Haunted Hotels Near Boston

Boston is one of the oldest cities in the United States of America. It is also one of the most historically significant. Boston and the surrounding area were home to such bloody events as the first battles of the American Revolution and the Salem Witch Trials. Therefore, it stands to reason that there will be haunted places in and around the city. Among these haunted places are some hotels that people believe have a few unregistered guests from time to time.

Hawthorne Hotel
18 Washington Square
Salem, MA 01970

Hawthorn Hotel
by Fletcher6

Hawthorne Hotel is arguably the most famous hotel in Salem. It is a roughly fifteen-minute drive to the Hawthorne Hotel from Boston. It opened on July 23, 1925 and has since received such guests as the cast of the Bewitched television show, U.S. President George Bush and Bette Davis. The hotel is, of course, named after the town's famous author, Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Legend has it that the Hawthorne Hotel was built on an apple orchard that was once owned by accused witch, Bridget Bishop. Bridget was one of the individuals who were wrongfully executed during the Salem Witch Trials. There have been reports that the sweet smell of apples sometimes lingers in the hotel, despite the fact that no apple trees remain on the property. Other paranormal activities such as eerie sounds have also been reported at the Hawthorne Hotel.


Omni Parker House Hotel
60 School St.
Boston, MA 02108
                                                                                   

Omni Parker House Hotel
by Kimberly Vardeman

The Omni Parker House Hotel in Boston opened in 1855. It is located just outside of Boston Common less than two blocks from the Massachusetts State House. The hotel's restaurant is almost as famous as the hotel itself. It is the home of the world's first Boston Cream Pie and it is also the place where then future U.S. President John F. Kennedy proposed to the future First Lady of the United States, Jacqueline Bouvier. This hotel is great for people who want to step out of their hotels into the historic streets of Boston during the day, eat the delicious food of the hotel's historic restaurant in the evening and be spooked by the hotel's ghost at night.

Harvey Parker, the original owner of the hotel and restaurant is said to live there still, in ghostly form. Sightings of this long-dead man have dwindled in the past 20 years. However, there have reportedly been several sightings of him on the tenth floor of the hotel. Parker's ghost is supposedly polite and unobtrusive, aside from his habit of making unannounced appearances in guest's rooms on the tenth floor.

Colonial Inn
48 Monument Square
Concord, MA 01742
                                                               

Colonial Inn sign
by -jkb-

The original building of the Colonial Inn was a home built in 1716. In 1775, part of it was used as a munitions storehouse by the Massachusetts Militia. In fact, those munitions were in the house when the British came looking for the militia's supplies on April 19, 1775. The building was turned into an inn in 1889. It took on its present name at the turn of the 20th century. Since that time, it has received such guests as U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, Shirley Temple and Faye Dunaway.

One of the rooms of the original house on the site is now Room 24 of the Colonial Inn. There have reportedly been sightings of a ghost in that room. Paranormal investigators have hinted that other rooms in the inn may be haunted, but there have been no sightings in other rooms, according to the inn's website.

If you are looking for a trip back in time that might give you a chance to meet a ghost from a time long past, these are the hotels to visit in the Boston area. Even if you do not get to see a ghost, you will most certainly see shadows of the past lurking in the corners of these historical buildings. There is no shortage of history in the direct vicinity of these hotels either. In Salem, you can tour the town that was home to the most vicious witch-hunt in U.S. history. In Concord, you can see the battlefields where the first shots of the American Revolution rang out and in Boston, the Freedom Trail runs right past the Omni Parker House Hotel.

Sources

The Haunted History of Salem, Massachusetts, retrieved 7/27/10

About Concord's Colonial Inn, retrieved 7/27/10

Best Halloween Attractions in New England

New England loves all things fall–especially football and Halloween. While I can suggest nothing but your local schools and a Pats game for the former, you get lots of options when it comes to the latter. Since this blog isn't about friendly farmers, I'm going to skip the pumpkin picking and go straight for the scary attractions. The following are my favorite picks for Halloween in New England.

