History & local legend
The former Brittain house stands near the entrance to Rolling Acres Golf Course outside Beaver Falls. In the late 1960s, owners Ladd and Jane told visitors about an upstairs bedroom their dog refused to enter. Rita heard the stories through her mother, who worked at the clubhouse.
On a snowy New Year’s Eve around 1968 or 1969, Rita and her husband, Chuck, gave the owners a ride home after a clubhouse party. Invited inside, Rita followed Ladd on a tour while Chuck lingered in the upstairs hall. When she called to him, he joked that he was talking to the ghost. He entered the bedroom, the door slammed, and he cried out. Chuck hurried downstairs, pale and shaken, saying something cold had struck the back of his neck.
A later resident’s grandchild remembered another version of the upstairs haunting. Their grandfather heard marbles rolling over the wooden floor and children laughing in the room said to have once been a nursery.
Sources
- Beaver County Hauntings, Rita’s account of her evening in the house and a later resident’s grandchild on the marbles
- Beaver County historical publication, 1994, Brittain House and the sound of marbles in the child’s room
- Beaver County historical publication, history of the council and transfer of the 260-acre Brittain Homestead, now Rolling Acres
- Rolling Acres, operator’s property history and address
