February 19, 2025 • 31 mins
The Oliver House, dating back to 1769, stands as one of Massachusetts' most famously haunted locations. But have they created their own ghost?
Recorded LIVE at Strange Escapes Waverly Hills!
Special Guest: Richard Estep
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky listener Discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What If You Could make a ghost? In nineteen seventy two,
an experiment conducted by a Toronto based parapsychological association led
by mathematical geneticist doctor A. R. Owen and overseen by
psychologist doctor Joel Whitten, attempted to determine if that was
indeed possible. The test group consisted of folks like the
(00:33):
former chairperson of Menza, a few engineers, a sociology student,
an accountant, and a bookkeeper. Together, the group invented a
fictional character named Philip Aylesford. His made up background included
being described as a seventeenth century English aristocrat who lived
during the reign of Oliver Cromwell. His story included a
(00:56):
tragic love affair, an unjust execution of his beloved, and
his eventual suicide. The participants, who were aware that Philip
was a creation of their imagination, conducted regular seance type sessions.
They attempted to communicate with Philip. Through these sessions, reciting
his history over and over over time. Various phenomenas such
(01:18):
as raps and knocks in response to questions, and movements
of the table were interpreted as Philip's presence and interaction,
despite knowing he was not real. The experiment suggested that
a group's collective belief and focused intent could induce intelligent,
interactive paranormal activity, which raised the question could paranormal phenomena
(01:42):
be attributed to psychological or unconscious processes rather than well ghosts.
I'm Amy Brunei and this is Haunted Road. On Plymouth
Street in Middleborough, Massachusetts. A Georgian style two story house
(02:06):
sits behind a wide lawn. It's surrounded by leafy trees
and green grass, with some distance between the front door
and the street. This house, known as the Oliver House,
has a row of four windows framing the first floor entrance,
which sits between two white columns. Five more windows dot
the top floor. The yellow walls and black and white
(02:28):
shutters and trim give it a classic homey look. It's
easy to imagine people gathering here for a tea party
in the colonial era. Similar period details mark the inside
of the house, which has historically accurate furniture, separate parlors
for men and women, and numerous bedrooms for the house's owners, children, governesses,
(02:48):
and enslaved people. The floors are made of wood, as
are the doors and some molding. According to a twenty
fourteen assessment by McKinley, Castlow and Associates, Inc. The home
has a private life iibar and multiple fireplaces that end
in two brick chimneys. The kitchen and carriage house are
comparatively newer than the rest of the structure. These additions
(03:09):
were put up sometime around the early eighteen hundreds. The
Oliver House sits on a fifty four acre estate about
a mile from downtown Middleborough. As if it wasn't obvious
from all the descriptions I already gave, this town was
founded in the mid sixteen hundreds as a British colony,
but its dark history goes much further back than that.
(03:30):
Before European colonists derived in Massachusetts, the Wampanogue people lived there. However,
in the early seventeenth century, a deadly epidemic swept through
the region. The indigenous people called it the Great Dying,
which speaks to how many lives were lost to the disease.
The Wampanoge people who survived the outbreak remained in the
(03:51):
region that could later become Middleborough, but it was an
influx of European settlers who helped make the area flourish financially.
A lot of men manufacturing facilities sprouted up in town,
particularly for shoemakers, and today Middleborough is the home to
the Ocean Spray Cranberry's headquarters. The Oliver House was built
(04:11):
in seventeen sixty nine for an engaged couple named Peter
Oliver Junior and Sally Hutchinson. It was dubbed the Small
Oliver House to differentiate it from another larger and more
impressive building that sat nearby, Oliver Hall. According to rumor,
both of these were built not too far from a
hill that had once been a Wampanog burial ground. Peter
(04:33):
and Sally were married right around the time that the
house was completed. Their wedding was a massive society affair,
drawing guests from all over the world, which is unsurprising
given that both came from wealthy and powerful families. Sally's
father was the Governor of Massachusetts, while Peter's father sat
on the Supreme Court. Given their political ties, it was
(04:54):
only a matter of time before Peter and Sally would
find themselves caught up in a brewing revolt. See. In
seventeen seventy three, Benjamin Franklin visited the Oliver House. Officially,
he was there as the guest of honor at a
party that had been thrown for him, but it's believed
that the Olivers and their friends, all of whom were
loyal to the British, were trying to halt the coming
(05:17):
American Revolution in its tracks. Franklin was a very influential figure,
and the Crown's loyalists may have hoped that if they
could recruit him to their side, the whole rebellion would
fall apart without him. Instead, this visit may have only
heightened the tension between the revolutionaries and those who supported
British rule. According to rumor, while Franklin was at the
(05:39):
Oliver House, he somehow got his hands on some letters
that had been exchanged between Sally's father, Governor Hutchinson, and
her husband Peter. In them, they discussed calling on the
British army to violently put down the revolution before it
could go any further. Some people believe Franklin found these
letters while he was digging around in sally closet. Others
(06:01):
say an unidentified chambermaid gave them to him, but most
historians think Franklin received these letters several months before he
ever set foot in the Oliver House. However, he got them.
Franklin passed the letters along to future US President John Adams,
who published them in the Boston Gazette. This only outraged
(06:21):
the general public and pushed the colonists one step closer
to war. In seventeen seventy four, during the fallout from
the so called Hutchinson Letters affair, Sally's brother was run
out of town and her father, the governor, fled the country.
That same year, Peter's father was impeached and lost his
position as a judge. It became a frequent occurrence for
(06:44):
angry mobs to gather outside the Oliver House, threatening Peter, Sally,
and their three children. Eventually, the whole family escaped to Boston,
and from there they sailed to England. They got away
just in time. During the Revolutionary they wore Oliver Hall,
that larger, more impressive home that led to the Oliver
House's nickname as the Small Oliver House, burned to the ground.
(07:08):
Although the small and now only Oliver House survived. At
one point, revolutionaries seized it and auctioned it off to
raise funds for the war effort. After passing from owner
to owner in the early eighteen hundreds, the house was
home to a couple named Thomas and Abigail Sadly, they
lost many children during their time there, and only two
(07:29):
survived to adulthood. Their daughter, Bethania sprote inherited the house
after her father's death, only for tragedy to befall her
family as well. In eighteen forty one, her two year
old daughter Abby died after a kettle filled with boiling
water fell on her. Months later, Bethania lost her unborn
child in a miscarriage. Then three years after that, in
(07:52):
eighteen forty four, another of her children died young. This
time it was pneumonia that claimed his life. Bethania's husband, Earle,
was stricken with tuberculosis in eighteen sixty four. He grew sicker,
and once it was clear that the end was near,
a local reverend named mister Putnam reportedly came to visit him.
