Louise Mudd Arehart, the youngest granddaughter of Dr. Samuel Mudd, Mudd farmhouse in Bryantown, MD, claims to have had knocks at the door of her home in La Plata, MD, with no one there, and sounds of someone walking up and down the stairs or hallway.

Then she began to catch glimpses of a man wearing black pants and a vest with a white shirt, the sleeves rolled up. One day she realized the man was her grandfather, Dr. Samuel Mudd. She believes he kept visiting her because he was upset by the disrepair of the family home.

Mrs. Arehart persuaded her brother, Joe, who owned the home, to let her restore it and turn the house into a museum. She wrote many letters to congressmen and other elected officials. The home was finally put on the National Register of Historic places in 1974 and was open to the public in 1983.

Until the day she died, she said she had to maintain a busy schedule aimed at completing restoration of the farmhouse because when she slowed down, her grandfather had a habit of coming around and "bothering" her. So, the haunting of Louise Mudd Arehart by her grandfather, Dr. Samuel Mudd, is what prompted the opening of the Dr. Mudd house as a museum.

The Mudd home and Museum are open every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Last tour is 3:30 p.m. The house will close November 23, 2008. We will be open on December 6 and 7 for the 7th Victorian Christmas.

From December 8 to the last weekend of March, 2009 the museum is closed. If you have guests in town during the time they are closed and they are free, they advertise they will give tours. Call 301-274-9358.

Dr. Mudd is buried at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Bryantown, MD.