In Westfield, New Jersey, a dream house on a quiet street turned into a waking nightmare after the new owners began receiving letters from someone calling themselves The Watcher. The writer claimed a multi generational duty to observe 657 Boulevard, described “young blood” inside with unsettling detail, and hinted at secrets buried in the walls and in the neighborhood around it.
This episode of 50 States of Folklore revisits the case through the letters, the police investigation, the media frenzy, and the theories about who could know so much about one family’s movements. Was The Watcher a neighbor, a previous resident, a hoaxer feeding on fear, or something stranger that saw the house as more than wood and brick? In a town that prides itself on safety and status, 657 Boulevard stands as a reminder that sometimes the scariest haunted house is the one that looks perfectly normal from the sidewalk.
