Could Town Hall be haunted? Former cemetery on site could hold answers
The almshouse on what would become property currently occupied by Town Hall. Photo courtesy: Town of Dartmouth
A cemetery used to be along Slocum Road until bodies were moved in 1917.
Headstones near the maintenance shed at the South Dartmouth Cemetery.
The almshouse on what would become property currently occupied by Town Hall. Photo courtesy: Town of Dartmouth
A cemetery used to be along Slocum Road until bodies were moved in 1917.
Headstones near the maintenance shed at the South Dartmouth Cemetery.
Since taking over the town clerk position last year, Sarah Arruda has spent many a late night at her office inside Town Hall.
On occasion, she’s witnessed the automatic lights in the nearby hallway go off, with no one else inside the locked building.
“It always scares me,” she said. “What could be triggering those lights?”
Arruda is not alone in experiencing strange occurrences at Town Hall.
Over the years, many employees have reported noises such as footsteps and doors slamming at night in the otherwise empty building, particularly on the third floor.
One possibility for the strange occurrences could lie in the history of the Town Hall property, Arruda said.
Prior to the construction of what is now Town Hall and the nearby Dartmouth Middle School, the land was occupied by the Dartmouth Almshouse, which provided charitable housing to those in need through the early 1900s.
Aid was typically limited to the elderly and disabled — many of whom Arruda believes could be the ones causing the paranormal activity in the building.
“It was a poor farm, so many of them might not have been in the best health when they resided there,” she said.
The almshouse ceased operations by the 1920s. Afterward, the Elmer Poole School moved from its previous location on Russells Mills Road to 400 Slocum Road, where it remained open until the 1980s when the site became Town Hall.
Another explanation for the supposed hauntings could be from what occurred just prior to the closing of the almshouse.
An early 1900s photo of the almshouse hanging in the town clerk’s office shows a cemetery in front of the building. Arruda confirmed through archived town reports that there was indeed a cemetery on the current Town Hall property.
In 1917, Town Meeting approved the removal of the seven bodies buried on the property, along with moving them to South Dartmouth Cemetery, next to the maintenance shed.
Those relocated were Winifred Harley (1916–1916), Priscilla (Clark) Weston (1859–1916), William Henson (1879-1916), Hannah (Anthony) Gidley (1845–1915), Jonathan Reed (1809–1887), George H. Kirby (1827–1887), and Jireh Russell (1805–1887).
“They literally just moved those dead bodies to Padanaram,” Arruda said.
The clerk added that there is still a lot in the building’s history she has yet to uncover through the thousands of pages of archived documents. She plans to have a professional come in to do an archive assessment and help better organize material so historical information, spooky or otherwise, can be found more easily.
“A lot of this stuff, I kind of just happen upon when I’m looking for something else,” she noted. “This building is absolutely fascinating.”
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