Thursday, July 14, 2011

Preserving the Past-Shingleton House

As part of Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State's ongoing efforts to preserve WV's haunted history and folklore, today's blog will be a little different.  The following story is from the pages of a July 1977 (Volume 19, Number 1) edition of the West Virginia Folklore Journal.  This story was submittd by Vernon Giffin, former Fairmont State College student, of Keyser, West Virginia.


RESTLESS ROOF

At the north end of Armstrong Street extension in Keyser, WV, stands an old two-story, rambling stone house.  This house as used as a prison both by the North and the South, during the Civil War.  At one time, three Northern prisoners were in one of the small cells.  They pried off a piece of roof and hoped to make their escape.  The Southern guards discovered them.  They were given no chance at all, as the guards opened fire, killing all three.  The room was literally smeared with blood from the Union soldiers.

After the war was over this jail or prison was converted into a private dwelling.  From that time (the time it was converted) until about 10 years ago, the owners could not keep the roof on that room.  It would always come off at least once a year at the same place, every time.  But about ten years ago, a family bought the property and had a lot of repair work done.  Now the old stone house seems to rest in peace, at last, for the roof gives this family no more trouble.

The house in question is undoubtedly the Shingleton House, shown above in a 1927 postcard.  Today, the house is still standing, and is known locally as the Old Stone House, and is owned by the Mineral County Historical Foundation.  The Old Stone House was built sometime between 1810 and 1815 by Edward McCarty.

A Guide to Haunted West Virginia offers the above version of this story, as long as another version of the tale, involving the murder of seven Confederate soldiers.

7 comments:

  1. House is privately owned--no0t by the Historical Society. The scoiety owns Traveller's Rest, another stone house.

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    1. Thank you for the update; with this location, I know some of the info is outdated, and I'll work to correct it! Thanks again!

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    2. The house is currently owned by the Urice Family not the historical society. I plan to join the historical society and hopefully get this beautiful mansion landmarked as a historical sight in Keyser. My name is Betty Urice and I live in the upper part of the Stone House top 2 stories on the side that faces the Potomac River. If you need any more history about the Stone House feel free to contact me. My children and their cousins have done several projects on it including the history of families who have lived there over the years.

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  2. A family friend owns that home. I have spent many a night in the basement that was converted to a rec room. Privately owned by the Urice Family. No indications of haunting. The story we were told growing up that there was sightings of an apparition of a revolutionary soldier standing on road by home seen at night. I also understood that home was used as a hospital during civil war.

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  3. i am a resident of this house. ghost hunters visited once and got high paranormal activity detections. story of a little girl who fell from top stairs, a man who drank to death, a story of slaves who investigated a coffin in the attic floorboards by the chimney that was empty but still had bloodstains, a song whistler in the basement...

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  4. I believe you are getting 2 stone houses mixed up. The Shingleton house is in Keyser on rt 46 near the railroad tracks and the other is on Rt 50 in Burlington. The Shingleton stone house is owned by the Urice family. The Stone House/Travellers Rest (Rt 50) is owned by the Mineral County Historical foundation. Though may be similar in photos, when you see them in person, there is a difference.

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    1. Thanks for the info! This blog post is slated for a major re-write and hopefully I can correct all the errors. It was written back before this particular blog existed, and therefore, back in a time when there weren't many good, reliable resources online for the location.

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