The Legend of Mooney's Mansion

Moon(e)y, Padfoot, and Prongs, Otherwise Known as Mooney's Mansion

By Emma Parrill

When I first heard the story of Mooney's Mansion, I was around fourteen years old. I was driving on Indianola with my sister and my mom and the street sign reading "Walhalla Drive" struck up a conversation. My mom said that she read online about an urban legend surrounding the bridge on Walhalla Drive, saying that if you coast down the road, the murdered children of the man that owned Mooney's Mansion would push you under the bridge and up the hill for fear that you'll end up like they did. And since I love scary stories, I indulged her and said we should turn down that road the next time we drive past, and so we did just that the next night. Nothing happened, but it was creepy.

Recently, I've read more about Mooney's Mansion and I learned the name of it, several other stories surrounding it, and how it's just not true. One I've heard is that Dr. Mooney, who was alive in the 1920s, went crazy with jealousy for his young wife and eventually killed her so she wouldn't cheat on him. Out of guilt, he hung himself on the bridge, and it's said that you can see his ghost hanging from the bridge at night. I read that the residents living there during the time period and just around the area now, have all said that no murder occurred there and no apparitions can be seen.

Whatever the case, I still drive down Walhalla Drive and coast under the bridge in hopes the murdered children will push my car up the hill. Ghost stories are fun, aren't they?


Boo!