The Summit Mansion is said to date back to the early 1800s or the days when the Erie Canal was built. It is said that the family that owned this mansion was the Rhulman family. I have heard a few stories about this place but never really knew where it was located till Valerie one of our members presented to me the location. I also believe Mason Winfield WNY author told me a little bit about the house. The most known information about the mansion is that it used to be a place where slaves were hidden in its underground railroad. We have found no indication of a tunnel in the basement area however their is a room with a closet and that is a hidden passage leading downstairs we think this may have been a way to hide them back in the days of the civil war. 

The mansion itself is very interesting it is composed of giant stone blocks and some very old wood trim. If you seen this mansion you would feel as if you were living down south where plantations are abundant. It has been rumored that people have often seen apparitions in the window and most of the people that have seen strange things occur have been people visiting and leaving the tavern which is across the street. I believe in theory that this mansion is more hyped up then what alot of folks claim it is what it is an old mansion haunted by some ghost how the ghost act towards each person may be differently as our first visit here was quite serene. I will tell you this their is a presence here if not more I felt it and what I have gathered is it does not want to be bothered or rather some things are best left alone and this place is full of many obstacles. Their are some holes in the floor, some stairs are very weak, their is many old parts of the past laying around such as kettles, metal tubs, old stoves, old oak chairs, Ect. The 4 most amazing things about this mansion are the grand stair case which caught my eye, the secret passage, the old colonial looking attic with arched windows, and the colonial doors including the front one. 

This mansion nobody has ventured into in years according to my observation. Their is no vandalism here, it is tightly boarded by cross boards, and all the lower windows have Crisscross steel bars as if they are trying to keep whatever it is inside or keep whoever is outside from going in. Aside from the front of the mansion their is another whole larger section in the back that is connected with a series of rooms, a garage like area, and at least a few fireplaces and staircases leading to various locations. I won't lie to you this is a creepy place. The feeling of being watched is their walking around the property almost makes you want to run. The mansion is surrounded by some trees and even from the brush you feel watched. This is not a nice place despite our lack of ghost photography our first visit here my theory is that the spirits here are not as cooperative as other places I visit which is not a good sign it means they do not want to be bothered or pose for us. 

According to Jessalynn an acquaintance who wrote me about this place (The House was a home for a wealthy family in the days of the underground railroad. And of course the family had quite the array of slaves. As legend has it the slaves were unhappy with the life style they had in the home and one by one became insane. Taking revenge on the family for no apparent reason. When it seemed to the slaves that they have had enough the family attempted to relieve themselves of the troublemakers and things took an interesting turn. They were in control and the family was at their command. Every where from abuse of the family to the gory disfiguration to the family pets. Slowly leading to the massacre of the entire family while trapped inside there home. With the family dead inside their home and the slaves "Free" they turned on each other until the majority of them were either murdered themselves or had taken their own lives. The authorities were contacted and the remainders were taken into custody.)

I do not know how accurate this story is however a few over the last year have told me that the Summit mansion had a massacre their so something traumatic must have occurred here over a century ago.

One thing that is visible when you approach the mansion is the scaffolding which was left here since the mid 1990s when construction crews were spooked and the contractors from the city left it behind and never finished the restoration process to turn it into a historical society or should we say a underground railroad museum. The question that must ask is what would scare a construction worker so bad that he would quit did they see black figures in the windows while up on the scaffolds? Is this why it is so tightly locked down? We have to wonder at this point only the ones who have dared to venture onto the property know the real truths. 

As you can see their is plenty of history I can tell you this though their is 3 places I felt a presence first the top of the stairs when you first enter, second the old stone basement in the back room and third the second floor back bedroom in the corner and believe me I know because I stood alone their in the dark for a few moments and felt pretty chased out. What tragedy occurred here years ago for this to become a place of the damned? Does evil lurk within? Did the slaves really revolt on the family and murder them all perhaps maybe it was the slaves who were murdered, raped and abused? We may never know however walking through its dark halls at night give us some indications. 

Copyright By

Rick-AngelOfThyNight

I also will be very strict on the location of this place more so then others for various reasons it is one of the oldest mansions in the WNY area, it is not a nice place one of our investigators got hit  with a piece of wood and nobody touched it, and what is here wants to be left alone so we will probably only make a follow-up visit to get any photos we missed last time. But we must preserve historical locations for future investigations as well.

Update:

We have found the underground railroad in the mansion itself. Currently it is filled with dirt then a plate of sheet metal was placed over it. So we were not able to check it out however we are very optimistic that we were able to at least find it. The underground railroad was hidden behind or rather inside the fireplace and the slaves would hide in there. Some say the tunnel went for quite a ways.

Below is an email I received from Anita one of our browsers. 

The house was originally called the "Hitchings House" and also "Mt. Providence".

Subj: PGS-Rick Please Read  
Date: 9/30/2003 10:48:58 AM Eastern Daylight Time 
From: christinegawron@yahoo.com  
To: AngelOfThyNight@paranormalghostsociety.org  

Hi,  I was just reading up on the Summit St. mansion and want to tell you that as a child I was in it.  The last family to live there was the Drake family probably late 1950's.  He worked for Rhulman the man that owned the property.  The Drake family lived next door to us in the town of Lockport and from there moved to Summit St.  When my dad used to stop for a beer at what was then called the Silver Grill (tavern) my brother and I would go over and visit the kids that lived there.  As a child I can remember that there was a fireplace in most every room and seem to recall that someone said there was a secret tunnel leading from one of these fireplaces to the canal bank.  I was never bothered in there and the family that lived there never mentioned anything eerie to us.  I was never afraid to enter it.  I don't know if you are aware of it but there is an old cemetery just east of the house in the woods.  At one point quite a few yrs back there was an article in the Union Sun & Journal about someone trying to restore it I have no idea how far that went.  Just thought I would let you know these few facts.   Chris