One Spooky Town to Visit in Each of the 6 New England States
(Photo: Lukasz Szmigiel)
Florida and other southern states may draw the snowbirds when the weather turns cold elsewhere; Colorado and the Rockies may leave skiers and snowboarders wanting more each winter; and the Midwest may have more inland lakes (not to mention one of the world’s largest freshwater sources in the Great Lakes) than you’d know what to do with each summer, but when it comes to the best season of all — autumn — there is one corner of the country that more readily comes to mind than any other. Sporting some of the best fall foliage anywhere in the nation, New England is kind of the place to be when you start to feel that crisp, crisp air creep back in.
The color-changing parade that falls across the region like a patchwork quilt every September and October is undoubtedly one of the biggest draws for anyone looking to put a fall getaway on the books, but let’s also remember that this is spooky season, and New England is hardly wanting in the arena of things that go bump in the night. From haunted houses and hotels to ghost-riddled cemeteries and ships, you can scare your pants off properly six ways to Sunday.
If, however, you have never been to the region and/or have no idea where to start, don’t panic. Rather, we invite you to rejoice, as we have scoured the interwebs for some of the spookiest spots in all of New England and cobbled them together right here into a neat little list. With special thanks to New England Inns & Resorts, New England With Love, One CrafDIY Girl, and others, here is one destination in each of the six New England states to get your spooky season-spiration:
Bangor, Maine
We begin in the Land of Stephen King, he of the sewer-dwelling killer clowns, mysterious and menacing mists, and homicidal superfans — because why wouldn’t we. Bangor does not appear on this list because of Stephen King, but it should be noted that the city served as King’s primary inspiration for the fictional town of Derry in his horror masterpiece “It”, and, if you ever visit, you will likely be overcome with the distinct feeling that you are walking around in the real-world version of said masterpiece. Of course, you can also get a glimpse of the famed horror author’s former home in the Whitney Park Historic District: an eerie Victorian mansion, complete with a spider- and bat-adorned iron gate.
All right, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s talk about the other spooky spots in Bangor, which are the actual reason this city is on the list. First up is Mount Hope Cemetery, where the likes of generals, ambassadors, gangsters, and a U.S. vice president — Hannibal Hamlin — are buried. Mount Hope, which dates back to 1836, is one of the oldest “garden cemeteries” in the country, and, okay, yes, it has provided plenty of inspiration for King stories, but it is also spooky in its own right. The ghost of Al Brady, a notorious 1930s gangster, is said to roam the grounds, and visitors have reported all kinds of otherworldly phenomena over the years, including seeing full-bodied apparitions and hearing disembodied voices and phantom footsteps.
Speaking of Hannibal Hamlin, it’s rumored that the spirit of Lincoln’s first vice president still resides in The Tarrantine, a fine dining establishment in the Broadway Historic District. Formerly an exclusive club where men would gather to play cards and smoke cigars, The Tarrantine is where Hamlin collapsed and fell unconscious on July 4, 1891, later dying on a couch that has since been moved to the Bangor Public Library. The current location of the restaurant is not the same place that Hamlin died, but that hasn’t stopped the tale (and possibly his ghost) from living on.
Some other allegedly haunted places in Bangor include:
The Thomas A. Hill House, which is said to be haunted by the ghost of former Bangor Mayor Samuel Dale;
The Isaac Farrar Mansion, where the spirits of a child who choked to death on a marble in the late 1800s and his nanny, who was so distraught over the episode that she took her own life, allegedly still roam; and
The Bangor Opera House, which is said to be haunted by at least three ghosts, one of them a child who likes to give audiences a scare every now and then.
The Isaac Farrar Mansion in Bangor, Maine, was allegedly the scene of a tragic episode in the late 19th century in which a young child choked to death on a marble (Photo: John Phelan | Wikimedia Commons)
Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
Shifting our attention slightly westward, we find ourselves in the Granite State — New Hampshire — which has myriad haunts of its own. The creepy capital of this fiercely independent state, though, may just be Bretton Woods, a small mountain community with a spooky hotel that surely rivals The Overlook from Stephen King’s “The Shining” (we just can’t escape, can we?!).
