Bigelow-Helms Mansion

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This home dates to the early 1900s and is known as the “Bigelow-Helms Mansion”, though lately it is used as office space for various businesses.

People often claimed they heard screams and yelling from the building at odd hours of the night, and in general just got really weird vibes from the place.

If you've had a paranormal experience here, or have any additional information about this location, please let us know!



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Geographic Information

Address:
NW corner of Bayshore and Gandy
Tampa, FL
United States

Get Directions »
GPS:
27.8935371, -82.48714589999997
County:
Hillsborough County, Florida
Nearest Towns:
Tampa, FL (4.1 mi.)
Palm River-Clair Mel, FL (6.9 mi.)
Gibsonton, FL (7.0 mi.)
Citrus Park, FL (7.1 mi.)
Progress Village, FL (7.5 mi.)
Gandy, FL (8.1 mi.)
Egypt Lake-Leto, FL (8.7 mi.)
East Lake-Orient Park, FL (9.0 mi.)
Apollo Beach, FL (9.6 mi.)
Town 'n' Country, FL (9.8 mi.)

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Comments (8)

  1. Back in the day, circa 1988, this mansion was under construction, as they restored it to its former glory. On Halloween night, my boyfriend and I went by on our way back from Guavaween to check it out. There was scaffolding from the steep staircase to the upper floor. We walked around the sides of the building and then up the stairs. I told my boyfriend I wanted to go in and look around; he was behind me, and all of a sudden, I felt his hand on my shoulder, pulling me back. I asked him what he was doing, and he said I was about to walk forward, where there was no floor. I surely would have sustained some serious injuries on that fall. For reasons I can’t explain, I had stopped my forward movement and felt like I spaced out. Not sure what happened there (we had not been drinking, btw), but I always felt that some unseen entity or force stopped me from falling to certain injury. As the place used to be a hospital, it is quite possible.

    • Kimberly Switzer  |  

      I remember in High school as a date to go into this home in 1981 a group of us us went in and it was so dark and scary! There was a pull string light switch that all of us turned on and it kept flickering on and off! We all separated and went through the house very creepy! But myself and my friend Todd decided to go into the basement and found a room with old crank hospital beds and what appeared to be like morgue drawers! I got scared and screamed! Todd had the flashlight and ran like hell shut the door that had a glass window looking through he thought it was funny holding the door closed as I screamed to let me out! I watched him run up the stairs as I giggled the door handle and pushed and prod to get myself out of there! I was locked in so frightening! The door was swelled shut! Crying terrified finally got through the door ran upstairs and the cops were there! Thank God! We all got in trouble for breaking in! But never want to experience that again!

  2. In mid 1970 I went to a garahe sale at the massion and purchased a 16X20 charcoal portrait of a young African American girl. The person holding the sale told me that they were cleaning the house out. They also told me that the portrait was that of a servant of the original owners and that the former owner was a sea captain. I have had this for 46 years. Unfortunately the frame that came with it had termites, but i still have a picture of the frame and the original portrait. It is dated March 18 1905. After 46 years, I have been wanting to return it to its original home. I am not sure how to do that. I am ageing and it would be nice to see her appreciated by others.

  3. In the mid to late 80’s, it was definitely a “thing” to go to the Bigelow house to test your mettle. I’d been there several times, never actually making it into the house itself. At the time, there was this really strange….I don’t know….human figure statue in the back yard. It was up on some kind of scaffold or something. It definitely had a creepy vibe to it. I had pictures of it at one time, but they’ve disappeared over the years.

    • Doreen Davidson  |  

      I remember that creepy statue on the scaffold too! We went in there a couple times in the early 80s , it was walking distance from my house. Definitely some negative energy there.

  4. I went here a few times, back in the mid to late 80s. It was abandoned and part of the second floor was gone. One if the rooms had blood stains and a professionally painted pentagram on the floor. It used to be set back farther from the road, but during construction they brought it forward, closer to the street.

    • The pentagram, candles, chains, blood soaked mattress and smeared walls along with other occult symbolism found throughout the house was from a satanic group called the Temple of Set. They set up shop here in Tampa for a short period of time. The used the house as a gathering place and for rituals. Tampa police were brought in to investigate the situation. Channel 13 News was to run a story but was canceled because the owners threatened to file suite if the segment aired. I know this because I called them when the segment didn’t air after they ran commercials for it.

  5. This building dates well before the 1900’s, there’s a historical marker in the median between the north and South bound lanes. It tells of a civil war battle between a union ship and a Confederate shore artillery battery. After the battle the wounded soldiers were taken to that building for treatment, it was in fact a hospital. My great-great grandfather was one of 4 doctor’s in Tampa at the time.

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