Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
I'm Darren Marler, and this is a weird Darkness bonus byte.
The one hundred and fifty year old Victorian mansion at
four West Broadway and Gardner, Massachusetts, has new owners. They've
signed the papers, transferred the deed, and taken possession of
twenty one rooms across nearly seven thousand square feet. They've
also inherited something else, at least a dozen ghosts who
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refuse to leave, dark entities the basement that have physically
pushed visitors downstairs, and a reputation as the second most
haunted house in all of Massachusetts. On September twenty third,
twenty twenty five, the sk Pierce Haunted Victorian Mansion officially
changed hands for one million dollars two hundred thousand dollars
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below the original asking price of one point two million.
The new owners are a group of four locals with
strong ties to Gardner. John Gadino, Rob Gilman, and David
and Ronda Btez. Gilman, a Gardener native and resident, runs
a real estate and property management company with Gadino that
already owns properties in the city. David Badetts is a
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lifelong Gardener resident who owns Gardner automarked and other properties,
while Ronde Btez is a city resident too works that
now watches it. The mansion had been on the market
since April twenty twenty five, drawing international attention from potential buyers.
People traveled from as far as Australia and even Transylvania
for a chance to walk through the doors. Despite its
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notorious reputation, or perhaps because of it, the haunted factor
was actually a main selling point. The property comes with
impressive statistics for any real estate venture. The current waiting
list for people wanting to spend the night sits at
four thousand. Ghost tours for Fall twenty twenty five, sold
out months in advance. The mansion already operates as a
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paranormal tourist attraction, and the new owners planned to continue
offering tours, ghost investigations, and for the first time time,
overnight stays where guests will have the entire mansion to themselves.
But these new owners aren't just buying a business opportunity.
They're inheriting what had been ranked as the second most
haunted house in Massachusetts and the ninth most haunted house
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in the United States. Sylvester Knowlton Pierce was a native
of Westminster who moved to Gardner and became involved in
the locally prominent chair manufacturing business. He purchased his own
factory at the age of twenty five, located just across
the street from the site where he would build his mansion.
His success was so complete that Gardner's entire city became
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known as chair City. The house was built between eighteen
seventy three and eighteen seventy five, at a time when
Pierce wanted to showcase his wealth and status. The mansion
was designed and built by E. Boyden and Son, a
prominent Worcester architect, and took three years of painstakingly detailed
work to complete. It took over a year and a
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half for one hundred construction workers to build. The mansion
was a technological marvel for its era. It featured then
stated the art features, including gas lighting in every room,
a massive Winthrop furnace, and running water throughout. There was
a dumbwaiter that went up to the second floor, speaking
tubes that served as a rudimentary intercom, and a cistern
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that collected a massive amount of water from the roof
for laundry. The servants quarters on the third floor, however,
received none of these luxuries, no heat source whatsoever, which,
with really high ceilings must have been freezing cold. Pierce's
son converted the house into an inn. The mansion's lore
includes claims of hosting former President Calvin Coolidge, Minnesota Face
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Betty Davis, P. T. Barnum, and Norman Rockwell, though The
Gardener News noted in twenty twenty one that then curator
Kenneth Watson stated there's no record to support these famous
visitors ever actually staying at the home. What is documented
is that Pierce himself was a member of the Freema,
and the house was a meeting place for the society.
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The tragedies began almost immediately. Just two weeks after moving in,
Pierce's wife, Susan, died from a flesh eating bacterial infection.
Pierce spent a year in Morning before marrying Ellen, a
woman thirty years his junior. After s. K. Pierce died
at home in eighteen eighty eight, the house was willed
to his second wife, Ellen Pierce, who also eventually died there.
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The mansion was then left to SK's three sons, who
spent years fighting over ownership at the family home and
furniture business until the two eldest sons finally moved away.
