Middleboro’s Historic Oliver Estate Paranormal Activity Caught on Camera
The Oliver Estate in Middleboro, Massachusetts has become one of the most famously haunted spots on the SouthCoast in recent years. Even television shows such as Kindred Spirits, Paranormal Lockdown and the web series Haunt ME have made visits to the home that was built in 1769 and played a pivotal role in both the American Revolution and the Underground Railroad.
On Friday night, January 7, I visited the Oliver Estate with a friend and her boyfriend. My friend, Stephanie Forlini, has a large TikTok following where she shares metaphysical videos and discusses paranormal topics. However, she was looking to gain more paranormal investigation experience, and I knew the Oliver Estate was a great local spot to show her, where the history really does intersect with the hauntings.
Where else can you walk in the footsteps of Ben Franklin, and maybe also speak with his ghost? After all, the Oliver Estate is in the heart of the Bridgewater Triangle, where all kinds of paranormal activity is known to happen.
We had some very interesting experiences during our four-plus hours at the house, including encountering shadow people in the basement.
We were also getting some interesting responses while attempting spirit communication through the Estes Method and trying out old-school techniques like mirror scrying.
Throughout the night, we often heard footsteps and voices in other parts of the house, when we knew it was just the four of us, all in the same room, that were the only ones occupying the building.
We even did a session with my Ouija board from 1909, in which we supposedly communicated with Bethania Sproat, the woman of the house in the 1800s.
When Christy Parrish, who manages the estate, asked if Bethania had any message for us, the board spelled out “God loves you,” which was a nice, pleasant way to end our evening of investigation. At around 11:30 p.m., we called it quits, and Parrish locked up the house as she always does, including barring the basement door from the upstairs with a wooden bar that slides through some iron brackets.
What was really interesting, however, is what the security cameras captured the next morning.
Just before 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning, the camera in the “Old Kitchen” of the house captured what appears to be the wooden bar sliding out of the iron holder, completely on its own, with a loud bang as the wood hits the floor. In the seconds following that, voices can be heard on the recording, although it’s hard to make out what they are saying.
Here's the spot to keep an eye on:
Parrish went back to the house on Monday to pack up some Christmas decorations and made the following video to further explain how implausible it was for that bar to have dropped on its own without some kind of force causing it to happen.
“Literally, the bar had to slide out of the door for it to fall,” she said.
“I’m trying to come up with some kind of logic as to why that security bar could have fallen on its own, but I really just don’t see it,” she said.
I personally have been in the house when things have fallen off the wall, such as when a painting came crashing down despite being very securely placed on a sturdy screw, but this was something even more profound – and captured on camera.
“Being in this house as long as I have, I’m used to objects moving and things falling, we document it all the time,” Parrish said. “But this one kind of really has me scratching my head. What happened to make that bar drop?”
“As far as energies, that would have literally taken quite a bit of energy for something to come over and manipulate it enough in order to pull it free for it to bounce and slide,” she said.
A very interesting catch for sure.