(08:12):
An article called The Peter Oliver House by Michael J.
Madigan says that Putnam wanted Earle to make his peace
with God before he passed away. But as the story goes,
Earle didn't want the reverend's help. According to Madigan, Earle said,
in all my business relations in life, I never have
traded much with the middleman. I have always bought my
(08:33):
goods at wholesale. It now looks as though I shall
see the Lord before you will, and I can no
doubt patch it up a good deal better than when
I get there and see him, then I can with you.
According to the story, the reverend had nothing to say
to that, He silently left the room, and Earle passed
away a short while later. His death came in the
(08:53):
midst of another national conflict, and just as the Oliver
House had played a key role during the Revolutionary War,
It's rumored that before or during the Civil War, it
was a stop on the underground railroad. Supposedly, enslaved people
who were fleeing from Southern States could hide from the
authorities in a hidden chamber just behind the first floor fireplace,
(09:14):
and when they were ready to move on to the
next stop, they could leave the house unseen, using an
underground tunnel that connected the cellar to the local Namasket River.
It's worth noting that while the hideaway behind the fireplace
is real, there's no evidence that it was ever used
to shelter formerly enslaved people, and if that underground tunnel
ever existed, all signs of it have disappeared by today.
(09:37):
As for the residents, they sold the house in eighteen
ninety three. The home sold again in nineteen forty five,
and the new buyer was a man named Peter Oliver.
It was no mistake that he shared a name with
the man who originally built and lived in the house.
This Peter Oliver was a distant relative of the initial
Peter Oliver. The twentieth century, Peter restored the house to
(09:58):
its original state for the most part. He made some improvements,
including adding electricity, indoor plumbing, and perhaps most importantly, bathrooms.
In twenty fifteen, the house was in a much more
livable state when it was sold to the City of Middleborough.
This was part of a preservation effort not only to
save the historic house, but also to protect the woodlands
(10:21):
around the property and all the plants and animals that
lived there. Today, the house operates as a historical museum.
It's open for public tours, including ghost tours. It's unsurprising
that with so many lives lost within its walls, the
Oliver House is haunted, and visitors generally agree that the
spirits there are mostly friendly. They reportedly make their presence
(10:44):
known by moving items around, and on at least one occasion,
a painting fell off of a wall, as if some
invisible force had knocked it down. There is also video
evidence that shows a bar across a door in the
kitchen seemingly moving on its own, and mysterious photographs are abundant.
At different times, people captured pictures of faces peering out
(11:05):
windows or of an entity that has been dubbed Zombie Boy.
The nickname comes from his grayskin and visible injuries all
over his face. There are a lot of theories about
Zombie Boy's origins, including that he may have died in
a car accident and that his spirit somehow became trapped
in the house afterward. That last idea came from ghost
(11:26):
tour manager Christy Parrish, who gave an interview to the
Ghost Hunting in New England podcast. Famously, on an episode
of a little show called Kindred Spirits, Adam and I
discussed that zombie Boy could be a manifestation of so
many staff and investigators referring to him and giving him
(11:47):
an identity that included a horribly scarred face, drawing on
the Philip experiment. Through an evening of seance like interactions,
we gave Zombie Boy additional fictional attributes, including that his
father was a Civil War hero and the entire town
had a parade for him when he died, and that
Zombie Boy perished after falling from a horse, and, in
(12:08):
a personal homage to one of my favorite movies, Practical Magic,
that he had one green eye and one blue. Shortly after,
we received evidence including EVPs, communicating these attributes. Additionally, Psychic
Chip Coffee from hundreds of miles away called to tell
us he was picking up on a spirit with a
heavy Civil War connection. Visitors often say they feel as
(12:30):
though they're being watched when they're in the home, and
they may spot shadow figures in the basement or hear
footsteps in areas where they don't seem to be any
people around. Like in many other haunted locations, fully charged
electrical devices tend to lose all of their power much
more rapidly than they should. At the Oliver House, one
interesting story came from a tour guide who was taking
(12:52):
some visitors around the Oliver House when he spotted a
woman in an eighteenth century dress. At first, this didn't
strike him is particularly odd. Many of the people who
volunteered on site wore period costumes, so his initial thought
was that she was there to work. But then the
tour guide noticed that something was off about this woman's appearance. Specifically,
(13:14):
according to an article with the impact called Secrets of
the Oliver House, this eighteenth century woman had unnaturally large eyes.
They didn't even look human. While the tour guide stared
at the woman in shock, she put a finger to
her lips, the way you do when you're shushing someone. Then,
without another word, she walked backward, passing right through the
(13:34):
wall behind her. Visitors sometimes feel as though a young
child is grabbing their hand, but when they glance down,
there's no children nearby. On one occasion, a young girl
went on a tour of the home only to announce
to all the adults that she was having a great
time playing with the little boy she was with. The
Only problem, none of the grown ups had a boy
with them, and no one could see the girl's companion.
(13:58):
Some people believe these childish ghosts or some of the
sprote children who died in the house. Of course, it's
always hard to identify the spirits in any haunted location,
but the Oliver House is unique, as some people believe
they've identified one clear feature that could explain how it
came to be so active. The house is in the
Bridgewater Triangle. According to cryptozoologist Lauren Coleman, this is a
(14:21):
small strip of land in Massachusetts where UFO sightings, encounters
with strange creatures, and other paranormal activities are extremely common.
All to say that from a certain perspective, the Oliver
House isn't that unique. It's one of many active hotbeds
in the region. But just because there are countless unexplained
incidents in the triangle, that doesn't make the spectral figures
(14:42):
at the Oliver House any less important and their stories
aren't any less meaningful. That's why today I am talking
to Adam Barry and Richard Estep. Richard has spent a
considerable amount of time researching and investigating the home, as
has mister Barry, so welcome back to the program Richard
and Adam Berry. Well, hello there, guys, we welcome back.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Welcome to Haunted Road.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
We're gonna going to have to share the two microphones
and three of us. I'm going to say, are you
going to let Richard talk to that? I'm going to
put my back to him.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Listeners, I'm gonna put my back to him and he
can just speak over my shoulder like this.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Imagine this a rebellious colonial.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
See there it is.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
I look at that. It is only fitting right. So
the Oliver House is a very interesting haunt to me.
