Common Questions
The questions, answered straight
Almost everyone arrives with the same handful of questions, and for several of them the honest answer is not the famous one. There is no portrait of Bathsheba Sherman. Only one of the deaths people attribute to this land actually happened on it. A woman ran a daycare in these rooms for twenty years and reported nothing at all. And the question of who owns the house today has no clean answer, because it is in front of three courts. What follows is what the record supports, with the gaps left visible.
Where is the house?
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On Round Top Road in Burrillville, Rhode Island, in the village of Harrisville, about forty minutes northwest of Providence. It is a private property on a residential road. Anyone considering a visit should make arrangements with whoever currently operates it and should not attend without them.
Does this website sell tours or overnight stays?
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No. This site is an independent historical archive. It does not own the property, does not operate it, and neither sells nor arranges access of any kind. Nothing on this site is an offer.
Is the house actually the one from the film?
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It is the real 1736 farmhouse on the former Old Arnold Estate where the Perron family lived from 1971 to 1980, and their accounts inspired the 2013 film. The film itself was shot elsewhere, so the building on screen is not this building. The farmhouse standing on Round Top Road is genuine, and it is not a set.
Who owns the house now?
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That is contested. A warranty deed transferring the property to Jason Hawes was recorded on 15 June 2026 for $1.3 million. Litigation over the mortgage and the validity of the sale remains before the Rhode Island Superior Court, and guardianship petitions concerning the previous owner are pending. The timeline sets out what the public record shows, with dates.
Was Bathsheba Sherman a witch, and is that her portrait?
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No, and no. Bathsheba Sherman was a real woman who lived on the Sherman farm — not this one — and died on 25 May 1885 of what her record calls sudden paralysis. No document in existence names her a witch or connects her to the death of a child. No authenticated portrait of her is known to exist; the painting on this site was made for this site and is a likeness of nobody.
Did people really die in the house?
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One death is recorded on the property: Jarvis Smith, who froze to death in a shed there in 1901 after drinking. Two other deaths commonly attributed to the house happened elsewhere — Edwin Arnold died of exposure about a mile and a half down the road in 1903, and his son John A. Arnold died at his own home near Tarkiln in 1911.
How accurate is the rest of what is written about this house?
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Much of it is wrong, which is why this archive exists. Norma Sutcliffe and Gerald Helfrich lived in the farmhouse for thirty-two years from 1987, ran a daycare inside it for twenty of them and cooking workshops for eight, and reported nothing they could not explain. That belongs in an honest account as much as anything else does.
The full account runs from the 1680 survey to this summer.
An independent historical archive. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the owner of the property, and not affiliated with New Line Productions, Inc. or Warner Bros. No access to the property is sold or arranged through this site.