The Unquiet Silence of Selma Mansion
Northwest of Philadelphia, about 40
minutes from the New Jersey border, can be found the borough of
Norristown, PA. It's a historic town, dating back to 1784, and serves
as the seat of Montgomery County. Just driving through town the age
of the region is plain to see, as many beautiful old buildings, some
dating back over 200 years, are tightly nestled between supermarkets
and fast food chains that have risen up since. The old and new worlds
mix together here, and at times it's difficult to even picture the
city of today as it may have looked when it was still a small rural
town. One Norristown property in particular has come to be a symbol
of the collision between modern life, and the quiet old town upon
which the present-day city has grown – The Selma Mansion.
Grey clouds covered the sky. The
quick-moving kind that you can sit and watch tumble and churn upon
themselves, they stretched out forever like some inverted ashen sea.
On a hilltop below that gloomy canopy stood the pale form of Selma
Mansion. Just looking at the old place it was clear it had seen far
better days than this one. A large marking covers the front of the
old house, framing the entry door and extending to surround the
window on the floor above. It looks not unlike a scar, and marks the
place where once a beautiful porch and balcony stood. In other places
the original stonework, long concealed away behind a stucco facade,
peers through in patches where rain and weather have eroded it away.
The entire scene looked as if it could have been lifted from the pages of a
horror novel, and rightly so.
Inside things are not much different.
Peeling damask wallpaper runs the walls around large wood planked
floors, upon which markings still remain of rugs and stair runners
from lifetimes past. Long disused gas lamp fixtures extend from the
wall, showing that even before electricity, Selma stood brightly upon
its hill. That was a long time ago however, and things are far darker
today. Upstairs chandeliers still hang, but now under a coat of grey
dust. As you walk through the rooms of Selma you simply can't help
but imagine the house as it may have been when still lived in. To say things were different when Selma
was built in 1794, would be an understatement. This knoll, now
surrounded by apartment buildings, was once the peak of an open
expanse of land, with a view that saw nearly all the way into the
central parts of the city. The man behind its creation was a Mr.
Andrew Porter. A name that, perhaps, many may not know. Most have
surely heard of the United States Marine Corps though, a branch of
the armed forces which he helped found. Mr. Porter had four sons, all
of which went on to have great influence, some of which on a national
level. His most well-known relative, however, was his granddaughter –
Mary Todd, who became wife to Abraham Lincoln.
In 1821 Selma changed hands, coming
into the ownership of the Knox family. It was passed down through the
family for a couple generations until it came into the hands of
Joseph Fornance, husband of sole surviving Knox family daughter
Ellen. The Fornance family was the last family to own the mansion,
and called Selma home until the mid 1980's when widow Ruth Fornance
passed away. Upon her death the house was intended to be donated to
Montgomery County, PA. Ruth even had a plaque made up that she
proudly hung on the wall in the mansion stating such. Her caretaker
who knew her during her final years said she would often point to the
plaque when passing it, saying the home would be in good hands after
her death. Sadly this proved to not be the case. Both the county and
township did not wish to take possession of the home after Ruth's
death, and an estate sale was held on the property in the late 1980's
which essentially liquidated the historic artifacts from the
once-proud home. Even Ruth's plaque was not spared. The land was then
sold to a developer, who quickly began erecting apartment buildings
on the estate's outer perimeter. The intention was to convert Selma
into a rec center after the apartments were complete, but those plans
fell through. The developer then began weighing the possibility of
leveling the old mansion, to make room for a new construction or
possibly additional parking for the complex. A fast food burger chain
was even vying for the property.
With such history tied to the old
house, and the wrecking ball now seemingly winding up to give Selma
an ill-deserved end, a group of concerned citizens banded together
and formed the Norristown Preservation Society with the sole purpose
of saving Selma. They succeeded, and were able to purchase the old
house and surrounding parcel of land from the developer in the
1990's. Maryann Buser, a member of the preservation group, quoting a
visitor who had come to see the aged mansion - “It is a house that
wants to live... and we want to give it that chance”.
