Boo! Historic Shippen Manor in Oxford to be featured on national TV show 'Ghost Hunte

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Boo! Historic Shippen Manor in Oxford to be featured on national TV show 'Ghost Hunte
July 10, 2010
NJ.com

OXFORD — Shippen Manor, an 18th-century iron master’s residence, is listed on both the State and National Registers of Historic Places. It’s also, according to local residents and amateur and professional ghost hunters alike, a place haunted by the paranormal. For years, “ghost walks” have been held at the manor, evening events open to the public in which psychics guide visitors from room to room while describing what types of paranormal activity they sense is taking place. The buzz generated by these tours, combined with the manor’s rich 250-year history, have each done its part to not only bring visitors to Shippen Manor Museum, but also to have the site featured on an upcoming episode of the national TV-hit show “Ghost Hunters.”
Once beyond the old latched door into Shippen Manor, it’s long-time historian and curator Andy Drysdale’s job to educate these visitors on what’s really gone on behind the manor’s stone façade over the years. The Shippens, the family the manor was named for, were a wealthy, prominent Philadelphia family who founded Oxford Furnace, the town’s historical name, in 1741. Dr. William Shippen, the family patriarch, was a self-taught physician. Dr. Shippen was a delegate of the Continental Congress and it’s rumored that he counted Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, George Washington, and Generals Gage, Howe, and Lafayette as patients. The Georgian-style stone mansion was built in 1754 by Dr. Shippen, for his son, Joseph Shippen, and at one time the estate consisted of thousands of acres.
Now a museum, Shippen Manor still holds a commanding place in the town of Oxford, on a south-facing hill overlooking the town.
From the mid-eighteenth century through the early-twentieth century the ironworks of Oxford fueled New Jersey’s development as a major industrial center. The Oxford Furnace produced a variety of iron products, and legend has it the furnace even made cannonballs for George Washington’s army during the Revolutionary War. In the 19th century, the furnace passed into the hands of William Henry, and then the Scranton brothers, for whom the Pennsylvania city is named. It was bought and sold several more times before the house was restored and the Shippen Manor Museum opened in 1995.
Information about the manor was also discovered over time through archaeological excavations and through inventories, letters, wills, and diaries. Thousands of artifacts have been recovered that help tell the story of the manor’s history. According to Drysdale, the Shippens provided the furnace workers with not only employment, but also a communal type of atmosphere. Despite its commanding place on the hill, the Shippens did not preside over their employees as much as they did create a large family. The cellar kitchen was used as a commissary for workers, serving two meals a day. The fireplace incorporates large, unique bake oven and probably furnished bread for the entire community.
The long history of the site and the prominence of the many people who have passed through its doors may be what have led groups like The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) to visit Shippen Manor and investigate for paranormal activity. TAPS is non-profit group founded in 1990 by Rhode Island plumbers Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson with a mission helping anyone with questions pertaining to paranormal phenomena and ghost hunting. In 2004, the organization itself became the subject of “Ghost Hunters,” a reality television show on the Syfy channel. Each show brings the team to a different location the U.S., where they explore the site throughout the episode, and declare whether there is truly a paranormal presence. The TAPS web site says its team “promises to bring professionalism, personality, and confidentiality to each case [they] investigate.”
This past spring, the big black and yellow TAPS vans, well-known to followers of the TV show, rolled through Oxford and up the hill, its passengers planning to investigate the rumors and claims of ghost sightings in the old mansion. With the vans came groups of people who stood outside the mansion in the snow during the team’s stay, hoping to catch a glimpse of a ghost sighting or perhaps hear a scream or two.
The team brought various recording devices to the manor, setting them up in different rooms and leaving them to record from 3 p.m. to about 2 a.m. on the first day, and at various times for a few days afterwards. They interviewed each staff member and volunteer for any strange stories or unexplainable occurrences they may have been experienced. The goal of the TAPS team was to recreate and debunk any personal experiences the staff had in an attempt to find good evidence either for or against paranormal activity.
Drysdale himself, when asked, admits to experiencing a couple seemingly unexplainable situations at the manor. The doors at the back of the manor of period door latches and knobs, and one door in particular only opens from the inside. “The door, when it latches, makes a very distinct metallic sound. I’ve heard it hundreds of times, of course,’ says Drysdale. “Once, when I was in the manor all alone, I heard that door open and close. I went to the room immediately but no one was there of course. I still have no explanation for it.”
Drysdale also describes another eerie incidence. “At the time this happened, I was putting together artifacts for a Civil War exhibit. I happened to open a cupboard [in one of the offices] and I found a Civil War-era furniture tag, belt buckle, and fork and spoon — items a soldier would have used. I had never seen them before, and as the items were fairly valuable, I couldn’t imagine anyone just leaving them there. I did call some colleagues of mine who had recently been in the Manor, asked around, talked to everyone and anyone who could have possibly left them there. I explored every avenue I could think of.”
But in the end there was no explanation for the items. They seemed to just simply appear there.
What does Drysdale think of all this? He isn’t sure. He simply says, “It’s either a world of wonder, or it isn’t.”
Drysdale won’t say if the Ghost Hunters found anything during their visit; he doesn’t want to spoil the show’s ending. The Shippen Manor Museum episode is set to air in September, so keep an eye on your local television listings. Drysdale suggests you come see the manor for yourself, too. You’ll definitely learn a lot of interesting local history, and perhaps a little something about the paranormal, too. Check out the Warren County Cultural & Heritage Commission’s web site at wcchc.org for more information on the manor.