By Alison Griffin

Tall windows with fastened wooden shutters, pointed roof tops with iron lightning rods and brick upon solid brick make up the powerful and eerie edifice that rests on the hill at 409 W. Main St.

To see it in the daylight does not do the mansion its horrifying justice. At night when the moon shines down and a dense fog hugs the base of the home, it looks like a scene stolen from an old scary movie. The capital "O" that is broken away from the frame of the "MASONIC TEMPLE" sign above the porch adds to its spooky, aged appeal.

While some believe the Masonic Temple, former home of Marvin Kent, is a precious historic landmark, others believe it to be a massive vault of ghosts.

The reason people believe the house is haunted is because of the 1886 death of Kitty Kent, wife of William Kent, Marvin Kent's son.

Marvin Kent, whom the city of Kent was named after, had the home built in the 1880s.

Dana Frazier, a past master of the Masonic Lodge Rockton No. 316, which has been housed in the Kent mansion since 1923, said Kitty Kent was preparing for a Memorial Day party when she climbed the stairs to the ballroom on the third floor to light a kerosene furnace. As she was lighting the furnace, it exploded, engulfing her in flames and eventually leading to her demise three days later.

Frazier said the family was so devastated by the loss of Mrs. Kent they closed the ballroom and avoided the third floor entirely.

So is Mrs. Kent's spirit roaming through the halls?

Frazier said no.

Dave Hill, a senior public relations major and lifetime Kent resident, said he recalls growing up and hearing otherwise.

"I went on a tour of the temple in seventh grade, and I remember a women had died in the house because a furnace blew up in her face," Hill said. "Other kids talked about how the temple was haunted, and when they would walk by in the evening they would see a woman walking by the window. If they got close enough, they could hear crying. We were afraid to go near it at night because of the stories we'd hear."

Mica Campbell, a senior English major, said when she was in junior high she and a friend were walking by the temple, and they thought they saw someone in an upstairs window. Assuming they had just seen a ghost, they ran all the way home.

"Growing up in Kent pretty much meant everyone had heard stories about the Masonic Temple being haunted," Campbell said. "Kids would dare each other to go near it at night."

The rumors of a ghostly woman walking past windows probably date back to World War I, Frazier said.

"A candle would always be lit in a second story window facing the street when soldiers were expected home from war," Frazier said. "The light flickering probably cast shadows, causing people passing by to think they saw someone at the window."

Frazier, who has been a member of the lodge for 17 years, said he has spent the night in the mansion and has never experienced anything abnormal, nor has he heard of any stories of anything strange and unusual occurring.

"I don't believe in ghosts," Frazier said. "Haunting is a feeling people feel when someone they knew or a family member has died, and they treated them badly when they were alive. It doesn't mean a ghost has come back for revenge. They just feel bad for treating someone badly."

Frazier said Mrs. Kent's death was an accident, and had there been hospitals at the time, she might have survived.

Hill does not believe the Masonic Temple to be haunted now that he is a grown man, but he does think there is something fun in being spooked.

"It's fun to conjure up some idea in your head that a place is haunted," Hill said. "People even pay money to get scared."