Aldrich Mansion

A Brief History: If you were to travel to 836 Warwick Neck Avenue in Warwick Rhode Island, you would find yourself at the start of a very long driveway. That driveway leads to a huge, beautiful structure known as the Aldrich Mansion. US Senator Nelson W. Aldrich hired 200 skilled craftsmen that travelled from Europe to begin building the mansion in 1896. It took the workers 16 years before the mansion was finally completed in 1912. The mansion’s official website states the mansion was “Originally built to aid in the transportation of goods to Warwick Neck” and that “a railway and supply tunnel led from the 150-foot tower to the Mansion” (https://www.aldrichmansion.com/history-of-aldrich-mansion). However, all other sources point to the mansion being built to be the Senator’s home for him and his family. In 1901, Aldrich’s daughter Abby married John D Rockefeller Jr, of the colossal oil monopoly family, on the property. In 1939, Aldrich sold the property to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, who, in 1946, established the Our Lady of Providence Seminary at the mansion. As the Seminary came to close years later, the Diocese started using, and continues to use, the mansion for weddings, conferences, fund raisers, and even movie sets. The movie Meet Joe Black used the mansion as the character William Parrish’s home.

The mansion gets its name from the very man who ordered and funded the construction, US Senator Nelson W. Aldrich. Aldrich was born on November 6th, 1841. He served in the union army during the Civil War for a brief stint of 4 months defending Washington D.C. He then served as a Republican senator for the state of Rhode Island from 1881-1911. During his time as a senator, he was referred to as the “General Manager of the Nation” due to his ability to lead the vote in the senate. He helped win senate approval for the 1898 Treaty of Paris which ended the Spanish-American War. He died, just a few years after his time as a senator ended, on April 16th, 1915. He is buried in Swan Point Cemetery in Providence, Rhode Island.

Haunted History: The most often reported paranormal claim is the apparition of a woman. This woman is rumored to be one of Aldrich’s daughters. It is said that she committed suicide by jumping off the front balcony of the mansion. Employees at the mansion often report seeing a woman in her late 20’s or early 30’s roaming the mansion, but always traveling toward the doors that open out to the balcony that Aldrich’s daughter allegedly jumped from. The most controversial point in these sightings is that there is no historical evidence known that proves there was a suicide on the grounds, nor is there any record of Aldrich’s daughter’s name or cause or date of death.

While the beauty and historical significance of the Aldrich Mansion remains uncontested, the history behind the paranormal sightings has yet to satisfy the skeptic’s constant thirst for proof. However, just because it can’t be proven there wasn’t a suicide on the grounds, it doesn’t mean that some unnamed woman still roams the mansion alone lost, and unguided.