A week doesn’t go by at the History Center that someone doesn’t call, write or e-mail about the massive stone house at the end of Summit Street. Most inquiries are from local people but some have come from out-of-town visitors or people who have stumbled upon it via the Internet. For a while a paranormal website containing grossly inaccurate information about the house, claimed it was haunted. If there are any ghosts in the house they are not connected with the false accounts given on the website.

The house was built about 1834 by Francis Hitchins (sometime spelled Hitchings) on a hill overlooking the canal identified as “Mount Providence.” It was directly across from the Hitchins Bridge over the canal. The stone was quarried on the site and the original farm included a carriage house, barns, a greenhouse and extensive orchards. Hitchins was a canal contractor in Lockport and also owned the Lockport Glass Factory. He was responsible for assisting in the release of a free black laborer who had worked for him at one time. The black man had gone to Kentucky to work and was captured there because it was thought he was a runaway slave. Hitchins sent affidavits to Kentucky attesting to the man’s free status. The man was released and his captors were arrested. Hitchins was also active in the abolitionist movement and employed blacks in his businesses. It is rumored that his home was a “safe house” on the Underground Railroad. Like many suspected stations on the Underground Railroad, it is impossible to say for sure if this is true. This is how many of the ghost stories were started.

In the late 19th century the house was sold to Michael Rodgers who operated a dairy farm there. He passed away in 1910 without a will and the estate was unsettled for many years. In the 1930s and early 1940s the McAfee family owned the house and farm. It was described by their nephew, John Cull, in a 2002 newspaper article as “very homey.” He said there were marble fireplaces in many of the rooms that provided the only source of heat in the house. After Cull’s uncle died, his aunt sold the house and farm to the Ruhlmann family who continue to own it to this day.

The Hitchins House with its impressive cut stone walls still catches people’s attention after more than 170 years.

Douglas Farley, Director
Erie Canal Discover Center
24 Church St.
Lockport NY 14094
716.439.0431
CanalDiscovery@aol.com
www.NiagaraHistory.org