004 - Swan Point Cemetery Part 1

​When you grow up in the state of Rhode Island, there's no shortage of historic places to visit when you're a curious and adventurous kid like I was. You end up searching for places that history books don't tell you about. Places where there's no shortage of legends and lore. Places with a history of witchcraft, devil worship, and even the grave of a famous horror fiction writer. While most kids my age were at the playground, I was experiencing supernatural events in a place called Swan Point Cemetery.

I'm Tom Stewart and this is My Paranormal Story.

I grew up in the city of Pawtucket. A short bike ride away from the capital city of Providence, Rhode Island. There wasn't a whole lot to do in my city. I mean, we had our fair share of sports fields and playgrounds, but when I was young I was interested in more than just basketball and football. I wanted to go places that had mystery and adventure and one of the places I spent much of my time was Swan Point Cemetery. It's a large, beautiful cemetery located on Blackstone Blvd in Providence not far from where I lived, just over the city line. Now I know it probably sounds weird that a kid would want to hang around a cemetery, but it actually isn't that far fetched. Swan Point Cemetery is like a big park. Sure, it's filled with thousands of tombs and headstones and markers, but it's also meticulously maintained. It's filled with an assortment of trees, bushes and greenery. On any given day, you'll see people walking, jogging or riding their bikes through the cemetery. People come to meditate, lie in the sun, or just be around nature. There's nothing creepy or scary about this cemetery, at least not on the surface. Swan Point Cemetery was built in the mid 1800s and is one of the oldest garden cemeteries in the country. It sits on 200 acres of land along the Seekonk River, and while most cemeteries represent death, Swan Point seems to be more about life. It's abundant with nature. You'll easily find hundreds of different species of trees, plants, and all sorts of wild animals call it home. There's a pond near the center that is filled with fish, turtles, and tadpoles, and a fountain that attracts birds, butterflies and people looking to meditate. Along the back edge of the cemetery, over by the river, nature thrives with all sorts of wildlife. It's easy to forget you're in a cemetery. Even the graves are beautiful as you make your way through the tiny, winding roads. You'll see dozens of impressively carved stone structures, statues and architecture. Over the years. They've built gazebos, ravines and winding stone staircases. And some of the tombs are large and elaborate. You can easily get lost in this cemetery, not just from its size, but from its beauty. It's hard to imagine that this place has a dark side. But boy does it. If you know where to look.

As you might imagine, many prominent people from Rhode Island are buried here. Artists, teachers, and dozens of politicians and military veterans. Some of the more prominent people laid to rest at Swan Point Cemetery include George Henry Corliss, the inventor of the Corliss Steam engine. Major Sullivan Ballou, who was killed in the Battle of Bull Run during the Civil War, known for his famous letters to his wife Sarah. And Ambrose Burnside, who was a Major General in the Civil War and later became Governor of Rhode Island. He is where the term sideburns come from because of his unusual facial hair. And then there's HP Lovecraft. Howard Phillips Lovecraft was a famous writer in pulp magazines during the early 1900s and is one of the best horror fiction writers in history. His best known works include the Call of Cathulu and the Rats in the Walls. He's a major influence on many of today's authors, directors, musicians, and even video game developers. His name, his characters and his creations can be seen in many movies and comic books over the years. He and his characters have been mentioned in television shows many times and he has influenced musical artists like Black Sabbath and Metallica. Lovecraft is buried alongside his family in a modest plot with a tall stone marker. For many years, HP didn't even have a stone of his own. It wasn't until 1977 that fans donated money to buy a headstone for him, which included a line from one of his many published personal letters, 'I am Providence'. There's been much debate as to what this inscription means. Lovecraft was born and died in Providence. And although he spent time traveling the country, he always felt he did his best work while living in Providence. So some believe the line is meant as a token of affection for his city. But others would argue, including me, that it has a deeper meaning. Lovecraft through his writings sort of created his own supernatural world, perhaps by design. His characters and ideas seem so alive that many of his fans believe they're based on real events. Many believe he was witness to another side of reality that others have never seen. The true definition of the word Providence is to be of divine being. Did Lovecraft say 'I am Providence' looking at himself as a God to this other world he created? If you're able to find HP Lovecraft's grave, you'll find it to have many tributes and gifts adorning it. To this day his fans are cult-like in their devotion to his novels and short stories. Everything from flowers to coins and little trinkets can be found on and around his headstone for many years, and probably still today. His stone is a location for geocaching too. Geocaching is a hobby where people search for specific locations using GPS coordinates. When they find the spot, they look for a unique item someone before them left behind as proof that they found the spot and then they replaced that item with something unique of their own for the next person to find. And HP Lovecraft's grave gets lots of visitors, to say the least. But there's one visitor who only comes once a year on the same day, August 20th, Lovecraft's birthday. Legend says he's a tall man in a dark trench coat with no face. And he places a single rose on his grave during the early morning hours. Some people have claimed to have seen him. Some have even claimed to have photos of him walking away from the grave. But no one is sure who he is or why he does it. One year I decided to get up early and see if I could spot the man. I was probably about 15 years old. And I left the house early like 7:00 AM on August 20th and rode my bike to the cemetery. The front gates hadn't opened yet, so I went around to the side, hid my bike in some thick bushes, and climbed over the tall rock wall that surrounds the cemetery. It was a warm summer morning. The sun had risen and it felt like nature was just waking up. The cemetery was quiet and empty except for the birds that were chirping and small animals scurrying around. It was peaceful and pleasant. I slowly walked through the cemetery towards the sound of the fountain in the pond. That sound has always been my compass to sort of find my way through Swan Point, be it day or night. And Lovecraft's grave isn't far from that pond. I chose to hide off to the side some distance away to wait for the mysterious man to arrive. I kept an eye out for any other people in the cemetery. With the gates closed and locked, I expected it to be just the two of us. I waited for what felt like an hour, but no one showed. With the gates now open to the public, I figured the mysterious man probably wasn't coming, so I slowly started walking back when I noticed something on Lovecraft's grave. It was a flower. How could I have missed him? Did he get there before me or was I not paying attention? I looked around to see if anyone else was nearby and I spotted what looked like a man walking towards the woods way off in the distance. He was tall and from what I could tell. Wearing a trench coat. And I had to know. I didn't want to chase after him directly, so I quietly made my way around, flanking him through the trees and graves, hoping I'd catch up to him at the edge of the woods and get a good look at him. I didn't have a camera or anything with me and this was long before we all carried cell phones. I was walking fast but not running so I wouldn't give myself away as I got to the edge of the woods, I had a perfect view of the small road he had been walking down. It led right into the woods along the riverbank. These woods are a spooky place to walk alone. Even in the daytime. So I waited behind a tree hoping he would pass me. But I waited and waited, and he never showed. I just stood there, wondering where could he have gone? Suddenly I heard a car coming. It was a security guard from the cemetery. I ducked into some bushes as he passed me by. But he was obviously looking for someone. Me perhaps? Or was he looking for the mysterious man too?