Spooky World

454 Charles Bancroft Hwy

Litchfield, New Hampshire

Admission: Between $35 for general admission and $80 for "Super VIP"

Spooky World is an 80-acre Halloween theme park with a range of attractions. It has all of your Halloween thrills in one place. Visitors also get a carnival experience with a spooky twist, so be ready to play games, have your fortune told and eat fair food.

The Haunted Hayride is one of five major parts of Spooky World. It's a one-mile journey through woods filled with spiders, experiments gone wrong and plenty else to send chills up your spine. It's the newest addition to the park. Brigham Manor is a haunted house with a backstory of murder and evil. The 3D Festival of Fear is a menagerie of misfit carnies. Carnage is a junkyard from hell. Finally, The Colony is a maze filled with the devil's minions.

Salem, Massachusetts

The rest of the year, Salem is a quaint North Shore village in Massachusetts. When Halloween rolls around, Salem's witch-hunt roots attract visitors from all over. While a visit to the town itself is not very scary, there are plenty of ghost tours, shops and haunted houses. Here, you can find horror and history.

Fright at the Fort

Fort Knox

740 Ft Knox Rd.

Prospect, Maine

Admission: Between $5 for kids-$13 for adults

Fright at the Fort lets you walk around historic Fort Knox and get spooked by monsters and ghouls. The atmosphere is the big draw at this attraction. Historic forts aren't exactly known for being bright and cheery.

Nightmare Vermont

105 Pearl St.

Essex Junction, Vermont

Admission: $12 online and $15 at the door

Nightmare Vermont has some pretty cool tricks up its sleeve for a haunted attraction. It's a sort of theatrical experience with stage shows and a theme. For example, 2016 will be a haunted carnival. What's interesting is that guests can purchase a "Monster Ward" at the door for $1. This helps the actors know who doesn't like to be bothered. On the other hand, every group gets to bid on who gets to be the "Monster Teaser." This person will be bothered much more than the average guest. In fact, the actors may even tie them up!

Amusement Parks Open For Halloween:

Fright Fest at Six Flags New England

Screemfest at Canobie Lake Park

Haunted Graveyard at Lake Compounce

Sterling Opera House: A Haunted Gem

Sterling Opera House

Derby, Connecticut is home to one of New England's best-known haunted sites–the Sterling Opera House. This beautiful Italianate structure is familiar to the townspeople, having been part of the landscape since 1889. The gifted architect H. Edwards Ficken was responsible for much of the design, which might have something to do with it being placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

When the Sterling Opera House was in its prime, it was one of those fanciful venues of a bygone era. It is a gem of a classic, and you can still sense its vaudeville spirit, though it closed its doors for shows in 1945 and was abandoned half a century ago. Long ago, people like Amelia Earhart, John Barrymore and Charlie Chaplin graced its stage, with the indomitable Ms. Earhart giving a talk to a women's group about her adventures in the aviation. The Sterling Opera House has an auspicious past, but that doesn't stop ghost hunters and paranormal lovers from believing there may just be a few spirits lurking around the place.

One of my favorite stories about a ghost in the Sterling Opera House involves a child spirit named Andy. I'm not sure where the story originated, but it says that little Andy likes to play with soccer balls and other toys strewn about the decaying interior. That seems harmless enough. In fact, none of the ghost stories I came across involved anything malicious. Everything comes up rosy at this place.

There's a rumor that the Charles Sterling, for whom the opera house was named, also haunts the place. That's not really in keeping with the idea that you haunt a place if you died there or something tragic happened there. Nonetheless, it's what people say. They also say dancing orbs sometimes flicker about and that shadow people sometimes appear. I'm not a big fan of shadow people stories. Still, they seem to be relatively innocuous things if the stories are true.

During my research, I was happy to learn that Derby is in the process of renovating the Sterling Opera House. I tend to be disappointed when towns let their history fall to ruins (ahem, Hanson, MA), so this is good news. However, the project isn't fully funded, and, as of 2016, there is a Department of the Interior investigation into a grant given the town of Derby for this restoration. From what I can find, it doesn't look too serious. It appears that something wasn't approved and money exchanged hands anyway, but the money is going into the project as far as I can tell.