BERLIN– Is America’s coolest small town also one of the most haunted?
Mindie Burgoyne believes so. The “Haunted Eastern Shore” author and founder of Chesapeake Ghost Walks led a crowd of several dozen around Berlin on Thursday, July 10, to tell the stories she compiled from personal accounts, books and investigation at the Nabb Research Center.
The tour began at dusk in front of the Atlantic Hotel.
“Berlin is very rare,” Burgoyne said. “Berlin has an element that has had a half-dozen sightings, and for a little town like this that’s really a lot. Berlin also has walking dead – there are three apparitions people have seen in this town walking.”
The three spirits – a woman in white, a hunched over man and a soldier wearing a Confederate uniform – reportedly frequent the town’s Main Street after 9 p.m.
“This town is very rare too because its power lines are buried,” Burgoyne continued. “If you look down the street it looks just like it did 100 years ago. That can help spirits feel at home.”
Burgoyne called the Atlantic Hotel “a haunted mecca.”
“I’ve never found one building that was more haunted,” she said. “I’ve only been in a dozen places where I’ve had a personal experience, and this is one of them.”
The most common ghost story at the hotel involves a prankish child who can heard moving furniture and making noises at night. Employees have described seeing lights turning on and off by themselves. One claimed to see an adding machine operating on its own.
Burgoyne, after checking into room 221, was stunned when a door slammed during her first stay at the Atlantic.
“They’re not weighted doors and there was no one around,” she said. “It was just strange.
“It’s a beautiful hotel with a little bit of mystery,” Burgoyne continued. “Nobody has ever been harmed there, and I would encourage people to stay. But some very strange things have happened.”
Burgoyne led the tour through town, stopping at Town Center Antiques where the owner claimed to have heard clinking glasses and people talking in the basement. Berlin had a speakeasy during prohibition, and the building is one of the few with a basement in town.
The strange history of the store includes the oddity of John Howard Burbage, mayor of Berlin from 1962-1988, who used to sleep in the window of the shop. On more than one occasion a .22 pistol burst through the window where he slept. Sightings of the mysterious woman in white are also a regular occurrence in the area.
Burgoyne believes the hunched over man may be the ghost of Ned France, an eccentric magician who owned an oddities shop in downtown Berlin. After his wife passed away, his children convinced him to sell the store and move into an assisted living home.
“The town manager in Berlin said that she remembers hearing stories of him calling the town and saying, ‘please, my children put me in here and I want to come back,’” Burgoyne said. “He died very sad and that may be why people see him.” Burgoyne claims a ghost-hunting group identified France using electromagnetic readings.
“I’m not a ghost hunter – I’m just a writer,” she said. “But I do believe in ghosts and this story always captivated me. His presence is very real in this town.”
Walking down Baker Street, the town now covered in darkness, Burgoyne told the tour about a suicide at Atkins Hardware. Three employees of the shop have heard banging noises and seen shadowy figure moving things on shelves.
Several guests on the tour took photos in the alley behind Atkins, hoping to catch one of the mysterious figures. Others began sharing personal experiences.
Terry Sexton, owner of Treasure Chest in Berlin, believes a woman used to haunt her shop.
“I haven’t seen her in about five years,” she said. “I know she was a female because she was very neat in all the things that she did. We came in one day and there was a crystal bowl on the floor. If it fell off the shelf from where it was it would have busted, but it was on the floor in one piece. Then there was a bowl that filled with water, and there was no way something could have leaked and gotten in there because there was a shelf over top of it.”
The strange activity continued for 10 years.
Berlin Economic and Community Development Director Michael Day said a spirit lingers at his home in Salisbury.
“I live in the house my great grandfather built,” he said. “My grandfather grew up there, my father grew up there and now I live there. I could smell my grandmother coming down the stairs for many years. It was a good smell, and there were always things happening in my house. Until I clear-cut it recently, kids wouldn’t come up to my house on Halloween because it was so spooky.”
Beth Houston said she lived with a ghost while attending Frostburg University.
“I would walk into the house and the typewriter would be going upstairs and I would think one of my roommates would be there, but there was nobody there,” she said. “She loved me. She would take my things and use my perfume. She would hide my nail polish. She was a poltergeist, but she was a fun one.”
The tour stopped in front of the deserted Harrison Mansion, then circled around to the Calvin B. Taylor House Museum, where a sycamore tree supposedly radiates heat.
