RAYTOWN, Mo. –If walls could talk, the Rice-Tremonti Home and Aunt Sophie's Cabin would have a lot to say.
"This house is connected to the westward expansion of the country, the Civil War, the immigration story....it's the story of America," Leigh Elmore, who serves as president for the Friends of the Rice-Tremonti Home Association, said.
According to Elmore, Archibald Rice and his family built the house in 1844 along the Santa Fe Trail. It's the oldest standing frame house in Jackson County.
The house changed hands over the years, from the Lowe family in the early 1900's, to Dr. Louis Tremonti and his wife in the 1930's.
But it's not just history buffs like Elmore who are interested in what the home's walls have to say.
"In our involvement over the past 25 years, we've had interest from a number of paranormal investigators," Elmore explained.
C.R.E.E.P.Z. Ghost Commandos, a group of investigators from KCK, spent some time in the house in 2011. While there, they recorded a video of a small orb of light floating through the basement. In another room, the paranormal investigators believe they heard a child's voice saying "come here."
Elmore told 41 Action News yet another group heard someone speaking Italian inside the house.
"Dr. Tremonti is from Italy, so that's a connection," he laughed and said.
Those who spend a lot of time at the Rice-Tremonti Home say they keep an eye out for the paranormal.
"I do have a habit of looking around in case there is something I might see," Woodrow Murrill, who cares for the grounds, said.
But neither Murrill nor Elmore has heard the home's walls talk- at least not yet.
"Who knows, it could still happen," Elmore said.
You can investigate for yourself by renting the house for an event. That's one of the ways Elmore's all-volunteer group pays for the upkeep of the home.
Friends of the Rice-Tremonti Home Association also hosts annual Fall Soup and Craft Days. That fundraiser be held this Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 4-5 from 11 am. to 4 p.m.
