Schools

Get Your Hauntings On at Historical Exhibit

Escape to another world at the Brick Academy's new exhibit on hauntings in the Somerset Hills, to be held throughout October.

Each week, the Basking Ridge Patch will tell you about one great idea to give you a much deserved break, and make your life a little easier, maybe a whole lot more enjoyable.

This week, we're suggesting a way for you to escape this world entirely, at least for a few hours. If you’re in for a scare, thewill through October present its exhibit, “Hauntings in the Somerset Hills: Fact or Fiction," at the Brick Academy in Basking Ridge.

The academy will be hosting historical photographs and story boards on The Vealtown Tavern, as well as the Blairsden Estate in Peapack-Gladstone.

The Vealtown Tavern, now occupied by the shop Meli Melo, for a long time served as the cozy, compact Bernardsville public library, until the new library building was built about a decade ago on Anderson Hill Road.

A section of the old library was reputed to be haunted by Phyllis, in search of her lost love from the Revolutionary War. While the building served as a library, both adults and children reputedly saw Phyllis — or at least supposedly the apparition of a woman in historic period garb — according to local legends. Over the decades, Phyllis gained a reputation as a permenant Bernardsville resident, viewed with affection more than fear.

The photo prints featured in the exhibit were taken in 1903 by the Wurts Brothers, and prints were loaned for the exhibition by the Borough of Peapack-Gladstone. Other photos were loaned by the Bernardsville Library and from the archives of the Historical Society of the Somerset Hills.

Facts and Fiction resources include "Ghosts of Central New Jersey, Historic Haunts of the Somerset Hills." Signed books will be available at the exhibit in the historical society's headquarters at the Brick Academy, itself an historic landmark located at 15 W. Oak St. in Basking Ridge Center.

The exhibit will be open Sundays in October, beginning Oct. 9, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

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– Linda Sadlouskos contributed to this article.


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