Category: US – Massachusetts

Witch Hill in Danvers is an important part of the Salem Witch Trials. It’s where “spectral evidence” was observed in 1692, and used as evidence against people accused of witchcraft in Salem.

The correct name for the site is Whipple Hill, and it’s a hauntingly wild and lovely location for hiking. Marked trails lead you to the crest of the hill and a beautiful view.

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Note: This article may not be current. There have been reports that Whipple Hill is going to be developed as a commercial property. I hope they’re just idle rumors.

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Park your car at Endicott Park. It’s across a busy street from Witch (Whipple) Hill, and the small parking fee is worthwhile for convenience.

Cross the street and you’ll see the entrance to the trails that cross Witch Hill. The photo, above, was taken near that entrance.

The main trail includes rocks and uneven ground beneath a covering of leaves. You’ll want good hiking shoes and perhaps a walking stick, as well. However, active families (even those with small children) will enjoy this site for a weekend outing. (As usual, watch for poison ivy.)

This is one of two “witch hills” in the Salem area. Gallows Hill in Salem is sometimes called Witch Hill, too.

However, the location of the Danvers site is noted on several historical maps, and I think it’s an overlooked site.

My recent investigations suggest intense activity at Witch Hill, even during the day.  If you have any stories related to that hill, or if you’ve investigated it, please leave a comment or contact me.

Patterns emerge when I study profoundly haunted (or “active”) areas. They help me identify overlooked ghosts and paranormal phenomena.

In my book, The Ghosts of Austin, Texas, I described two major paranormal patterns connecting almost all hauntings in downtown Austin. With that information, ghost hunters can find dozens of unreported and overlooked Austin hauntings to investigate.

In haunted Salem, Massachusetts, different eerie patterns are emerging. I’m calling one of them “The Judges Line.” It seems to be a ley line.

Ley lines are lines or paths that connect sites with unusual energy. They could be major churches or temples, sites of violence and tragedy, or have some other unusual connection.

Some speculate that spiritual energy flows along those paths, and the energy was there even before the church was built or the violence occurred. In fact, that energy may magnify the emotions or affect the thinking of people when they are on or near a ley line.

As I map important sites related to the judicial side of the Salem Witch Trials, those sites closely follow a line. Oddly, that line also indicates where modern-day Salem judges have purchased homes. (The number of judges’ homes on the line is why I’m calling it “The Judges Line.”)

This line extends directly to haunted Gallows Hill Park, the most likely site of the hangings during the Salem Witch Trials.

If you’re looking for paranormal phenomena and eerie ghost stories, investigate sites along this line. Some of Salem’s most dramatic hauntings and fascinating paranormal activity occur within the yellow band on the map below.

Here is my preliminary, hand drawn map:

Here are my notes related to the numbers.

1. Chestnut Street (represented by a black line) – Many modern-day judges and elected officials choose this street for their homes.

2. Judge Corwin’s home, also known as “Witch House” since he condemned so many witches during the Salem Witch Trials. It’s a prominent site in haunted Salem, and the house is open to the public.

3. Judge Hathorne’s home, also associated with the Salem Witch Trials. (Nathaniel Hawthorne changed the spelling of his own name to avoid any association with this ancestor.)

4. Sheriff George Corwin’s home – George Corwin was the son of the judge (#2) and benefited by seizing the property of convicted and admitted witches.

5. The home of Samuel Shattuck, a dyer whose testimony helped convict Bridget Bishop, one of the first Witch Trial victims.

6. The home of Massachusetts Bay Colony’s Governor Simon Bradstreet (1603 – 1697).

7. John Higginson Jr. lived here. He was the local magistrate. The Hawthorne Hotel was later built on this property. It’s one of haunted Salem’s favorite hotels; ask for a haunted room if you’re there to investigate.

8. Jacob Manning, a blacksmith, forged the shackles worn by many Witch Trial victims.

9. Thomas Beadle’s tavern, where Witch Trial inquests were held.

A. The home of Bridget Bishop, a Witch Trial victim who may be among the ghosts at the Lyceum Restaurant, now on that site. The Lyceum is a popular and delightful place to dine, and they’re happy to talk about their famous ghosts.

B. Ann Pudeator, a Witch Trial victim whose specter was seen walking along Salem Common, even before her execution. (I think this may be the location of the haunted Inn on Washington Square.  If it’s not, her house was nearby.)

C. The home of John and Mary English, one of the wealthiest families in Colonial Salem. They were accused but escaped to New York.

D. Alice Parker’s home, owned by John and Mary English. Ms. Parker was accused of witchcraft and put to death.

The slightly triangular area near sites 7 and B represents Salem Common.

