Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Staten Island's Most Haunted House pt 2 ?




I did not write these stories they are written by others and refer to their own experiences*

Mike says:
May 9, 2006, 12:00 pm
THE CONFRENCE HOUSE has much more activity. When I was a Teen we used to hang out there all hours of the night….one night we were on the front steps of the Confrence house ,like we did many times. But just in front of us about 70-100 feet we saw what looked like a Priest walk over from the Big tree thats in front of the house. He didnt say a word and kind of floated, well lets just say we didnt stick around very long. There also have been reports of people who walk the Cliffs to the left of the house have seen what appears to be Native Americans,and also claim to hear drums.

Cap says:
September 7, 2007, 7:53 pm
I can believe that strange things happen in the Conference House. Forty years ago ( or so ) I was a kid growing up on the Island and had made 2 visits to the house. Once with my school and once with my family. I remembered that I had gotten sick to my stomach on Both occasions and at the same locations in the house. At the “closed up” entrance to the “hidden” tunnel in the cellar and also on the stair landing above the first floor. I vaguely remembered these experiences through my early adulthood but never gave them much thought through the years. Having since moved away from the Island, I found a book on New York Hauntings by Hans Holzer about 10 years ago. When I got to the chapter on the Billop House and Conference house I had not really though too much about it until I read about two different places that Apparitions seemed to appear.
One on the stair landing where an apparent murder was reported as taking place a hundred years ago and the other site –the tunnel entrance where wounded soldiers died enroute into the house from their clandestine missions. That put a chill into my spine and has ever since. 

Curtis Dunlap says:
October 27, 2007, 2:00 am
I have a couple pictures of actual ghosts around that properity there pretty damn good pictures to when you look at them close up and mess with the coloring ,skulls,3 diff spirits one with a black shirt one red and one like ablueish and you can also see what apears to be a full body and a faceless head only with eyes its truel incredible nyhcthreat18 im me at @ or mail me if you wanna see them there great

leeanne says:
March 4, 2008, 11:53 am
i am a total beiliever! i was there a couple of times.the last time i went inside the house i took pictures and theres faces in the mirror in two of the bedrooms! 0_o…and if your there a night,look in th middle window of the top floor,you could see someone,also iff your standing or siting on the pier of lawn of the house @ night,you will hear a womer cry.thats no joke!

• The site of a failed Revolutionary War peace treaty attempt, the Conference House is believed to be one of the most haunted spots on Staten Island. The manor house and surrounding land are said to host apparitions of British soldiers, a young boy, and a woman on horseback.


 We did go to the Conference House park, but not into the house. The CH does not answer requests for investigations from us or any other group that I know of that tried. One other group went during their daytime public tours, but that's it. That doesn't mean I've given up, but there aren't any plans to enter yet! The CH park, by the way, was pretty strange. Cameras wouldn't work, we captured many voices, etc. We actually had someone with us who claimed to be a psychic and she got lots of impressions. Doesn't hold too much weight in our book, but definitely interesting. We posted some of the EVP's here:
http://siparanormalsociety.tripod.com/ConferenceHouse.html



when i was younger i used to go to the conference house park a lot (back then it wasnt a park, just the grounds of the house). kristi its funny u mention being creeped out in the basement because a few kids i used to see around there would swear they saw weird things happen in the basement when looking through the outside window. i looked through those windows for a long time and never saw anything, but maybe there was something to it. people also used to tell a story about a bloodstain on the second floor that only appeared when there was a full moon. again, i never believed it and never saw it, but it would be a great place to investigate, if ever given the chance.

