The Mansion was built in 1671 by Ub van der Iwerks, a Dutch burgermeister. He chose the site on a hill overlooking the river despite warnings from the town elders that he was desecrating a sacred Indian burial ground. Construction was plagued by freak accidents, causing laborers to become scarce. The burgermeister finished the bricklaying himself, stubbornly seeing the project through to completion. He moved his family in on October 31, 1671. Details of what happened next are sketchy. . .apparently Ub went mad and sealed himself in a tomb in the adjacent graveyard. What is clear is that the van der Iwerks family abandoned the house.
In the decades that followed, the Mansion served as a pirate’s hangout, a brothel, and an army barracks. Those buried in the Mansion’s graveyard are only a sample of the many that died on the premises.
In 1871, the deed passed to Colonel Ronald Stevens, a wealthy publisher, in the winning from a riverboat card game. The Colonel began an extensive renovation of the Mansion, which was as ill fated as its original construction had been. When Fred, a stonemason, was killed by a falling rock, Colonel Stevens took over the stonecutting himself. He moved his family in on October 31, 1871. Shortly thereafter, the Colonel lost his mind. Neglecting his lithography business, Colonel Ronald Stevens spent his last days carving his name backwards on tombstones. He finally died in a boiler explosion. The remaining bits of him were buried under each of the gravemarkers inscribed SNEVETS NOR.
The Stevens family sold the Mansion to the American Spiritualist Society, which used it as a retreat. The Society converted one of the rooms into a seance circle, which was used nightly to summon departed spirits from far and wide. They had logged over 900 contacts by the time the Society was disbanded in 1914. The trustees then sold the Mansion to Master Graceys father.
George Gracey, Sr., bought the Mansion for use as the Graceys’ winter home. After George was murdered, his widow sold the Gracey estate, except for the Mansion, which Master Gracey inherited.
(direct from the good ghouls at the Ghost Gallery)
