Dream Drives: Ghost Stories At Creeper Gallery
NEW HOPE, Pa. (CBS) - Meisha Johnson heads to a New Hope gallery dedicated to dark and gothic art and history. They say some of it is even haunted.
"I love haunted houses. I love the spooky," Meisha said.
"You're at The Creeper Gallery in New Hope, Pennsylvania," said co-owner Dani Deveroux. "We believe there is beauty in the gothic and dark. We want to share with you our art, our antiques, and our oddities."
Dani and her fellow co-owner, D.L. Marian, are both collectors and creators.
Dani made a still life under an oval glass frame, "like a nature death collage," D.L. said.
"The colors are perfect," Meisha said.
"I just absolutely think it's beautiful," D.L. said.
"It is, actually," Meisha said.
In the middle of the store is an unmistakable visitor. "There is no way you would pass this chair and not see this dog," Meisha said.
"I named him Old Shep!" D.L. said. "He's a vintage. He's an old taxidermy dog that somebody loved."
"How old do you think this dog might be?" Meisha asked.
"I think this is, probably, I would think the '40s or the '30s," D.L. said. "And feel. He's just like he's alive."
The gallery is filled with finds from all over the world.
"Where do you get some of this stuff that's in here?" Meisha asked.
"There's no Walmart for it!" Dani said. "So we're hunting and pecking. We're going far and wide."
D.L. and Dani keep a couple of cabinets filled with objects declared haunted, "the more creepy and the haunted," Meisha said.
There are a Victorian urn still holding a girl's ashes, a written confession of a murderer, and a child's violin.
"Supposedly on the day he died, you could hear a child playing a violin," D.L. said.
"Do you ever get nervous dealing with things that are haunted?" Meisha asked.
"No," D.L. said.
She and Dani believe the ghost of a little girl, Madeline, still lives here, sometimes moving things around. They left her a basket of toys with a warning to visitors -- don't touch.
Meisha called the experience a slice of reality. "It's life and it's death, and it's art and it's history," she said.
Dani agreed. "We really just want to preserve history and share it with people."
The Creeper Gallery is at 7 West Bridge Street, New Hope, Pa 18938. It is open Fridays from 3pm until 8PM, Saturday and Sundays noon until 5PM. It's also open for occasional special events.
