"16 Haunted and Weird Places in the Brockton Area You Can Visit this Halloween"

By Susannah Sudborough

September 30, 2021 | The Enterprise Newspaper | Brockton, Massachusetts

BROCKTON — With its dark and haunting history, Salem has been the hub for Halloween lovers in New England for years.

But it might surprise the ghost hunters and horror fans of metro south to find out there are plenty of haunted and otherwise strange locations around the Brockton area.

1. Rocky Marciano's boyhood home

During a 2012 investigation of the Dover Street house in Brockton on Sept. 1 — Marciano's birthday — medium Dawn Carr said she sensed ghosts from the Marciano family.

In their report of their investigation, M.A.P.S. said the owner of the house told them his upstairs tenant often felt someone was following her when she ascended the staircase, and that she often saw shadows moving across her bedroom. Another guest who was staying downstairs said he saw an elderly woman appear in front of his bed one night.

During M.A.P.S.'s investigation, the team recorded an orb of light on camera and high electric and magnetic field (EMF) readings, the report said.

Though visitors cannot go inside the house as it is a private home, the house can be visited and there is a plaque outside it explaining its significance.

2. Whitman American Legion

According to M.A.P.S.’s report, heavy footsteps have been overhead in the attic, the hand dryer in the women's bathroom turns on by itself, the men's bathroom door opens and closes by itself, and the door to the bar was caught on a security camera opening and closing on its own.

During M.A.P.S.'s investigation, the team got high EMF readings and even had a small scare.

"[M.A.P.S. member] Lorrie [Parker] asked that if an energy was present, could it please move an object or make a noise. Precisely at that time, the detectors spiked and her camera tipped over on the counter of the bar with a loud bang!" M.A.P.S. wrote in their report.

3. Hanson's Camp Kiwanee

According to M.A.P.S., visitors to the lodge often saw a rocking chair rocking by itself upstairs, doors unlocking by themselves and fans turning on by themselves.

During the group’s investigation, several members said they felt they were touched by a spirit on the neck, head and knee, and Carr felt dozens of different spirits through the lodge.

4. Easton's Mill Pond

One record of the folktale behind the sign recounts that it is believed the devil himself visited Nathan Selee and was responsible for supplying his devilish but free labor force.

Bridgewater Triangle expert Andrew Lake said some legend trippers suspect the imps might actually have been pukwudgies — a similar creature known to be spotted in the mysterious region.

5. Stonehill College

Many people claim the pilot was Fred Ames, great-grandson of Oliver Ames Sr., the shovel tycoon, but there's no evidence of his crashing a plane or being a pilot.

There was a small plane crash in Easton in 2008 that killed three people, but it's unclear if that has fed into the legend.

Other ghosts have also been reported at the college, including different members of the Ames family. There are also stories of a little girl who has been seen running all around the college, from the basketball courts to Alumni Hall.

The story goes that she was a daughter of one of the school's presidents who wasn't looked after often. Sometimes stories say she drowned in the college's pool, and that's why the pool was filled, but historical records refute this claim.

O'Hara dormitory is also said to have some paranormal activity, with students finding their items moved or lost, and others seeing the figure of a man standing over their bed at night, according to "Ghosts of the Bridgewater Triangle" by Chris Balzano.

Balzano also wrote that the Holy Cross Center dorm, sometimes known as the Seminary or "Sem" for its history as housing for priests in training, has some ghosts. Students say they will wake up to a black figure standing over their bed, and have heard scratching and seen shadows in the passages under the building.

Black figures and orbs of light have also been seen by students on campus grounds.

6. Mrs. Swift's and Moore Antique Shop

Parker said she and her customers have had strange experiences in the building ever since she moved in. She regularly experiences the bell above her door ringing when no one is around but her, as well as a toy music box playing bits and pieces on its own.

During a M.A.P.S. investigation of the building in 2020, they said they caught orb after orb of light flying in front of the camera, as well as the music box playing its song all the way through.

7. East Bridgewater Town Hall

In "Ghosts of the Bridgewater Triangle," Balzano writes that many ghosts seen in the town hall have been thought to be those of the Hobart family. He also said employees have reported lights and computers turning on and off with no explanation.

During a 2009 investigation by M.A.P.S., Carr identified many spirits, and other members of the team felt cold spots, had their equipment batteries drained, and saw many orbs of light. The team also picked up many EVPs, including the sound of babies crying.

8. Solitude Stone

The poem reads:

"All ye, who in future days

Walk by Nunckatessett stream

Love not him who hummed his lay

Cheerful to the parting beam,

But the Beauty that he wooed

In this quiet solitude"

According to a plaque nearby, it was carved by the Rev. Timothy Otis Paine in 1852, who was a Winslow, Maine, native and poet before moving to East Bridgewater to serve as a pastor.

