Old Photos Have Spooky Connection
by Richard Weizel
The timing of the discovery of a stash of old photos, taken by eccentric brothers David and Stephen Boothe, is said to be rather spooky.
Boothe Memorial Park Homestead
In the Olympics, the golden path to glory is all a matter of timing.
So it was highly coincidental when, just as this year’s Olympic games got under way in China, that a group of teenage volunteer guides at the Boothe Memorial Park homestead stumbled across a stash of old photos taken at Olympics events last century. But it didn’t shock any of them.
After all, strange things, including a haunting, have been reported for decades at the 1820 homestead listed on the National Register of Historic Places, where eccentric brothers David and Stephen Boothe were born and lived their entire lives.
The photos were found in a large, heavy metal safe in what was used as the second-floor office for the Boothes, who deeded their 32-acre historic property and buildings to the town of Stratford for use as a park and museum in 1949.
“It’s almost as though the Boothe brothers reached out from beyond the grave and led us to those photos on the very day, Aug. 8, that the Olympics in China began,” said Bessie Burton, director of volunteers for the Friends of Booth Park.
The date, 8/8/08, was also cited as a lucky day by those with a belief in metaphysics. That prompted a larger number of weddings on the date, while many played that Lotto combination.
“I think it’s kind of magical and fun, and more than coincidental that the girls found them on the date the Olympics began,” Burton said of the photos, which she believes were snapped by Stephen Boothe using a Kodak camera. She had directed the group of volunteers to go through the safe so the contents could be scanned onto computer files along with other Boothe holdings.
Stephen Boothe was a world traveler who took hundreds of photographs during his journeys around the globe.
“The girls were actually talking about the start of the Olympics, and all of a sudden one of the girls screamed out that she found a stack of old photos taken by Stephen Boothe that we had not noticed there before,” Burton said.
Some of the recently found photographs
When examining the photos closely, it became apparent they were of the Olympic Games during the 1930s, perhaps in Los Angeles, since a photo of that city’s coliseum is among those found. One photo appears to show some kind of equestrian event, as horses can be seen jumping over hurdles on the field.
In another photo, Olympic flags of many nations fly overhead.
At first, Burton and the volunteers believed the photos might have been taken at the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany. But on closer inspection, they appear to be of the 1932 Olympics, which were staged in Los Angeles.
“It’s just another one of those spooky things that happens here,” 17-year-old volunteer Jenny Jaekle said, pointing to the photos and the safe where they were found.
“I’ve been a tour guide for five years and we all know this place is haunted,” said Jaekle, who graduated in June from Bunnell High School. “We hear things and some rooms suddenly get cold. It’s both eerie and cool to have come across these photos of a past Olympics taken by Stephen Boothe on the day the current Olympics actually started,” Jaekle said. “But really, in this house, it’s not all that surprising.”
Burton pointed out that the tiny room near the office where the Boothe brothers were born was restored a few years ago to the way it looked when used as a nursery after hauntings were reported when it was being used to display Civil War garb and memorabilia. The room was changed back several years ago after tour guides and visitors say it attracted ghosts, supposedly verified through photos of orbs by paranormal research groups, Burton said.
As local history buffs well know, Stephen and David Boothe were born on the family farm on Main Street Putney, two years apart, in 1867 and 1869, the years following the Civil War.
The brothers who called each other “Johnny,” died a year apart, in 1948 and ‘49.
“To find those photos on the very day the Olympics in China started tells me the Boothe brothers are never very far from home,” Burton said, “even 60 years after their deaths.”
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