Gallows Hill Park is indicated on the far left side of the map. The “Judges Line” — generally indicated in yellow — points directly to it.

Gallows Hill Park features a playground and soccer field, and some disputed history. It’s been the location of many Wiccan and Pagan circles and ritual events. And, it’s near the most likely location of the gallows where the Witch Trial victims were executed.

According to some records, many of the “witches” were also buried there, in shallow and unmarked graves.

The small green areas near sites 6, 7 and 8 represent sites with paranormal activity or they are scenes of violence in the 19th and 20th century… or both. These include the Remember Salem shop, where you can take one of Salem’s best ghost tours with the Salem Night Tour.

To get an idea of how narrow the Judges Line is, in relation to Salem in general, here’s a larger map. The Judges Line is indicated in red.

As I continue my research, I’m finding even more sites that will be represented with red dots. All of them are along the Judges Line.

That is the pattern that I mentioned during the February 28, 2009 show on Darkness Radio. (I was Dave Schrader‘s guest, along with friend and Salem Witch, Christian Day of Hex and the Festival of the Dead.)

In addition, a second pattern has emerged. It’s an odd connection among sites outside of Salem and within the city.  As I applied that pattern to more recent history, I was able to predict where the Boston Strangler killed Evelyn Corbin, even before I confirmed the address with old newspaper records. So, it’s another chilling pattern.

 

Tenney Gatehouse (37 Pleasant Street, Methuen, Massachusetts) and the nearby Greycourt Castle ruins are great, gently-haunted sites.  They’re ideal for first-time ghost hunters.

I compiled the following history from a variety of sources.  I’ve done my best to be accurate, but I only briefly surveyed the history.

The Methuen Historical Society – and the Tenney site, now the Methuen Museum of History – are good resources for additional research.

In this summary, I’ve included story elements and additional notes that could relate to the hauntings at Tenney Gatehouse and Greycourt Castle.

(Note to ghost hunters: This is the kind of research that adds depth to any investigation. It reveals the most likely “hot spots” for on-site research, and can support existing ghost stories.)

History of Tenney Gatehouse and Greycourt Castle

The bedrock beneath Methuen includes Merrimac quartzite.   That could be important.  Sites built on quartz tend to report far more hauntings than those that aren’t.

The land around Tenney Gatehouse (also spelled Tenney Gate House) was originally part of the Pawtucket Plantation. Its boundaries were established in 1640, and the land transferred by Indian deed in 1642.

The Pawtuckets were also called Penacooks and Pentuckets.  50 – 85% of the Methuen Pawtuckets died during the 1617 – 1619 epidemics, and the Indian wars that followed.

Though no known Indian battles were fought in Methuen, events related to the  “Battle of Bloody Brook” in September 1615 (not the 1675 event) may have involved local members of the Agawam nation, fighting off the Tarrantine raiders.

Methuen was first settled in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

The town was named for Paul Methuen, 1st Baron Methuen (21 June 1779 – 14 September 1849) of Corsham Court, Wiltshire, England.   Methuen was a Privy Court friend of Massachusetts’ Royal Governor William Dummer.

The first buildings

A blockhouse was the first reported use of the property later owned by the Tenney family. A blockhouse was a heavy, plank-style house where settlers could gather for protection from fierce weather, roving bands of wild animals, or reported Indian attacks.  The building wasn’t quite as formal as a stockade, but served a similar purpose.

Around 1726, Methuen’s community meetinghouse and parsonage were established near where the Tenney Gatehouse and Greycourt Castle ruins are today.  The site was called Meetinghouse (or Meeting House) Hill.*  The meetinghouse was about 40 feet by 30 feet, with 20-foot posts.

Soon, a burial ground (1728 – 1786) – where all the gravestones point west – and a schoolhouse completed the development.  Much of that land – later part of the Tenney property – was the original center of the village.

There’s reference to a devastating meetinghouse fire in 1796, and a second meetinghouse being dedicated for public service.  That story is worth researching, to see if it parallels the later fires at Greycourt Castle.

The hill was also nicknamed Daddy Frye’s Hill. That name referred to  Frye Tavern owned by Jeremiah and Elizabeth Hall Frye and their six children.  (The Frye family had been in the Methuen area since the mid-1600s, after emigrating from Basingstoke, Hampshire, England.)

Interestingly, a 1916 book, A Handbook of New England, mentions Frye’s Tavern and the Searles estate, with no reference to Tenney Gatehouse or Greycourt Castle.

Frye’s Tavern was probably at the northwest corner of East and Brook Streets.

Also, another Frye Tavern, “provender for man and beast,” was located in Lowell and owned by Ira Frye.

The origins of Tenney Gatehouse

Between August and November 1830, a stone house – later renovated and expanded as the Tenney Gatehouse – was built as a farmhouse by the Richard Whittier family, and it soon became a popular stagecoach stop.