When I was a teenager we used to hang out at the conference house alot.... The weird things don't happen at the House itself ...they happen in the woods and grounds around it. We would always hang out on the Cliffs it's on the left side of the conference house... It's old Indian Trails. There is also 2 hidden wells in the woods there where it is said that bodies were found at the bottom when they dried up. I had one experience there that freaked me out....One night about 1 A.M. 3 of us were walking down the cliffs to the grass that goes up to Hylan Blvd. We usually always checked before we came down because cops would sometimes be there ...So we saw that there were no cops and we came down to the lawn. Just as we did my friend pointed out asking what is that when we looked it looked like a Priest hovering about a foot off the ground, not looking at us at all he just started to move toward an old tree That is still there in the front of the house.Well we didn't stick around to check it out we ran like hell. We also have found Pentagrams , animal sacrifice's and other weird things in those woods surrounding the conference house....Check out the surrounding parts , not the actual House It's not haunted
Tour the Billopp House (also known as the Conference House) in Tottenville, a Staten Island neighborhood located at the southwestern extremity of the borough. The last pre-revolution house in existence in New York City, the Billopp house is home to several ghosts, including a little boy that's believed to be Christopher Billopp's grandson, a British guard that continues to stand on duty, servants that blow out candles and rearrange furniture, and a young woman that stares intently out of a second-story window. While touring the inside of the house, listen carefully for mysterious knocks, coughs, sneezes and footsteps. While exiting the property, take note of the large knoll located within the vicinity of the Billop House. This knoll once held the remains of many Native Americans. Since the remains were exhumed in 1897 by a retired Army General, there has been an increase in paranormal activity on the property

according to reports disembodied laughter and invisible voices have been heard coming from the upstairs bedrooms.  There have been reports of seeing a large man running up the stairs toward a girl waiting on the first landing.  As the story goes the cantankerous Capt. Billopp killed a female slave with a crooked knife on that very spot. Hans Holzer, noted parapsychologist, wrote about his findings in great detail in Great American Ghost Stories. He writes that Mrs. Malone, a former caretaker, reported seeing what appeared to be a British soldier.  Psychics feel the Conference House basement kitchen was used as a hospital during the Revolutionary War and British soldiers were buried on the property. This might explain the sighting of Revolutionary War soldier apparitions in the house and garden. There has also been other sightings including a servant girl who fell down a dry well shaft on the property and a child whose body was sealed in a wall.  The child was a victim of a contagious and fatal disease. His parent feared the British soldiers might kill them if their son’s illness was discovered decided to seal his body in a wall of the house. (taken from the book  ‘Haunted History of Staten Island’ written by Lynda Lee Macken)

Justin Malone says:
December 28, 2008, 5:44 pm
I lived in this house for 3 years..(1975-1977)…and what I became “friends” with was a soldier who had died on the grounds. My brother was the first baby to be born in the house in 200 years on January 9, 1977…after he arrived the unusual activity increased…we moved to the corner of Bently and Craig a few months later.






John N. says:
April 29, 2009, 12:21 am
I have studied and been to many of the haunted places in staten island and acctually studied the para normal. In all my studies I can say this, the whole stretch from the beaches of the confrence house to the end of the block which stretches out for about 1000 feet is said to be haunted. The legend is when two lovers go by the conference house Indians ride on horse back can be seen. Also revolutionary soliders and their wives can be seen walking by the water (which thank to certian women cannot be done at night anymore). I tried to interview the woman who lives in the house and i was told by her there is no way she will tell me about the house.


At one point a demonstration of yarn spinning was scheduled in a room and after the props were set up, the house was vacated and its doors locked for the night. The following day it was discovered upon returning that yarn and related materials were tossed about all over the room. Another manifestation seem in the children's room centers around a tour guide who - upon entering the room one day - saw the indentation of a handprint on the bed located there. Stranger still, was the woman's observing the print begin to fade away while she looked on.
There are also two related stories that have Col. Billopp stabbing a disobedient (or sexually unwilling) female servant with the poker from a fireplace and that of a nanny named Elizabeth whose had fallen in love with a local farmer, inciting anger in Col. Billopp who felt she had been "stolen" away from him. He immediately put out a warrant for her arrest. Elizabeth would eventually grow despondent over her husband's death some years later and hang herself. It is surmised that at least one of these three women haunt the Conference House.

Another spirit spotted has been that of a British soldier, in full redcoat dress. His ghost was seen by the young son of a Conference House caretaker sometime in the 1970s. The boy told his parents the soldier had woken him from sleep and patted him on his head. At first dismissing the story, the parents were nonetheless intrigued by their young son's all-too-accurate description of the uniform which a Tory soldier would wear in that era. In fact, there have been sightings of numerous British soldiers walking the grounds over the years.

3 comments:

  1. Every word of these stories of ghosts and spirits at the Conference House have and will be utter nonsense as well as fairy tales spun out of control. There has never been any factual historical records of any British soldier nor any Hessian German soldiers dying at the conference house during the years of 1776 thru 1783. None. Christopher Billopp had never cheated on his wife with any servant at all nor did a child ever get buried in any of the walls or grounds at this location. I can telll you that these ghost stories did start after 1820. Before hand, nothing. There wasnever any arrest warrant put out for a servant named Elizabeth. No evidence has been come forward about this either. M.K. Morris as well as William T. Davis have researched the records of this house and nothing comes forward on ghosts.