On Pitts Street, Burgoyne talked about the Civil War specter. At nearby Baked Desserts Café, the owners claim to have seen strange electronic phenomena including ceiling fans changing speeds and radios cycling through stations and static. Occasionally, doors will open by themselves.
Stopping in St. Paul Episcopal Church cemetery, Burgoyne recounted the story of Joanne Trimper’s haunted carousel. Born in Sharptown, Joanne married Granville Trimper and fell in love with the Ocean City amusement park, favoring the carousel and one horse in particular. When she died, Granville had her favorite horse carved into her tombstone.
Years later, a mechanic reported smelling a strange odor near the carousel.
“The secretary got very worried because the ride is very old and they need to maintain it,” Burgoyne said. “She checked and there were no known chemicals being used, and she went down and they didn’t smell it again. Seven months later the mechanic said the same thing and again the smell vanished.
“When they closed for the season the secretary, who had been there for 30 years, walked by and she noticed the smell herself. It didn’t smell like anything burning – it smelled like flowers,” Burgoyne continued. “When she went to a department store in Salisbury she and her granddaughter were testing perfumes and she smelled the smell again. And when she looked at the label the perfume was named ‘Crystal,’ and she remembered that that was Joanne Trimper’s perfume. She told me, ‘I’m not telling you that Joanne is on the carousel – I’m just telling you that her perfume is.’”
The tour finished in front of the Atlantic Hotel, where Burgoyne talked about the strange activities at the Oddfellows’ hall across the street, currently the two-story yarn store A Little Bit Sheepish. The group’s rituals include using human skeletons – a practice many believe contributes to hauntings. Interestingly enough, Calvin B. Taylor was a well-known Oddfellow.
No one saw any ghosts that evening, but the mixed crowd of tourists and locals seemed captivated enough, and by the end of the evening there were plenty of smiles and laughter. Part history lesson and part extended ghost story, the tour amounted to a two-plus hour stroll on a pleasant summer evening through historic Berlin – which may or may not be haunted.
Chesapeake Ghost Walks run on Thursday evenings in Berlin beginning at 8 p.m. The company also offers tours in Cambridge, Easton, St. Michaels, Ocean City, Crisfield, Snow Hill, Denton, Pocomoke, Salisbury and Princess Anne.
For more information visit www.chesapeakeghostwalks.com.
Mindie Burgoyne believes so. The “Haunted Eastern Shore” author and founder of Chesapeake Ghost Walks led a crowd of several dozen around Berlin on Thursday, July 10, to tell the stories she compiled from personal accounts, books and investigation at the Nabb Research Center.
The tour began at dusk in front of the Atlantic Hotel.
“Berlin is very rare,” Burgoyne said. “Berlin has an element that has had a half-dozen sightings, and for a little town like this that’s really a lot. Berlin also has walking dead – there are three apparitions people have seen in this town walking.”
The three spirits – a woman in white, a hunched over man and a soldier wearing a Confederate uniform – reportedly frequent the town’s Main Street after 9 p.m.
“This town is very rare too because its power lines are buried,” Burgoyne continued. “If you look down the street it looks just like it did 100 years ago. That can help spirits feel at home.”
Burgoyne called the Atlantic Hotel “a haunted mecca.”
“I’ve never found one building that was more haunted,” she said. “I’ve only been in a dozen places where I’ve had a personal experience, and this is one of them.”
The most common ghost story at the hotel involves a prankish child who can heard moving furniture and making noises at night. Employees have described seeing lights turning on and off by themselves. One claimed to see an adding machine operating on its own.
Burgoyne, after checking into room 221, was stunned when a door slammed during her first stay at the Atlantic.
“They’re not weighted doors and there was no one around,” she said. “It was just strange.
“It’s a beautiful hotel with a little bit of mystery,” Burgoyne continued. “Nobody has ever been harmed there, and I would encourage people to stay. But some very strange things have happened.”
Burgoyne led the tour through town, stopping at Town Center Antiques where the owner claimed to have heard clinking glasses and people talking in the basement. Berlin had a speakeasy during prohibition, and the building is one of the few with a basement in town.
The strange history of the store includes the oddity of John Howard Burbage, mayor of Berlin from 1962-1988, who used to sleep in the window of the shop. On more than one occasion a .22 pistol burst through the window where he slept. Sightings of the mysterious woman in white are also a regular occurrence in the area.
Burgoyne believes the hunched over man may be the ghost of Ned France, an eccentric magician who owned an oddities shop in downtown Berlin. After his wife passed away, his children convinced him to sell the store and move into an assisted living home.