I've only investigated it the one time that we were
there with Kindred, but we were there for three nights,
so I've had quite a bit of time there. Let's
start with Richard really quick. Richard, what is your history
with the Oliver House in particular?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
I'm not gonna hold it for you though, I'm not
gonna you take it from me here, thank you, Adam.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
My history is that it's an ongoing book project I'm
working on with doctor Joe mcgoggan, and I was given
the opportunity to go stay in that region and investigate
the Oliver House for the course of several days and nights,
and we'll do return visits trying to delve into its mysteries.
You guys know this better than anyone. That place is
like peeling back the lairs of an onion, and just
(16:33):
when you think you have a part of the story down,
you realize there's a whole other level beneath it to uncover.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Right exactly, I mean, there's it's a multifaceted hunt. I
would say a lot of people don't know this, but
Adam Barry actually went hunting for puck quadgies while we
were there.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
I did. I think I was forced to.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
No, I didn't go. I was seated inside the nice,
cool house.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Well, I think the reason why we decided to do
that is we cover our bases on every case. So, yes,
we were dealing with what we thought might be in Agrigor.
But also, you know, if you ever get a chance
to go look for a puck wedgie, don't do it.
But I did because I wanted to see if it
(17:22):
played into the investigation at all. Because the grounds are significant.
They talk about activity that happens on the grounds, They're
pretty widespread, they're large. So I FaceTime with Greg Newkirk,
our friend Greg Newkirk, and I said, so, if if
one were to go look for puck wedgies, what should
What should one do? And he said I wouldn't. He says,
(17:47):
but if you have to, which you do, leave an
offering of some kind, some sort of like fruit nuts, honey,
something to show that you mean well. And I was like, okay.
So I got some fruit nuts and honey and we
went out into the woods and I remember feeling, you know, uneasy,
(18:09):
because you're in the woods at night, and I'm thinking,
I'm going to get attacked by an animal. I don't
know what it's going to be. And I bent down
and I put out the strawberries and the honey and
I drizzled it over. You know, some aunt's going to
love this, but I put it out and I'm sitting
there and you know, I know I'm older than I
used to be, but I did that thing where I
(18:33):
was standing up and I wasn't doing anything crazy, and
I felt like I had gotten stabbed, like in my back,
and you guys are going to be like, it's his sciatica.
But it was very strange and I didn't know what
it was, and I was like, oh God, what was that.
And then it got really weird and the camera ops
(18:53):
were like, you know, Andy was standing there and we
were all like trying to film and I was like,
turn off the lights, turn off the lanterns, and he's like,
I'm not gonna be able to see if we turned
I was like, turn him off, and he turned him off,
and you could hear something sort of shuffling around us.
Now it could have been a bear, but not really.
(19:13):
It was not there, not there, but it just seemed
really weird. It seemed very strange, and everyone in that
space was like, something is weird, something is off, and I,
you know, I didn't actually I wasn't looking. I wasn't
saying please, Puck Wedgy come play with me or come
hang out. Don't think they'd play like Grimlins or something.
I was like, don't do that. But uh, I just
(19:33):
said I'm here to offer it just in case you're here,
you know. And I left it at that, and I
felt like maybe they attacked me. I got attacked by
a Puckway your hurting for a while. It was it
was weird. Oh and and what else happened? Isn't that
the case where other things got happened? Like things got
canceled for our crew, like somebody or that different or
(19:56):
will we curse a different time?
Speaker 2 (19:58):
I don't know there was an other case or of
your curse for everyone was But Richard, what do you
think of the Bridgewater Triangle connection there?
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Well, I will say to Adam's a braver man than
I am, because I'm often asked have you ever fled
from a location in fear? And the Oliver House I
can reveal is the only place I have because, like Adam,
though for different reasons, we did go out into the
ground surrounding the Oliver House. And anyone who knows me
knows that I have no dress sense whatsoever. Again, unlike
(20:27):
mister Barry, who's always dapper, I always I owned about
ten pairs of caky cargo pants as I have on today.
Three minutes into those woods, I look down and I said,
is that a tick?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Oh? Welcome to Massachusetts, Welcome to New England.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Visions of horror. I was back into that house and
out of those woods like a shot.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
So New Brits.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Well, I'm going to digress. But Adam Berry literally carries
a tick card in his wallet. I don't whatever ticks
are on the same So really, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
We live in New England and you need to know
that a tiny, tiny, little, tiny ticks. Those are the
ones that carry the disease.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Well, I come from Old England and ticks terrify me.
So I will call you next time there's one on
my pants, just thinking.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Okay, Well, dix aside, did you research at all the
connection between the location of the house, like being in
the Bridgewater Triangle and did you come up with an
either did you find that interesting or.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
I did find that interesting. The Bridgewater Triangle is an
interesting concept, but you also have things like King Phillip's
War took place in I believe sixteen seventy five, so
you have this very bloody history in the region and
on the grounds as well. You know, the whole the
issue with Oliver Hole being burned to the ground and
the fact that the Olivers were staunch loyalists and a
(21:55):
lot of strong emotion back there and back then as well.
So I don't know that you need the Bridgewater Triangle
as an explanation. You can look closer to home to
explain some of this haunting.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Yeah, no, that makes sense. So did you have any
activity there, any memorable experiences while you were there?
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Yeah? I found it. I found the Oliver House to
be very comfortable, atmosphere, which doesn't mean they're on ghosts
or it isn't haunted because I wore a red coat
and sash, which seemed appropriate, and I did not plan this.
