GOVERNOR
BRADFORD HOUSE
Bristol, Rhode Island
GOVERNOR BRADFORD HOUSE
Staff accounts included a large shadowy mass in a hallway, objects moving in full view and guest-room linens mysteriously appearing outside a closed door.
THE CASE
The Governor Bradford House, at Mount Hope Farm on Metacom Avenue, is a historic Georgian-style house whose oldest section dates to about 1745. It was originally built for Isaac Royall Jr., a wealthy colonial merchant and Loyalist. During the Revolutionary War, Rhode Island confiscated the property, and in 1783 William Bradford purchased the farm. Bradford—who served as Rhode Island’s last colonial deputy governor and later as a U.S. senator—lived there until his death in 1808.
The property has an especially deep history because Mount Hope was the ancestral seat of the Pokanoket/Wampanoag people before the colonial farm was established. The farm was originally much larger than today’s 127 acres and has undergone several major additions to the house, including work around 1840 and 1914. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
There are no widespread publicly documented claims surrounding the property. What drew us there were the stories told by staff and administration prior to our invitation. The manager reported seeing a large shadowy mass manifest in a hallway and items move in full view on his desk. Most intriguingly, a housekeeper placed linens on a bed in a guest room, only to find them stacked outside the door when she turned back to place them in a dresser drawer.
