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The weathered farmhouse on Round Top Road in rural Rhode Island holds secrets far deeper than what you've seen on screen. Before the Warrens arrived, before the Perron family's terrifying encounters, and long before Hollywood transformed it into the centerpiece of a horror franchise, this colonial-era home already carried whispers of something unsettled.
Join host Robert Barber as our journey through the true origins of the Conjuring House reveals a complex tapestry of historical fact, local folklore, and the powerful force of belief. Built in the 1730s when Rhode Island was still a colony, this modest structure witnessed generations of hardship, loss, and unexplained occurrences that gradually coalesced into legend. The name most entwined with the property's supernatural reputation—Bathsheba Sherman—belonged to a real woman whose actual life bears little resemblance to the malevolent witch portrayed in popular culture.
The transformation from weathered farmhouse to America's most infamous haunted house accelerated when the Perron family arrived in 1971. Their experiences—doors opening on their own, mysterious cold spots, whispered voices, and increasingly frightening physical encounters—drew paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren to the property in 1973. What they claimed to uncover would eventually spawn books, films, and a cultural phenomenon, but the truth remains more nuanced and perhaps more unsettling than the dramatized version.
Was the Conjuring House truly haunted by vengeful spirits? Or could other explanations—environmental factors, psychology, or the power of suggestion—account for what happened within those walls? And what does our enduring fascination with this property reveal about our relationship with history, tragedy, and the unexplained?
Maybe what makes certain places feel haunted isn't just what happened there, but how we remember it, how we fill the silences with stories that help us make sense of loss and fear. The Conjuring House continues to captivate because it resists simple explanation. It challenges us to question not just what we believe about the supernatural, but why we believe it.
Listen now to explore the forgotten history behind America's most haunted home—where fact and folklore intertwine, where death and memory linger, and where sometimes the most haunting presence is the past itself.

##References in the Show##

Episode 3 - Mercy Brown | Rhode Island’s Last American Vampire https://www.buzzsprout.com/2465685/episodes/17010280-mercy-brown-rhode-island-s-last-american-vampire-fact-or-folklore

##Sound FX Credits##

Horror Ambiance by TheSoundFXGuy_YT -- https://freesound.org/s/534221/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Drone Wave 6 by Erokia -- https://freesound.org/s/797855/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0

Tranquil Harmony (Calm Piano and Ambient Sounds for Relaxa

State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast tracing the haunted highways, forgotten folklore, and unexplained phenomena across America’s 50 states.
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