For those unfamiliar, Wikipedia is an open source encyclopedia. Given our readers demographic here at The Liberty Line, I’m sure all of you little cheaters have used Wikipedia for every college essay you have ever written, and I certainly don’t blame you. Wikipedia has over six million articles and is a beautiful gift to lazy writers such as yours truly.

Come with me as we journey on Beercan Brain’s Weird Wikipedia tour of Philadelphia

This week’s destination: Baleroy Mansion- The most haunted house in America.

These past few weeks, it feels like all anybody in this city can talk about is booing. Is it right to boo? Is it wrong to boo? Who should you boo? Well let’s talk about a different kind of booing today. The ghostly kind.

“The Baleroy Mansion is a 32-room estate located in the historic and affluent Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It has obtained the title of “Most Haunted Home in America” due to its alleged infestation of spirits, ghosts, jinns, demons, angels or other supernatural beings. The mansion has been featured in a number of TV shows and books that deal with haunted houses. Others have described it as “the most haunted house in Philadelphia”. The name “Baleroy” was chosen by its owner George Meade Easby, great-grandson of General George Meade (hero of the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War). The estate’s name was likely derived from Balleroy in France.” via Wikipedia

Wild stuff. I personally, had never heard of this place until I absentmindedly googled “Philadelphia Wikipedia hauntings” in response to being berated by Liberty Line boss Drew Smith about my low page views. I figured everyone loves weird Wikipedia articles and man, this one is weird.

It really is crazy how you can live in a city your entire life and never know how close you are to a bunch of ghost celebrities. Not the ghosts of famous people, Los Angeles has those types of ghosts. We have ghosts that got famous for being ghosts which is honestly, the right way for ghosts to gain notoriety.

The stories from the house are pretty chilling. They start off with this doozy:

“After the Easbys moved into this large and spacious estate in 1926, George Meade Easby and his younger brother (May Stevenson Easby, Jr., 1920-1931) were playing one day in the courtyard of the mansion and laughing at their reflections in the main courtyard fountain, when Steven’s reflection turned into a skull.”

Of course poor May died some unspecified amount of time after he saw his own skull. Talk about a rough hand to be dealt. You start off being a boy named “May.” Then you have to get entertainment from staring at a fountain. And once you start to enjoy that, BAM, you’re staring at the searing spectre of death himself.

Kids 100 years ago had it rough.

Later in the article we find out that “May” prefers to go by Steve and is still haunting the place to this day. Guess he really liked that fountain that showed him his own death.

“Steven’s full-body spirit has been said to haunt his room and that Easby supposedly encountered it when he was a child. A number of people have claimed to have seen the ghost of Steven lurking around them.”

To think we haven’t even talked about the “Chair of death.”

“In the infamous blue room of the mansion, a 200-year-old blue chair known as the “chair of death” is said to be cursed. It has been said that when someone sits in it, the person dies. About four people are said to have died, and Easby then banned people from sitting in the chair. The chair was said to be owned by Napoleon. It has been said that the chair is haunted by the ghost of Amanda, a red mist that is said to kill people who sit in the chair. The chair is said to have been made by an evil warlock in the 18th/19th century.”

What?! Who is accepting a chair made by an evil warlock? And why is the “red mist” named “Amanda.” I guess on top of being evil, the chair is sexist as well. Absolutely gross.

Why would Napoleon go through the trouble of asking a warlock to just make a chair? He probably could have used a heads up about Waterloo. Poor use of resources on his part.

Now if you’re a serious ghostbuster like me, you probably are dying to go check this place out. Unfortunately someone bought it and closed the place to the public.

Why would you buy a place with a bunch of ghouls and that wants to show you your own death? I don’t know. I’m guessing when you can afford a 32-room mansion in Chestnut Hill, you have slightly different concerns than some dead kid saying “Boo.”

Mandatory Credit: thishauntedplace.com