No one knows who originally owned what would come to be known as the Black Rose Mansion. What little history we do know comes from old documents, scribbled journals and the diary of a man Emory Peabody found in 1925 in a blood soaked jacket just outside of Paulsen forest near route 19. Most of the items spoken of in the book leave many to believe he was insane. Talk of missing farm animals, strange rituals at the manor and meeting Arnold Fairweather himself. But I get ahead of myself. Let’s look at the documented history. The black rose mansion was originally built outside of Salem mass. in 1685 by a Mr. Walter Scott. He was the caretaker of the Mansion but there is little mention of the owner who was said to have left Austria years before fleeing the persecution of the witch trials. Even though we do not know his name we know some of the history of this time from locale journals and diaries. It was said that this mysterious stranger would hold masked costume balls that often involved uncouth behavior and lead many a locale girls astray. There were many rumors of the mansion at this time from orgies, witchcraft, to Satanism itself. It was said many odd things took place at that dark mansion and many feared to even talk of such things openly.

It was also noted that this stranger from Austria befriended several of these young girls and a few local men of progressive thought and founded a secret society. Each member was given a metallic looking dark stone which they had to carry with them at all times. According to legend the stone represented a common bond between members and the oath they took to this secret society they joined. The stone was to be buried with each body with the promise of reincarnation at some future time. It is said that a Beverly Walcott in particular, being the wife of a Judge Hawthorne an ancestor of the future Nathaniel Hawthorne had an affair with several of the club members. She wrote in one journal it is a society born of freedom to express the true human spirit. We meet often at the mansion writing of the things we see and the things we wish to see. We are not afraid in this life or the next for we have learned the truth of things. We shall one day come together again reincarnated in an age of enlightenment for it is not yet time. The rest of the journal was found half burned after the trials in 1692, in a field buried in a shallow ditch beneath an old apple tree. Oddly enough her husband was the very judge who condemned so many to death during the witch trials yet she is never mentioned.

The local attention became too much and just before the Witch trials Mr. Walter Scott had the mansion taken down and piece by piece transported to a new location unknown to this day. Many legends abide in New England of haunted mansions, places of dark goings on, of occult gatherings. Many have been attributed to the Black Rose Mansion. One of the most intriguing parts of this history is the burial of the original members of this secret society. It is said that each one when they passed away was entombed with the metallic dark stone as they promised. It is also said that among the many flowers on their casket there was found always one solitary Black Rose…To this day there are still rumors of the fabled Black Rose Mansion. Most started after finding the diary of Emory Peabody Of which the Black Rose Poet Society has the only known original copy.




Diary Of Emory Peabody