Former Andalusia College site

History & local legend

In December 1886, The New York Times reported a strange overnight visit to the old Andalusia College in Bucks County. Philadelphia lawyer Horace W. Eshback and cigar manufacturer Frank Tygh had gone to see their friend John Endicott, who lived in the former college building. A storm kept them from returning to Philadelphia, so they stayed in a spare room.

Eshback said a pale light appeared after they went to bed. Within it floated a man's head and shoulders, with no lower body, above something resembling a cloud of snow. When Eshback asked what the figure wanted, he received a blow to the mouth. The apparition then burst apart without a sound.

Tygh had fallen to the floor in fright. After checking that the doors were locked and the windows closed, the two men went downstairs and spent the remaining hours beside the sitting-room fire. Eshback initially told Endicott that he had struck his swollen lip on a bedpost. He later gave the newspaper the much stranger explanation, and Tygh supported his account.