Beyond her role as a host at Selma,
Lisa Terio is the founder of the Pennsylvania Underground Paranormal
Society (aka PUPS). She and Maryann also volunteer at the historic
Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia. The old fort is deeply tied to Selma,
well beyond Lisa and Maryann's shared volunteer work. Andrew Porter
was, himself, an officer in the Continental Army during the American
Revolution, and thus would have likely frequented the fort during his
military career. Years later, in the early 1800's, his youngest son
James Madison Porter, went on to manage a militia at Fort Mifflin.
Selma and the historic fort share a lot of memories, and it seems
this mansion remembers them well. Though numerous unexplained occurrences
have transpired within the old home over the years, for those who
were at the old mansion in the early morning of March, 23rd, 2014,
one story stands above all others. It was around midnight, and the
group had gathered on the uppermost floor of the house. On that floor
there is an old bathroom at the end of the hall, within that old
bathroom, in a corner, stands a very old cast iron bathing tub. It is
here where the events of that evening begin.
Lisa was the first to take note of it –
She described the sighting as a murky black mass which was emanating
from the bottom of the tub. Altering the others in the group,
everyone present cautiously congregated around the tub. The mass was
seen by everyone present, and was described as rising and slowly
lowering back into the tub. As the group gathered closer the mass
grew, and writhed over the sidewall of the antique tub. Lisa
described it as “When you see a horror movie, and someone drags a
dead body out of a bath... it looked just like that”. The mass took
no form other than what was described as a loosely formed blackish
haze. Maryann, who was also present for the occurrence, said that the
inky mass eventually blotted out all vision in the room. “I
couldn’t see anyone at all, all I could see was the light coming in
the window.” At this point the group was in a panic, both Lisa and
Maryann describe the others as either fleeing the area, or cautiously
standing their ground awaiting what would happen next. After
spreading across the floor and down the hall some ways, the mass
began to recede, eventually returning to the old bath. Then it was no
more.
For most people, that singular occurrence would have been more than enough to
remove any doubt of otherworldly forces, and it is surely a
story that will forever haunt all those involved, but the night was just beginning. After the events with the blackish mass in the tub, the
group proceeded to hold a spirit box session on the second floor. A
spirit box is a device paranormal researched use to communicate with
spirits, via radio frequencies and white noise. In effect it is
designed to allow people to attempt real-time conversations with
those who have gone beyond. A message did indeed piece through the
static that evening, and though seemingly enigmatic at first, it was
later proven to be eerily clear.
It was around midnight on the darkened
second floor of the old mansion when the first words gargled forth
from the box - “Wake up Wayne”. “Wake up Wayne” it repeated,
between static hisses. Lisa and Maryann both knew who the box was
speaking of. “Wayne was the caretaker at Fort Mifflin”, Lisa
explained. “He wasn't here with us that night”, she continued,
“so we thought the spirits were looking for him.” “Wake up
Wayne” continued to be repeated from the box numerous times through
the night. It's meaning not understood... until hours later.
Lisa arrived home in the early morning,
“I was home no more than a minute when I get a call.” , “Maryann
called me, she's told me the fort's on fire!”. Lisa was panicked.
As fort caretaker, their friend Wayne lived on the grounds. “A Boy Scout troop saw smoke and called the fire department. They saved
Wayne.”, “Firefighters woke him out of bed.”. As it turned out,
Wayne was fast asleep just down the hall from the fire. It has been
estimated that the blaze ignited around
the midnight hour.
Dim corridors.
Servants' bath.
There's always a creepy doll.
If you would like to visit the Selma
Mansion, or participate in a paranormal investigation, you can
inquire through their official website - norristownpreservationsociety.org
You can follow the Pennsylvania Underground Paranormal
Society on their Facebook page