SK Haunted Victorian Mansion — Local services in Gardner

This mansion definitely has a lot of history. Our guide was very knowledgeable and provided our group with a lot of information. I have been in places where people have died before and I have experienced things in such places. Although I experienced some vertigo, heaviness, and "waviness," as I call it in the basement, and in the kiln room, in particular, where the bones of a young girl were said to have been found by the previous owner, Lillian, and my husband experienced light-headedness, vertigo, and a headache in Ellen's room and Sylvester's room, we felt that it was difficult to feel the spirits in the house, because as part of a large tour group, there was a lot of noise and activity from the living tourists talking and moving around in the house, which may have caused the spirits to remain quiet and "hide in the shadows," pun intended. We were told the tour was over and immediately shuttled out the door at 8:30 pm sharp following a 7 pm tour. As our tour ran a bit overlong, we only had 10 minutes for independent exploration. I do wish that we had more time to explore the house independently. Our guide wasted no time at all turning off lights, locking up, and leaving post haste. It would be nice if we could book private tours, and we'd love to be able to spend the night. I will say that I feel that a couple of female spirits conveyed to me that the tragedies they suffered in that house were somewhat different than what other investigators thought they knew. Sylvester was said to be a philanderer. Susan, Sylvester's first wife, was said to have died from a mysterious infection that became a flesh-eating bacterial disease, which affected her face and hands mere weeks after the house's construction was completed in the mid-1870's, which is well before penicillin was discovered as a cure for many infections (look up gummatous syphilis, which can affect the face and hands as a late-stage complication before death). It is said that a woman is heard asking, "Where is my baby?” As we were told that the head nanny died following a miscarriage, I do believe that she was not given proper medical attention during the tragedy and is not fully aware of what happened to her or her baby all those years ago, and has spent more than a hundred years wandering in search of her baby. The tour was definitely among one of the highlights of our trip to New England. The mansion is absolutely beautiful. Given that the price was something of a bargain at the time, it's easy to see why Edward and Lillian bought the house some 15 years ago with the intention of restoring it to its original luster. If Lillian was possessed and she and Edward experienced malicious paranormal activity, it's also easy to understand why they moved out after only 2 years, and eventually sold it asap. Highly recommended. We would do it again if in New England...

My girlfriend and I traveled from my house in Salem, NH to Gardner, Mass which is an hour and three minutes. It probably took us a bit longer considering traffic. Now, I checked out their website prior to suggesting this location. Nothing on the website does it say anything about contacting a woman named Marion (gatekeeper) for tours. NOTHING. It doesn’t even say you have to pay to go inside. We didn’t want to spend the night so obviously we didn’t need to contact anyone for a reservation. I had to go digging through the mansion’s Facebook page to even find out who this Marion person was. That’s when I found out that this paranormal investigator paid $65. We aren’t investigators either. We just wanted a tour. So, would we have had to pay $65 in total or per person, we weren’t told that information on the website or in person. For a place that’s supposed to be the haunted mansion in America, wouldn’t you have a better website? When we arrived Marion stood in the doorway and asked who we were and what we were doing there. Usually when a place has business hours it’s opened to the public so we thought we could go in. She said no, it’s a private residence, and that a tour from Las Vegas was coming and we could come back tomorrow. I just felt the whole situation was very unprofessional. Why did the only contact number belong to a man named Ralph then if we have to go through Marion? Why didn’t it have her cell phone number or even an email to contact Marion directly and not the mansions company email? If we needed to schedule a tour, why wasn’t it specified on the website? We shouldn’t have had to travel over an hour to find that we had to turn around. Don’t waste your time or gas at this place, it didn’t seem like it was haunted by anything other than Marion or the...

Tried making a special day for my girlfriend and I to visit what was said to be “the most haunted place in America” according to its website. I’m from northern Massachusetts and my girlfriend is from southern New Hampshire so it took us an hour/hour and a half to get here. Online claimed it was open 9-5 so we assumed it just like a regular business, we could just walk in. The official website for the mansion did not mention that we needed to schedule a day and time for a tour. Upon arrival, there was no proper parking or entrance for the mansion, the main entrance was locked. We called the number on the website that rang and went to the voicemail of a man named Ralph?! We ended up asking a neighbor about the mansion in case we missed a big sign somewhere on the building. She said that she just saw the owner pull in on the other side of the building. We walked around the building and was greeted by a short woman with blond hair and glasses. She asked if we were with “him” referring to a man and two other women heading towards the building. We said no. She asked us who we were and why we were there stating it was a “private residence.” Once we explained to her why we were there, she told us we needed to speak with her prior to coming as she was the one who set up tours and she was booked for the day by a man and two women that came all the way from LA, California. No where on their website did it say we had to speak to the “supposed owner” and “gatekeeper,” Marion in order to get a tour. Complete waste of time and I would not recommend this to anyone, especially if you’re traveling a long way. Fix your contact info on your website and maybe the mansion wouldn’t be so “empty” as the...