It's located off Forest Street just before the bridge.

9. Bridgewater State University

Poltergeist-like activity has also been reported there, such as objects flying around, showing up in new places and getting lost.

At Tillinghast Hall, legend has it that a housemother, after climbing out on the roof to round up some wayward girls, slipped and fell to her death on the fence below. Some say the woman’s presence is still felt in the building.

In Wood Hall, stories say, the ghost of a girl who years ago burned to death there now occasionally runs screaming “fire” through the halls of the building. And a ghost named George is said to haunt the Campus Center, locking doors and playing instruments.

10. Lake Nippenicket/Hockomock Swamp

The points of the triangle are Abington in the northeast, Freetown in the south, and Rehoboth in the southwest. Within these points, since at least the 1960s, people have reported seeing all kinds of strange things, from bigfoot to UFOs to giant birds and snakes to ghosts to pukwudgies.

One hotspot within the triangle is the Hockomock Swamp, which makes up a lot of the wetland in the Brockton area. Within the swamp, one of the biggest areas of activity is around Lake Nippenicket in Bridgewater.

Around the lake people have spotted everything from Bigfoot to giant snakes. One common sighting are "spook lights" — unexplained floating orbs of light that might lead you somewhere. Another experience regularly reported around the lake is hearing phantom drums or seeing a fire a little ways away only to come upon the spot and find nothing.

11. The Raynham dog track

People walking around those woods have reported seeing everything from UFOs to spook lights to pukwudgies.

One well-known report comes from Bill Russo, who was walking his dog around midnight near the track when he spotted what he thought was a child in a strange, furry costume standing under a street light next to the woods.

"Ee wah chu, keyer," are the strange words Russo said the figure uttered to him that night.

Russo tried to talk to the figure, but to no avail. His large and usually brave dog Samantha was very nervous, so he turned and left.

After thinking about what he had experienced, Russo said he now believes he saw a pukwudgie who was trying to speak to him in English, saying "We want you, come here."

12. King Philip's Cave

A common investigation spot for Bridgewater Triangle legend trippers, people venturing near the cave have reported seeing spook lights, ghosts, phantom fires and phantom drums.

13. Mayflower Hill Cemetery

Historical records show the grave is for a Pearl French who was only four years old when she died of spinal meningitis on March 26, 1882.

The choice of an empty rocking chair as Pearl’s grave marker can be explained by a popular poem about the heartbreak of childhood mortality published in a magazine in 1850 by Richard Coe Jr. entitled “The Vacant Chair.” The grave has the words "Her Vacant Chair" printed on it.

People who visit the grave claim to see the little girl in the chair and otherwise, as well as orbs of light flying around.

14. Taunton State Hospital

According to "Ghosts of the Bridgewater Triangle," by Balzano, the hospital used therapy techniques now thought of as barbaric, including submerging patients in water, keeping them out in the cold for long stretches of time, high voltage electric shocks — and of course — the prefrontal lobotomy.

The hospital had some notable patients, including Anthony Santo, an Italian-American who, after having his mind affected by scarlet fever and experiencing hallucinations, confessed to murdering two of his cousins and a 6-year-old girl by luring them into the woods and killing them with a knife and stoning them.

Another notable patient was Honora "Jolly Jane" Toppan, a nurse who confessed to at least 31 murders after her arrest in 1901. She is known for doing painful experiments with patients and killing her landlord, foster sister, four elderly members of a family she worked for as a nurse.

The Goss building is reportedly home to the ghost of a man in white who appears on the third floor, as well as various other spirits. On the grounds, people sometimes see the ghost of an elderly man walking the grass.

At night, banging, screams and moans can supposedly be heard from the woods behind the hospital. Some believe the sounds are made by the ghosts of patients. Sometimes people see hazes or shadows in the shape of people both inside and outside the buildings.

There are also reports of cult activity with the hospital's patients and staff, with stories ranging from strange markings in the basement to suicide in the name of the devil.

15. The Oliver Estate

Many volunteers at the estate have stories about seeing apparitions or shadowy figures, hearing voices when all alone in the house or finding objects in the house mysteriously being moved, fallen to the floor or flying across a room.

The estate sometimes offers ghost tours, and has been investigated by many paranormal investigators.

16. Middleboro Town Hall

On July 6, 1903, the building was the site of a riot in which the building became under siege and wagons and houses caught fire. According to a magazine once published by the town’s historical association, the riot resulted in the town's sheriff being barricaded and shot in the face.

Town employees and officials say they’ve heard inexplicable sounds, such as haunting voices and footsteps, coming from the town hall’s grand ballroom late at night.

People also claim to have seen a young woman standing in a stairwell and wearing a long dress with a high neckline who then disappears. Mysterious glowing orbs dot pictures of events at the historical building as well.