Schifferstadt Architectural Museum

Neighborhood kids play with a boy at this 1756 German Colonial stone house in Frederick. Their parents never see him. Staff think he's three-year-old Christian Brunner, who died of a fever here in the 1700s. The original Brunner family still putters around speaking German, a midwife named Wilhelmina once hugged a staff member in the kitchen where she burned to death, and the Mason Dixon Paranormal Society officially declared the house haunted after a 2008 investigation.

Neighborhood children in Frederick, Maryland, have been playing with a little boy at Schifferstadt for years. Their parents never see him. Staff believe he's Christian Brunner, who was three years old when he died of a fever in the house sometime in the mid-1700s. His small figure has been spotted hiding in the shadows of the attic, watching.

Schifferstadt is one of the oldest surviving structures in Frederick, a stone German Colonial house built in 1756 by Joseph Brunner, who emigrated from Klein Schifferstadt in Germany's Rhineland-Palatinate region near Mannheim. The massive stone walls and small windows suggest it was designed to withstand attack during the French and Indian War. For generations, the Brunner family lived, worked, and died within these walls. By 1972, the building had deteriorated so badly that a gas station company wanted to demolish it. The Frederick County Landmarks Foundation rescued the property with a $60,000 loan from the Maryland Historical Trust and began a careful restoration.

That's when the Brunners woke up.

Staff members started hearing voices speaking in a mix of German and English throughout the house. Footsteps echo through both floors as Joseph and Elias Brunner go about what investigators describe as their "eternal daily routines." They're puttering. Mediums who've visited the house say the Brunners are "happy and content, willing to share their home with the living." The careful restoration pleased them.

But the Brunners aren't alone. A young midwife named Wilhelmina died in the kitchen when her clothing caught fire at the open hearth, a horrifyingly common way to die in an era of long dresses and cooking flames. Her presence is strongest in that room. One staff member was physically hugged by something invisible in the kitchen. The embrace was attributed to Wilhelmina, apparently a grateful spirit.

The first staff reports were just voices when the building was supposed to be empty. Then a door slammed after a docent had checked that every door was secure. She left quickly. The next morning, every door was exactly where she'd left it. Whatever slammed had come from somewhere beyond the physical building.

The Mason Dixon Paranormal Society investigated in 2008 and captured enough evidence to officially declare Schifferstadt haunted. Investigator Michael Varhola documented the findings in "Ghosthunting Maryland."

The museum now offers evening "Spirits" tours that mix the documented evidence with personal accounts from docents and visitors. It's a strange building to walk through. The stone walls are two feet thick. The rooms are dark and low-ceilinged. You can hear why the Brunners felt at home here, because the construction feels like it was meant to keep a family safe for centuries. Joseph Brunner built it to survive wars. His family survived something longer than that. They're still here, speaking German, humming in the hallways, and apparently hugging the staff.