Before we reveal the final SKOOKY THINGS of this 2020 season, a few honorable mentions are worth a read..
These are quick little tales that often are not backed up my many news headlines through the years, but their stories have stood the test of time throughout the region..
We are prepping a final Skooky Things finale, but before we get to that.. These items presented for your Halloween season approval:
Number 8: The Yuengling Mansion
The famous Pottsville location is in need of repairs. The building is 107 years old. It was the Yuengling family’s home for decades and is now entered on the National Register of Historic Places. The home was donated in 1978 to the Schuylkill County Council for the Arts. It has been a location of events and weddings since. But now the famous location is in need of repairs. Schuylkill County Council for the Arts is asking for public donations to match the $50,000 pledged by the anonymous donor.
But according to legends, there are haunted moments for the dilapidating location.
Some have alleged that countless EVPs and other spirits have been caught on the third floor. There are stories of house maids catching the spirits of children playing.. There is no active history of any deaths in the location or reasons for a haunting.
Perhaps spirits are cruising for a Lager Light in the pale moonlight at Yuenging Mansion..
Number 7: The Ghost of Jacob Smith
There is not enough text and literature on this story, but we need to mention it ..
It was the late 1800’s.. And boat building was a major occupation along the Schuylkill Canal. But minutes before a launch, a worker named Jacob Smith fell into the waters and was never seen again, at least in human form.
The launch continued on schedule, and the boat almost capsized. Nothing more was made of the incident until 25 years later, when kids playing at Quarry Point spotted a what later became colloquially known as the ghost of Jacob Smith.. Over the years some believed the ghost was spotted.. but over the years there have been few sightings of old Jacob Smith..
Number 6: Penn State Skooky Thingy
There are rumors and hints that several locations at Penn State Schuylkill are haunted..
Cilleti Library is one of those locations.
This is the newest building, put up in 1994 after a $1M capital campaign. But while the bricks may be fresh, the books are old. Some of the tomes were once housed in the former morgue (the basement of the Classroom Building, which was a library before it became a computer center) and it seems as if a few of the ghosts in the morgue moved with them. On the second floor of the library, in the far back on the right is a little study room. Some say that if you sit in the study room while its empty you can hear voices talking about the general state of the asylum.
Number 5: Nativity BVM
There are two stories from this school. One is that when each of the Kennedy’s died, there was a vision of a woman with no eyes, crying blood in the first row of pews of the Chapel. The other goes that during the 1970’s, a visiting priest went up to the third-floor library and he was assisted by a nun and found what he needed. When he came back down he remarked to the principal about the helpful nun in the library. The principal told the padre that they had no nun in the library. In fact the librarian had died recently. When shown a picture in the yearbook, the visiting priest identified the dead nun as the one who helped him. It’s said that four different people vouched for the story.
A fun story…
Number 4: NO REST FOR THE HAVEN
Rest Haven is closed. It is now a nursing home called Rosewood Rehabilitation. We are curious if the new owners and workers are aware the building they inhabit a potentially haunted located..?
The original building was established early 1800’s..It was initially a charitable location for the poor.
The building was later used as a hospital for mental patients, deemed at that time the ‘insane.’
Eventually, Rest Haven was converted into a nursing home..
Some claim to have seen figures playing cards and a ghostly man in dark clothes coming before someone in the nursing home dies.
Number 3: Frackville freaks
A few tales from the city on the mountain as seen on Ghosts of America
There’s a forest with an old abandoned train, and it has an old broken building with ”Satan’s Church” and ”Devil’s Den”. Along with that a girl committed suicide off of the train. Her hoodie is still there.
A ghost of a woman in a field in locust Valley can be seen sitting on the ground near a tree sometimes the lights seem to flicker in the old farm house on the old farm.
Visions of an old woman was seen looking out the windows of a house on north nice St. She would be seen in the windows and just disappear and reappear. And at night strange flashes of light and orbs were seen around this same property.
And neighbors of the property also claimed there is a black cat ghost there that walks around and vanishes in thin air in broad daylight!.
Number 2: St Clair clairvoyance
| The Saint Clair Cemetery is said to be hot bed of paranormal activity. A man has been spotted there., he reportedly does not like children. A local legend from long ago purports: Some say he used to kill them, and if you ever found a mattress, you will see blood on the bottom if you’re next. |
Number 1: The Ghost nun of Cardinal Brennan
The school is closed, but so many once joked about a ‘ghost nun’ that would roam the hallways of the third floor of the school, near the former residential rooms of when it was the all girls Immaculate Heart Academy..
There is no real reason a ghost nun would roam, we can find no real news articles of deaths that occurred at the location through the 20th century.
But we have a personal anecdote to share.
In my freshman year during the mid 1990s, I went to school there.. I was waiting for my mom to pick me up on a cold Thanksgiving Eve in 1995. I can still recall the cold wind howling through the thick pine trees on the property under a dark and cloudy sky with flurries in the air..
I took the chance to ‘illegally’ explore the school after hours and sign my name in on the staircase of the bell tower. I visited old rooms that were long abandoned. I heard several whispers and felt an eerie force that wanted me to leave.
I recall almost running for my life when I heard a strange bang…. ON THE THIRD FLOOR..
Just the other night I came in, I was setting things up in the building. I’m walking down from the second-floor stairs and a door closed slammed shut behind me. So I went back up, just to see if the wind had blown it shut and as I was opening the door, I heard footsteps come running at me down the hallway, but sure enough, when I looked, there was nobody there. So, it’s been interesting
We would LOVE to know if you had any other tales to add to this year list.. Add your comments below if you should so desire.. Perhaps next year your THING will be in the 2021 Skooky Things … 🙂
