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CHAPTER 6

The Stanhope House

STANHOPE

THE STANHOPE HOUSE IS KNOWN for “presenting the finest musical artists in various genres to include bluegrass, rock, folk and America’s indigenous musical art form … the blues,” as the Web site says. Of course, given its two hundred-year history, it’s also acquired a few permanent performers—ghosts. Sadly, as this book goes to print, the Stanhope House has closed its doors due to litigation problems the owners are experiencing. I was told by the former manager, Amy Connolly, that they are in a “wait and see” holding pattern pending the litigation. Hopefully her brother, one of the partners/owners, will secure complete control of the Stanhope House and re-open it. Given the prized liquor license that is part of Stanhope House, Amy is confident it will re-open as a bar and restaurant no matter what.

Its history dates to an American colonist who made the original land acquisition in 1789. The structure was built in 1790. If you look closely at the top of the joining beams, you’ll see Roman numerals carved in them. This reveals the method of assembly at a time when there were no blueprints. The beams were hand carved, numbered, and joined via tongue and groove, a longtime patron and employee of the Stanhope House, Bobby, told me. The house has served as a town hall, complete with jail and post office; a library; and as a major stagecoach stop on the Morris and Sussex Turnpike. It morphed into a hotel—and some say a brothel—and was the last stop on the Morris Canal. During Prohibition, there was a secret bar in the basement. While the Morris Canal was operating, Stanhope House had two bars: the main one and the “puller’s bar.” The puller’s bar was for canal workers who pulled boats with the help of mules. Having an offensive odor was an occupational hazard, so they were sequestered.

I learned about the possible haunting of the Stanhope House from my cousin’s wife who frequented the place when she lived up the street. She directed me to the then-owner, Maureen. I contacted Maureen because I was looking for a venue, preferably a haunted one, to record our two Halloween episodes of the podcast The Deadline. Maureen agreed to let us record on October 25. Although she would not be available that evening, she said her daughter, Mary, would be able to meet with us and give an interview on the show.

Maureen told me that several times she had heard a female singing in the sound booth. The sound engineer would hear the singing too. She also said that she would catch shadows of people out of the corner of her eye even when she knew for a fact that she was alone.

It was a nasty night weather-wise for our recording at the Stanhope House. Rain and fog made the short drive seem endless. Once inside, it was quite cozy and low key as no bands were performing. It was Texas Hold ’Em night. So aside from the occasional outbursts of happy winners, it was relatively easy to record the shows. Brian Sandt, NJGHS technical advisor and producer of The Deadline, had already had his dinner (the New York strip steak) and set up the podcast equipment and microphones by the time I arrived. I set out the T-shirts, bumper stickers, and flyers as information and prizes for interested passers-by. David Rountree, of Skylands Paranormal Investigations and a fellow NJGHS member, was also there to contribute to the show.

Mary, Maureen’s daughter, came by for our first show and told us of her ghostly experiences while working at the Stanhope House. She tended bar and managed the place. She was a bright, down-to-earth type of woman who said that she would see the shadow of someone walking by the bar but when she would lift her head to look for the person, no one would be there. She also said she would have the distinct feeling of someone behind her, so strong that if she was washing the glasses at the bar she would shift over for the person to pass by her. Then she would realize no one was trying to get past her. I asked Mary if she experienced this when the bar was open and busy. “No,” she said. “It happens mostly when it’s not crowded in here.”

Mary’s most eerie experience happened in the sound booth, which was enclosed at one time. She showed us where the walls used to be. She said she was inside speaking with the sound engineer when she heard a female singing. She looked up at the stage to see if someone was doing a sound check but no one was there. She then looked at the engineer and said, “Did you hear that?” He turned to her and said, “Oh you finally heard her?” Up to that point, Mary hadn’t believed her mother, who heard this female voice singing on several occasions.

On one occasion, the lead singer of a band that was performing on stage witnessed a ghostly replay of a murder. Being a professional, he managed to finish the set. Once he got off stage, he went straight to Maureen and said, “You’re not going to believe what I just saw—a murder!” Maureen remained calm. “Yeah that really happened here,” she said. Apparently two men brawled, and one ended up killing the other.

Mary told us that about ten or eleven years prior, her cousin, Chuck, was the manager of the Stanhope House. He was a bachelor and a bit of a Casanova in that he had a different girlfriend every week. The upstairs was a rooming house. He lived in one of the rooms at the end of the hall, and the remaining rooms were for bands to stay in during their scheduled performances. One band’s lead diva, E. C. Scott, was returning to her room when she saw a young woman walk into Chuck’s room. E. C. decided to knock on his door and, upon his answering, asked him to introduce her to his girlfriend. Chuck explained to her that he had no girlfriend and was completely alone in his room. She was not happy with this answer and made Chuck walk with her throughout the building searching for this young woman. After satisfying her that there was no one else there, Chuck asked, “What did this girl look like?” E. C. described the woman. Chuck laughed and said, “Oh, that was a ghost you saw!” This was very unsettling to E. C. She woke up her band members and made them gather in her room to stand guard over her so she could sleep.

