Miller's Church

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Legend has it that the 1930s Catholic Miller’s Church was taken over by devil worshippers, and practitioners sacrificed young girls inside its walls. And then, the church suddenly burned down. All that’s left is a parking lot and a big oak. And so the story goes, a couple was parked here one night when their car wouldn’t start. The boy went for help and when he returned, he found his girlfriend hanging from the oak tree. Some say her apparition still can be seen, as well as a phantom hearse that will chase away trespassers.

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Geographic Information

Address:
21527 Millers Church Road
Hagerstown, MD
United States

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GPS:
39.720327, -77.6219304
County:
Washington County, Maryland
Nearest Towns:
Leitersburg, MD (1.9 mi.)
Ringgold, MD (3.0 mi.)
Reid, MD (3.1 mi.)
Waynesboro, PA (3.4 mi.)
Wayne Heights, PA (4.0 mi.)
Greensburg, MD (4.2 mi.)
Paramount-Long Meadow, MD (4.7 mi.)
Rouzerville, PA (4.8 mi.)
Edgemont, MD (5.2 mi.)
Smithsburg, MD (5.2 mi.)
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Comments (38)

  2. There never was a Catholic church here. Sounds like a bigoted anti-Catholic story from the local KKK. Please check your source and don’t contribute to bigotry.

  3. I’m not sure if it’s bigotry, to say an old church that happened to be Catholic at onep oint was lost BUT it shoudl be easy to document the site of the church as the Catholic church keeps very good records of that sort of thing.This isn’t some vague spot in theo ld west. Land has value and there would be records of it as the archdioses survives.

  4. once proven one way or the other that will be that part of the story but what about the girl hanging herself? The doesn’t have to be related to the church that was or wasn’t there. any details on that?

  5. BETWEEN 1979 1ND 1995 I MADE MANY RIDES BACK THIS ROAD TO SPOOK PEOPLE AND TO HANG OUT IN THE DAYTIME. YES, IT IS HAUNTED. MY FRIENDS AND i HAVE SEEN THINGS. WE USED TO HOOK SCHOOL, IN THE DAYTIME AND GO HERE. WE HAVE SEEN MANY THINGS. WE WERE CHASED BY A HEARST AND SAW PEOPLE IN THE WOODS , DRESSED IN HOODS WALKING WITH CANDLES, ON ROUTE TO THE CHURCH. THE CHURCH SAT RIGHT ALONG THE EDGE OF THE ROAD BY THE CURVE. THERE USED TO BE A LARGE CIRCLE IN FRONT OF THE CHURCH THAT HAD BURNT ROPES AND WOOD LAYING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CIRCLE. IT WAS NOT A SMALL CIRCLE, IT WAS A LARGE CIRCLE. I WOULD GUESS ABOUT 10 FEET-12 FEET IN DIAMETER. I DON’T KNOW WHEN IT WAS BURNT DOWN EXACTLY, BUT ON ONE THE MY RIDES THERE , TO SHOW MY CHILDREN, THE CHURCH WAS GONE, BURNT DOWN TO THE GROUND. tHIS PLACE ALWAYS MADE ME HAVE AN ERIE FEELING AND IT WOULD GET REALLY COLD WINDS AND BREEZES EVEN ON HOT SUMMER DAYS. WE SAW A LITTLE GIRL IN THE FEILD TO THE LEFT, OF THE FRONT OF THE CHURCH, JUST RUNNING THROUGH THE FEILD, BY HERSELF, AND NO ONE ELSE WAS AROUND, AND THEN SUDDENLY, SHE DISSAPEARED. A LOT OF WEIRD THINGS WENT ON WITH THE ENTIRE ROAD, HOUSES, AND PEOPLE IN THAT AREA. THERE USED TO BE A CREEPY BRIDGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD, THAT WAS AN IRON BRIDGE, THAT , I WAS TOLD, YOU COULD HEAR BABIES CRYING AT NIGHT, FROM WHERE THE SATANIC WORSHIPORS WOULD KILL AND SACRIFICE BABIES AND THROW THEM INTO THE CREEK IN BAGS, OR HANG THEM FROM THE BRIDGE TO PROVE THERE SACRIFICES WERE FINISHED.

    • I agree with you!!! I grew up there and as a teen, between 1979 and 1988, we saw all kinds of things. The hearse would chase us too. We would see a bon fire on our way there, but once we get to the church there was nothing. We used to go read the graves and some would have flowers on them. I used to have the piano keys that had blood on them but who knows what happened to them. We’d find dead animals inside the church too. We also saw the hooded figures. I know the current owner, the one who tore the church down. Too bad.