In the 1840 census, Richard Whittier’s household was large, including 2 males ages 10 – 15, one between 20 and 30 years old, and one between 40 and 50.  Females included one between ages 5 and 10, two between 20 and 30, and one between 40 and 50.  (Richard has been noted as the brother of Ebenezer Whittier, part of an extensive family that is famous throughout the area.)

The Whittiers’ neighbors included Major Nathaniel Gorrell (or Gorrill) and his wife, Jane Armour Gorrell.  Two of their descendants, Mark S. Gorrill and Nathaniel W. Gorrill, became part of a later, ghost-related story. (See Tenney ghosts – Gorrill brothers.)

The Tenney Gatehouse – purchase and development

In April 1882, Charles H. Tenney bought the Whittier’s house as a gatehouse and then added the adjoining acreage, then called Jones Hill.

Charles H. Tenney was the youngest son of Methuen grocer John Ferguson Tenney and his wife, Hannah Woodbury, who’d previously lived in Salem, New Hampshire.

Charles H. Tenney had started a manufacturing business in Methuen in 1869, and expanded it to a much larger hatmaking factory in 1872.  At its peak, the business employed about 150 people.

Starting in 1882, Charles H. Tenneys had the gatehouse remodeled and used it as a residence.

In 1883, Charles H. Tenney sold his interest in the Methuen hatmaking business to his brother and business partner, J. Milton Tenney.

(The hat business faltered, and – after selling the factory building to neighbor and friendly rival Edward F. Searles – the Tenney Hat Factory was torn down in 1906.  The site was used for the Selden Worsted Mill. Today, 225 Broadway has been restored as the Espaillat Mills building.  It’s probably worth investigating for ghosts.)

Also in 1883, Charles H. Tenney moved to New York and became a wholesale commission agent, representing most of the U.S. hatmaking business.  His new Methuen estate became the family’s summer home.

In 1884, a stock stable was added to the property, and an 1885 newspaper article describes a “tally-ho” drive to the front entrance.  That stable was remodeled in 1966 at 30 East Street.

In 1887, Tenney renamed his Methuen property Fair View Park, and in 1890, began building Greycourt (or Grey Court) Castle.  The project took three years, and no expense was spared in creating the spectacular estate home.

Later years

By around 1950, the Tenney family had stopped using Greycourt Castle as their home.  In 1951, the estate of Daniel G. Tenney donated 26 acres to Methuen for Tenney High School.  That school, at 75 Pleasant Street, is now Tenney Middle School.

The Tenney estate sold the remaining land, castle ruins and Tenney Gatehouse to the Basilican Salvatorian Order of the Melkite Rite.

For several years, monks lived in the gatehouse, and the Tenney’s former mansion was used as a drug rehabilitation center.  But, by the 1970s, the mansion needed repairs and it was further damaged by a series of fires starting around 1974.  A 1978 fire, set by an arsonist, left the castle in ruins.

In 1985, most of the Greycourt Castle ruins were removed as a safety hazard.  However, the foundation and some of the walls are still part of the site, which are open to the public.

The land owned by Charles H. Tenney, and several locations near it, offer a considerable (and sometimes confusing) history to suggest a wealth of reasons for hauntings.

Today, Tenney Gatehouse is the home of the Methuen Historical Society (Methuen Museum of History)… and several ghosts.

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NEXT READ: An Investigation at Tenney Gate House

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References

Ancestry.com

Early Methuen Histories (was at http://methuen.essexcountyma.net/Early_Methuen_Histories.html )

A Handbook of New England, by Porter Sargent

Historic Sites 225 Broadway – Brown

History of Lowell, by Charles Cowley (2nd revised edition, 1868)

Methuen 2007 Town Report

Methuen History Historical Photos (images not working)

Naming of Methuen (was at http://methuen.essexcountyma.net/Naming_of_Methuen.html )

Tenney Family Association

Treasure of Tenney’s Grey Court Castle

Wikipedia: Paul Methuen, 1st Baron Methuen

*A second Meeting House Hill can cause confusion.  It was located on Forest Street and had some similar buildings to the main Meeting House Hill.  Most notably, the Forest Street site had a cemetery that was vandalized and has since vanished.

Tenney Gatehouse and the Greycourt Castle ruins are among Methuen’s historical treasures… and among that city’s most haunted locations.

Many investigation teams have visited Tenney Gatehouse and documented its ghosts.

The following are my notes from one of my investigations at the house.

Basement

The basement is an odd location.  I don’t sense a lot of history there, though other investigators have reported significant energy.