I wish I was this smart, But we had gone
right after the anniversary of the shop that was heard
around the world, so the outbreak of the war in
(22:33):
Lexington and Concord. In fact, they had been re enacting
that weekend. I took a board game with me that
was a revolutionary war board game, and I would make
moves and invite whoever the spirits in the house were
leave it out overnight, I would invite them to make
a move, you know, for the American side. That didn't happen,
But what we did have was one of the security
(22:55):
cameras at about four twenty seven in the morning. These
cameras are activated by motion. One of the cameras just
activated in that room. It pivots as though it's trying
to track in on something. It's focusing and unfocusing. You
hear what sounds like conversation going on in an empty
house and then it went dead.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
That's wild. Yeah, we definitely heard a lot of chatter
in that house. Actually, in other rooms, like we would
be in one room and you would hear like full
conversation happening in another room. So, now, mister Barry, you've
been there. I don't know why I'm calling you mister
Barry today.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I like it. It's very professional. I'm trying to I'm
trying to find something for the audience and the listeners.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
I was there, Yes, well you were there again recently.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Recently I was there in was anybody there with me
to remind me when I was there? I feel like
I found it. I found it. I found it. Okay, great,
this is going to be so exciting for everyone at home. Okay.
So I was there in uh January, and when we
(24:00):
were there the first time. The reason why Zombie Boy
came about, if you haven't watched the episode of Kinder's Spirits,
was because we were upstairs in the room. I was
looking into the mirror where they say they see zombie Boy,
and Amy is doing the Estus method in the psychomanteum room.
And if you don't know what any of that means,
(24:21):
you are listening to the exact right podcasts because you're
going to find out, and we're asking questions and Amy
is listening to the spirit box, right and just saying
what she hears, and she starts talking about how I
was brought here, I was put here or I and
it was answering questions like I didn't know what it was,
and I was like, this is so weird, this is
(24:42):
so strange, and that's, you know, one of the telltale
signs of something that might have been created by our energy.
And so we were so focused on that that I
didn't get a chance to talk about the war right
and talk to the family. So we went back in January.
My focus was to talk to the family to you know,
interact with him, because those are the most prevalent spirits
(25:04):
and obviously if they were people that were once alive,
those are the ones we want to talk to. And
so I'm sitting in the parlor area downstairs off the
left entrance and I start doing an EVP session and
I say, if you're here, I'm gonna play it for you.
You're welcome because I recorded it. But I said something
along the line is like are you here, Like what
(25:25):
you know? Can you finish this? God save the what's
the answer? They're supposed to say? King? Right? King? And
now it was Queen and now we're back at King.
So listen, back then it was King because we're talking
about the revolutionary warts. So I listened to this. Do
(26:00):
you hear that?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Oh yeah, that's very clear.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
It says King. I'll send that to you. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
The producers will need that.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
It says King, and we all were like, whoa, this
is so crazy. So their loyalty is still prevalent, even
though they've passed on and they've gone on to something else.
It's almost like they're still there believing in something that
they believed in, fighting for whatever they were fighting in,
but they're protecting their home in a way.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Interesting. What do you think of that, mister?
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Yeah, I think the Olivers were such staunch loyalists, and
that was a very enlidened question to ask, especially I
told them during an EVP session, you know, we have
a king again, right, which is worth pointing out. The
Olive Us were driven out and ended up going to
Boston because the anti crown sentiment in the area was
(26:52):
so strong, but they were staunch loyalists, so that emotion
seems to have persevered, and it looks like you tapped
into that, Adam.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
That was a really clear EVP It's a very strong response.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
And also meaningful. It was the only word I would
have taken Queen Shaw, but that was the perfect word
in response to that, right.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
And I had not mentioned so it was January. I
didn't really mention that there was a king now. I
mean maybe I did after the fact, but I just
wanted them to finish the phrase. It's one of those
phrases and for them to say king and not queen.
You know, they were maybe they're aware of this new king.
I don't know, but like they did exactly what I
needed to hear to know who I was talking to.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
I feel like, aside from the paranormal, I just want
to mention that the All of Our House has a
really great group of volunteers that keep it running and
they the fact that they're so open to paranormal tours
is really big. I love a good historical location that
is open to people like us coming in and investigating.
A special shout out to Christy Parrish who works there,
(27:55):
because she helped us on Kindred Spirits cases even before
all around she came to the basement episode, she had
invented this crazy like, uh what was that? It was
like a three D three holographic image image.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
She could put it on your phone and then it
would show something and we got an EVP if someone says,
I have to touch it.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yeah, And so that was that was awesome. So they're
doing really great work there and I just wanted to
point out how much I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
I would love to echo that on behalf of my
team and I and I apologies to Christy because she
sounds like Tangina Barons from.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Politicist every day.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
I would ask her to say this heos is clean,
and she obliged.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Us with mary a roll of the eye, and I
will add she's she's the caretaker of not only Oliver House,
but a few other locations and her entire uh you know,
her entire imo is to let people have access to
these spaces that want them while helping the organization or
(28:56):
historical society raise money for the upkeep.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I love that. So now, well overall, Richard, would what's
your assessment of what's going on there?
Speaker 3 (29:05):
I think that the Oliver House is a multi layered haunting,
and I think a bias we all have is it's
a colonial era house. You go in, you expect, you know,
red coats, and continentals, but you also find these layers
that are stacked on top. You have the Sprots, you
have this Civil War kind of connection as well. So
I encourage people to go visit and experience the Oliver
(29:26):
House for themselves, but keep an open mind. You may
be connecting with someone or a spirit from fifty years
ago or two hundred and fifty years ago. You can
never quite tell. So check your biases at the door
and go walk in the footsteps of the Olivers and
Ben Franklin. If you ever get the chance to do that.
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah, that's quite a story. So I agree, it's a
joy to investigate there. Definitely go check it out if
you're in the area. And I want to thank you
guys for rejoining Haunted Roads, so I fin I have
both of you at once, so I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
You're welcome. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Okay. The Oliver House is a fascinating structure, even if
you ignore its haunted history entirely. So many significant events
happened here, and anyone could spend decades, if not centuries,
studying its past. But no matter how well documented or
well researched a house might be, there will always be
dark secrets that get lost to time, at least so
(30:19):
far as the living are concerned. But because so many
spirits apparently still remain at the Oliver House, it's possible
that even after all the witnesses have passed away, their
stories don't need to be forgotten. I'm Amy Brunei and
this was Haunted Road. Yay, thank you, guys. Haunted Road
(30:52):
is a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild from
Air and Minky. Haunted Road is hosted and written by
me Amy Bruney, with additional research by Cassandra de Alba.
