Famed Gardner mansion featured in Yankee Magazine
Nothing like a little regional publicity to help kick off the spooky season.
Gardner’s famed S.K. Pierce Haunted Victorian Mansion is featured in the Sept/Oct issue of Yankee Magazine, which has been documenting culture and lifestyle in New England since 1935. The article, written by Bruce Irving, describes how Victorian mansions became the archetype for the traditional haunted house in the United States. Irving recommends a visit to the S.K. Pierce Mansion for anyone looking to have a spooky good time.
Caretaker Marion Luoma said she welcomed the unexpected publicity.
“It’s awesome because it’s good for the house, especially with the haunted season picking up right now,” she said. “This article should bring us a lot of attention. It’s going to get crazy.”
Friday the 13th event already sold out
The thirteenth of October will fall on a Friday, so naturally there is a scheduled event taking place at the historic home on that scary date, according to Luoma.
Brandie Wells, who describes herself as a “psychic medium,” will lead a meditation followed by an investigation of the mansion.
“She will let guests go through the home to see if it opens up their awareness to the paranormal,” Luoma said.
The event sold out in about 20 minutes, she added.
The rest of the month, Luoma explained, would be set aside for as many tours as possible.
“The tours have picked up a lot over the last month or so,” Luoma explained. “People enjoy the history of the house, they enjoy the ghost part of it, and they enjoy just looking at how beautiful the mansion is, and what a wonderful job (longtime curator Kenneth Watson) did restoring it. But the spookiness is a big part of it.”
About the S. K. Pierce mansion
The three-story house was built in 1875 by Westminster resident Sylvester Knowlton Pierce, who owned the S.K. Pierce Chair Factory across the street. A tunnel was built under the road so that Pierce could visit his factory on rainy days and not get wet, and to carry steam heat from the factory into the home during the colder months.
The mansion, which was entered into the National Register of History Places in 2022, has been featured in several popular ‘ghost-hunting’ television shows over the years, and has become a favorite destination for historians, architecture buffs, and paranormal investigators from around the world.
The historic house was also featured in the 2022 Tubi reality film, “Dead Hot: The Season of the Witch,” starring Vanessa Hudgens and Georgia Magree.
This article originally appeared on Gardner News: S.K. Pierce Haunted Victorian Mansion Yankee Magazine Spooky Season
