In December 1760, the landlord of the Ragged Cot, Bill Clavers, decided to rob the midnight stagecoach travelling to London. Before setting out, he gave himself Dutch courage and resistance to the cold with liberal helpings of rum. As he staggered from his bedroom with loaded pistols, his wife, with their young child in her […]
The Ghosts of Old Bethpage Village Restoration
Top: In The Attic of the Kirby House. Any town or village has its haunted house. Old Bethpage Village Restoration has its share, and like most villages, most are urban legends which sprang up over the years. Nearly all the buildings in the village were once located elsewhere, and some, like the Noon Inn, brought their […]
Huntington Bay, NY: The Rise and Fall of Ferguson’s Castle
So we were driving along Harbor Road in Huntington Harbor, and Miss Bronwen was eyeing me suspiciously. True to form, as I pulled into the parking lot of the yacht club, her eyebrow arched. “Come here often?” she asked. “Er, no” I replied. “But I figure that no one will notice if we’re just parked […]
Tales from St. James and Head of the Harbor II: Hard Candy and Ghosts at St. James General Store
“I don’t like little children ghosts,” Miss Bronwen said with a shudder.“You saw the Shining didn’t you?” I asked her, taking my eyes from the road.“I don’t want to talk about it,” she replied, looking uneasy in the passenger seat.“Wanna hear a true ghost story?” I asked her.“How true?” she replied.“Honest to goodness true,” I […]
The Ghosts of Fire Island Lighthouse
The breeze had picked up, the moon high in the sky and the little fire on the beach was blessedly warm. The older gentleman spoke softly, a gentle lilt to his voice as he retraced the history of Fire Island and the Fire Island Lighthouse. “There seems to be some disagreement about how Fire Island […]
Tales of Old Stony Brook I: The Haunting of the Stony Brook Grist Mill
When a building becomes a part of a person’s life, there’s a better chance that it will become haunted. This only stands to reason. The more people who are touched by a building, the better the chance. Is this not so? One of the centers of colonial life and the years that followed was the […]