  6. I believe it is haunted, I’ve seen it w my own eyes! One night about 2am my boyfriend (at the time) and I were parked there where the church was (before the guard rails were added) and has we were we sitting there we heard singing like in a choir it freaked me out but yes could be explainable, but was just freaky for me so I locked my doors en put the windows up, a little later we saw a white limo come driving by, kinda freaky to see a white limo that late at night but then it came by again so courous as to what and why it was on that road we pulled out to follow it and in a short distance it just disappeared no sign of it any more!! We left! But I do take friends and family back that road showing them and sharing my story, one night we went back that road we found a group of kids standing in the middle of the road they lost control on the turn and their car ended up off the road in a ditch, since then guard rails have been put up on both sides of that turn!!

    • Hi Linda, I to use to go there parking when I was younger but never heard anything like that, We would be always on the look out for things but never saw any, That had to freak you out.
      Lisa

  7. I have heard 2 different stories but the one I think is most believable was there was a small church there that was for some servants that worked on the farm across the street. When slavery ended the slave owner locked the servants in the church and burnt it to the ground. Whether it true or not I have no idea but it is haunted. I have been out there late at night and have heard crying and faint screaming. Saw head lights that didn’t look like a normal car. Felt like I was being watched.

    • There are a lot of Mennonite families around that area, but not Amish. I think you’ve mistaken one for the other. My mother used to deliver the Morning Herald on that road years ago. I’ve been through that area multiple times, but have never seen anything. My mother, on the other hand, came past there one morning and saw a car sitting there. As she drove past, the “person” in the car lowered the paper they were reading. When she looked directly at them, instead of a human face, she saw the head of a goat. I don’t know if it was a prank or something paranormal, but it scared her enough that she refused to deliver on that road by herself from then on.

    • Jacob, How long ago were there ? one time when I was parking along the road late at night right next to the graveyard and we saw some people walking along the road ? was wondering if it might have been you. I have to admit I am very intrigue with that place.
      Lisa

    • We went to the graves in the woods and got spooked so we went to the “newer” church up the road to have a cigarette. This was 1998 I believe. While we were sitting outside on a ledge from the church lawn and we heard a distinct female scream from inside or around the church. There were 3 of us – no words were spoken. We all instantly jumped up and ran to our vehicle.

  12. Been there at the church and small cemetary a few times late at night in the late 80s as a teenager..each time was scary but the only thing I remember specifically is being chased out of there by a large dark car and that is no bullshit.

  13. A boy heard foots steps in the grave yard and a guy and girls voice giggle and ask if we were broke down and ask us if we were on but didn’t see them freaky

  14. YES, YES, YES, AND YES!!!!!!! Having to be an extremely positive believer in the paranormal, I have actually had my first experience with the “other side” while in a relationship with my then high school sweetheart. I will not mention her name for privacy reasons, but she was actually working at the Leitersburg movie theater at the time of this incident. After viewing a movie one late night, she explained to me how she knew of a “short cut” back to her home in Waynesboro, PA. Knowing that there are several ways to travel back to Waynesboro, and being the easily convinced type at the time, I went blindly along with this plan. We had left the theater, and not fully recognizing the area we were in, I had immediately noticed she was turning down a road with the name on the sign as being, “Miller’s Church Rd.” Now I had been told some pretty shocking, and pretty damn creepy stories of this area. The Satanic worship, the church burning, and the infamous phantom hearse. Well being the skeptic I was at the time, I believed in no way of this ever coming to fruition. After traveling down the road for sometime, I noticed up ahead in the distance what looked like to be a elementary school type building. What made said building so curiously creepy was the fact that it was smack dab in the middle of a gravel paved piece of land and was lit by only a singular street lamp type of lighting. Since the only other way to pass the property and get back on to a main road was to travel down a very narrow, unmarked back road, my girlfriend turned around in the lot of the “new” church. To my absolute shock and pure lump in the throat type moment, a black vehicle of an unknown make and model immediately darted right behind us like a literal bat out of hell. It was if he was the chauffeur of Satan himself. What seemed like a few dozen minutes turning in to only seconds, the vehicle was gone as if it were a complete and utter dream. Point being, as Jason on this forum said, the phantom hearse is NO BULLSHIT! Check it out for yourself if your skeptic ; ) This event took place in the winter of 2003.

    • Seems like its quite restless over there at the cemetary, Millers Road. Would the spirits go out of their way to harm someone that wants to pay a respectful visit?

