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    Haunted Burlington: Spirits of Vermont's Queen City
    Haunted Burlington: Spirits of Vermont's Queen City
    Haunted Burlington: Spirits of Vermont's Queen City
    Ebook123 pages1 hour

    Haunted Burlington: Spirits of Vermont's Queen City

    By Thea Lewis

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    About this ebook

    “[Burlington’s] Ghost Guru . . . is responsible for keeping alive those things that are dead but still floating around, sometimes quite literally” (Ravenous Monster).
     
    The vibrant city of Burlington is a perpetual hub of activity, with hordes of shoppers strolling up and down Church Street and groups of college students scattered about the lawns of UVM. Stop and listen to the stories of Queen City Ghostwalk guide Thea Lewis, and discover the ghostly shapes and spirits that appear among the throngs of the city’s living. Meet the mischievous poltergeist who haunts Converse Hall and the ghost of the Flynn Theater. Take a peek at peculiar happenings at the Firehouse Center or the old Howard Opera House. Lewis delivers plenty of chills with a strong dose of history and a pinch of humor.
     
    “For Lewis, a gifted storyteller, a good story makes a haunted place all the more compelling.” —Happy Vermont
     
    Includes photos!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateSep 25, 2009
    ISBN9781625843449
    Haunted Burlington: Spirits of Vermont's Queen City
    Author

    Thea Lewis

    Thea Lewis is a bestselling Vermont author and the owner of Queen City Entertainment, the umbrella company for her True Crime Burlington and Queen City Ghostwalk tours. She's been featured in publications like Yankee magazine, the Hartford Courant and Vermont magazine and has appeared on the CW television network, along with numerous other programs and podcasts originating in the United States and Canada. This is her sixth book with The History Press.

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      Book preview

      Haunted Burlington - Thea Lewis

      INTRODUCTION

      Burlington, Vermont, has been called one of the nation’s most livable cities. Sparkling like a treasure on the shores of the lake named after explorer Samuel De Champlain, it’s full of interesting things to experience and explore. This is the birthplace of Ben and Jerry’s, and near the center of town you can visit the plaque on the site where they set up their first scoop shop in an old, run-down gas station. Stroll the bustling pedestrian mall on Church Street, where food vendors and street performers blend with locals and visitors in the open air. Or you might want to go down to the lively, scenic waterfront and read a book, take a tour or watch the boats go by. You could go up the hill to the University of Vermont campus for a look at the school’s interesting mix of architecture.

      Walking down Burlington’s picturesque streets, you might be too distracted by its hip hometown atmosphere to think much about its mysterious past, but don’t be fooled. Burlington is a town rich with history…and hauntings. Some people believe that Burlington is the most haunted city in Vermont.

      There’s more than enough mystery, tragedy and strife in the city’s past to make this so. From the shores of Burlington’s harbor to the university and hospital up the hill, Burlington has, since before its charter, been home to some of the quirkiest characters you’ll find anywhere: people like Isaac Nye, the Hermit of Champlain, who owned one of the first stores on Battery Street. He was wealthy by the standards of the day, and somewhat unconventional. He liked to follow funeral processions to the cemetery whether he knew the departed or not.

      Battery Park, Burlington’s scenic overlook. Photo by Roger Lewis.

      Consider Battery Park. During the War of 1812, it was the property of the United States, a military headquarters called Camp Burlington, a battle site that was home to between 3,000 and 4,500 soldiers who gathered to resist the advance of the British. These men famously defended the area against an attack by an enemy squadron on July 13, 1813. As the war continued through Vermont’s bitter winter, hundreds of lives were lost, sometimes more than a twenty a day. In a graveyard at the northeast corner of the camp property, hundreds of men were buried, including a traitor who was hanged in front of his wife and young children. That would explain why some of the residents living in the area have claimed to see folks in their apartments whose names aren’t on the lease. It can be a little disconcerting, I suppose, to wake up to a man you don’t know cleaning his gun next to your bed or rocking in your chair—even stranger to see him disappear like smoke. Some people have witnessed shocking apparitions while crossing through Battery Park during the wee hours. A woman and her husband tell how they were startled by quickly vanishing forms that appeared to be standing watch by the overlook. More than a few people crossing the park after dark have been terrified by the specter of a man in military dress carrying his own head.