This show is edited and produced by supervising producer Rima
el Kali, with executive producers Aaron Menke, Trevor Young, and
(31:12):
Matt Frederick. Learn more about this show over at Grimandmild
dot com, and for more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky listener Discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What If You Could make a ghost? In nineteen seventy two,
an experiment conducted by a Toronto based parapsychological association led
by mathematical geneticist doctor A. R. Owen and overseen by
psychologist doctor Joel Whitten, attempted to determine if that was
indeed possible. The test group consisted of folks like the
(00:33):
former chairperson of Menza, a few engineers, a sociology student,
an accountant, and a bookkeeper. Together, the group invented a
fictional character named Philip Aylesford. His made up background included
being described as a seventeenth century English aristocrat who lived
during the reign of Oliver Cromwell. His story included a
(00:56):
tragic love affair, an unjust execution of his beloved, and
his eventual suicide. The participants, who were aware that Philip
was a creation of their imagination, conducted regular seance type sessions.
They attempted to communicate with Philip. Through these sessions, reciting
his history over and over over time. Various phenomenas such
(01:18):
as raps and knocks in response to questions, and movements
of the table were interpreted as Philip's presence and interaction,
despite knowing he was not real. The experiment suggested that
a group's collective belief and focused intent could induce intelligent,
interactive paranormal activity, which raised the question could paranormal phenomena
(01:42):
be attributed to psychological or unconscious processes rather than well ghosts.
I'm Amy Brunei and this is Haunted Road. On Plymouth
Street in Middleborough, Massachusetts. A Georgian style two story house
(02:06):
sits behind a wide lawn. It's surrounded by leafy trees
and green grass, with some distance between the front door
and the street. This house, known as the Oliver House,
has a row of four windows framing the first floor entrance,
which sits between two white columns. Five more windows dot
the top floor. The yellow walls and black and white
(02:28):
shutters and trim give it a classic homey look. It's
easy to imagine people gathering here for a tea party
in the colonial era. Similar period details mark the inside
of the house, which has historically accurate furniture, separate parlors
for men and women, and numerous bedrooms for the house's owners, children, governesses,
(02:48):
and enslaved people. The floors are made of wood, as
are the doors and some molding. According to a twenty
fourteen assessment by McKinley, Castlow and Associates, Inc. The home
has a private life iibar and multiple fireplaces that end
in two brick chimneys. The kitchen and carriage house are
comparatively newer than the rest of the structure. These additions
(03:09):
were put up sometime around the early eighteen hundreds. The
Oliver House sits on a fifty four acre estate about
a mile from downtown Middleborough. As if it wasn't obvious
from all the descriptions I already gave, this town was
founded in the mid sixteen hundreds as a British colony,
but its dark history goes much further back than that.
(03:30):
Before European colonists derived in Massachusetts, the Wampanogue people lived there. However,
in the early seventeenth century, a deadly epidemic swept through
the region. The indigenous people called it the Great Dying,
which speaks to how many lives were lost to the disease.
The Wampanoge people who survived the outbreak remained in the
(03:51):
region that could later become Middleborough, but it was an
influx of European settlers who helped make the area flourish financially.
A lot of men manufacturing facilities sprouted up in town,
particularly for shoemakers, and today Middleborough is the home to
the Ocean Spray Cranberry's headquarters. The Oliver House was built
(04:11):
in seventeen sixty nine for an engaged couple named Peter
Oliver Junior and Sally Hutchinson. It was dubbed the Small
Oliver House to differentiate it from another larger and more
impressive building that sat nearby, Oliver Hall. According to rumor,
both of these were built not too far from a
hill that had once been a Wampanog burial ground. Peter
(04:33):
and Sally were married right around the time that the
house was completed. Their wedding was a massive society affair,
drawing guests from all over the world, which is unsurprising
given that both came from wealthy and powerful families. Sally's
father was the Governor of Massachusetts, while Peter's father sat
on the Supreme Court. Given their political ties, it was
(04:54):
only a matter of time before Peter and Sally would
find themselves caught up in a brewing revolt. See. In
seventeen seventy three, Benjamin Franklin visited the Oliver House. Officially,
he was there as the guest of honor at a
party that had been thrown for him, but it's believed
that the Olivers and their friends, all of whom were
loyal to the British, were trying to halt the coming
(05:17):
American Revolution in its tracks. Franklin was a very influential figure,
and the Crown's loyalists may have hoped that if they
could recruit him to their side, the whole rebellion would
fall apart without him. Instead, this visit may have only
heightened the tension between the revolutionaries and those who supported
British rule. According to rumor, while Franklin was at the
(05:39):
Oliver House, he somehow got his hands on some letters
that had been exchanged between Sally's father, Governor Hutchinson, and
her husband Peter. In them, they discussed calling on the
British army to violently put down the revolution before it
could go any further. Some people believe Franklin found these
letters while he was digging around in sally closet. Others
(06:01):
say an unidentified chambermaid gave them to him, but most
historians think Franklin received these letters several months before he
ever set foot in the Oliver House. However, he got them.
Franklin passed the letters along to future US President John Adams,
who published them in the Boston Gazette. This only outraged
(06:21):
the general public and pushed the colonists one step closer
to war. In seventeen seventy four, during the fallout from
the so called Hutchinson Letters affair, Sally's brother was run
out of town and her father, the governor, fled the country.
That same year, Peter's father was impeached and lost his
position as a judge. It became a frequent occurrence for
(06:44):
angry mobs to gather outside the Oliver House, threatening Peter, Sally,
and their three children. Eventually, the whole family escaped to Boston,
and from there they sailed to England. They got away
just in time. During the Revolutionary they wore Oliver Hall,
that larger, more impressive home that led to the Oliver
House's nickname as the Small Oliver House, burned to the ground.
(07:08):
Although the small and now only Oliver House survived. At
one point, revolutionaries seized it and auctioned it off to
raise funds for the war effort. After passing from owner
to owner in the early eighteen hundreds, the house was
home to a couple named Thomas and Abigail Sadly, they
lost many children during their time there, and only two
(07:29):
survived to adulthood. Their daughter, Bethania sprote inherited the house
after her father's death, only for tragedy to befall her
family as well. In eighteen forty one, her two year
old daughter Abby died after a kettle filled with boiling
water fell on her. Months later, Bethania lost her unborn
child in a miscarriage. Then three years after that, in
(07:52):
eighteen forty four, another of her children died young. This
time it was pneumonia that claimed his life. Bethania's husband, Earle,
was stricken with tuberculosis in eighteen sixty four. He grew sicker,
and once it was clear that the end was near,
a local reverend named mister Putnam reportedly came to visit him.
