History & local legend
West Allens Lane in Philadelphia’s Mount Airy neighborhood has a tradition of a headless Revolutionary War soldier riding through the fog with his head in his arms. A resident named Kathy later described hearing unexplained hoofbeats on the same street, although she never saw the rider.
Writing in March 2015, Kathy said the sounds began after she moved there in 1989. Her two dogs barked and followed the noise as it passed the house toward the Wissahickon. At first she assumed deer were running down the street. After several nights, she prepared her camera to photograph them.
When the dogs barked again, Kathy hurried downstairs and heard the hooves growing louder as they passed her window. The street was empty. She recalled hearing the sound in late September and early October in 1989, 1990 and 1991, and occasionally in later years. Eventually she took to closing the window and ignoring it.