      There is another ghost that is particularly bone chilling. Witnesses say that he has the mark of a bullet hole in his forehead, and he’s engaged in the act of trying to hide a body behind a large boulder inside the park.

      Up the hill and to the south at 131 Main Street is the old Hotel Vermont. First opened to the public in June 1911, the hotel, with its two hundred rooms, was considered the largest and most prestigious in the state. It saw its share of interesting characters and remarkable times. In any era, a main source of revenue for hotels is the sale of liquor. During the time of Prohibition, however, Burlington, like the rest of the country, was supposed to be dry as a bone. Still, on the second floor of the Hotel Vermont, in a space often used for conventions, there were two bathrooms: one that was used when nature called and another that housed the illegal liquor, which may have been brought here via tunnels under 131 Main. Servers at the basement-level bars along St. Paul Street have mentioned secret passageways in the area, and more than one source says that a particular passageway was used in the early 1900s by working women, known in some circles as ladies of the evening, so they could travel from the Hotel Vermont to the Van Ness Hotel across St. Paul without being seen. These days, the space is made up of luxury condominiums and businesses, but the building still retains hints of its original splendor and, it seems, some of its old residents. A restaurant owner who used to rent space in the building claims that supernatural pranks were often pulled in her kitchen. Vital supplies would go missing and sometimes even the knobs on the stove would disappear. Orbs have been seen floating near the top of the building, once the site of a beautiful rooftop garden. In the lobby, there’s an antique clock whose inner workings were removed long ago, but caretakers and business owners using the building late at night say that even though the case is empty, sometimes they can still hear the clock tick. Employees in the businesses that operate in the basement level have had encounters with ghosts. A prep cook at the old What’s Your Beef Steakhouse says that he was headed to the restroom late at night when he encountered a lady in old-fashioned clothing and a fancy hat who vanished when he greeted her, leaving only the strong scent of lilac perfume.

      Across the street, City Hall Park has been the site of more than one ghost encounter, and is it any wonder? Back in the 1700s, there was a very tall pine tree that stood in the park. It was about three stories tall and was used as a whipping post.

      To the north and just a few blocks from Burlington’s downtown is Elmwood Cemetery. It was established in 1801 when Levi Allen—brother of Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen and Ira Allen, who founded the University of Vermont—died while incarcerated for his numerous debts. Unfortunately, due to strained family relations and a Vermont law that made anyone who moved a body outside the city limits responsible for what the deceased owed, Levi’s body wasn’t claimed. Instead of being buried with family at Green Mount Cemetery, which fell just outside the city limits, town fathers set aside the five-acre lot that became Elmwood, and Levi was the first person interred there. His spirit roams the grounds to this day.

      There’s an educated ghost at Aiken Hall at Burlington’s Champlain College who causes cold spots, electrical appliances that turn on and off on their own and odd noises during the night. Some students have felt their shoulders touched or their hair being played with by someone they couldn’t see. And that’s not the only spirit in town attracted to higher learning. The University of Vermont has so many ghosts that it’s hard to pick a favorite, giving it the title Most Haunted University in Vermont, or maybe anywhere. From Converse Hall to the dorms at Living/Learning, funny things keep happening. They’re just not the kind of funny things inclined to make you laugh.

      Elmwood Cemetery in Burlington’s Old North End. Photo by Roger Lewis.

      There’s a ghost on the older Fletcher Allen Health Care campus who haunts the maternity ward. Reports have surfaced since the 1950s that a nurse in an old-fashioned cap has visited patients during the night, dispensing comfort and tablets of phenobarbital. In 1958, two construction workers looking in from outside one of the fifth-floor windows saw the ghost, who turned toward the window and then disappeared. In 1978, a woman who had a healthy baby girl the day before via a natural, drug-free childbirth asked the young nurse tending her who the older nurse was who had visited her during the overnight shift. The nurse gave her a funny look and said there had been no older nurse. As proof, the patient reached over to the bedside table and produced a white paper cup with a small tablet inside.

      In Burlington’s North End, Appletree Bay has been the home of some curious sightings, including a woman who stumbles about on misty nights with a sword stuck through her head. And in the Old North End there is a pretty John Roberts cottage that has two ghosts:

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