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  2. From an article in the New-York Daily Tribune, December 29, 1901 entitled, "STATEN ISLAND LEGENDS. FIRST WHITE MAN KILLED ON THE KILL VON KULL – HOW LIFE OF INDIAN CHIEF WAS SAVED – DUELS OF BRITISH OFFICERS." ... (Part I)

    Staten Island came near to being a part of New-Jersey politically as well as geographically, and then greater New-York would have been consider-ably less in size. There is a vigorous legend about the way in which the island was saved to the Empire State from New-Jersey oblivion.

    The discussion over the ownership of the island came up some time after the Duke of York had taken possession of the Manhattan colony. In order to settle the dispute he decreed that all islands lying in the river and harbor which could be circumnavigated in twenty-four hours should remain a part of New-York. Then his agents began to look about for a skipper who would undertake to sail around Staten Island in that time. It was a delicate task, with a great reward if successful, and no little penalty if not.

    “Sail around Staten Island in one day!” exclaimed the ship captains who were approached on the matter. “It can’t be done.”

    “And why can’t it?” demanded Captain Christopher Billopp.

    “There’s not enough water for a big ship,” said his fellow seamen.

    “I’ll wager any sum you please that I can do the trick with the Bentley,” said Billopp, looking out into the harbor, where his trim little vessel was at anchor.

    She drew much water in spite of her size, and the other captains hastened to make the wagers. They thought they were sure of winning, but they did not know Captain Billopp.

    He gathered up all the empty casks he could find and stood them on the deck of the ship. The rival captains laughed and called him a fool, but he sailed down the island shore as confident as ever. They intended to go down the Kill and help him get off the shallow bar which ran across it, where they were sure he would stick.
    The Bentley made fast time, and rounded the Tottenville end of the island with an hour to spare. The empty barrels had caught much wind that the high sails would have missed. Just before he got to the shallow water Billopp lowered his sails and spent a valuable hour lashing the casks to the side of the vessel. In this way he lessened her draught more than half a foot, which was enough to clear the sand-bar. He was back in the harbor twenty-three hours after the start, and Staten Island has been a part of New-York ever since.

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  3. From an article in the New-York Daily Tribune, December 29, 1901 entitled, "STATEN ISLAND LEGENDS. FIRST WHITE MAN KILLED ON THE KILL VON KULL – HOW LIFE OF INDIAN CHIEF WAS SAVED – DUELS OF BRITISH OFFICERS." ... (Part II)

    Of course, Captain Billopp was rewarded, and generously. He received a grant of 1,163 acres on the extreme southwestern part of the island. He called it the Manor of Bentley, and upon it erected a manor house which stands to-day much as it was two hundred and more years ago. He became a man of prominence, and held office until dismissed by Governor Andros for “misconducting himself by making extravagant speeches in public.” Then he sailed for England in the Bentley, and according to the legend, the ship and all hands were lost at sea. History would have it that he died amore natural death, but old residents who believe that the island would have been better off under New-Jersey rule insist that the man who gave the island to New-York was drowned.

    The Bentley Manor House stands at the lower end of the island facing Perth Amboy. Its main walls are built of native stone, and their thickness of three feet accounts for its good condition to-day. Its interior was not decorated like most Colonial houses, but there is a big brick vault in the cellar which was once responsible for a hidden treasure story. In the loft, where the Billopp slaves used to be quartered, there is said to be a spot on the floor which cannot be washed out. It is the lasting evidence of a murder. But it is an incident of the Revolution, rather than these things that throws a halo around the old mansion.

    In one of the front rooms Lord Howe, who commanded King George’s forces, met a committee from the Continental Congress after the Battle of Long Island in an effort to effect a peace. There are people on the island who give details of the long discussion and of the sharp answers which were given him by the Colonial leaders. It ended thus, according to the local account:

    “Bah! you are not fit to be independent,” cried Lord Howe, in a fine rage. “We will crush you in no time.”

    To which replied the representatives of the Colonies: “We are fit to take care of ourselves as you will learn very soon.”

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