After Pierce and his second spouse died, a bitter inheritance
battle broke out among his kids over the property, which
eventually passed to his youngest son, Edward, who turned the
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property into a boarding house. The boarding house era brought
its own darkness. According to the Attraction website, the home
soon became a hive of unsavory activity, including drinking, gama blaying,
and prostitution, while rumors of murders carried out in the
dwelling began to surface. The house's official history makes disturbing
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claims a prostitute was strangled in the infamous red bedroom
on the second floor, though The Gardener News noted in
twenty twenty one that there is no historical evidence to
support that the home was ever used as a brothel,
and then curator Kenneth Watson stated that the story about
the murdered sex worker was not true. One death that
is thoroughly documented occurred on April third, nineteen sixty three.
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The Gardener Fire department was summoned after occupants reported smoke
coming out of one of the bedrooms. Inside the room,
firefighters found Ano Walpus Sory, a World War II veteran,
who was lying unconscious in a burning bed. The fire
was quickly extinguished and Sorry was rushed to Heywood Hospital,
where he was pronounced dead at the age of forty seven.
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The circumstances surrounding Sary's death remain bizarre. Firefighters arrived to
find the fire already out, with no signs of its
spreading up the walls or anywhere that wasn't the bed.
The fire was completely limited to the bed that I
know was on. There was no damage to the walls,
the curtains, the furniture, the floor, nothing. Some believe this
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was spontaneous combustion as there was little damage to the
surrounding room. The records show he died of third degree
burns and smoke inhalation, after officials said he fell asleep
while smoking in bed. According to property manager Mary and Luoma,
who has managed the mansion for fourteen years, Sorry spilled
accelerant on himself that day. He came here when it
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was a boarding house. He lived here, he started smoking
and drinking. He didn't shower. Sorry was a finish immigrant
to had pretty much given up on any aspect of
his life, that wasn't getting blind drunk on moonshine. Today,
visitors often reports smelling smoke in the room where he died.
Sorry's death is the only one documented to have actually
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occurred in the famed hum and the incident is comm
by a framed piece of charred material, though many other
deaths are associated with the property. Through the years, guests
have experienced everything from voices chanting, full body apparitions, moving furniture, screens,
flying off windows, slamming doors, the sounds of footsteps on
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the stairs and halls, sudden temperature changes, foul odors, shadow people,
and an ominous lion's roar which can shake the house,
which many believe is the former mister Pierce imposing his
displeasure with the current state of the home. Others have
felt the pressure of hands actually pushing them. One visitor
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felt that a presence was attempting to push her down
the steps, while another was almost forced out of a
third floor window. Paranormal experts have said that the entities
in this mansion are the most advanced they have ever seen,
as they're capable of harnessing electrical energy and converting that
power into the ability to move large objects and impose
their will physically on their current surroundings. The cast of
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spirits is extensive and specific. Since the early two thousands,
countless psychic mediums and paranormal investigative groups have visited the house,
most of them describing the same few spirits each time,
including Mattie Cornwall, the young nanny who cared for the
pierced children. It's believed that the mansion was the only
place that really felt like home to her, and that
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her spirit acts as a protector of the house, keeping
the other spirits in check and warding off any unwelcome trespassers.
Recent owners described seeing a little boy with yellow hair
running between their windows. Others have heard a little girl laughing,
who many believe is Rachel Pierce. The couple who lived
in the home described seeing a woman with an evil
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smile and dark hair who would try to lure them
into dangerous situations, possibly even trying to possess the woman
who lived there. Edward eventually lost the mansion in nineteen
sixty five, gambling it away in a poker game. The
owner allowed him to stay, but he had to live
in a small room in the basement, where he died
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two years later. A dark, brooding shadow entity haunts the
basement to this day, and people feel it is Edward
refusing to leave his family's great mansion. The mansion's recent
history reads like a warning to potential buyers. Since nineteen
ninety nine, it was basically a giant, derelict building, only
a few breaths away from being condemned. The roof was
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a sieve, the top floor was completely trashed from water damage,
and pigeons had taken residence up there for years. Since then,
it has gone through three more sets of owners, throwing
two in the financial ruin trying to repair it. In
two thousand and nine, Edwin Gonzales and Lillian o'taro purchased
the home unaware of its reputation. Shortly after, they began
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hearing disembodied voices and seeing apparitions. Edwins and Lilian's experiences
with the not so friendly spirits and the nasty ones
were written down in a book by medium Joony May
entitled Bones in the Basement Surviving the Escape Pierce Haunted
Victorian Mansion. They didn't sell the mansion until twenty fifteen,
leaving it empty. In twenty fifteen, the property was purchased
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by Robert and Allison County for three hundred and twenty
five thousand dollars. These new owners bought this twenty one
room fixer upper for a shockingly low price, sight unseen.
