Creep-Tober: The Ghoulish Accounts of the Haunting at CT’s Hale House
Wanna hear a ghost story?
Can you keep a secret? Some of the most terrifying stories ever told have come right out of the State of Connecticut. There is something dark that was seeded in our history, something we cannot shake.
This darkness is in the woods of Dudleytown, it's alive in the Warren's Occult Museum and it's most certainly swirling throughout the Hale Homestead in Coventry, CT. But to understand why there is a ghoulish presence at the Hale house, you need to know about the Hale family.
Nathan Hale
Nathan Hale is the official hero of the State of Connecticut. It's hard to argue against that distinction given Nathan's heroic deeds. In 1776, Continental Army General and future 1st President George Washington requested a volunteer to take on a very dangerous mission. Washington needed someone to cross enemy lines and spy on the British Army. Hale accepted the harrowing mission but was caught by the British and hanged without the benefit of a trial. Nathan Hale was killed at 21 years old and his final words were "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."
Hale's words are not all we have to remember him by, his home right here in Connecticut. The Nathan Hale Homestead is located on South Street in Coventry, Connecticut about two hours from Danbury. Nathan was born on that land in 1755 but was not raised in the house that stands today. The home itself belonged to his father and was built in 1776, the same year Nathan died.
The home has been brilliantly preserved and about 3,500 people visit each year to tour the property and house. Visitors pay just $12 to enjoy the one-hour tour of this historic site. I've never had the pleasure of taking the tour myself but I've got it on my Nutmeg State bucket list.
History buffs get a chance to look around the home of Nathan's father, to see where Deacon Richard Hale once lived. But the historical significance is not the only allure of the homestead, it's also rumored to be haunted. The haunting is not some dark secret, instead the ghosts of Coventry are advertised. Connecticut's tourism arm, CT Visit has a ghost hunters list on their website and the Hale House is featured prominently.
Life After Nathan
CT Visit says the homestead is "said to be haunted by Nathan Hale's father Deacon and a ghostly lady in white."
It would be easy to wonder if the ghost could be Nathan and/or his mother but neither of them ever lived in the house. Nathan was hanged in New York about a month before his family moved in, and his mother died in 1767. The home that stands today is where father Deacon and his second wife Abigail Adams laid their heads down at night. Nathan was one of 12 children and his father & Abigail had seven more so the home had plenty of spirits living in it at one time or another.
Deacon lived in the home until his death in 1802, family members lived there after and at some point in the 19th century the home ended up being sold to someone outside the family. According to Damned CT, the property was purchased by a patent attorney named George Dudley Seymour in 1914. Seymour was a "Nathan Hale devotee who invested great time and care in refurbishing the homestead, including furnishing the house with as many genuine Hale family artifacts as he could obtain." Seymour opened the property to the public after it was restored, he died in 1945 and the Antiquarian and Landmarks Society took it over. The A.L.S. still own and operate the homestead today.
The Haunting at Hale House
George Dudley Seymour is the first person to start reporting ghostly phenomena at the Hale Homestead. It's said that during Seymour's first visit to the house, his friend looked through the schoolhouse window and saw a ghost in colonial dress that gave him a dirty look and then disappeared. It's also said that the spirit of Deacon Hale's deceased family servant Lydia Carpenter has been seen on the property in a white dress. There are so many terrifying reports that have been detailed about the Hale Homestead like this passage from the the book "Connecticut Ghost Stories and Legends" which reads:
Mary and George Grifith became caretakers of the house in 1930. They lived there for many years and observed countless strange incidents that could not be rationally explained. One day, Mary watched as her husband walked out to the barn to milk the cows. Moments later, she heard footsteps thumping down the back stairs. She and her husband were the only occupants of the building and no one had entered or left other than Mr. Griffith. The Griffiths believed that John, Nathan's brother, and John's wife, Sarah, may have been to blame for some of the noises in the house. The Grifiths claimed that this couple was among the spirits they encountered during their tenure at the Hale Homestead.
CT Haunted Houses writes this of the Hale Homestead:
Joseph Hale, the brother of Nathan, was once captured and imprisoned in the hold of a British prison ship and he is said to rattle chains in the basement. Nathan Hale's ghost has never been seen at the site.
So, is it actually haunted? I don't know but I'd sure like to find out, I'm a weirdo like that.
Behind the Walls of CT's Abandoned Norwich State Hospital
Gallery Credit: Lou Milano
Exploring the Aftermath of the Hideous Inferno at Newtown’s McGuire’s Ale House
Gallery Credit: Lou Milano
More From The Wolf
