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LOCATION:
You can find this privately
owned mansion built on the top of the hill, which overlooks the city of
Clear Spring, which is about 10 miles from Hagerstown, Maryland. Please
respect their privacy, and don't disturb them.
DESCRIPTION & HISTORY:
This grandiose, 36 room brick
and stone mansion was built in 1734 by the Mason family, people of great
importance. In addition to the 36 rooms, there is a hidden chamber located
somewhere in this large mansion that is cursed / possessed, and causes
death to those who find it.
Maryland Governor William
Hamilton and family lived in this rather grand mansion for almost 50 years.
In 1920, the mansion was sold to the Leo Cahill family, who own it to
this day.
MANIFESTATIONS:
Stanford Hall is home to
two ghosts and has a cursed, hidden room.
1) An unknown lady, dressed
in silk, surrounded in a foggy mist, sedately likes to hang out in one
of the first floor rooms, and will float down the back steps to the terrace,
and parade around the perimeter of the terrace and return to her favorite
room, her silk dress rustling all the while.
2) When everyone living has
gone to bed for the evening, the ghost of a man who made illegal moonshine,
rolls a barrel of his finest stuff slowly down the front stairway leading
to the front door.
3) Something evil lurks in
a hidden chamber in the mansion, and has been blamed for the deaths of
two people, who made the effort to find it.
A) In 1924, a magistrate from
Hagerstown, Scott Bower, who was a friend of the family had heard the
rumors about this hidden chamber. With the Cohill's permission he went
on a hunt for it, when all of them were out of the mansion, and actually
found the chamber. He wouldn't discuss this discovery with the Cohills,
but did warn them not to try to find this room again. It was obvious
that he came face to face with something supernatural. He died within
the year.
B) Two years later, in
1926, the young, 9 year old Margaret Cohill became curious about this
hidden chamber, and was known to spend many an afternoon looking for
it. Out of the blue, she suddenly became very ill with heart trouble,
and in the hours before her death, she repeatedly begged her mother
not to ever seek this hidden chamber. She obviously met this ominous
something in this hidden chamber as well.
STILL HAUNTED?
Yes.
Some past mistress of the
mansion, benignly enjoys her beloved home, more than willing to graciously
share her abode with the living.
Not much is known about the
ghostly moonshiner. Perhaps he lived during the time when George Washington
and the Congress enacted a liquor tax, and law officials prosecuted people
making their own distilled brew. Or he could've lived during the early
1920's - '30's, during the prohibition era. Why he haunts the front stairs
is a mystery.
No one else has been reported
of dying after finding this hidden chamber, perhaps because PEOPLE now
believe that the old saying, "Curiosity killed the cat," applies
to this secret chamber. No one knows how or why this chamber is possessed
/ cursed. Because the living have the use of Stanford Hall's 36 known
rooms, they are willing to let whatever is lurking in this secret chamber
possess this room, as it is content to stay there.
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