The Conference House – Billop House

The Conference House, also known as the Billop House, stands in Tottenville on Staten Island as one of New York's most historically significant colonial structures, its construction predating 1680 and representing the architectural and cultural heritage of early European settlement in the region. Built during the permanent settlement period when Manhattan Island and its surrounding areas were transitioning from indigenous lands to colonial possession and European control, the structure exemplifies the domestic architecture of the colonial merchant class and demonstrates the design principles of seventeenth-century construction methods and materials. The Billop House served as both a private residence and a statement of prosperity, social standing, and merchant wealth, with construction materials and design reflecting the considerable resources and aspirations of its original owners and their descendants across generations.

The building gained particular historical prominence on September 11, 1776, when it hosted the Staten Island Peace Conference, a significant diplomatic negotiation aimed at ending the American Revolutionary War and restoring peace between the colonies and Great Britain through diplomatic channels. The conference brought together General George Washington and other revolutionary leaders with British representatives in an attempt to negotiate terms and find common ground for peaceful resolution between opposing forces. The high stakes of this meeting—the possibility that the war might be concluded and peace restored through diplomacy—invested the space with historical weight and emotional resonance that persists powerfully to the present day through centuries of subsequent history and memory.

Beyond this singular diplomatic event, the Billop House represents the complexities and contradictions of the revolutionary period, with some inhabitants remaining steadfast to British sovereignty while others embraced revolutionary ideals and independence and self-governance. Christopher Billop, the loyalist owner of the estate, represented those colonial Americans whose political sympathies lay firmly with the British Crown despite the revolutionary tide sweeping across the colonies. History records, and legend has preserved, an incident of particular tragedy that occurred within the house and left its mark upon the location's spiritual character and paranormal nature. According to accounts passed through generations and embedded in local folklore, Billop threw a servant girl down the stairs in a violent altercation, an act that resulted in her death as she fell and broke her neck on the stone steps below in brutal fashion.

The legend attributes this violence to the servant's alleged espionage and accusations that she was spying on behalf of revolutionary forces against her loyalist employer for political purposes. In the present day, the Conference House manifests multiple apparitional entities and physical phenomena throughout its rooms and corridors in consistent patterns. The ghost of Christopher Billop himself appears within the building, recognized by sensitive visitors and investigators who have encountered his presence. The servant girl whose death occurred within these walls also manifests as a distinct presence observable by those sensitive to paranormal phenomena. British soldiers and shadow figures move through the space, representing the military forces of the era and historical divisions. Visitors hear disembodied screams, particularly near the stairs where the fatal fall allegedly occurred, and sounds consistent with falling bodies and impact on stone surfaces and stairs.