Williamstown Treasures

Ghost or hoax? You decide! October 31, 2009

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TRICK OR TREAT! It’s Halloween!

 

This post is going to take me awhile in between trick-or-treating children knocking on my door,(making my dog howl like a banshee)! Before I head over to the Halloween Parade, I want to tell you about something I hinted at in my last post. I don’t want to get into the history of Williamstown too much, because I’d like to devote an entire post about that sometime in the near future.

I will just let you know now that this town was not always called Williamstown. Once upon a time, it was called Squankum. Who cares? The word Squankum was given to this area by the Lenni-Lenape, a Delaware tribe, and means “place of evil ghosts.” That phrase was supposedly coined due to the massive amounts of mosquitoes in the area. 

…Or was it?

According to the South Jersey Ghost Research Group, Williamstown has a few ghosts in a couple familiar places.

The Grand Theatre on Main Street

Did you ever drive by the Grand Theatre on Main St.? The Road Company hosts plays there, but they know that there is more than a stage and audience in their theater. The S.J.G.R’s website says that there have been sightings of “a full body apparition of a woman walking around the theater.”

The Olde Chapp Candle Co. sign on Main St.

If you ride a little further down Main St., past Holly Glenn Elementary School on the right, you will see the Olde Chapp Candle Co. and Shop. S.J.G.R’s site says that most pictures proved to be  false evidence leading to ghosts.

The Ole Chapp Candle Co.

However, lights were noticed going on by themselves and a drop in temperature of 20 degrees was detected. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the candle company does not appear to have its own website.

One more thing. These local businesses aren’t the only haunted buildings in Williamstown. There are 4 houses listed on S.J.G.R’s website. Although information regarding the owners is not listed, you can read about what was seen at these locations.

The S.J.G.R. group failed to respond to my e-mail, but if you are interested in anything ghost-related and live in the South Jersey area, visit their site.

Happy Hauntings!

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(That wasn’t so bad, now was it?)