This column originally appeared in May 2010.
The House of Blue Lights is one of the famous ghost stories in the annals of Indiana paranormal history, although it’s really more of an “Urban Legend” than a ghost story. In the legend and lore of Indianapolis, few names evoke such vivid images of mystery and intrigue as the House of Blue Lights. The house was located at 6828 Fall Creek Road just west of Shadeland Avenue on the cities’ northeast side. Formerly the spacious hilltop estate of Indianapolis multi-millionaire philanthropist Skiles Edward Test, it is now a nature preserve named in his honor that features over two miles of walking trails within the wooded hills and dales of Indy’s northside.
Skiles Test lived on the property from 1913 until his death on March 19, 1964 at the age of 74. During Mr. Test’s lifetime the property was made up of over one mile of rolling green hills and picturesque valleys including a dairy farm, several fields of planted crops, vegetable and flower gardens, pastures full of grazing farm animals, innumerable out buildings including a horse barn, storage sheds and working gasoline pumps required to operate the large fleet of farm equipment. The farm’s general boundaries went from 56th Street to 75th Street and from Hillcrest Country Club on Fall Creek Road to Hague Road, and included two complete power plants and its own working water system. From its main entrance on 65th Street, it was possible to observe dozens of farm trucks and tractors steadily lined up at the four gasoline pumps. The home and outbuildings were razed in 1978 and the large property was donated by Test to the Lawrence Township School District and is now the site of Skiles Test Elementary School and adjoining nature preserve.
Garry Ledbetter and his lovely wife Kathy met me at the park on his birthday (May 2nd) and graciously walked me around the spacious property on a personal tour of the storied site. You will find no better, more knowledgeable tour guide for the House of Blue Lights than Mr. Ledbetter. After all, he grew up on the property from 1955 to 1964, the year Skiles Test died. Garry’s father, John, was a foreman on the property and Garry worked alongside him for many years on the farm. “We raised dairy cattle, pigs, and crops on the farm. The employees lived in tenant houses scattered around the property.” says Garry “We also cared for over 150 cats and 6 or 7 St. Bernards.”
Garry lead our little group (now joined by avid hiker, Robert Craig) up a fairly steep rise of the winding path that was once the front entrance road to the legendary house. As we crested the rise to an area peppered with concrete remnants fused to the earthen clearing, Garry pointed to the surrounding woods and stated, “The house stood here, the garage was over there, the swimming pool was located behind the house, the cat pens were across the path and the pet cemetery was behind the pool.” Wait, the pet cemetery? Garry recalled how each cat was buried in a special custom-made box and each had a personalized headstone, “Well, at least the cats that had names because many of the kittens and cats were strays,” he added.
For most, it’s hard to sort out fact from fiction when it comes to the “House of Blue Lights,” but Garry is probably your best bet. He smiles whenever the stories of ghosts and spirits on the property are brought up and hesitates to burst any bubbles about the legends when he relays the facts. Legend: “the eccentric Mr. Test kept his first wife’s embalmed body in a glass casket surrounded by blue lights (her favorite color) in the home’s living room and her body was visible through a large picture window on the estate.” The truth, according to Garry: “Mr. Test’s wives (he had two) and all of his many girlfriends (he had three at the time of his death) all outlived him.” The blue tint came from the illumination of blue Christmas lights strung around the house and the blue chemicals that Garry helped put into the pool every day. Garry’s wife Kathy pointed out that the pool was surrounded with white marble, which may have enhanced the blue reflection, and that several of the pieces of marble can still be found strewn across the property to this day.
For a couple generations, it was considered a rite of passage for Circle City youth to sneak into the estate at night to try and catch a glimpse of the corpse without being discovered. It was alleged that Mr. Test thought blue lights attracted spirits of the dead. Test tolerated the trespassing and vandalism on his property until 1950 when he constructed a tall fence around his property, which only had the result of increasing vandalism, evidently adding fuel to the strange rumors and stories surrounding the property. Garry pointed out sections of the fence that still encircle the property to this day but states that in time, the curiosity seekers forced the closing of the front entrance.
