Cliveden
Cliveden is a historic site in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing. NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad. The archive files it under dark history, Underground Railroad history and the Underground Railroad. The dossier holds 3 documented facts — the record is history-forward, no paranormal claims on file. The site is open to visitors.
NPS public listing access field: Yes. This is a listing snapshot; current arrangements still require confirmation.
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Is Cliveden haunted?
No claims are filed here — the record keeps this place for its documented history, not for a haunting on file.
The record — long form
On October 4, 1777, the Battle of Germantown turned on a stone house. About 150 British soldiers of the 40th Regiment barricaded themselves inside Cliveden — the decade-old summer seat of Benjamin Chew, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania — and the American assault broke against its walls. The mansion absorbed artillery fire at point-blank range and held; the attempt to storm it cost scores of casualties, and the Revolution's best chance to retake Philadelphia died in the yard.
The house the record keeps
Cliveden was built between 1763 and 1767, a Georgian stone mansion at the center of an estate worked in part by the people the Chew family held in bondage — a population the site's modern interpretation, and its National Park Service Network to Freedom listing, keeps in the foreground. The house stayed with the Chews for seven generations before becoming a museum.
Battle damage is still legible in the masonry — the fighting wrote on the building directly. The lore that collected afterward, the usual reports attached to a house with a battlefield in its front yard, is filed as lore. The archive's position here is the easy one: the documented day was loud enough without embellishment.
Two accounts on file
NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.
The Chew mansion—where the 1777 battle raged around the walls.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing
NPS Network to Freedom
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 15PA01, source row 324. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened.
UGRR enrichment wave 2; VERIFY task auto-queued.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Documented history
NPS includes this site in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Cliveden's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer the museum itself interprets. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01' documents the entry. The date is part of the site's documented spine.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceCliveden is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. The detail is preserved in 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. The detail belongs to the verified spine of the entry.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceThe 1767 mansion is documented. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' documents the entry. The entry's timeline holds it; the lore holds the rest.
Verified historyNational Park Service
Sources on file
- 01Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01National Park Service · government · A1
- 02NPS Network to Freedom listingNational Park Service · government · A1
- 03Underground RailroadWikipedia · encyclopedia · A4
Field notes & open questions
Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 15PA01, source row 324. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened.