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| I find this painting actually quite creepy. |
Not every haunted tale in New England involves a scary
ghost. At least one, coming out of Kennebunkport, Maine, is a bit more
hospitable. Visitors to the Captain Fairfield Inn sometimes claim to have seen
the ghost of the home's eponymous original owner playing the role of host in
his unearthly form.
Captain James Fairfield was a seaman who started a
privateering operation during the War of 1812. During one of his voyages, he
wrote to his wife Lois to inform her that he was taken prisoner by the British.
He was brought to the infamous Dartmoor Prison. In fact, he was there during
the April 6, 1815 massacre. He lived to see his release and was back on
American soil on July 3, 1815.
Two years earlier, the Captain began construction at a piece
of property given to him by Lois' father on the corner of Pleasant and Green
Streets in Kennebunkport. By the time he came home from his misadventure, he
was able to begin his life there with his wife, sister and brother-in-law.
Interestingly, a portrait of Captain Fairchild that was meant to grace the home
was lost at sea. It didn't make its way home until after his death from pneumonia at the age
of 36. He enjoyed the home, which has been an inn since 1991, for roughly five
years.
Today, a copy of the original portrait of Captain Charles
Fairfield hangs over the mantle of the inn. Those who sight the ghostly visage
of Fairchild are able to make a positive identification based on this
replica and the original, which is held in the Brick Store Museum. They say
he seems pleased with the current state of the home, though ascribing that much
feeling to a fleeting apparition might be a stretch.
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