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Dual Location Group Investigation 

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event and ticket information

 November 18, 2022

Investigate the famous and haunted May-Stringer House plus spend an hour at the 1885 Train Depot in Brooksville Florida with Brooksville PIT.

Investigate the haunted May-Stringer House built in 1855 by John May. John May bought the property in 1855 and built a four-room house. He died in 1858. John May’s wife Marena, continued to live there and she ran the plantation. In 1866 Marena married Frank Saxon, a confederate soldier.  Marena died in 1869 during childbirth. 

When Frank Saxon remarried he sold the house to Dr. Sheldon Stringer. Dr. Stringer expanded the house to fourteen rooms and practiced medicine from one of the rooms on the ground floor. 

Three generations of the Stringer family lived in the home before Dr. Earl Hensley and his wife Helen bought the house. They sold it to the Hernando County Historical Museum Assoc. in 1981 to become the May-Stringer House Museum. 

The fourteen room, four-story house has seven gables and gingerbread trim. In some rooms, the ceiling is 10 feet tall. The Museum assoc. has created exhibit rooms with a Victorian Look, and there are rooms devoted to specific themes: A Military Room, an 1880s doctor’s office, and a 1900s communication room.

The 1885 Train Depot. Four forward-thinking business leaders in the tiny town of Brooksville were eager to bring the railroad to their area. They formed the Brooksville Railroad Association and The Brooksville Telegraph Company. They paid $20,000 to The Florida Southern Railroad to lay track twelve miles from the mainline at Croom, to Brooksville. Bonds were sold and the Train Depot built in 1885. The building still stands today. W.S. Hancock and Frank Saxon became officers of the telegraph company. 

 

After the Stock Market Crash in 1929, the railroad business plummeted. The spur to Tooke Lake and Centralia was closed, along with many other little used railroads.

Trucks hauled freight and automobiles took the place of passenger train cars. Railroads fought back with piggyback flat cars that hauled the loaded trucks. Railroads offered special excursion train rides. School groups rode the train from Brooksville to Tampa for day long field trips. The railroad offered vacation packages to South Florida to Brooksville travelers. These efforts were not successful and railroad use continued to decline.

 

By the early 1960s the tracks at the Brooksville depot were gone. The depot was used as an administrative office a few more years before it closed completely.  In 1967 the two big railroads, Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard merged and called the new railroad, Seaboard Coast Line. (SCL) In 1980 another merger of several railroads caused the formation of the CSX railroad, the largest railroad system in the United States.

the hauntings 

The May-Stringer house, now a museum is haunted by multiple spirits. A little girl named Jessie Mae Saxon passed away in the house at the age of 3. A spirit known as James who hung himself on the 4th floor. An angry spirit that's been dubbed Mr Nasty dwells on the 3rd-floor attic. Frank Saxon has been captured in a picture walking the 2nd-floor balcony. Marena Saxon also still walks the 2nd-floor hallways to keep an eye on visitors. Four other unknown spirits have been discovered by the multiple paranormal teams that have investigated the house over the years. 

The Train Depot, now a museum is haunted by three Spirits. One whom we dubbed "The Whistler" haunts the old cook car and whistles while he works. A lady prostitute once solicited sex to the men exiting the Train. A man who is running from a group of people. Later we found that a few years ago that a man was chased down and killed by a group of men in a nearby park. There may be many other Spirits not yet identified.

The investigation

Join us to ghost hunt this historic home and Train Depot. Tickets are very limited so don't delay. The investigation will begin at 10:00 pm and last till 2:00 am. Sometime during the tour, we will split the group up and take half to the Train depot to investigate for one hour. Then the second group will head over to the Depot and the first group will return to the May-Stringer house. After the second group finishes their one hour at the Depot they will return to the May-Stringer house to finish the night there. This opportunity lets a much smaller group have personal time at each location. Investigate side by side with us or go off and perform your very own investigation. We are allowing everyone who attends to use our very own professional paranormal investigating equipment. That's right! If you don't have equipment...we got you covered.

 

Rules

Yeah, yeah... there are a few rules from the Museum Association. Ages 18 and up only. No close up pictures of artifacts is allowed to be taken. No drugs or alcohol! This is a Museum so no touching the artifacts. You may bring your own equipment, but there is to be NO ritual-like activities. No Ouija boards. No walking on the unsafe balcony. You are allowed to bring drinks and snack but it must remain in your vehicle and not brought into the museums. Failure to abide by these simple rules will result in immediate dismissal of the property with no refund. Refunds can be issued if requested before the deadline. The deadline to cancel is three weeks prior to the event, no refund will be given after the deadline.  

cost and payment

The cost of a single admission is Sold Out. This will get you into the May-Stringer House and Train Depot. Tickets are very limited, so when they are sold out that's it. Payments are accepted through PayPal and must be paid for in advance. You will receive an email from Paypal showing proof of payment. Tickets are no longer printed. Once we receive your payment we add you to our list. You will have your emailed receipt from Paypal as proof of purchase. Once you make payment to Paypal we will send you an email letting you know we received payment and added you to our list. Any questions email us at brooksvillepit@gmail.com or call 352-507-8362. Please leave a message if we don't answer and we will contact you as soon as we can. Refunds can be issued if requested before the deadline. The deadline to cancel is three weeks prior to event, no refund will be given after the deadline. 

To purchase a ticket send us a message on Facebook, or a email brooksvillepit@gmail.com and we will send you a private link to pay. Tickets are sold through Paypal.

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