A nearly six-acre, heavily-wooded island some 100 yards off the Delaware River banks of Easton, Pennsylvania, is up for sale, and garnering lots of buzz for its infamous — and spooky — past.
Getter's Island, which has been owned by the same family for decades, is on the block for $150,000. It's nestled between Easton and Phillipsburg on the New Jersey side of the river.
Its history and name date back nearly 200 years to a notorious hanging that took place in 1833. Tens of thousands of people came from across the region to see Charles Getter hanged for the murder of his wife, Rebecca Lawall, earlier that year.
Local authorities decided to hang Getter from an elevated part of the island to allow the huge crowds the chance to see the execution from the riverbanks in Easton.
The current owner, Lee Heilman, whose family has owned the island for seven decades, said he remembers as a kid how "a certain chill went through your body when we sat on the island."
“It’s actually one of those tall tree’s right in the back," Heilman said standing at the river's edge, pointing to the location where Getter was hanged. "We were always scared to walk by it when we were kids."
But ghosts aside, Heilman hopes the next owner treats the island as the unique piece of Easton's culture that it has been ever since descendants of William Penn sold it to local businessman for roughly $1,000 the same year the U.S. Constitution was signed.
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"It’s close to my heart and you don't realize that until there comes that point that you are going to part ways with it," Heilman said. "I would love to see it brought to life again."
For more information about the island, here is a link to its listing.