“The town manager in Berlin said that she remembers hearing stories of him calling the town and saying, ‘please, my children put me in here and I want to come back,’” Burgoyne said. “He died very sad and that may be why people see him.” Burgoyne claims a ghost-hunting group identified France using electromagnetic readings.
“I’m not a ghost hunter – I’m just a writer,” she said. “But I do believe in ghosts and this story always captivated me. His presence is very real in this town.”
Walking down Baker Street, the town now covered in darkness, Burgoyne told the tour about a suicide at Atkins Hardware. Three employees of the shop have heard banging noises and seen shadowy figure moving things on shelves.
Several guests on the tour took photos in the alley behind Atkins, hoping to catch one of the mysterious figures. Others began sharing personal experiences.
Terry Sexton, owner of Treasure Chest in Berlin, believes a woman used to haunt her shop.
“I haven’t seen her in about five years,” she said. “I know she was a female because she was very neat in all the things that she did. We came in one day and there was a crystal bowl on the floor. If it fell off the shelf from where it was it would have busted, but it was on the floor in one piece. Then there was a bowl that filled with water, and there was no way something could have leaked and gotten in there because there was a shelf over top of it.”
The strange activity continued for 10 years.
Berlin Economic and Community Development Director Michael Day said a spirit lingers at his home in Salisbury.
“I live in the house my great grandfather built,” he said. “My grandfather grew up there, my father grew up there and now I live there. I could smell my grandmother coming down the stairs for many years. It was a good smell, and there were always things happening in my house. Until I clear-cut it recently, kids wouldn’t come up to my house on Halloween because it was so spooky.”
Beth Houston said she lived with a ghost while attending Frostburg University.
“I would walk into the house and the typewriter would be going upstairs and I would think one of my roommates would be there, but there was nobody there,” she said. “She loved me. She would take my things and use my perfume. She would hide my nail polish. She was a poltergeist, but she was a fun one.”
The tour stopped in front of the deserted Harrison Mansion, then circled around to the Calvin B. Taylor House Museum, where a sycamore tree supposedly radiates heat.
On Pitts Street, Burgoyne talked about the Civil War specter. At nearby Baked Desserts Café, the owners claim to have seen strange electronic phenomena including ceiling fans changing speeds and radios cycling through stations and static. Occasionally, doors will open by themselves.
Stopping in St. Paul Episcopal Church cemetery, Burgoyne recounted the story of Joanne Trimper’s haunted carousel. Born in Sharptown, Joanne married Granville Trimper and fell in love with the Ocean City amusement park, favoring the carousel and one horse in particular. When she died, Granville had her favorite horse carved into her tombstone.
Years later, a mechanic reported smelling a strange odor near the carousel.
“The secretary got very worried because the ride is very old and they need to maintain it,” Burgoyne said. “She checked and there were no known chemicals being used, and she went down and they didn’t smell it again. Seven months later the mechanic said the same thing and again the smell vanished.
“When they closed for the season the secretary, who had been there for 30 years, walked by and she noticed the smell herself. It didn’t smell like anything burning – it smelled like flowers,” Burgoyne continued. “When she went to a department store in Salisbury she and her granddaughter were testing perfumes and she smelled the smell again. And when she looked at the label the perfume was named ‘Crystal,’ and she remembered that that was Joanne Trimper’s perfume. She told me, ‘I’m not telling you that Joanne is on the carousel – I’m just telling you that her perfume is.’”
The tour finished in front of the Atlantic Hotel, where Burgoyne talked about the strange activities at the Oddfellows’ hall across the street, currently the two-story yarn store A Little Bit Sheepish. The group’s rituals include using human skeletons – a practice many believe contributes to hauntings. Interestingly enough, Calvin B. Taylor was a well-known Oddfellow.
No one saw any ghosts that evening, but the mixed crowd of tourists and locals seemed captivated enough, and by the end of the evening there were plenty of smiles and laughter. Part history lesson and part extended ghost story, the tour amounted to a two-plus hour stroll on a pleasant summer evening through historic Berlin – which may or may not be haunted.
Chesapeake Ghost Walks run on Thursday evenings in Berlin beginning at 8 p.m. The company also offers tours in Cambridge, Easton, St. Michaels, Ocean City, Crisfield, Snow Hill, Denton, Pocomoke, Salisbury and Princess Anne.
For more information visit www.chesapeakeghostwalks.com.