(08:12):
An article called The Peter Oliver House by Michael J.
Madigan says that Putnam wanted Earle to make his peace
with God before he passed away. But as the story goes,
Earle didn't want the reverend's help. According to Madigan, Earle said,
in all my business relations in life, I never have
traded much with the middleman. I have always bought my
(08:33):
goods at wholesale. It now looks as though I shall
see the Lord before you will, and I can no
doubt patch it up a good deal better than when
I get there and see him, then I can with you.
According to the story, the reverend had nothing to say
to that, He silently left the room, and Earle passed
away a short while later. His death came in the
(08:53):
midst of another national conflict, and just as the Oliver
House had played a key role during the Revolutionary War,
It's rumored that before or during the Civil War, it
was a stop on the underground railroad. Supposedly, enslaved people
who were fleeing from Southern States could hide from the
authorities in a hidden chamber just behind the first floor fireplace,
(09:14):
and when they were ready to move on to the
next stop, they could leave the house unseen, using an
underground tunnel that connected the cellar to the local Namasket River.
It's worth noting that while the hideaway behind the fireplace
is real, there's no evidence that it was ever used
to shelter formerly enslaved people, and if that underground tunnel
ever existed, all signs of it have disappeared by today.
(09:37):
As for the residents, they sold the house in eighteen
ninety three. The home sold again in nineteen forty five,
and the new buyer was a man named Peter Oliver.
It was no mistake that he shared a name with
the man who originally built and lived in the house.
This Peter Oliver was a distant relative of the initial
Peter Oliver. The twentieth century, Peter restored the house to
(09:58):
its original state for the most part. He made some improvements,
including adding electricity, indoor plumbing, and perhaps most importantly, bathrooms.
In twenty fifteen, the house was in a much more
livable state when it was sold to the City of Middleborough.
This was part of a preservation effort not only to
save the historic house, but also to protect the woodlands
(10:21):
around the property and all the plants and animals that
lived there. Today, the house operates as a historical museum.
It's open for public tours, including ghost tours. It's unsurprising
that with so many lives lost within its walls, the
Oliver House is haunted, and visitors generally agree that the
spirits there are mostly friendly. They reportedly make their presence
(10:44):
known by moving items around, and on at least one occasion,
a painting fell off of a wall, as if some
invisible force had knocked it down. There is also video
evidence that shows a bar across a door in the
kitchen seemingly moving on its own, and mysterious photographs are abundant.
At different times, people captured pictures of faces peering out
(11:05):
windows or of an entity that has been dubbed Zombie Boy.
The nickname comes from his grayskin and visible injuries all
over his face. There are a lot of theories about
Zombie Boy's origins, including that he may have died in
a car accident and that his spirit somehow became trapped
in the house afterward. That last idea came from ghost
(11:26):
tour manager Christy Parrish, who gave an interview to the
Ghost Hunting in New England podcast. Famously, on an episode
of a little show called Kindred Spirits, Adam and I
discussed that zombie Boy could be a manifestation of so
many staff and investigators referring to him and giving him
(11:47):
an identity that included a horribly scarred face, drawing on
the Philip experiment. Through an evening of seance like interactions,
we gave Zombie Boy additional fictional attributes, including that his
father was a Civil War hero and the entire town
had a parade for him when he died, and that
Zombie Boy perished after falling from a horse, and, in
(12:08):
a personal homage to one of my favorite movies, Practical Magic,
that he had one green eye and one blue. Shortly after,
we received evidence including EVPs, communicating these attributes. Additionally, Psychic
Chip Coffee from hundreds of miles away called to tell
us he was picking up on a spirit with a
heavy Civil War connection. Visitors often say they feel as
(12:30):
though they're being watched when they're in the home, and
they may spot shadow figures in the basement or hear
footsteps in areas where they don't seem to be any
people around. Like in many other haunted locations, fully charged
electrical devices tend to lose all of their power much
more rapidly than they should. At the Oliver House, one
interesting story came from a tour guide who was taking
(12:52):
some visitors around the Oliver House when he spotted a
woman in an eighteenth century dress. At first, this didn't
strike him is particularly odd. Many of the people who
volunteered on site wore period costumes, so his initial thought
was that she was there to work. But then the
tour guide noticed that something was off about this woman's appearance. Specifically,
(13:14):
according to an article with the impact called Secrets of
the Oliver House, this eighteenth century woman had unnaturally large eyes.
They didn't even look human. While the tour guide stared
at the woman in shock, she put a finger to
her lips, the way you do when you're shushing someone. Then,
without another word, she walked backward, passing right through the
(13:34):
wall behind her. Visitors sometimes feel as though a young
child is grabbing their hand, but when they glance down,
there's no children nearby. On one occasion, a young girl
went on a tour of the home only to announce
to all the adults that she was having a great
time playing with the little boy she was with. The
Only problem, none of the grown ups had a boy
with them, and no one could see the girl's companion.
(13:58):
Some people believe these childish ghosts or some of the
sprote children who died in the house. Of course, it's
always hard to identify the spirits in any haunted location,
but the Oliver House is unique, as some people believe
they've identified one clear feature that could explain how it
came to be so active. The house is in the
Bridgewater Triangle. According to cryptozoologist Lauren Coleman, this is a
(14:21):
small strip of land in Massachusetts where UFO sightings, encounters
with strange creatures, and other paranormal activities are extremely common.
All to say that from a certain perspective, the Oliver
House isn't that unique. It's one of many active hotbeds
in the region. But just because there are countless unexplained
incidents in the triangle, that doesn't make the spectral figures
(14:42):
at the Oliver House any less important and their stories
aren't any less meaningful. That's why today I am talking
to Adam Barry and Richard Estep. Richard has spent a
considerable amount of time researching and investigating the home, as
has mister Barry, so welcome back to the program Richard
and Adam Berry. Well, hello there, guys, we welcome back.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Welcome to Haunted Road.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
We're gonna going to have to share the two microphones
and three of us. I'm going to say, are you
going to let Richard talk to that? I'm going to
put my back to him.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Listeners, I'm gonna put my back to him and he
can just speak over my shoulder like this.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Imagine this a rebellious colonial.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
See there it is.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
I look at that. It is only fitting right. So
the Oliver House is a very interesting haunt to me.