Because they wanted a haunted house. The counties set about
revitalizing the home, turning it into a popular tourist attraction
that highlights rather than hides its spookiest stories. The restoration
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was massive. County shared that they had to replumb the
entire house, bring everything up to code while keeping everything
looking as original as possible. In the last decade, the
counties invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep the
mansion in good standing. The building was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in twenty twenty two, securing
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its place in American history. Regardless of its spectral residents,
the new owners seem prepared for what they're taking on today.
Visitors are warned about the dangerous entities that purportedly roam
the halls of the home, with the property's website stating
this attraction is not for the faint of heart. There
is a good possibility that you will witness paranormal activity.
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The entities in this mansion, are extremely advanced and have
demonstrated a unique ability to impose their will physically on guests.
Please do not behave in an antagonistic manner toward these
entities at any time, as you may be placing yourself
and other guests in danger. During one early investigation, a
female investigator was shoved backwards and she would have tumbled
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down the central staircase if it wasn't for two of
her team members who caught her. These aren't just stories
told for atmosphere, they're warnings based on documented incidents, but
the new owners remain undeterred. In a post on the
homes Facebook page, they stated all four are dedicated to
being deeply involved with the community and are excited to
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be a part of such a big piece of gardener history.
This is a project that we feel passionate about and
we can't wait to use this as an opportunity to
support the city and connect with all of our visitors.
They assured fans that the home will remain open to
the public, adding that they plan to offer new and
exciting ways to experience the house, while also honoring and
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respecting the house's past and being good stewards of the
house moving forward, tours will be an hour and a
half long and include a guided walkthrough. They'll continue ghost
investigations on specific nights and will host yearly events. The
new owners have also promised that guests will finally be
able to stay overnight, getting the entire mansion to do
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as they please, with some rules in place to preserve
the house. Property manager Mary and Leuelma, who has watched
over the mansion for more than a decade, offers a
different perspective on the spirits. She tells visitors these aren't
evil or mean spirits. They're just the people who lived
in the mansion when a loved one passes away. Okay,
what do we tell them? Go be with Grandma, Go
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be with grandpa. Well, you know what, they're all together,
The whole Peerce family is here. Still. People call Marion
saying somebody is in the mansion windows. She says, technically
they're not wrong, but it's no one living. As the escape,
Pierce haunted Victorian Mansion begins its new chapter with owners
willing to embrace rather than flee from its paranormal reputation.
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One thing remained certain. Whatever walked those halls one hundred
and fifty years ago, when Sylvester Pierce built his dream home,
is never left. The new owners are purchased not just
a mansion, but a responsibility to maintain one of America's
most actively haunted houses. They've signed the papers knowing full
well that in this house the dead have squatters' rights
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that no earthly court can revoke. The mansion that cast
Sylvester Pearce a fortune to build and has cost every
owner since a fortune to maintain is finally found buyers
who understand what they're really purchasing, not just twenty one
rooms of Victorian grandeur, but a front row seat to
whatever lies beyond the veil between this world and the next.
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If you'd like to read this story for yourself, you
can read it on the Weird Darkness website. I've placed
a link to it in the episode description, and you
can find more stories of the paranormal, true crime, strange,
and more, including numerous stories that never make it to
the podcast, at Weirddarkness dot com slash news