3,000 People Have Joined the Waiting List to Stay Overnight at This Haunted Mansion
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The full story of the S.K. Pierce Mansion is featured in episode 5 of House Beautiful’s new haunted house podcast, Dark House. Listen to the episode here.
Towering over the corner of West Broadway and Union Street in Gardner, Massachusetts, the S.K. Pierce Mansion demands attention. From the outside, with its gray siding and black shutters, the classic Victorian is the perfect archetype of a haunted house. Inside, things are even darker―so dark, in fact, that the couple who owned the home from 2008 to 2015 only lived there for two years before they felt they had no choice but to move out. But unlike most other notoriously haunted homes in the country, the S.K. Pierce Mansion was never the scene of any infamous crime. Rather, it was the dream home of a wealthy businessman and his family that, upon its completion in 1875, very quickly turned into a nightmare.
The mansion, which spans a daunting 6,661 square feet, is named after its original owner, the successful furniture manufacturer Sylvester Knowlton Pierce. Decked out with then state-of-the-art features including gas lighting in every room, a massive Winthrop furnace, and running water throughout, it was a marvel for its time. Pierce spared no expense when building the three-story home, but sadly, he barely had time to enjoy the fruits of his labor before tragedy struck. Just two weeks after moving in, Pierce's wife, Susan, died from a flesh-eating bacterial infection. Unfortunately, she would not be the last Pierce family member to die in the house.
After S.K. Pierce died (at home) in 1888, the house was willed to his second wife, Ellen Pierce, who also eventually died there. The mansion was then left to S.K.'s three sons, who spent years fighting over ownership of the family home and furniture business until the two eldest sons finally moved away. However, gaining control over the Victorian did not result in success or happiness for the youngest son, Edward Pierce. Tragically, his two-year-old daughter, Rachel Pierce, died in the home of a bacterial infection. Later, after the Great Depression depleted the family fortune, Edward and his wife converted the mansion into a boarding house to make ends meet. By 1965, the house was falling apart and Edward was forced to give it away to a friend, transferring ownership outside of the Pierce family for the first time since the house's construction.
The fifth and final person confirmed to have died in the mansion was Eino Sauri, a Gardener resident and World War II veteran who lived there during the years it was a boarding house. In 1963, he burned to death at age 49 in the main bedroom after his mattress mysteriously caught fire. Since then, several visitors and former residents describe having a similar experience in the main bedroom: Just for a second, they're met with the fleeting scent of something burning. The spirits of the late Pierce family members are said to make their presence known, too. There are many stories of a child-like spirit, thought to be Rachel Pierce, playing in the rooms on the third floor. Eerily, though, these five are not the only spirits lingering about the house.
In the two years that Edwin Gonzalez and Lillian Otero lived there (2009-2011), multiple neighbors described seeing a little boy with "yellow hair" running back and forth between their windows, which is decidedly more creepy when you consider the fact that the couple didn't have children. But their own personal experiences in the home were far more terrifying. In addition to disembodied footsteps, slamming doors and objects moving on their own, Edwin and Lillian encountered multiple entities throughout the house, including a shadow figure in the basement, and a dark-haired woman with a creepy smile who may or may not have tried to possess Lillian. Full of horrifying anecdotes like these, their story eventually became the subject of a book, Bones In The Basement by Joni Mayhan. (Spoiler: Yes, there were bones in the basement.)
Shadow figures and possessions aside, it's worth noting that not all of the ghosts at the S.K. Pierce Mansion are dark and menacing. Since the early 2000s, countless psychic mediums and paranormal investigative groups have visited the house, most of them describing the same few spirits each time, including Maddie Cornwall, the young nanny who cared for the Pierce children. It's believed that the mansion was the only place that really felt like home to her, and that her spirit acts as a protector of the house, keeping the other spirits in check and warding off any unwelcome trespassers. But soon the haunted Victorian will open its doors and invite the public in.
The current owners, who bought the home sight unseen in April 2015, plan to open it up for historical tours and overnight stays once they're finished renovating. According to Ken Watson, the home's curator, more than 3,000 people from all over the world have already joined the waiting list to spend the night. So, are you with them?
Curious to learn all the details of the S.K. Pierce Mansion and why it's one of the most haunted homes in the country? Listen to episode 5 of our new podcast, Dark House, for the full story and an exclusive interview with author and psychic medium Joni Mayhan, who shares an update on the hauntings at the mansion, her personal experiences with the ghosts there, and more.
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