For many years, the high school kids in Chester County have talked about a place called The Gates of Hell. As legend would have it, the name refers to the very large, supposedly blood red, cast iron gates at the entrance to an old, secluded mansion. This mansion is also abandoned, having been vacated shortly after a family was murdered there around the turn of the century. Currently, one cannot see the gates from the road as they are in the middle of a long driveway and a chain-link fence guards the entrance to the driveway. The yard is overgrown with grass to a height of about three feet.

One young lady I knew years ago claimed that friends of hers went to the house and peered in the windows. She said that they could seen shadowy shapes moving within. I kind of poo-pooed her story, but it spooked me a little as I'll relate at the end of my story.

More recently, like 1 month ago, one of my wife's young co-workers went to see the house with a group of college-aged friends. They climbed the chain link fence, walked through the high grass, which even covered the drive-way and looked into the house. Amazingly, candles and lanterns were lit throughout the house, dimly showing antique furniture covered with tarps and sheets. Also, there was an epitaph, detailing the birth and death dates of a girl named Molly. They didn't see anything within, but became spooked over the lights and decided to leave. As they walked away, their pace became more frantic and then they realized they were being chased by two large doberman-type dogs. They all barely got over the chain-link fence in time to escape. The question remaining is how could the dogs and the lights be there if the place was abandoned and there was not sign of anyone being near the place in ages?

Myself, I had only one experience connected with the Gates. One night, the previously mentioned young lady, another friend and I tried to drive out to see these fabled gates. As we drove down the dirt road leading to it amidst dense woods (Blair Witch type), we noticed something in the branches of a tree on the side of the road. As we got closer, we saw that it was a fairly large teddy bear with the branch stuck through its neck! Laugh if you will, but it spooked the living daylights out of us and I did the quickest three-point turn of my life!

Anyway, that's what I know of the Gates of Hell of Chester County, PA.
Waterford City and County has a lot of ghost and horror stories which fit into every other classic ghost story in the Castle of Spirits but there is one that seemed to play back my memory. The Gates of Hell.

There's a place in Waterford County called Passage, and old river side town with probably the best example of a real haunted town. On the road to Passage there is bridge with a train track over it. Near this bridge is or should i say was a fairly large house. The house was surrounded by a small wood and a long lane way from the road up to it. You can see most of the the house from the road but locals say you cant see the road from the house. The font gate is big enough but easy to get over. There is an old sign on the gate which is so rusted that you cant read the writing, but locals say it contains the name of the house and the date it was built. Anyway, a family used to live there (I've been told they were O Briens) and they were very popular in the town. The daughter was named Molly and she had a lot of friends who lived in the town. One day Molly met a young man who worked in a the harbour bringing in fish and cargo and so on. Well Molly fell in love with him strainght away.

As time went on the two became very close and decided to marry. Unfortunatly Molly's father wes having none of this and (like most suicide stories) Molly hung herself from the landing. The family moved out and was never heard from again. In the 70's people started to talk about the house and some secondary school students decided to brake in. As they got up to the house the wood seemed 100 times bigger than from the road (like i mentioned before). They looked in the window and saw only an empty room with a huge marble fireplace. As they looked across to the door a thin dark figure walked past the door. If that wasnt enough the fireplace lit up. The kids got so scared that they ran down the road. But they were getting nowhere the wood now seemed like a forest they ran and ran until they finaly reached the gate. They scaled the gate and ran home. When they got home they were greeted crying familys who had reported them missing. In the town records the news papers show that the kids had been missing for two weeks. This story was never explained.

But in 1996 a company bought the lad and knocked down the house. During the construction the workers had to cut down most of the trees to clear space. (this part is compleatly true) The workers cut down about 1/3 of the forest by the end of the week which was a friday. On monday they returned to find all the trees had grown back and the workers from there on in refused to cut down any trees. The people who work in the house now still say they see dark figures, fireplaces lighting by themselves and voices coming from the bridge which people say is where Molly lives now since her house is no longer there.