Some of you probably remember the place we called Old Ladies' Hill on High Street at the north end of LaMonte Avenue. It was rumored to be haunted and we had great fun sneaking through the property or knocking on the door and running. The steep hill up to the place was great for sled riding or tube rolling down if you didn't mind ending up on High Street.
What no one told me growing up there is that it had been the LaMonte mansion after they moved to BB from Virginia during the Civil War. The family donated it for senior housing when they built their new mansion at the entry to Piedmont Farms which was their development. Before the LaMontes owned Old Ladies Hill it had been the house of Daniel Talmadge who had added onto the first home in town built by Thomas Codrington on an Indian mound. Codrington was one of the four purchasers of the land from the Lenape in 1683 and the only one to ever reside in town.
No wonder we thought Old Ladies' Hill was haunted!
