Ghosts of New Hope, Pennsylvania
Haunted Bridge, Streets, Inns and Restaurants; Ghost Tours Offered
Vice President Aaron Burr's and artist Joseph Pickett's phantoms, sighted. Anonymous wraiths, seen and heard. Scent of lavender mysteriously fills areas within an inn.
The town of New Hope, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, lies on the west bank of the Delaware River, halfway between Philadelphia and New York City. A canal was built in the early 1800s. Mules pulled barges transporting coal and lumber. Travelers to the two major cities would stay in the town overnight.
Today, New Hope attracts tourists with its art galleries, New Age shops, history, boat rides, fine restaurants, boat and train rides, historic and ghost tours…. Some call it America’s most haunted town.
Haunted Places of New Hope, Pennsylvania
- Logan Inn: The wraith of a Revolutionary War soldier has been sighted in the dining room, bar, basement and other rooms. Room six is the one where a ghostly man’s reflection has been seen in the mirror. The phantoms of two children have been reported. There’s a portrait of a woman who loved to wear lavender perfume in life. Sometimes, the scent of lavender is smelled. A young girl drowned in the nearby water. Her remnant has been seen in the shadows of the parking lot.
- Inn at Phillips Mill: This is “home” to a woman who wears a long dress with a high collar. She wanders around the staircase and in the upstairs hall and has been seen in a rocking chair.
- Odette’s, Restaurant: This was called the River House a few centuries ago. According to legend or, perhaps, fact, a woman was murdered there. There are also inexplicable cold spots, ghostly voices in the restaurant and a strong aroma of perfume.
- Van Sant Bridge: Horse thieves were hung from this structure. More than one person has seen the ghost of one of them hanging there. It’s been said that a young unmarried woman had a baby. Her parents evicted them from the house and the father of the child left her. Despondent, she held the babe and jumped from the bridge. There are those who said they could hear the child’s cries.
- Night Traveler: There have been reports of a ghostly hitch-hiker. He appears as a young man with light blond, hair and clear blue eyes, wearing a brown jacket and toting a knapsack He was killed late during the night, which is when he’s been seen.
Famous Haunters
- Joseph Pickett: In life, he was a printer and an artist. He is, in all likelihood, the one seen most often. His apparition has been sighted in what had been his Mechanic Street home’s bedroom. He has been seen on the towpath. His ghost has visited his cousin’s house also on Mechanic Street.
- Aaron Burr: His shade haunts New Hope from time to time. Although he was a Vice President, he is more often remembered as the man who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Burr was offended at Hamilton’s remarks about him and challenged him to the duel. Indicted for murder in New Jersey, where the duel happened, and in New York, he hid in New Hope for a while after the incident. Eventually, the charges were dropped. One night, a ghost tour guide saw his ghost and was so excited that she ran to find the woman in charge of the tours so she could tell her about the sighting, forgetting about the guests.
Related articles:
Haunted Historic Hotel Bethlehem
Sources:
Ghosts in the Valley, Adi-Kent Thomas Jeffrey, (The New Hope Art Shop, 1971)
Haunted Places, Dennis William Hauck, (Penguin Books, 2002)