“It got so bad and Mr. Test was so afraid of these trespassers that for the last few years of his life he would spend the night in an apartment in the Test building downtown and come back each day to tend to the estate and care for the animals,” said Garry. “Or with his girlfriends,” Kathy wryly stated. The added security and nocturnal absence of Mr. Test only succeeded in fueling the wild rumors swirling around the place.
These curious rumors fostered dozens of explanations for why this poor woman’s body was kept and displayed by Mr. Test, including: that she was afraid of being buried in the ground, it was her dying wish, Skiles loved to sit for hours and look at her, Skiles could not bear to part with her, she was too beautiful to be put in the ground, and that Skiles was too lonely to bury her. There are as many versions of exactly where her body was displayed as well, including in the tower room, living room, sun room, and the green house. Some versions claimed that her body was protected by trained killer Doberman pinschers, the fence was studded with sharp nails and the caretakers were crazy, armed and moved about the property through hidden tunnels. Garry did confirm that the property had tunnels but describes them as utility tunnels used to service the machinery required to run the house, pool and property.
Mr. Ledbetter was quick to point out that Skiles Test was an engineer by profession and recalls seeing many of Mr. Test’s innovative inventions around the property including the first ever bug zapper designed by Test and futuristic solar heating system for the Olympic sized pool that was the focal point of the property. Robert Craig added that remnants of the pool can still be found on the property in the form of massive chunks of concrete and various sized pipes and tubes extruding from the hillsides near the walking trails. Mr. Craig added that “Sadly there are many large piles of garbage that appear to be decades old, dumped about the property evidently before it was turned into a park.”
Garry Ledbetter described the pool as massive with its own high dive board and the house as unique. His only regret from the time he resided here is: “Had I known it would become so popular, I’d have taken more photos.” He continued, “It’s a shame that they bulldozed the place because it would have made a great tourist attraction today.”
In May of 1964, two months after Mr. Test’s death, the contents of the estate, including many of his personal possessions, were sold at public auction. The three day auction was held on the property and drew huge crowds of bidders and curiosity seekers from all over the state. The news of the eccentric personal collectibles and the macabre “Blue Lights” rumors undoubtedly fueled the public’s interest. Media estimates claimed that the auction drew over 50,000 people and backed up traffic on the roads in the area for miles. Most of these visitors were seeking a macabre souvenir from the advertised sale that included pet coffins, cases of dog food, blank pet gravestones and other unusual miscellaneous items and personal knick-knacks — including over 300 bottles of aspirin and 150 kegs of nails. All of this succeeded in contributing to the Skiles Test/House of Blue Lights legend.
Garry maintains a cordial relationship with Skiles Test’s only daughter, Louellen, who now lives in California and recalls walking the old property with her last year when she came to town for the Indy 500. They shared memories and exchanged photos about her father and former home during the visit. Many of these photos are on display on Garry’s Web site dedicated to the property at www.houseofbluelights.com. Kathy and Garry have created a Facebook fan page for the House of Blue Lights/Skiles Test Nature Park where anyone can add photos and share stories about the legend.
Garry is looking for photos, stories, memories and reminiscences of the “House of Blue Lights” from anyone who can remember spending time on the property while it was still around. If you have any to share, please contact him via the Web site above. He uses these stories; not only for his Web site, but also for the free tours he conducts of the property. When I apologized for taking up his birthday with my questions for this article, his wife Kathy chimed in, “Oh, this is exactly what he’d want to be doing on his birthday.”
Al Hunter is the co-author of the “Haunted Irvington” book series and host of the “Bumps in the night” talks held at Bookmamas in Irvington on the 3rd Saturday of every month. Contact directly at Huntvault@aol.com , visit him at the Irvington Ghost tour headquarters inside Lazy Daze in Irvington or become a friend on Facebook.