Burlington County Prison Museum -Mt. Holly

The Burlington County Prison Museum, located in Mt. Holly, New Jersey, was built in 1811 and was designed by the famous architect Robert Mills (the designer of the Washington Monument). It is a large, rectangular building made of stone and iron that looks more like a castle than a prison from the outside. It was used continuously as a jail until 1966. Since then, local legends have spoken of the ghosts that inhabited the building. One in particular was the ghost of Joel Clough, a convicted murderer who killed his mistress with a leg from a table. He was held in the death row cell, which consisted of an eyehook in the floor that he was always chained to and an extremely small window. He was eventually hanged in the 1850s and, since then, other guards and prisoners reported hearing his moans and chains rattling from that cell. The guards and inmates also reported seeing someone in the empty cell as well as objects levitating inside.

In 1999, the county began a restoration project, transforming the rundown building into a museum and returning it to its original condition. As the work progressed, the construction workers began reporting strange events such as loud noises, disembodied voices, and screams coming from various areas of the building. They also reported having their tools disappear when they’d turn their backs, only to find the missing items in another room or on another floor later on in the day. Eventually, some workers were leaving early so they would not be the last ones in the building. The county officials decided to contact our organization, South Jersey Ghost Research (SJGR), to see if we could verify the claims of the workers and put their minds at ease.

I was on each SJGR team that went out to the museum. I witnessed some of the supernatural events firsthand. On each investigation, I set up a motion detector in the death row cell. During each trip, the motion detector was set off by an unseen force. We were able to capture orbs on video and film simultaneously when the motion detector’s alarm went off. On the second visit, I also obtained an EVP seconds after the motion detector went off. The recording was that of a man’s voice saying, “Go out here.” We did experience objects moving as well, as did three reporters from the New York Times who were there with us. A stretcher that was located in the cell next to the death row cell relocated itself and it was actually the reporters who noticed it first. Other members of the SJGR observed an apparition in one part of the building and found a single barefoot print on a dust-covered floor of what was once the prison showers. The teams also obtained numerous photos, video clips, and EMF readings.

Written by — Dave Juliano Director, South Jersey Ghost Research

BURLINGTON COUNTY PRISON MUSEUM
HIGH STREET
MT. HOLLY, NEW JERSEY 08060
TEL: 1 (609) 265-5858
WEBSITE: www.burlco.lib.nj.us/county/ PrisonMuseum.html

Taken from the: Encyclopedia of Haunted Places -Ghostly Locales from around the World – Compiled & Edited by Jeff Belanger – Copyright 2005 by Jeff Belanger