By John Collins, jcollins@lowellun.com
TYNGSBORO -- Selectmen are reviewing a request by a local paranormal research group to conduct a
nighttime investigation at Old Town Hall, located at 10 Kendall Road.
Built in 1834, Old Town Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
In a May 11 email addressed to Tyngsboro select- men and the town administrator, Gary Manley of
Methuen, founder of Nightfall Paranormal, formally requested the board's permission to gain access to
the building on either a Friday or Saturday night, yet to be determined, between the hours of 7 p.m. and 2
a.m.
"We are a diverse group of investigators dedicated to the science and research of the paranormal and
the unexplained," Manley wrote town officials. "We are interested in conducting an investigation to better
understand the historical considerations of this location, which will aid us in our ongoing research."
Town Administrator Michael Gilleberto said selectmen will discuss Manley's request at a future meeting.
"The building does not currently have a certificate of occupancy," Gilleberto told The Sun. "The question
the board must address is, can we allow them in there without risking the town's liability? You have a
building that might not be safe."
In his correspondence with selectmen, Manley wrote that If permission to set up inside Old Town Hall is
granted, he will provide the town a liabilities-release form, as well as a detailed description of the
equipment used by his paranormal research team.
"We do not use Ouija boards, tarot cards, or other forms of mystical communications," Manley informs
visitors to Nightfall Paranormal's website.
The equipment the group uses in an attempt to capture ghostly apparitions and disembodied voices that
sometimes turn up on playback of video and audio recordings at an investigation site -- referred to by
paranormal researcher as EVPS, or "electronic voice phenomena" -- includes: digital or 35-mm cameras;
night-vision video cameras wired with audio; VCRs, DVD burners and TV monitors; digital or analog
audio recorders; EMF detectors/K2 meters; and digital thermometers.
Nightfall Paranormal is a nonprofit research group; no money is exchanged for investigations conducted
at historic sites such as Tyngsboro's Old Town Hall, Manley told The Sun.
While his researchers "usually debunk about 90 percent of the evidence we capture," Manley said, a
paranormal investigation of the Old Town Hall could prove fruitful because it stands in what was a
central geographic location during an especially violent period in Colonial-American history.
Manley, 43, said he first experienced seeing apparitions as a child growing up in Missouri.
"I'd seen many ghosts and evidence of the paranormal earlier in my life but kind of pushed it aside as I
got older, like everybody else does," Manley said. "Then, after we moved into our house in Methuen, we
began dealing with apparitions there. And that's when I told my wife, I've got to get back into this."
Occasionally, Manley said Nightfall Paranormal conducts investigations in private residences, but 95
percent of the team's research is done in historical buildings.
Since 2007, the Manleys' investigative team has collected paranormal data in more than a dozen
historical town halls, hotels and old ships along the East Coast, among them the Amos Blanchard House
in Andover; Tenney Gate House in Methuen; Cohasset Town Hall; Gettysburg Battlefield; Shanley Hotel in
Napanoch, N.Y.; and aboard the USS Salem in Quincy.
TYNGSBORO -- Selectmen are reviewing a request by a local paranormal research group to conduct a
nighttime investigation at Old Town Hall, located at 10 Kendall Road.
Built in 1834, Old Town Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
In a May 11 email addressed to Tyngsboro select- men and the town administrator, Gary Manley of
Methuen, founder of Nightfall Paranormal, formally requested the board's permission to gain access to
the building on either a Friday or Saturday night, yet to be determined, between the hours of 7 p.m. and 2
a.m.
"We are a diverse group of investigators dedicated to the science and research of the paranormal and
the unexplained," Manley wrote town officials. "We are interested in conducting an investigation to better
understand the historical considerations of this location, which will aid us in our ongoing research."
Town Administrator Michael Gilleberto said selectmen will discuss Manley's request at a future meeting.
"The building does not currently have a certificate of occupancy," Gilleberto told The Sun. "The question
the board must address is, can we allow them in there without risking the town's liability? You have a
building that might not be safe."
In his correspondence with selectmen, Manley wrote that If permission to set up inside Old Town Hall is
granted, he will provide the town a liabilities-release form, as well as a detailed description of the
equipment used by his paranormal research team.
"We do not use Ouija boards, tarot cards, or other forms of mystical communications," Manley informs
visitors to Nightfall Paranormal's website.
The equipment the group uses in an attempt to capture ghostly apparitions and disembodied voices that
sometimes turn up on playback of video and audio recordings at an investigation site -- referred to by
paranormal researcher as EVPS, or "electronic voice phenomena" -- includes: digital or 35-mm cameras;
night-vision video cameras wired with audio; VCRs, DVD burners and TV monitors; digital or analog
audio recorders; EMF detectors/K2 meters; and digital thermometers.
Nightfall Paranormal is a nonprofit research group; no money is exchanged for investigations conducted
at historic sites such as Tyngsboro's Old Town Hall, Manley told The Sun.
While his researchers "usually debunk about 90 percent of the evidence we capture," Manley said, a
paranormal investigation of the Old Town Hall could prove fruitful because it stands in what was a
central geographic location during an especially violent period in Colonial-American history.
Manley, 43, said he first experienced seeing apparitions as a child growing up in Missouri.
"I'd seen many ghosts and evidence of the paranormal earlier in my life but kind of pushed it aside as I
got older, like everybody else does," Manley said. "Then, after we moved into our house in Methuen, we
began dealing with apparitions there. And that's when I told my wife, I've got to get back into this."
Occasionally, Manley said Nightfall Paranormal conducts investigations in private residences, but 95
percent of the team's research is done in historical buildings.
Since 2007, the Manleys' investigative team has collected paranormal data in more than a dozen
historical town halls, hotels and old ships along the East Coast, among them the Amos Blanchard House
in Andover; Tenney Gate House in Methuen; Cohasset Town Hall; Gettysburg Battlefield; Shanley Hotel in
Napanoch, N.Y.; and aboard the USS Salem in Quincy.
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