name here* GET THE NURSE/HEARSE!" I'm not sure which one it is but it's one of the two. I'm thinking it's hearse because the Whaleys didn't have a nurse did they? After that, there's more screaming and then the man yells again, "Can't you hear us?!" It's really kind of scary. I don't remember any kind of screaming when I was in the house at ALL and I know we were the only people downstairs. I also do not think it was someone outside because you can't really hear the outside from the court room and why would someone scream that anyway?
Also, when one of the workers went into the master bedroom to move stuff around to see if Dolly the family dog was there, my two friends saw her jump up and then go under the table. I was too busy trying to look under the bed so I missed her!
Just wanted to comment that Dolly has been seen many times. One of the earliest sightings in modern memory was by the original site curator, Mrs June Reading. This occurred shortly before the house was first open to the public in the 1960s as I recall.
June was adamant that the dog was quite real and even chased it through the house, so sure was she that an actual dog had somehow found its way inside. She had this experience on multiple occasions throughout the decades she spent at Whaley House.
With reards to the recording, I would be very careful. Clearly no one heard the voice at the time. If it is of high quality and anyone can hear the words without prompting or processing the recording, then you might have something interesting. However, if the sound is buried in the noise and hard to hear, it really is anyone's guess what you are actually hearing. Either way you have a nice artifact of your visit which may be in some ways unique.
