Forget about slasher movies this Halloween, why not check out something that’s really scary and is right in your backyard? Bill Meehan, author of “Haunted Haddonfield” will be offering walking tours of one of the most historic cities in all of New Jersey.
With its roots firmly established prior to the Revolutionary War and several buildings noted on the state’s historic registry, it’s no wonder there have been so many surviving legends in the borough.
Meehan will be escorting groups on Friday, Oct. 21 and Saturday, Oct. 22 beginning at 7 p.m. at the steps of the Haddonfield Historic Society, 343 Kings Highway East. The author will share legends and stories researched for his book, “Haunted Haddonfield,” during the Halloween tour. He will also be hosting the tour on Friday, Oct. 28 and Saturday, Oct. 29.
All proceeds from ticket sales for the tour will be donated to the Haddonfield Public Library and the historic society, Meehan said, much like the profits from his book are donated directly to the historic society as well.
This is the 10th year the local historian has been giving the walking tours and the 11th since his book was published.
A member of the baby boomer generation and a resident of Haddonfield, Meehan said he and his wife always felt badly that their children couldn’t experience trick or treating during the nighttime like they had when they were children. By the time night came around on Halloween, Meehan said the day was practically over.
“For our generation, it was really a different world. We were able to trick or treat at night. We had lived here for a while and we felt sorry for our daughter because we had always trick or treated at night. It was always done at night when we were kids, it added something to the season,” he said.
Taking their love of the season and Haddonfield, Meehan and his wife started to host a formal Halloween party each Halloween night, inviting their friends and family to their home to celebrate the holiday.
In 2000, after taking over the entertainment duties from his wife, Meehan unveiled his first haunted Haddonfield tour for his party guests, as the costumed ghouls and goblins piled into a rented school bus and drove through the streets of Haddonfield, listening to Meehan recite various legends and hauntings that he had researched at the library and historic society.
“One of our guests, a commissioner in Haddonfield at that time asked me what I was going to do with all of the material I used for the tour. He said, ‘this is too good, you can’t put it in the drawer and forget about it, you ought to do this as an annual event for the benefit for the library and historical society’,” Meehan said. “It was a great idea, so in 2001 we had our first year. I started to collect more and more stories, but now people started to approach me in the Acme and other places to tell me their own stories about the town.”
Now, Meehan tours around each Halloween season with groups of up to 150 visitors to share the spooky history of several locations and buildings in town. One of his favorite stories, Meehan said, is for the brick house on 227 Kings Highway East. The three homes at 227, 229, and 231, which still stand on the street today, were built by Judge Clement in the 1830’s for his three daughters, Meehan said.
One of the daughters, who owned 227 Kings Highway East, married into the prominent Hopkins family in the borough. Her husband, Griffith Morgan Hopkins, was the chief operator of the Hopkins Mill. He would entertain local children at the mill by performing tricks above the milling wheel, jumping and swinging from rafters for their amusement. However, one day, Meehan said Hopkins lost his balance and fell into the mill and was crushed by the milling wheel, leaving his wife to raise five children at the house by herself.
The last surviving child lived at the house in 1917, Meehan said, and in the 1920’s the home was sold to another family. The family didn’t last long, as the owners claimed the home was “cursed,” and living there made them feel “miserable and anxious.”
“Even to this day, people working there have been saying for many years that there is a cold spot in what was the dining room of that house, in the hottest day it’s freezing cold,” Meehan said. “When people are working there at night they claim they can hear the voices of a woman and small children when there is nobody in the building.”
Sound interesting? That’s only one of many stories he’ll be sharing this Friday and Saturday. It’s not necessary to buy tickets for the tour in advance, but visitors can purchase tickets at the Haddonfield Public Library, the Historic Society, and the Haddonfield Information Center.