Mostly, the atmosphere seems to get heavier (or denser) the longer you stay there, as if something is crowding you out. If you’re prone to headaches, especially migraines, stay away from the basement.

Some very hostile energy lingers in one corner of the room where the furnace is.  That’s odd, since I’m fairly sure it’s a recently excavated area. [See the Methuen Historical Society’s page that describes the basement work.]

I also sensed a distraught young woman in a maroon dress.  She’s from the second half of the 19th century.  She has very high, elaborate braids and curls, characteristic of the 1860s and later.  (Her hairstyle reminds me of a Swedish woven loaf of bread, but upright.)

Her skirt is fairly narrow, also suggesting a time from the late 19th century.  She’s pacing and very unhappy, but also seems to enjoy the drama of it, as well as the attention she gets.

There’s also the energy of a little boy, but my “gut feeling” is: this is phantom energy.  I’m not sure that there was actually a tragedy at the staircase where he seems to linger, and I wonder if he’s the created energy of several imaginative researchers.

Whether he’s a real ghost or not, the energy remains there.

Between the amount of running electrical equipment, fuse boxes, and pipes, the basement is unreliable for EMF studies.

Ground floor

In the parlor, the doll and the sofa she was on have been replaced by a lovely organ from Greycourt Castle.  The wooden organ belonged to the Tenneys and not only survived its years when the mansion was a drug rehab center, but it’s also one of the few items to survive the fire as well.

We found a “cold spot” on top of the organ, and a couple of variable cold spots on either side of it.

Because of the organ’s surprising energy, it’s an item to research in more detail, especially in light of the Searles family’s connection with organ making.

Several items in the museum area seem to hold residual energy, in addition to fascinating history.  In light of the history I’ve learned since this investigation, many of the museum’s objects are worth closer study.

In the far room in the museum area, several people saw dramatic dowsing rod activity in one corner.  We also saw baffling EMF meter readings.

(NOTE: I no longer recommend using dowsing rods at haunted sites, except to rule out underground springs and other sources of infrasound.)

At one point, it was as if the EMF meters were dueling; one would beep and flash three times, and then the other would, and so on.

I took a picture while this was going on, and there’s a very faint orb over the EMF meter on the right. As you can see from the light, that EMF meter was signaling when I took the photo.

(I wish I’d taken more photos, showing how the orb bounced back and forth between the meters as they beeped.)

Immediately beneath that floor, a large electrical box emits high levels of EMF.  Though that would explain continuous, high EMF levels, it doesn’t explain the intermittent surges.  (In fact, at one point the EMF meter closest to the floor showed no unusual readings, while another meter — about four feet above it — was surging off the scale.)

Several people felt very strong energy in that area as well, and some thought they were being gently pushed or otherwise in physical contact with a ghost, perhaps a ghostly dog.

However, when researching in areas of high EMF, normal disorientation is possible.  So, we looked in other, low-EMF areas for additional and supporting information about the house’s ghosts.

In another room, a 19th-century dresser holds the residual energy of a grandmother who often laced her corset too tightly, and collected small figurines.  I also detected the energy of two priests around that dresser, but not the priests (or monks) who lived at Tenney Gatehouse.

Upper floor

The upper floor continues to be my favorite.  In one room, both mirrors — but one in particular — seems to have anomalous energy.  It’s worth far more study than I’ve had time for.

That’s the same room where we previously used a K-II meter to communicate with a spirit that wanted the lights turned out.

I did not investigate the room next to it, where refreshments were served to event attendees.

The largest room on that floor had seating for about 30 people, and it was used for “Shack Hack” sessions presented by Chris G., another invited psychic and paranormal researcher.  The Shack Hack indicated several spirits in the room, including two or three men and perhaps one young woman and a little boy.

Turret

The turret room may be the most famous haunted area in Tenney Gatehouse, and it’s also the part of the house that will be restored with the help of the funds raised at this event.

According to legend, but no historical evidence that I know of, a monk hung himself in that room.  The stories say that he continues to haunt that room.

Whether that’s a true tale or not, the energy in the turret area is powerful and almost disorienting.  I look forward to researching it further when it’s more fully restored and I can rule out normal EMF (from electrical wiring) as a factor.

Summary

Tenney Gatehouse (or Gate House) is a light, easy haunting for first-time investigators.

However, due to the large amount of traffic through the house, nothing truly scary is likely to happen during a casual investigation or event.

This site is ideal for in-depth investigations by small teams who’ll focus on specific areas and objects that may reveal far more than they do during a brief walk-through.

Next, see my notes and photos: Investigation – Ghosts at Greycourt Castle ruins

To return to Tenney Gate House for your own investigation – formal or informal – or to participate in another ghost-related event at the site, contact the Methuen Museum of History. (That’s the current name of the Tenney Gate House.)