Marlton may not be alone from supernatural presence. According to employees of the Center for the Arts in Southern New Jersey, when they think they’re alone in the gallery, they aren’t always by themselves.
Jacob Evens, one of the original settlers in Evesham, built the brick house in 1785.
“It was the home of Thomas and Mary Evans,” said Ann Macready, executive director and special events director of the arts center. “Mary and Thomas had children and the home remained in the family for 165 years until the property was sold to the Jaggards, another prominent family in Evesham.”
The property was purchased by Evesham Township in the mid-1950s. Eventually, the home had reconstructive and restoration work done, and in 1999 the Center for the Arts moved in.
“The building is owned by the township now it’s a historic site, it cannot be sold,” Macready said.
Those who work in the Center for the Arts occasionally work late, and have encountered a different kind of visitor.
“I’ve had teachers tell me Raymond Ballinger married one of the Evens girls,” said Janice Mason, an art teacher at the Center for the Arts and founder of the New Jersey Pastel Painters Society. “It was always called the Evens farm after that. In the 50s, the Jaggard family bought it. I think every once in awhile Raymond shows up because it was never called the Ballinger farm.
“One time, there was a teacher here from seven to nine. He was leaving through the side door and saw a man dressed in a suit. He told the man even though the art reception was over, but he could come in. The man never said anything, just nodded and walked in,” said Mason.
The teacher, Dan Hines has since passed away, and identified the man as Ballinger through old photographs of family members displayed in the kitchen.
“I’ve never seen him and Ann [Macready] has never seen him. We think it’s because we give him credit, it should’ve been called the Ballinger farm if he was running it on his own. So he doesn’t bother us,” said Mason.
“Dan [Hines] was a very reasonable individual, too,” said Macready.
Often times, Macready will stay into the early hours in the morning, occasionally until 4 a.m.
“Several months ago I was upstairs and I heard a ‘hey, how are you?’ and I thought someone wanted me downstairs. So, I went downstairs and asked my volunteer if she needed me. She told me she hadn’t said a word. She hadn’t been upstairs either, I was the second floor all by myself,” said Macready. “It was a clear ‘hey, how are you?’ too.”
Other curious and questionable instances have occurred at the Center for the Arts, and can’t be explained.
“One time we had an exhibit here, it was a pottery display. One of the presentations was a small child’s wooden timeout chair with ‘step on a crack, break my mother’s back’ painted on it,” said Macready. “When I came in one morning, the light directly above it had shattered, but not in the way glass normally shatters. It was just a neat little pile in front of the chair.”
Other teachers at the center have had experiences with possible child apparition.
“One of the teachers talked about a child going from one room to the next upstairs. She had seen a child walk from a room that had its door closed, into another room,” said Macready. “All the children who were in the class had been accounted for, it wasn’t any of them.”
Occasionally, Macready will return to the center and lights turned off the night before will be on the next day.
“Sometimes I’ll say ‘okay guys, stop messing with me.’ I know the teachers [upstairs] can sometimes get to talking to a parent and forget,” Macready said. “But you never know.”
