The Tale of the S.K. Pierce Mansion

A haunted Victorian mansion in Massachusetts

Welcome to the S.K. Pierce Mansion–if you dare to visit, you probably won’t want to stay long…

Located on the corner of West Broadway and Union Street, the mansion looms over surrounding homes within an otherwise unassuming neighborhood in Gardner, Massachusetts.

Standing three stories tall, with a dark grey exterior and black shutters, it commands the attention of passersby.

The classic Victorian architecture makes the S.K. Mansion look as if somebody plucked it off the set of The Addams Family, or that perhaps it is the second home of Norman Bates.

Gardner is known as “The Chair City” due to its once-booming furniture industry.

The Chair King of Massachusetts

And if Gardner was the chair city, then Sylvester Knowlton Pierce was its chair king.

A successful legacy businessman, S.K. Pierce was missing just one thing in his life–the perfect place to call home.

He purchased the plot of land across the street from his furniture factory, demolished the existing property, and then wasted no time, commissioning 100 or so workers to build his dream home.

After nearly two years of continuous work, S.K.’s mansion was completed in 1875.

It was quite large for a family of three— nearly 7000 square feet, with 10 bedrooms, and three baths.

The Home of Your Dreams, And Maybe Also Your Nightmares

The home was immaculately outfitted for the time period when it was built, with gas lighting in every room and running water throughout, but despite its grandeur, it had some creepier features as well.

An enclosed spiral staircase to the fourth level’s widow's walk made for a dizzying ascent, and prevented visitors from seeing what could be lurking a few steps ahead.

Most hair-raising was the underground tunnel that formerly connected the mansion to the Pierce’s furniture factory across the street.

Tragedy Strikes the Pierce Family

Two weeks after the Pierce family moved into their new residence, tragedy struck, and S.K.’s wife, the mother of his child, died from a flesh-eating bacterial infection.

A year later, S.K. would remarry to a woman named Ellen who was 30 years his junior.

Ellen brought with her two young boys, and together the family of five would go on to host several high-profile guests in their home, including artist Norman Rockwell and former U.S. President Calvin Coolidge.

Not much else is known about their lives during this time.

S.K. and Ellen Pierce would both eventually pass away in their home, leaving their three sons to battle for rights to the family business and the house.

The youngest son, Edward, won the dispute and became the house’s next steward, moving his family in shortly thereafter.

A New Steward And Another Tragic Loss

In an eerily similar twist of fate, Edward’s two-year-old daughter tragically passed away in the home due to an infection.

And things did not get easier from there for Edward Pierce.

The Great Depression plunged the formerly affluent family into financial despair, forcing Edward to convert the mansion into a boarding house.

The Mansion Becomes A Boarding House

What was once a dream residence was now the landing pad for all forms of mayhem, debauchery, and at least one death.

In 1963, a 49-year-old World War II veteran named Eino Sauri was burned alive when his mattress mysteriously caught fire.

The room where this occurred was barely damaged, leaving some to believe that Mr. Sauri had spontaneously combusted.

More Death At the Mansion?

While this was the only documented death at the boarding house, local legend suggests that someone murdered a sex worker, leaving her body to decay in the basement.

The bedroom where this alleged crime occurred was known ominously as “the red room.”

While this murder was never confirmed, future homeowners would discover female pelvic bones in the basement.

Life In the Mansion After the Pierces

Later in the 1960s, after years of neglect, Edward was forced to give over ownership of the home to a friend, marking the first time in the home’s history that it was not owned and inhabited by the Pierce family.

In the years that followed, several homeowners came and went, with some reporting significant and at times disturbing paranormal activity on the property.

As the S.K. Mansion began to gain a reputation as a haunted hot spot, it attracted psychics, mediums, ghost hunters, and folks hoping to get a glimpse into the paranormal world.

The Terrifying Hauntings Begin

The most intense ghostly encounters were reported by Edwin Gonzales and Lillian Otero, who owned the home from 2008 until 2015.

After moving in, neighbors told the pair that they enjoyed seeing their small, blonde boy run between the windows.

Only, they didn’t have a son.

And no children had been in their home.

By this time, Edwin and Lillian had been experiencing plenty of paranormal activity firsthand.

Objects in the home seemed to move on their own. Disembodied footsteps could be heard, and doors would slam shut without warning.

Most terrifying of all were their encounters with a shadow figure in the basement described as having female features, long dark hair, and a wide smile.

After uncovering bones in their basement and an alleged possession of Lillian, they abruptly left the property.

Getting to Know the Not-So-Terrifying Ghostly Residents

Despite the menacing nature of some of these hauntings, other spirits that roam the halls of the S.K. Mansion seem far less sinister.

One such spirit is that of Maddie Cornwall, the former nanny of the Pierce children, who psychics and mediums have suggested continues to feel protective over the space and the children she cared for there, or lingers because this was the one place that ever felt like home to her.

Some visitors of the S.K. Mansion have seen childlike apparitions running the halls, hearing giggles from the bedrooms upstairs.

Others have reported a sudden yet fleeting smell of something burning in the room where Eino Sauri perished years before.

Visit The S.K. Pierce Mansion

If you want to experience one of the top ten most haunted homes in the United States, good news: you can tour (and possibly even stay the night!) inside the S.K. Pierce Mansion.

In 2015, an organization called The Dark Carnival purchased the mansion, restoring the property and readying it for ghost-curious guests.

The tours require a signed waiver due to the potential intensity of the experience and the ghosts who haunt it.

So would you dare to visit? Let us know in the comment section below!