Submitter: Paranormal Pymatuning
Subject: Spirits & Ghosts & History’s Mysteries
Location: Jamestown, PA Gibson House-Mark Twain Manor
Paranormal Pymatuning’s submission:
This is a found article from the Harold dating October 14, 2015 by Melissa Klaric, Herald Staff Writer.
Things go ‘bump in the night’ in Jamestown’s Gibson House
JAMESTOWN – Legends about things that go “bump” in the night abound at the historic Gibson House-Mark Twain Manor, the perfect place to visit to get into the spirit of Halloween.
“The place is full of history and stories and some great legends,” Jennifer Clark, event director of the ghost tour, said.
Legends of a ghost named Victoria whom people claim to have seen roaming the grounds …
Underground railroad tunnels and a secret room that may have hidden away slaves …
A lantern that no longer exists but has been seen flickering in the belvedere as it did for Civil War soldiers long ago …
And many other bangs, creaks and footsteps heard around the house and its detached carriage house.
Passersby have been known to be spooked by a wooden painted figure of a boy and girl that has been moved around from window to window.
“I don’t want to give away all the secrets,” Steve White, walking tour guide, said, as he divulged some of the house’s mysteries.
For the second year, half-hour-long guided walking tours start at 7 p.m. and run until 11 p.m. for the three weekends leading up to Halloween at a fee of $5. There will be psychics, paranormal investigators and a Mark Twain lookalike.
The first year of the tour garnered more than $1,500 for the house.
“We never expected it to be as popular as it was,” Clark said. She is one of 10 to 15 volunteers who lend their time and expertise to the tours.
The house was built by Dr. and Mrs. William H. Gibson in 1856 and was named to the National Register of Historical Places in 1978. Gibson was said to be one of the five richest men in the state at the time and a pioneer in the urinalysis field.
White spoke of an infamous coin collection owned by Gibson and thinks the hideaway room was used to store this and other valuables.
According to White, people have ripped out the floorboards and torn down walls in search of the coin collection.
Others think it may have been buried with the Gibsons, whose tomb looms over the other gravestones in Park Lawn Cemetery, just down the road from the house on Main Street in Jamestown.
It is also said that Mark Twain and Gibson met abroad and that Twain actually stayed at the Gibson House.
Because the house is so much a part of Jamestown’s history, seven community members who feared the house would be demolished got together in 2002 and decided they wanted to restore the manor to its past glory.
The Jamestown Future Foundation Inc., a nonprofit organization under the Community Foundation of Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, purchased the home from Dr. John Steele for $160,000.
Their goal is to transform the historic four-bedroom house into a bed and breakfast and change its nearby carriage house into a library and cultural center.
The foundation refinanced in 2006 to double the principle amount in order to make some much-needed repairs.
“It’s the most forgiving building. It just comes to life when people fill it,” Marguerite Scullin, one of seven founders of the foundation, said.
Contributions can be made to The Jamestown Future Foundation Inc. at: 210 Liberty St., Box 158, Jamestown 16134. Phone: 724-932-5455.
This article is a few years old and the tours are not happening in the 2018 Halloween season, but the parts about Victoria and the flickering lantern still are spooky!
Please, if you have a personal experience with the Gibson House-Mark Twain Manor, let us know. Submit your experience!
*This experience was found and researched by paranormalpymatuning.com. The submission above has not been edited and has been posted as it was found by paranormalpymatuning.com.*