3. HANNAH, UNDER THE FLOORBOARDS
Newfield’s Old Straw House is named for Gideon Straw and is said to be haunted by his daughter, Hannah. According to legend, she is buried underneath the kitchen. She died in March 1826 at age 30. The ground was still frozen from the winter chill, so her father buried her underneath the kitchen floorboard in ground that was warm from the heat of the house. Folks who have inhabited the house over the years say they’ve encountered Hannah’s apparition, and for an extended period in the 1960s, that her image appeared regularly in a window. They’ve also reported footsteps in the hall and lights turning on and off when no one was home.
4. TALL MAN IN THE TAVERN
Although its designation as “the birthplace of Maine” is disputed, many have corroborated the eerie happenings inside the Jameson Tavern, in a building that dates back to the late 18th century located right next to L.L. Bean’s flagship store in Freeport. A tall man in a top hat who stands in a spot between the bar and restaurant has been reported. And there have supposedly been sightings of child ghosts, the tavern’s website says, although all of the apparitions are of the friendly variety. A tavern owner, Tom Hincks, has said he has heard footsteps and banging, has seen the back door open and close by itself, and other incidents. Once, some unknown force rattled all the utensils hanging from an overhead rack. “I wasn’t a believer” before he opened the restaurant, he said, “but wait until it happens to you.”
5. CHILDREN CRY IN THE OLD CHURCH
Bath’s Winter Street Center used to be a church. According to some, hospitals were overflowing, so the church housed victims of the Spanish flu back in 1918. Groups have had unexplained encounters – one guest purportedly saw a child standing in the balcony of the sanctuary. Recordings have also picked up strange noises that no one could explain, like footsteps and cries for help.
6. THIS DEAD PATRIOT WOULD LIKE TO BUY YOU A BEER
Located on Pascal Avenue near picturesque Rockport Harbor, the Goose River Bridge is supposedly haunted by William Richardson, a town resident who lived there around the time of the Revolutionary War. There are at least two stories about his death. The first is that British sympathizers murdered Richardson in 1783 because they were enraged by his drunken celebration of the American victory. The second is that he got so drunk celebrating the American victory that he fell from the bridge to his death. Either way, the myth is that Richardson’s ghost can be seen haunting the area, offering pitchers of ale to passersby.
7. FOOTLESS AND FEARSOME
One spring night, in a second-floor bedroom in an old creaky house on Falls Road in Benton, 18-year-old Alan Linnell lay terrified in bed as he felt a presence sit on his bed. Then he felt something cold touch his arm. That experience was one of dozens of strange events Linnell, his seven siblings, his parents and visiting relatives said they had over 13 years beginning in 1964, a year after the family bought the home. The children’s stories would have likely gone unnoticed were it not for a grisly discovery made Aug. 15, 1970, when, while renovating the dining room, the Linnells found a shriveled and mummified human foot – along with some bones and a few corn cobs – in the wall. Other children in the house heard sighs and footsteps that sounded like a person was limping, or dragging a foot as it walked.
When the foot was later discovered between two beams in the dining room wall, Maine state pathologist sent it to a Boston lab for analysis. According to newspaper accounts from the time, the results indicated it was amputated from a 5-month-old child in a surgical procedure around 1900. The small bones found in the wall with the foot belonged to some sort of animal, according to the report. The newspaper reported that a doctor lived in the house around the time the foot was amputated.
— Compiled from the Portland Press Herald archives
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