  15. Yes this place is very haunted with spirits who DO NOT want you there. In 1989 after long meadow fire works we went to “peace chapel” which is millers church, I was chased by headlights so I turned around to follow them instead and lost the vehicle then I turned back around to finish parking at the church and we passed a black long vehicle and it pulled out and the chase was on… I was going so fast I quickly turned onto another back road misjudged a turn and ended up in a stone farm lane. We waited and went back. I wouldn’t give up I was drawn there…. The church was still there then and it was so ice cold inside I felt sick then we left. Didn’t go back till it was torn down. To this day I have my own personal relationship with that place. Respect.

  16. While me and a group of friends were there at night we heard chains dropping, as if someone was walking towards us. And a figure was moving across the cemetary

  17. in the mid 1990’s my friends and I always went to Millers Church to drink and hang out. I have hung out there probably hundreds of times from 1994-1998. We would pull into the 1/2 circle path that was worn in by cars traveling through, get out and hang. We choose this spot because it just over the PA boarder and thought the cops in MD would never come out this far to bust us. I had 2 incidents here one was a school night probably around 8:30pm 3 of us went to Millers Church to have a beer or two. We were there for maybe 5 min when a dark car came ripping by. it passed and then came back again. We got spooked and left, it chased us for many miles till we turned off the road. Had strange looking (an orange/red glow) headlights and was literally on my bumper as we tried to speed away. The 2nd incident is outlined below.

    Late one afternoon in the summer of 1996 there was about 25 of us there and a couple were up on the road looking South (on top of hill at the curve). They saw several cars heading down the road with their parking lights on & recognized it was the police. They shouted cops and it was like a skid of glass bottle shattered as everyone through their beer. The cops got there, shook us down and let us go because they had no evidence to hold any of us on.

    The couple who saw the cops ran to their car after they alerted all of us and slipped off with 2 others people who started to run. They were on the Northern side of the curve, they drifted down the hill and got up the road before the cops reached the site on the south side of the curve.

    I explain this because unbeknownst to us, one of our riders ran and got in the car that slipped away. We all met up down the road where Millers Church comes out to Lietersburg Pike & talked about what happened. We could not account for 2 people so we just assumed they ran into the woods and hid.

    Our car went back to look for them so we could pick them up to go somewhere else to hangout. The guy missing from our car name was Joe. So we pull in the area at the top of the hill and stop with our car facing down the hill to the North of the curve(the plaque stand was behind us). We are yelling for Joe for about a minute and see someone come out of the woods (back where the graveyard was – this was before it was cleared out). We said for him to hurry up in case the cops were still around when the guy in the back seat said “guys that is not Joe!” in a panicked voice. I was sitting shotgun and was opening the door when he said that, I was getting out to fold the seat down for Joe to get in. I looked up and there was a boy standing about 25 feet from our car staring at us with his hands at his sides. He was wearing a driving cap, a white button up shirt with a hounds tooth vest over it that matched his cap. He had shorts on with long socks and plain black shoes. He was white and looked to be about 11, 12, 13 years old and was very pale almost kind of grey. We all saw him, it felt like many minutes, I am sure it was less than 15 seconds we all stared in shock. The driver put the car in gear and started to go, I jumped back in the car and drove off the boy still standing there.

    Probably 15 years later, I was telling my wife about Millers Church and the story above. She said she wanted to go check it out and see what the hype was about this place. We drive there and I noticed they put guardrails up & cleared out the back lot where the graveyard was. I show her where we were & she wanted to check out the graveyard. She said she heard about a grave that people left toys on for a young boy and wanted to find it. We go through row by row and see the grave in the far left corner when we were about half way through. We walk back to it and before I get there she asked me what my friends name was that we came back looking for. I said Joe and she gasped holding her mouth. I get beside her and see the name on the grave is Joseph who was a boy that died at the age of 12. That sent chills down my spine.

  18. Millers church was NOT ever a Catholic church. It was a mennonite church.
    msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/stagsere/se1/se5/020000/020900/020933/pdf/msa_se5_20933.pdf

  19. A few people and I were in a car and we drove by super slow and ofcourse I screamed out the window come out spirits wherever you areeeee. This was super dumb. About twenty feet later we hit a huge buck and lose control. We keep driving cause we’re all super scared and want to go home. All of us get dropped off but the our driver said on the way home a car followed him even when he went in circles to purposefully see if the other car was. The person behind him tailgated him hard and had only two old orange headlights. That night After i got home i heard footsteps and chains outside my window. I swear! After my mom calmed me down I went to bed and had the weirdest dream. I was driving and hit a person because I was too busy looking at something that was on fire and then I saw my family and dog hanging from a tree. I know it was just a dream and it could be totally unrelated but it really scared me. My other friends that were in the car said they couldn’t sleep even though they felt drained of their energy. Please reply if you’ve had a similar expierence in really freaked out.