The Omni Mount Washington Hotel may not have a history of murderous winter caretakers, but what it lacks in Delbert Grady’s and Jack Torrance’s it makes up for with sightings of its own resident ghost: a Victorian-looking woman referred to as “The Princess”. The spirit is believed to be that of Carolyn Foster Stickney, a longtime inhabitant of the hotel whose first husband, rail tycoon Joseph Stickney, built the place in 1902. Ole Joe loved his lady so much that he included an indoor swimming pool and a private dining room for her, the latter of which is now known as the “Princess Room”. Guests have reported seeing a woman believed to be Carolyn roaming the hotel’s hallways, hearing knocks on doors when no one is there, and experiencing objects disappearing and reappearing from time to time. If you are really set on getting a glimpse of this Victorian vision, however, your best bet is staying in Room 314 — the “Princess Room” — where she has allegedly been seen several times over the years sitting at the edge of the bed.
Should you be seeking further thrills in the area, I might direct you about 20 miles south of Bretton Woods to the ghost town of Livermore. Nestled in the White Mountains, this 19th- and 20th-century logging town was incorporated in 1874 by Daniel and Charles Saunders. Abandoned all the way back in 1949, only a few artifacts remain, such as the foundation of a school and some long-forgotten railroad scraps. Only a mile and a half off U.S. Route 302, the “town” isn’t difficult to get to, making for an interesting day trip, to say the least.
Stowe, Vermont
We turn next to the “Ski Capital of the East”: the small mountain town of Stowe, Vermont. Located in the northern part of the state, Stowe sits in the shadow of Mount Mansfield, the highest peak in the Green Mountain State at 4,393 feet. The town, it follows, is a magnet for outdoor and winter sports enthusiasts, but it also attracts another kind of clientele — ghost hunters. Those looking to spy a spirit or two will head this way to check out a trio of supposedly haunted sites, including a pair of inns and a covered bridge connected to a story with a not-so-happy ending.
Let’s start with the inns. First up is Brass Lantern Inn, an historic, family-owned bed and breakfast set within a former farmhouse. The place dates back to 1810 and features just nine guest rooms — plus, a gallivanting group of ghosts!? Tis true, according to guests who have stayed at the Brass Lantern over the years, several of whom have reported hearing people arrive late at night and talking loudly and excitedly about a party or dance that they’ve just come from. When those guests inquire the next day about their noisy neighbors, they inevitably learn that no one was staying in the room from which the lively chatter allegedly emanated.
Stowe’s other apparition-prone accommodations can be found at Green Mountain Inn just down the road. Though it sports a history featuring the likes of former presidents Chester A. Arthur and Gerald Ford, perhaps its most famous guest/resident is Boots Berry …or, rather, his ghost.
Born at the inn in 1840 to a chambermaid and a horseman who worked there, Berry would later become a respected horseman and caretaker of the property himself. After saving the lives of passengers aboard a runaway stagecoach one day, he became a local hero — only to eventually run into drinking problems and lose his job. So, he traveled. He landed in jail in New Orleans. He learned to tap dance. And, years later, in 1902, he returned to Stowe, where he would again play the hero. Only this time, in rescuing a little girl trapped on the roof of Green Mountain Inn during a snowstorm, he slipped and fell to his death. Now, each winter when a blizzard blows through town, people claim they can hear ole Boots Berry tap dancing on the roof overhead.
Finally, we have to mention “Emily’s Bridge”. This 50-foot-long covered bridge is said to be haunted by the spirit of a heartbroken girl who was ghosted by her lover (see what I did there?) in the mid-1800s. The couple, who couldn’t be together due to societal constraints (he was rich; she was poor), had decided to elope, but when this supposed Romeo didn’t show up for their midnight rendezvous, the girl — identified only as Emily — was so upset that she took her own life right then and there. Her ghost is apparently an angry one, with visitors reporting scratches appearing on their cars and a strange voice whispering on the wind.
The Gold Brook Covered Bridge, or "Emily's Bridge", in Stowe, Vermont, is said to be haunted by the ghost of a heartbroken girl (Photo: Nicholas Erwin)
Fall River, Massachusetts
It seems particularly fitting that what is perhaps Massachusetts’ spookiest town comes with a name like Fall River. Found about 40 miles south of Boston along the border with Rhode Island, the city has a haunted history that surely rivals any of its New England brethren on this list. And any conversation concerning that history almost certainly begins with a mention of the Lizzie Borden House. The property, now a bed and breakfast, was the former home of the Borden family, headed by Andrew Jackson Borden, a successful property developer in the area in the latter half of the 1800s, who, along with his second wife, Abby Durfee Gray, was murdered with a hatchet inside the home on August 4, 1892.
As the story goes, tensions were running high within the Borden family in the months leading up to the killings, as Andrew Borden’s two daughters, Emma and Lizzie, grew increasingly upset with daddy dearest’s financial decisions — not to mention the original sin of marrying Abby Gray, whom Lizzie believed was only after her father’s cash money. A big family blowup in July 1892 resulted in the sisters leaving town for some time and staying in nearby New Bedford. Lizzie Borden would return alone to Fall River just a week before her father and stepmother were discovered brutally murdered within a couple hours of one another. Although she was the primary suspect in the case and presented contradictory accounts of where she was and what she was doing at the time of the slayings, Lizzie, god love her, was ultimately acquitted.
While she may never have been held accountable by the legal system for a pair of murders she probs defs totes committed, she was essentially ostracized in her own community afterward and probably heard no end to the cute little rhyming tune that somebody came up with in the wake of the killings:
“Lizzie Borden took an axe
and gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
she gave her father forty-one.”
Though that jaunty number exaggerates the details a bit — Abby Borden (née Gray) was struck only 19 times and Andrew Borden a mere 10 or 11 times (“only” and “mere” used relatively here) — the song stuck, much like the blows delivered by Lizzie (allegedly). Also stuck may just be the spirits of Abby and Andrew, as visitors to the Lizzie Borden House, which, again, is now a bed and breakfast, as well as a museum complete with gift shop, have reported all kinds of spooky happenings on site, including flickering lights, the sound of giggling children, and figures in white nightgowns appearing out of thin air. Thrillist didn’t name it the most haunted place in Massachusetts for nothing, you know?
(By the by: for a fun recounting from someone who stayed the night at the Lizzie Borden House recently, check out Zac Thompson’s writeup on Frommer’s.)
Other allegedly haunted spots in Fall River include:
Oak Grove Cemetery, where Lizzie Borden is buried;
The Quequechan Club, an historic downtown building where a ghostly Victorian woman in white is regularly spotted; and
Abram’s Rock (in neighboring Swansea, MA), around which the spirit of a Native American man is said to roam.
Newport, Rhode Island
Only 20 miles south of Fall River, Massachusetts, is one of the ritziest (and spookiest!?) towns in Rhode Island: the seaside city of Newport. Synonymous with sailing and fancy Gilded Age mansions, it also happens to be home to what is considered one of the most haunted taverns in the U.S. White Horse Tavern, which opened in 1673, has served as a courthouse, a private residence, and a meeting place for colonists and British soldiers. At present, it is an upscale dining establishment — and the oldest restaurant in operation in America, to boot.
With its age, of course, comes a long and storied past. But, as our good friend William Faulkner once wrote: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” And that is certainly true at White Horse Tavern, which is said to be haunted by a handful of spirits. According to the stories, one of the most prominent specters is a man dressed in shabby Colonial attire who is often seen hanging around one of the fireplaces in the main dining room. This apparition is believed to be the ghost of a drifter who showed up at the tavern in the 1720s and died in his sleep next to the fireplace. He has also allegedly been spotted in the upstairs men’s bathroom.
