THE PURGATORY HOUSE/ROAD (UPDATED 3-26-15) Route 70 and Purgatory Road, Vincentown NJ

by Chris Chaos

A nice little gem in Vincentown along Route 70. There are many legends and stories that go along with this location; we will touch on a few of them.

Updated Video

There are tales of orgies, animal sacrifice and ghosts haunting this location. One of the legends that attempts to explain the ghost girl (that lived in the house) was that a 17 year old girl named Maria Alacon died in a car crash in 1978 on Church Road and 541 as she was heading back to Lenape High School from lunch. They say the accident decapitated her. In this crash Brian Pittman (from Main Street in Vincentown) was also killed. The driver of the car lived but people claim it wasn’t his fault for at the time there was no traffic light at this intersection and they were hit by a large truck carrying logs.

Maria's mother was very religious and knew of the evil sources that the house possessed and finally left the property.

 

Some say a girl still lives on the property. Could this be Maria? Some say the kitchen floor shakes from the captured anguish and anger in the house. The current owners decided not to tear the house down due to the historic value and the legends that surround the location.

Many people wonder why the road and this location had the name Purgatory in it. The Oxford Dictionary also states that the word Purgatory refers to streams that flow in a ravine. Purgatory Road takes its name from Purgatory Run because the road crosses the headwaters of that stream. The toponym “Purgatory Run” dates to at least 1838 and is generally associated with Bear Swamp. Purgatory Run may have received its name because it may have contained enough water to make its presence known, but not enough water to power a mill, thereby making it a source of suffering. Bear Swamp could have brought temporary suffering to the landowner, likely a member of the Prickett family. I am sure the swamp was quite a dismal place, although, once the owner had harvested the Cedar trees, I suspect he no longer felt the place was a purgatory.

UPDATE: The Purgatory House caught fire and burned down in Sept of 2011. The cause is under investigation

UPDATE: 3-26-15 THE PURGATORY HOUSE UPDATE

We were out with a client and afterwards found ourselves right next to Purgatory Road and the Purgatory House so we decided to stop and obtain an update. As we have known there was a fire a few years back and the place burned down, all that was left is a pile of rubble and the chimney along with a temporary lake that formed due to the melting snow and the torrential downpour that occurred today.

Based on the "Coming Soon" signs along Route 70 in the same area we can only assume that shortly this property will also be sold to developers to make mini malls or more housing developments. 

The Purgatory House was an interesting location with a haunting past and we are glad that we were able to document it prior to its untimely demise.

Additional Info for the Purgatory house:

1699 Route 70

Southampton, NJ 08088

Sold for $125,000 on Sept 19, 2003

Status Not For Sale

House Size 4,000 Sq Ft

Lot Size 1.39 Acres

Year Built 1962

(Taken from public record)

For more information:

www.facebook.com/Cursedbook

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com) 

The Origin and Background of CURSED: An Explanation of the Unknown

by Chris Chaos

Over the last few years I have been working on some various projects (video, written, books, etc) concerning supposedly haunted, lore, abandoned and locations of a historical note. The research has been recorded into a series entitled CURSED: An Explanation of the Unknown, which currently has three books released and various accompanying videos. In the coming years we will also convert the information and content contained in the various Cursed books into a movie and encyclopedia form.

The Purgatory House (Burned down in 2011)

A few years ago it was decided to produce a documentary and an accompanying book entitled “CURSED: An Explanation of the Unknown”, it is to be an exploration and documentation concerning abandoned buildings, the investigation of supposed haunted locations, preservation of history, lore and documenting architectural wonders.

The first inspiration for this series was an exploration into the "cursed" section of Haddon Heights, New Jersey. This location served jumping point for a few unsolved murders from many years ago near Haddon Lake. Such as, an attempted suicide where a man drove his car 100 mph into a McDonald's killing several of the workers, a tree that a number of people hung themselves from and home to where a transsexual accused of molesting neighborhood children had a shoot-out with the police when they came to serve a warrant.

Cursed Haddon Lake

After much research, the CURSED project branched off into other locations that were in danger of being torn down and lost to modern memory that were shrouded in some sort of dark past. While researching and documenting, we visited hundreds of locations in the NJ and PA area examining the history and documenting through video, photo and drafting reports. Looking back, many of the buildings/structures have been torn down or vandalized beyond recognition since then and something else was built in its place. We hope their legends can live on and preserved through CURSED: An Explanation of the Unknown.

Essex County

Some of the locations that we investigated were abandoned mental facilities, prisons, schools and hospitals or just simply an area that something "bad" happened there. One thing that was noticed about many of the popular ghost hunting shows were that the cast were lacking credibility, experience and knowledge on the backgrounds of the “ghosts” they were talking to...most of these supposed ghosts were former mental patients or criminals..the celebrity ghost hunters also had no real world experience in dealing with these “former people” (or people in general for that matter). A few years ago, I wished to expand my talents into the psychological field so I took a position with V.O.A. and Bancroft which deals with the criminally insane, people with brain/mental disorders, T.B.I., victims of crimes, atrocities and the like. With the training they provided and more exposure to the living people contrasted to and bled over into these abandoned buildings where I might encounter their ghostly counter parts. Learning how to talk, counsel and associate with these people in a real life experience gave the edge to interact with any specters that may be encountered in our expeditions. Knowing how to talk to these possible ghosts may put them at ease and make a bridge for an open dialogue.

The project has evolved tremendously since we first set out and has grown in scope exponential. We hope these stories will inspire others to document locations in their area and may help people preserve the history associated with them.

Please be respectful of the locations. Leave nothing but footprints and take nothing but photographs.

Chris Chaos in front of Lambertville School

To purchase the Cursed books:
Cursed: An Explanation of the Unknown

Cursed: Revisited

Cursed III
(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey.  He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, has a black cat named Jynx, two rats: Hopping Heather and Climbing Carol, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings.)