  20. My son and I checked out this place. We used camcorders and digital voice recorders. We did catch one EVP when I asked if they had a name. This is a beautiful place and one of our unknown treasures.

  21. 1 of my few experiences was on my 1st date with the father of my children back in 1985. The building was still there but the front was wide open kinda like a garage. We walked in n then out thru the graveyard. Its a very intense place. The feeling is unexplainable. Stayed for awhile with nothing real frightening occuring. However on the ride back were we chased by the hearse n we pulled over n it passed us so we followed it n it disappeared into thin air.

  22. this location has been on my list of places to check out for quite some time and i finally made the trek out there a few weeks ago.

    the cemetery lives up to its reputation in the sense that the vibes are definitely off. i went during the day and while i didn’t sense or witness any “darkness” i did have urges of needing to constantly look over my shoulder.

    while i was there, the only thing of note that took place occurred about five minutes after i had arrived at the cemetery. i was wandering through the graves when i looked over towards the road and spotted a truck slowly coming around the bend. the truck eventually pulled up right next to my car, and being somewhat caught off guard i started making my way back towards my car and the truck. as im approaching, the window of the driver’s side of the truck rolls down and a man asks me if my car is okay/broken down. confused as to why some random passerby would ask me such a thing (weather conditions were fine, no signs of being in distress, etc.) i respond by explaining that i was checking out the cemetery and assured him that my car was fine. seemingly satisfied with my explanation, the driver drove off and let me be.

    somewhat thrown off by that incident, i decided to hang around the property for a few more minutes before heading out. later that day i looked up the cemetery/church on this site and came upon multiple accounts of people who have experienced car trouble in this exact area. thankfully, upon leaving my car started with no issue whatsoever and i was able to continue with the rest of my day as planned.

    in hindsight, chances are the person who stopped by my car was either a well-intentioned individual or neighbor with knowledge of the history of the property and incidents of car-related issues. but still…the timing of that particular incident was slightly odd.

  23. This place is 5 minutes down the road from my house, so I frequent here to just sit next to some stones and attempt to communicate and comfort any spirits here. During the daytime it is a very comforting vibe. I’ve done multiple visits and have never felt any kind of negative energy here.I did decide one day to go at night and that was a terrifying experience. Was the same vibe as usual as a passed the Joseph Lutherans plaque, went all the way to the back to the area all the way to the left where the tree line starts and sat. Soon as my ass hit the ground I felt like the world was starting to close in on me, and the little amount of light that I had started to dim pretty drastically and a branch snapped behind me like someone was walking from behind me.

    I immediately turned on my voice memo app on as sometimes I’ve caught some weird shit on it and started heading back to my car. I felt like I was being chased, but was trying to stay calm so continued walking and wanted to avoid running. It was the worst energy I’ve ever felt in my entire life bro, and got worse when I felt and heard with my own ears a couple heavy breaths on my shoulder.

    Made it to my car, and zoomed tf outta there. Craziest shit was when I reviewed the voice memo recording, I caught two LOUD breaths right as I heard it with my own ears.

    So yeah, if you visit here, do it during the daytime as that seems to be when the peaceful spirits are active. If you’re looking for something to make you shit your pants, come at night be be fuckin respectful. I can guarantee whatever negative energy is there, is most likely aggravated by the night crowd who frequently comes through. Not as many people are visiting nowadays, but back in 2008-2011 a lot of people from Highschool went there to party and for some reason enjoyed breaking headstones and doing satanic worship as a joke and that’s bound to aggravate a spirit who is just trying to rest.

    If you made it through this, you’re a champion and have 10 outta 10 patience.

  24. I have been there many times when I was a teenager starting in the 1980s, and have seen some very strange things there. I am writing a book on the folklore of this local spooky destination. I would welcome any anecdotes about this area. I would be happy to include any tales you may have in my book.