To say I knew that cemetery like the back of my hand is an understatement. My friends and I rode our bikes all over that cemetery. Even on the rare times that we would become disoriented, we'd just listen for that fountain in the pond or ride around till we saw a familiar marker or statue. There are a lot of legends about Swan Point Cemetery. Many that I plan to talk about in future podcasts, but one story that sticks in my head even to this day is the secret tunnel system that supposedly exists underneath the cemetery. Now I don't have any proof that such a tunnel exists. But legends usually start from a spark of truth. H.P. Lovecraft had several stories that involved cemeteries and some included secret tunnels that led to the gates of Hell, among other places. I'd also heard that tunnels were used for practical reasons like transporting equipment and bodies quickly from one end of the cemetery to the other. But who knows if they even exist? If they do, they're probably not used anymore, but being the curious adventurer I was as a teenager, finding these tunnels would have been a dream come true. I'd be like Indiana Jones exploring that tunnel. But how big would it be? How far would it go? How dark would it be? My curiosity always got the better of me. But as much as I searched, I never found an entrance to the tunnels. Until one day. My friend Freddie and I were riding our bikes through a section of the cemetery that we didn't normally go to often. Not for any specific reason. It just lacked interest, I guess. It was the southeastern part of the cemetery on grounds that was higher up than most of the cemetery and close to the spooky wooded area near the river. But for some unknown reason we were up that way on this particular day. And that was when I spotted it. A gate. We were riding our bikes when we passed what seemed to be a small mound with some tall bushes in front of it. Hills aren't unusual in Swan Point Cemetery. There are many tombs that are built into the sides of mounds or hills and most of them have elaborate fronts with bushes or trees decorating it. And at first glance this seemed to be another tomb like that. But when I looked closer, I could see a difference from the other tombs. It was almost as if these bushes were trying to hide the gate, not accent them. We got off our bikes and investigated. The gate behind the bushes was sort of newer, made out of chain link fencing. All the hardware was modern. Except the padlock that locked it against the concrete and wooden frame, it was old fashioned. Behind the gate stood a huge wooden door built into an old but sturdy looking wooden frame. It had an old circular handle and old fashioned metal hinges like something you'd see in a castle. "This had to be it", I thought. This has to be the tunnel I've always heard of. Without hesitation, Freddie and I started pulling on the gate and yanking on that lock, trying to get it open. They were both rusty, yet still pretty strong. Our hands and clothes were quickly covered in rust colored dirt. We tried hitting the old padlock with a stone, but it just wouldn't break. We were so anxious to get in we never even stopped to consider what we'd do if we did. We had no light for the darkness and no way to find our way back out. Eventually we realized it was hopeless. But we weren't giving up. We hopped on our bikes and pedaled as fast as we could all the way home to Freddy's House. I went into his garage and grabbed as many tools as I could carry screwdrivers, a hammer, even a small hacksaw, and Freddie ran inside the house and came out with a couple of small flashlights. With tools in our pockets and hanging from our bikes, we pedaled with determination to explore that tunnel. It was late in the day and the front gates would be closing soon, but we didn't care. We rode into the cemetery with our tools and headed back up to the Southeast section where we found that gate. The sun was setting behind the trees and it was starting to get dark. We rode around trying to remember where we found that gate. We rode up and down the same tiny roads over and over again looking. "No, it's this way..." "Maybe it's back here". We were getting more and more anxious and frustrated. "Where the hell is it?" Then I spotted it. The mound with the bushes in front of it. We jumped off our bikes and ran over to the gate with our tools. But it was gone. The gate. The big wooden door. The rusty padlock. The whole thing was gone. All that was there was dirt and grass on a mound behind some bushes. We scratched our heads and looked around. We were sure this was the spot. But the gate was gone. Did we imagine it? Or did it just disappear? We stood there in amazement. And to this day I can still remember standing there in the dusk looking at the rust on my hands from the gate that I never found again.

There are a lot of stories and legends about Swan Point Cemetery and on Part 2 I can't wait to tell you about the history of witchcraft in the cemetery. A specific tomb that was used for devil worship and how the cemetery used to call me to it. Sometimes it still does. Next week on My Paranormal Story. Now I know it sounds hypocritical of me to say this, but please don't trespass at Swan Point Cemetery or any other properties. What I did as a teenager was reckless and unsafe and also illegal. Please obey the rules and etiquette of the owners of Swan Point and obey all laws when investigating the paranormal.

My Paranormal Story is written, produced and narrated by me, Tom Stewart. Music from this episode, courtesy of Kevin Macleod at incompetech.com. My Paranormal Story is based on real life events experienced by me. So please subscribe or follow me for updates on Facebook or Instagram. Just search for My Paranormal Story. Feel free to leave feedback or comments about any of my stories or if you want, tell me your story. I'd love to hear it. You can e-mail me at [email protected]. Thanks for listening. I'm Tom Stewart and this is My Paranormal Story.
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