♦♦ Part One ♦♦

(in a two-part series of newspaper articles)

"Medium Night at Antwiques Chapel"

February 14, 2007 | Old Colony Memorial

By Emily Wilcox

MANOMET - You start out small, selling antiques. Add a medium or two and you find yourself face to face with a larger-than-life problem.

What are you going to do with the ghosts?

That's where Trish Machaby is these days. The owner and operator of Antwiques Chapel on State Road in Manomet is not sure what to make of it, but ghost hunters paid a visit to her historic store recently, and they are now in the process of compiling the video. It was a 12-hour shoot out that revealed inexplicable orbs of light that experts say are ghosts.

What are the ghosts doing at Antwiques Chapel? Machaby's not sure. Hey, the ghost guys called her; she didn't go looking for them.

From 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., November 26, the New Hampshire camera crew Machaby refers to as "ghostbusters" filmed at her store, watching and waiting for signs of apparitions, with the use of infrared light.

The notion of ghosts shouldn't really cause surprise, when you consider the age of the building.

While the Massachusetts Historical Commission gives the date of the church's construction as 1865, attorneys who conducted an extensive title search on the property told Machaby the building actually dates to the 1700's.

Old documents state it's the home of the first church in Manomet, built in the 1700's. And old maps show the letters "sch" meaning "school" written in the exact location of The Chapel. In addition, the wooden pegs used to construct the building confirm it couldn't have been built in the 1860's when carpenters were routinely using nails.

School or church, or both, the Antwiques Chapel is charming and old. Ladies filed into the building years ago, hardly daring to breathe in whalebone corsets, and sat beside men decked out in stiff collars, sweating buckets, no doubt, in the summer heat while trying to focus on the preacher's words.

No question, you'd haunt this spot if you were a ghost. It's just so darn pretty inside.

Antwiques Chapel liquidates estates and sells quality second-hand furniture. Local artisans sell their watercolors, stained glass, jewelry, artwork and handbags here. It's a little treasure chest of the past smack dab in the middle of the jarring present.

If you'd like to hear from your own ghosts, visit Antwiques Chapel during it's bi-monthly Medium Night, when area mediums offer $20 readings. The sessions are held from 7 to 9 every other Thursday night. The next is set for February 22. For more information contact Machaby at 508-xxx-6728 or 508-xxx-4460. And stay tuned for the full and in-depth story on the ghostbusters who stopped by in November.**

***Additional Notes***

***{Dawn was one of the featured mediums at The Chapel's "Medium Night". She is also on the crew of the "ghostbusters" who filmed at The Chapel in November of 2006. Dawn's primary job as part of the ghost hunting crew is to be a liaison between the crew and the spirit world.}

{Dawn was also the featured medium on February 22, 2007 at The Chapel. She channeled the energy and information from loved ones who had passed and conveyed this information to the sold out crowd.}