  25. Erin Jo Kieffer-Allen  |  
    Reply ↓

    In the summer of 1988 I moved to Hagerstown Maryland from Newport Rhode Island. I immediately made friends as I lived near a park and they all had cars. One afternoon our friend Brian invited my sister and me to go see the Haunted Peace chapel. While driving down the long wooded road, which was quite narrow, we passed a big huge black car. It was the middle of the day and seemed harmless to go to such a place. The scary part wasn’t passing the car but seeing the passengers in the car. Their faces looked totally abnormal to me. I was a 15-year-old kid, but I knew they looked terrifying. They were so pale white it was as though they had make up on, although I knew they didn’t.
    Their eyes were piercing black. When I say piercing, it felt like they pierced into our car looking at us. We kept going, getting closer and almost arriving at the remains of the building which were still there, and a small overgrown cemetery.
    I know this because I went back later. All of the sudden my sister yelled… They are turning around. In a huge car like that, it was a 5 point turn and gave us some time. They chased us at very high speeds.
    We passed the church which smoke was pouring out of, which of course freaked us out all the more. We just kept going, Bryan had no idea where the road lead to. At one point he was showing us he was terrified. He wasn’t kidding at all, he was just going to four-wheel it through the fields which is what we did. We ended up driving through a ditch to get up onto the main road on the other side. They had to stop at the field. It was a very terrifying experience. Later I went back with other friends from high school and read one of the tiny tombstones by putting a piece of paper over it and sketching with my pen to see what it said. This was the poem on it and I have never forgotten it.
    “ Little time on earth he spent, till God for him his angel sent. And then one day he closed his eyes, to wake to glory in the skies.“
    It was a baby two years old. The end.
    P.S. Yes I went back, because kids are dumb and live for adrenaline.

  26. Jefferson Boyer  |  
    Reply ↓

    In the mid 80s I was riding with a friend near the peace chapel and had a car accident. Spoiler alert: we were hit by a drunk driver careening around a turn. The man who lived nearby came to our aid. it was just down the road from the “Peace Chapel”. As we waited for our parents to pick us up, etc. the man said that he and other neighbors would often do a patrol and chase off the teenagers who were hanging out at the chapel. The guy had a real estate business and a barn. I don’t know if he owned a hearse, but I remember how he said something about getting a kick out of scaring them off– as the kids were so scared of spooks. The church It had been cordoned off and prominent no trespassing signs placed on it. By that time, it had already been partially burnt, and graves had been defaced, and the church graffitied on the outside (by teenagers with spray cans) and there were pentagrams and ‘satan’ ‘666’ painted on it. It really doesn’t stand to reason that a satanic cult would take over a Lutheran church in the middle of Mennonite farmlands, and hold midnight masses, etc. without somebody noticing it really quick. The “Peace Chapel” is more of the stuff of local folklore than anything else. In my senior year of high school, I wrote a feature on the Peace Chapel for our school newspaper. We walked to the Peace Chapel one Saturday night– we walked through pastures along the road and ducked when we saw cars passing. We actually saw what appeared to be several figures in dark hoods and long robes standing in our path several times, but each time as we got closer, they turned out to be cedar trees growing among the limestone outcroppings we were walking through. We also had friends who didn’t know we were walking to the Peace Chapel and back in school on Monday they told us about how they saw people in the fields walking, but they disappeared, and the went down the road and turned around and saw them again, but then they disappeared… and we had to tell them it was us.

  27. I used to like to go there when I was younger just for the thrill of doing something scary. I was a little buzzed once after all the bars closed and three others came in my car with me to see what we could see. We parked and soon heard chanting. It was about 3 AM. Suddenly, there were 13 hooded figures that walked by. Each was carrying a candle. None of them paid any attention to us, but they kept walking past us. Quite frightening. They just kept going. When they were gone, we were sort of freaked out. We weren’t buzzed anymore and we just felt like leaving. As I was pulling out, a car was pulling in. An old car – like a truck from the 1930s they had on the Walton’s or something. They tooted the horn. They parked right behind us blocking us from leaving. A skinny old man in overalls and a straw hat got out of the front seat. He came over to my side of the car. He asked me if I had seen his daughter and her baby. I was freaked out. I said no. The old dude started laughing, a horrible, chilling loud, long laugh. And he screamed – “THAT’s BECAUSE SHE’s DEAD! SHE’s DEAD! SHE’s DEAD!! AND SHE’s in HELL!!! He continued screaming at us and his hat blew off in the wind. It was just awful because now you could see that the top of his own head had been blown off and blood started running down the sides of his cheeks. A girl in my car started screaming and crying to leave, so even though this man’s truck was blocking my car, I threw it into reverse and prepared to crash into the truck on my way out of the parking spot. I braced myself for impact, but there was none. The truck and the old man just vaporized into thin air. OMG, we were so freaked out. We drove out of there at about 80MPH. We don’t talk about it much anymore – this all happened in 1988, but I still sometimes have nightmares.

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