I've only investigated it the one time that we were
there with Kindred, but we were there for three nights,
so I've had quite a bit of time there. Let's
start with Richard really quick. Richard, what is your history
with the Oliver House in particular?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
I'm not gonna hold it for you though, I'm not
gonna you take it from me here, thank you, Adam.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
My history is that it's an ongoing book project I'm
working on with doctor Joe mcgoggan, and I was given
the opportunity to go stay in that region and investigate
the Oliver House for the course of several days and nights,
and we'll do return visits trying to delve into its mysteries.
You guys know this better than anyone. That place is
like peeling back the lairs of an onion, and just
(16:33):
when you think you have a part of the story down,
you realize there's a whole other level beneath it to uncover.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Right exactly, I mean, there's it's a multifaceted hunt. I
would say a lot of people don't know this, but
Adam Barry actually went hunting for puck quadgies while we
were there.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
I did. I think I was forced to.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
No, I didn't go. I was seated inside the nice,
cool house.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Well, I think the reason why we decided to do
that is we cover our bases on every case. So, yes,
we were dealing with what we thought might be in Agrigor.
But also, you know, if you ever get a chance
to go look for a puck wedgie, don't do it.
But I did because I wanted to see if it
(17:22):
played into the investigation at all. Because the grounds are significant.
They talk about activity that happens on the grounds, They're
pretty widespread, they're large. So I FaceTime with Greg Newkirk,
our friend Greg Newkirk, and I said, so, if if
one were to go look for puck wedgies, what should
What should one do? And he said I wouldn't. He says,
(17:47):
but if you have to, which you do, leave an
offering of some kind, some sort of like fruit nuts, honey,
something to show that you mean well. And I was like, okay.
So I got some fruit nuts and honey and we
went out into the woods and I remember feeling, you know, uneasy,
(18:09):
because you're in the woods at night, and I'm thinking,
I'm going to get attacked by an animal. I don't
know what it's going to be. And I bent down
and I put out the strawberries and the honey and
I drizzled it over. You know, some aunt's going to
love this, but I put it out and I'm sitting
there and you know, I know I'm older than I
used to be, but I did that thing where I
(18:33):
was standing up and I wasn't doing anything crazy, and
I felt like I had gotten stabbed, like in my back,
and you guys are going to be like, it's his sciatica.
But it was very strange and I didn't know what
it was, and I was like, oh God, what was that.
And then it got really weird and the camera ops
(18:53):
were like, you know, Andy was standing there and we
were all like trying to film and I was like,
turn off the lights, turn off the lanterns, and he's like,
I'm not gonna be able to see if we turned
I was like, turn him off, and he turned him off,
and you could hear something sort of shuffling around us.
Now it could have been a bear, but not really.
(19:13):
It was not there, not there, but it just seemed
really weird. It seemed very strange, and everyone in that
space was like, something is weird, something is off, and I,
you know, I didn't actually I wasn't looking. I wasn't
saying please, Puck Wedgy come play with me or come
hang out. Don't think they'd play like Grimlins or something.
I was like, don't do that. But uh, I just
(19:33):
said I'm here to offer it just in case you're here,
you know. And I left it at that, and I
felt like maybe they attacked me. I got attacked by
a Puckway your hurting for a while. It was it
was weird. Oh and and what else happened? Isn't that
the case where other things got happened? Like things got
canceled for our crew, like somebody or that different or
(19:56):
will we curse a different time?
Speaker 2 (19:58):
I don't know there was an other case or of
your curse for everyone was But Richard, what do you
think of the Bridgewater Triangle connection there?
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Well, I will say to Adam's a braver man than
I am, because I'm often asked have you ever fled
from a location in fear? And the Oliver House I
can reveal is the only place I have because, like Adam,
though for different reasons, we did go out into the
ground surrounding the Oliver House. And anyone who knows me
knows that I have no dress sense whatsoever. Again, unlike
(20:27):
mister Barry, who's always dapper, I always I owned about
ten pairs of caky cargo pants as I have on today.
Three minutes into those woods, I look down and I said,
is that a tick?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Oh? Welcome to Massachusetts, Welcome to New England.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Visions of horror. I was back into that house and
out of those woods like a shot.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
So New Brits.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Well, I'm going to digress. But Adam Berry literally carries
a tick card in his wallet. I don't whatever ticks
are on the same So really, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
We live in New England and you need to know
that a tiny, tiny, little, tiny ticks. Those are the
ones that carry the disease.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Well, I come from Old England and ticks terrify me.
So I will call you next time there's one on
my pants, just thinking.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Okay, Well, dix aside, did you research at all the
connection between the location of the house, like being in
the Bridgewater Triangle and did you come up with an
either did you find that interesting or.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
I did find that interesting. The Bridgewater Triangle is an
interesting concept, but you also have things like King Phillip's
War took place in I believe sixteen seventy five, so
you have this very bloody history in the region and
on the grounds as well. You know, the whole the
issue with Oliver Hole being burned to the ground and
the fact that the Olivers were staunch loyalists and a
(21:55):
lot of strong emotion back there and back then as well.
So I don't know that you need the Bridgewater Triangle
as an explanation. You can look closer to home to
explain some of this haunting.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Yeah, no, that makes sense. So did you have any
activity there, any memorable experiences while you were there?
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Yeah? I found it. I found the Oliver House to
be very comfortable, atmosphere, which doesn't mean they're on ghosts
or it isn't haunted because I wore a red coat
and sash, which seemed appropriate, and I did not plan this.