Mary told me that her mom had seen this young woman many times walking in the main area of the bar, but never upstairs where E. C. encountered her.

Another possible spirit at Stanhope House is that of the bartender who hanged himself from the rafters in the late 1960s. To this day, some customers buy him a drink and leave it on the bar for him. I asked Mary if she knew the details of this suicide, such as why he did himself in, but she said she did not.

Bobby first came to the Stanhope House about twenty years ago to enjoy the bands and party life. In 2004, he heard the owner was planning to renovate the place, and he asked whether he could be a part of that project. He was hired. Bobby not only worked to complete those renovations, but he remained on staff as a handyman and jack of all trades. He helps out wherever he’s needed.

While renovating, Bobby says the owner bought him a hammer, but Bobby didn’t like it because it was too small and light. Four days after he got it, the hammer went missing. Bobby said he looked everywhere but couldn’t find it. He continued with his work of ripping up the bathroom floors. Three days later he went to cut some plumbing in the bathroom. In order to do this, he had to remove a portion of the flooring. There he found the hammer. It was difficult to comprehend how the hammer got there since the floor had been intact until that point. The guy Bobby was working with was completely spooked and maintained that one of the other workers was playing a joke on them. That would be plausible except why would someone rip up a floor, place a hammer in the hole, and then put the floor back together?

Bobby pointed out the 200-year-old stairs propped up against the wall behind the bar. They were the original steps of the building when it was a hotel. He sometimes hears them creaking even though they’re mainly used to display beer bottles now. He also said that in the 1960s, the renovations included tearing down the stairwell to the basement. Inside the walls, wrapped in burlap, they discovered guns from the Civil War in mint condition. These were sold for approximately $100,000. As for the “secret bar” during Prohibition, Bobby said during renovations they uncovered tins that were buried in the dirt floor of the basement. The tins were used to hide liquor. Sadly, they were empty. Babe Ruth used to frequent this “secret bar.”

After our podcast trip, Brian and David eventually went back when the bar was closed to investigate the Stanhope House with an Internet vidcast crew in tow. Brian said he didn’t capture anything he would deem paranormal. David, however, said he had chronic problems with the handheld oscilloscope he used to capture EMF waveforms. He said it kept turning off every five minutes even though the batteries were brand new. Dave also documented some EMF spikes over at the murder scene by the stage. Dave collected a couple of orb photos that he concluded were dust orbs, but he did capture an EVP of “help me” over by the former sound booth. Unfortunately this was lost when his computer crashed.

In 2008, I spoke with the manager of the Stanhope House, Amy Connolly. In the short time her brother, Matthew Williams, and his partner, Richard Urmston, have owned the venue, she’s had a couple of strange experiences. First she told me that she had arrived around 5:00 p.m. to open the Stanhope House one evening. This was in the late fall, and it was already getting dark outside. As she was fumbling for the key to unlock the door, she could hear the television on inside. When she walked in, the television on the far right side of the bar was on but then shut itself off. She figured Mike Burtnick, the sound engineer whose car was in the parking lot, was playing a joke on her. She called out for him, expecting him to jump up from behind the bar and yell “Boo!” but he did not answer her. She continued walking in and calling for Mike, but no one answered her.

Amy found a cocktail napkin on the bar in front of a bar stool that would be in perfect position for watching the television that had just shut off. She knew she had cleaned off the bar completely the night before when she closed up and thought it odd that she missed this napkin. As she threw the napkin in the trash, her cell phone rang. It was Mike saying that he was with her brother on an errand. She told him what happened and that she thought he was playing a trick on her. They had a good laugh about it, and that was that. Or so she thought. Amy continued to make her way around the place turning on lights and setting up. When she came back to the bar, another cocktail napkin was on the bar in the exact place as before. She again threw it out. Later that night, as the business was winding down, another cocktail napkin appeared in the same spot on the bar. Amy jokes that is her “steady ghost customer.”

All of the bartenders, according to Amy, have heard footsteps in the empty rooms above the bar. These rooms have not been occupied since the Stanhope House ceased being a boarding house. Mike, the sound engineer, shared with me that he’s closed the door that leads to the room where the bartender hanged himself only to find it open again ten minutes later. He said he’s had this happen several times. He also said he gets a “creeped out” feeling when he is there alone and closing up.

Amy said she caught a glimpse of the young woman ghost when she was cleaning up the green room, where the performers hang out before and between sets. Amy swore she saw a young woman walk through the double-door entrance into the bar area. Amy went to see who it was as the bar was closed and no customers should have been in the building at the time. No one was there. Amy said she returned to the green room and again she caught the same person out of the corner of her eye repeating the same steps through the entrance way and into the bar. Amy proceeded to inspect the bar once more and again found no one there.

So, if you’re looking for an entertaining weekend getaway complete with ghosts, combine a trip to the Stanhope House with a stay at the Whistling Swan Inn (Chapter 5) and dinner at Bell’s Mansion (Chapter 7). All are within walking distance of each other. Enjoy!