Kim BrattainFounder/ CEO, Kim Brattain Media · Award-winning Corporate and Documentary Film Producer

Appalachian Heritage Museum/Dougherty House

31 Jul 2012 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

2:15

In this brief on‑location report, Dan Pauschin of High Country Press introduces the historic Doherty House, originally built in 1903 by Appalachian State founders B.B. and D.D. Doherty. The house was moved from the university campus to the Mystery Hill attraction in 1989. Local lore describes the house as haunted: staff report curtains mysteriously re‑positioned overnight and a strange light captured in a highway photograph. The blown‑up photo shows what some interpret as the apparitions of Annie Ruptee and her father, a detail only recognized after a later book linked the image to the Doherty family. The segment ends with an invitation for visitors to stop by the Doherty House at Mystery Hill, emphasizing both its rich history and its eerie, unexplained phenomena.

Hey, this is Dan with High Country Press. I'm standing here at the Daughtry House. You can see it from Highway 321 in Boone. It was owned by the founders of Appalachian State, and some people around here think it's haunted. So let's go check it out.
As far as ghost stories, you hear all kinds of ghost stories. Some of our employees always get aggravated because they straighten the curtains up at night and they go home and the next morning they come back and all the curtains are pulled back like somebody's looking at them.
The founders of Appalachian State, B.B. and D.D. Doherty, built the home in 1903. It was moved here to Mystery Hill from campus in 1989.
One of our staff people shot a photograph from the highway. When he shot the photograph, he noticed that there was a strange light came out of this window right here when he shot the photograph.
This is the photograph blown up. Some believe Annie Ruptee is on the left and her father is on the bottom right. It's pretty neat. The interesting thing about the photograph is that the folks at Mystery Hill had no idea what they had captured on film until a book was published some years later with a photograph of the Doherty family. So if you go to Mystery Hill, make sure to stop by the Doherty House. Besides the rich history, you'll never know what you'll find. This is Dan Pauschin reporting for High Country Press.