The main dining room at White Horse Tavern in Newport, Rhode Island, the so-called “most haunted tavern” in the U.S. (Photo: Matthew & Heather)
In addition to The Drifter, a supposedly playful spirit has been known to tap staff members on their shoulders, only for them to turn and discover no one is there; a woman has been seen floating above the dining room tables; a little girl has been heard crying near the upstairs bathrooms when no one is around; and heavy footsteps are at times heard coming from unoccupied rooms. Spooky stuff, indeed.
Another prominent Newport haunt (ha) that will be immediately recognizable to fans of the 1960s television series “Dark Shadows” is Seaview Terrace (also known as Carey Mansion), the French chateau that was used for exterior shots of the Collins’ mansion on the show. While you won’t find Barnabas Collins roaming the halls of this historic home on Ruggles Avenue, it is believed that the original lady of the house, one Julia Bradley, loved the place so much that she refused to leave even after her death in 1929.
Seaview Terrace was originally constructed in 1907 in Washington, D.C., but after Julia’s husband, the whiskey baron Edson Bradley, moved the family to Rhode Island, they brought the house along with them in pieces and had it rebuilt. After both of the Bradley’s had passed on — she in ‘29, he in ‘34 — the mansion became a boarding school for girls who reportedly experienced all kinds of strange phenomena, including smoke detectors going off randomly, bottles flying off desks, and radios turning themselves on and off.
In 2011, the mansion, again a private residence, was featured on an episode of “Ghost Hunters”, during which the crew recorded muffled voices, footsteps and other noises on floors above, and felt wild swings in the temperature while checking out the third-floor tower.
Easton, Connecticut
Last but not least on our spooky tour of New England is the tiny Connecticut town of Easton. Just a hop, skip, and jump from New York City, Easton and its 7,600 residents are the proud owners of one of the most haunted cemeteries in America. Union Cemetery, which boasts a history that stretches over four centuries, is said to be riddled with ghosts. The most well-known apparition associated with the cemetery is the fabled White Lady (because, for some reason, these female ghosts are always dressed in white?), whose backstory is truly anyone’s guess. Some say she is the ghost of a woman who died giving birth, now searching for her baby for all eternity. Others say she is either a murderous wife, or perhaps a murder victim herself, whose body was dumped in a sinkhole near the cemetery. Whoever she is, it is said she will often appear alongside Route 59, which runs along the cemetery’s eastern flank.
In addition to the White Lady, scores of Union Cemetery visitors have also reported the distinct sensation that they’ve been transported into a Rockwell music video, proclaiming to feel hot breath across the backs of their necks, only to turn and realize somebody’s watching me. That somebody appears in the form of two glowing red eyes off in the distance. This spirit, which is also known to chase visitors around, is unimaginatively referred to as Red Eyes. Paranormal investigator Donna Kent, founder of the Cosmic Society of Paranormal Investigation, has speculated that Red Eyes may be the ghost of a man named Earle Kellog, who was apparently set on fire and burned to death across the street from the cemetery in 1935.
Plenty of paranormal investigators and ghost hunters have documented otherworldly shenanigans at the cemetery, including famed demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren. The pair visited Union Cemetery several times, eventually compiling their findings into a 1992 book called “Graveyard: True Hauntings from an Old New England Cemetery”.
For further bumps in the night, consider heading down to nearby Bridgeport, Connecticut, where you can get a glimpse of the infamous bungalow-style home on Lindley Street which sat at the center of an international paranormal sensation when, in 1974, “otherworldly forces” descended on the residence, wreaking all kinds of havoc and drawing hordes of news reporters, priests, and investigators — including the Warrens — to try to figure out what in the devil was going on.
-LTH