09-07-2025
2 Girls Were Buried in 'Dollhouse Graves' More than 100 Years Ago. A Paranormal Investigator Recently Visited Both (Exclusive)
Two little girls who lived at the turn of the 20th century were memorialized in similar, special ways
Courtney Eastman, a paranormal investigator and travel blogger, tells PEOPLE why their "dollhouse graves" hold such significance to their communities, more than 100 years later
The locations, just 25 miles apart, tell similar heartbreaking stories about a parent's loveTwo little girls' families memorialized them in a way that's stood the test of time.
Courtney Eastman is a travel blogger and paranormal investigator who travels the United States, checking out different haunted sites. In November, her travels brought her to the Indiana dollhouse graves, two unique memorials to little girls who didn't get to experience life for long. The graves, 25 miles apart, tell the similar, heartbreaking stories of Vivian May Allison and Lova Cline.
"I was out there for an investigation weekend. Whenever I try to go out for investigations, I look for things along the way," Eastman tells PEOPLE.
"A few friends of mine have posted about Lova's dollhouse, so she's on my radar. When I started researching other things around the Indiana State Sanatorium, which is what I was there to see, it led me to Vivian's story."
Vivian was born May 5, 1894, and died at just 5 years old in October 1899. Vivian was the only child of Horace Dean and Carrie Young Allison at the time she was born, though they'd have a second daughter after her death. Vivian was the average little girl when she fell ill. But in days, she succumbed to a cerebral-spinal fever.
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At the time of the girl's death, Vivian's dad, Horace, was working on building a dollhouse he wanted to give her for Christmas. He continued with the project even after she died. Carrie also got involved, decorating the interior of the dollhouse. They brought it to Vivian's grave when it was completed and began filling it with all the things she loved.
Just 25 miles away is Lova Cline's final resting place. Lova was born Sept. 5, 1902, and died in October 1908, after battling a severe neurological disorder her entire life. One of the few things in life that Lova could enjoy was the oversized dollhouse her father built her. Like Vivian's family, Lova's parents moved the dollhouse to her resting place after her death.
"A lot of people didn't know about Vivian. They just knew about Lova, so it's been really cool to share her story," Eastman says. "Some people had the opposite experience, or didn't know the two were close together."
"What really stood out about these graves is that they aren't what you typically see in a cemetery. They're very eye-catching, very unique. They will pull you in even when you're just driving by," Eastman says.
"They both also have these heartbreaking stories that are not only about children losing their lives at such a young age but also the grief a parent goes through. It felt nice to be able to share that with the world," she adds.
Eastman is a lifelong lover of all things paranormal. Growing up in Buffalo, N.Y., she was always checking out local haunts.
"I was always the girl at the sleepover trying to get my friends to play Bloody Mary in the mirror. When I was in high school, the paranormal shows started coming out and I really took to it but it was more or less still taboo," she shares.
"When lockdown happened, I just used the cemeteries around my home. Buffalo, N.Y., is blessed with a lot of haunted locations and abandoned places. During lockdown, I just started going around there to get outside."
Eastman took her enthusiasm for deep-diving into the unusual and combined it with her love of storytelling to create her platform, The Ghoul Guide.
"By that summer I had this idea in mind that wouldn't go away, to put together telling stories I love about all these haunted locations. I gave myself a deadline of Oct. 1, a post on Instagram and then everything has grown from there. It's been a weird, whirlwind adventure.
Eastman's work takes her throughout the East Coast and the Midwest, where she not only blogs about and investigates paranormal locations, but also hosts ghost hunts for others to join in on.
"I travel all around the East Coast and the Midwest. I helped my friends out with a paranormal event company, so we put on ghost hunts for people and they can come hang out with us, investigate with us. We have all the equipment if they want to free roam, they can do that too."
Sharing her finds with her community on social media and beyond has been a joy for her to experience.
"When I first became interested in these things as a child, it was really taboo. Now that it's out in the open and people are talking about it, all I want is to share these stories," she says. "There's so many stories from history that get lost and they shouldn't. I just love being able to continue people's stories and legacies."
"I absolutely love seeing comments from people who have been sharing their stories about going there. People have shared that there are other graves like this throughout the United States, in Alaska, Alabama and Tennessee," Eastman continues.
"It adds not just to what I hope to accomplish in my work but also in bringing people together in appreciating what's been here before us," she shares.
Eastman is grateful to this community for giving her "a safe place for me to discover who I am. Having the chance to build community, especially around this, it just means a lot."
She's also hopeful that if people do any investigating or exploring of paranormal sites on their own, they "remember to be very respectful."
"The dollhouses getting vandalized and broken into has happened over the years," she shares. "They've been around for so long and we want to keep them."
Read the original article on People