I wish I was this smart, But we had gone
right after the anniversary of the shop that was heard
around the world, so the outbreak of the war in
(22:33):
Lexington and Concord. In fact, they had been re enacting
that weekend. I took a board game with me that
was a revolutionary war board game, and I would make
moves and invite whoever the spirits in the house were
leave it out overnight, I would invite them to make
a move, you know, for the American side. That didn't happen,
But what we did have was one of the security
(22:55):
cameras at about four twenty seven in the morning. These
cameras are activated by motion. One of the cameras just
activated in that room. It pivots as though it's trying
to track in on something. It's focusing and unfocusing. You
hear what sounds like conversation going on in an empty
house and then it went dead.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
That's wild. Yeah, we definitely heard a lot of chatter
in that house. Actually, in other rooms, like we would
be in one room and you would hear like full
conversation happening in another room. So, now, mister Barry, you've
been there. I don't know why I'm calling you mister
Barry today.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I like it. It's very professional. I'm trying to I'm
trying to find something for the audience and the listeners.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
I was there, Yes, well you were there again recently.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Recently I was there in was anybody there with me
to remind me when I was there? I feel like
I found it. I found it. I found it. Okay, great,
this is going to be so exciting for everyone at home. Okay.
So I was there in uh January, and when we
(24:00):
were there the first time. The reason why Zombie Boy
came about, if you haven't watched the episode of Kinder's Spirits,
was because we were upstairs in the room. I was
looking into the mirror where they say they see zombie Boy,
and Amy is doing the Estus method in the psychomanteum room.
And if you don't know what any of that means,
(24:21):
you are listening to the exact right podcasts because you're
going to find out, and we're asking questions and Amy
is listening to the spirit box, right and just saying
what she hears, and she starts talking about how I
was brought here, I was put here or I and
it was answering questions like I didn't know what it was,
and I was like, this is so weird, this is
(24:42):
so strange, and that's, you know, one of the telltale
signs of something that might have been created by our energy.
And so we were so focused on that that I
didn't get a chance to talk about the war right
and talk to the family. So we went back in January.
My focus was to talk to the family to you know,
interact with him, because those are the most prevalent spirits
(25:04):
and obviously if they were people that were once alive,
those are the ones we want to talk to. And
so I'm sitting in the parlor area downstairs off the
left entrance and I start doing an EVP session and
I say, if you're here, I'm gonna play it for you.
You're welcome because I recorded it. But I said something
along the line is like are you here, Like what
(25:25):
you know? Can you finish this? God save the what's
the answer? They're supposed to say? King? Right? King? And
now it was Queen and now we're back at King.
So listen, back then it was King because we're talking
about the revolutionary warts. So I listened to this. Do
(26:00):
you hear that?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Oh yeah, that's very clear.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
It says King. I'll send that to you. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
The producers will need that.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
It says King, and we all were like, whoa, this
is so crazy. So their loyalty is still prevalent, even
though they've passed on and they've gone on to something else.
It's almost like they're still there believing in something that
they believed in, fighting for whatever they were fighting in,
but they're protecting their home in a way.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Interesting. What do you think of that, mister?
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Yeah, I think the Olivers were such staunch loyalists, and
that was a very enlidened question to ask, especially I
told them during an EVP session, you know, we have
a king again, right, which is worth pointing out. The
Olive Us were driven out and ended up going to
Boston because the anti crown sentiment in the area was
(26:52):
so strong, but they were staunch loyalists, so that emotion
seems to have persevered, and it looks like you tapped
into that, Adam.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
That was a really clear EVP It's a very strong response.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
And also meaningful. It was the only word I would
have taken Queen Shaw, but that was the perfect word
in response to that, right.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
And I had not mentioned so it was January. I
didn't really mention that there was a king now. I
mean maybe I did after the fact, but I just
wanted them to finish the phrase. It's one of those
phrases and for them to say king and not queen.
You know, they were maybe they're aware of this new king.
I don't know, but like they did exactly what I
needed to hear to know who I was talking to.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
I feel like, aside from the paranormal, I just want
to mention that the All of Our House has a
really great group of volunteers that keep it running and
they the fact that they're so open to paranormal tours
is really big. I love a good historical location that
is open to people like us coming in and investigating.
A special shout out to Christy Parrish who works there,
(27:55):
because she helped us on Kindred Spirits cases even before
all around she came to the basement episode, she had
invented this crazy like, uh what was that? It was
like a three D three holographic image image.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
She could put it on your phone and then it
would show something and we got an EVP if someone says,
I have to touch it.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yeah, And so that was that was awesome. So they're
doing really great work there and I just wanted to
point out how much I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
I would love to echo that on behalf of my
team and I and I apologies to Christy because she
sounds like Tangina Barons from.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Politicist every day.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
I would ask her to say this heos is clean,
and she obliged.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Us with mary a roll of the eye, and I
will add she's she's the caretaker of not only Oliver House,
but a few other locations and her entire uh you know,
her entire imo is to let people have access to
these spaces that want them while helping the organization or
(28:56):
historical society raise money for the upkeep.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I love that. So now, well overall, Richard, would what's
your assessment of what's going on there?
Speaker 3 (29:05):
I think that the Oliver House is a multi layered haunting,
and I think a bias we all have is it's
a colonial era house. You go in, you expect, you know,
red coats, and continentals, but you also find these layers
that are stacked on top. You have the Sprots, you
have this Civil War kind of connection as well. So
I encourage people to go visit and experience the Oliver
(29:26):
House for themselves, but keep an open mind. You may
be connecting with someone or a spirit from fifty years
ago or two hundred and fifty years ago. You can
never quite tell. So check your biases at the door
and go walk in the footsteps of the Olivers and
Ben Franklin. If you ever get the chance to do that.
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah, that's quite a story. So I agree, it's a
joy to investigate there. Definitely go check it out if
you're in the area. And I want to thank you
guys for rejoining Haunted Roads, so I fin I have
both of you at once, so I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
You're welcome. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Okay. The Oliver House is a fascinating structure, even if
you ignore its haunted history entirely. So many significant events
happened here, and anyone could spend decades, if not centuries,
studying its past. But no matter how well documented or
well researched a house might be, there will always be
dark secrets that get lost to time, at least so
(30:19):
far as the living are concerned. But because so many
spirits apparently still remain at the Oliver House, it's possible
that even after all the witnesses have passed away, their
stories don't need to be forgotten. I'm Amy Brunei and
this was Haunted Road. Yay, thank you, guys. Haunted Road
(30:52):
is a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild from
Air and Minky. Haunted Road is hosted and written by
me Amy Bruney, with additional research by Cassandra de Alba.
This show is edited and produced by supervising producer Rima
el Kali, with executive producers Aaron Menke, Trevor Young, and
(31:12):
Matt Frederick. Learn more about this show over at Grimandmild
dot com, and for more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
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