This is the Lizzie Lincoln house, a reputed heavily haunted house. Normally obscured by trees, the dilapidated structure - built for Isaac Huyett and once the summer home of millionaires (including Alexander Boardman, a railroad conductor who conceived of the famous Atlantic City Boardwalk before marrying a rich widow) - it is reputed to be haunted by Lizzie Lincoln, who was killed by her philandering Philadelphia Lawyer Husband.

EXCEPT IT ISN’T.

First, Lizzie Lincoln never existed. While deaths undoubtedly occurred in the house over its almost 200 year history, there is no record of anyone named “Lizzie Lincoln.” In fact, until the 1970’s the home was most often used only as a summer part-time residence by Mary Agnes Souder - the rich wife of Alexander Boardman, then by her son Horace and his wife.

So where does the legend come from?

Toxic waste, most likely.

The land was adjacent to an illegal landfill operated by Donald L. Peifer, who notoriously ignored court orders and thumbed his nose at local ordinances. It was around this time that rumors of a haunting began to spread around the community that despised this activity, likely to make it sound as if the land itself was evil. Indeed, when Peifer bought the land the house was built on in addition to the illegal landfill, he turned the house into a seasonal Halloween attraction.

As the house was located on “Lincoln Road,” named after the homestead of Abraham Lincoln’s great-great-grandfather Mordecai located a little ways away, the story became amalgam of history -Horace Boardman WAS a notorious philanderer but his wife died in California - and folklore. And so Lizzie Lincoln, the poor murdered maid, came into existence.