SPOOKY STAYS

Stays Spooky Stays Spooky Stays

A LOOK AT MAINE’S SPOOKIEST HAUNTED INNS

BY AISLINN SARNACKI

It was a cold night. A fierce snowstorm was rolling in, and the inn was empty of guests. But the night auditor, Roberto Salinas, still had a job to do. Sitting at the front desk, he was crunching numbers and balancing the books when he heard what sounded like rapid footsteps on the hallway upstairs.

“You know when there are a lot of kids and they’re running around together? It sounded like that,” he recalled. “Then I could hear people dancing or jumping in the room above, and I actually heard the door open three or four times.”

The room directly above him was Room 8, rumored to be the most haunted room at The Lucerne Inn.

“At first I told myself it was my imagination. This is an old building. There are a lot of cracks and crevices that the wind can come through. I thought that maybe a window was left open upstairs, but then I realized the windows are sealed. They don’t open,” he said. “The ghosts were having a party.”

Salinas had worked nights at the inn for several years at that point, and it wasn’t his first time hearing or seeing something strange. He was getting used to the idea that the building might be haunted. But he wasn’t necessarily afraid.

After all, if there were lingering spirits, they had never harmed him.

As the “party” became more rambunctious, Salinas heard water running as if filling a tub, then a toilet flushing over and over. At that point, he was worried that a pipe had sprung a leak, so he went upstairs to investigate.

“As I started going up the stairs, maybe halfway up, everything quieted down. There was not a sound,” he said. “As I’m speaking to you, I’m having goosebumps all over my body.”

Upon reaching the second floor, he could hear a pin drop. He walked down the hallway and past Room 8. Silence. So he continued on and headed back downstairs.

“As I’m walking down the stairs, it all started up again — people running, having a good time. I said, ‘OK. I’m not going back up. You’re having a good time, I’m not

The Lucerne Inn

going to bother you,’” Salinas said. “Just don’t come down to see me.”

Perched on a hill above a scenic lake, The Lucerne Inn is one of many historic inns in Maine rumored to house ghosts alongside their guests. Spooky stories from more than a dozen inns scattered throughout the state are featured in the book “Ghosts of Maine” by T.M. Gray. But some establishments, such as the Lucerne, are more famous for their ghost stories than others.

(Above) The Lucerne Inn in 1948. (Below) Room 8 at the Inn is rumored to be haunted. 2517 MAIN ROAD IN DEDHAM The Lucerne Inn’s history stretches back to 1812, when Nathan Phillips built a house and stable at the location. Taking advantage of the fact that the property was located halfway between Bangor and Ellsworth, he started taking in travelers (and secretly serving them champagne cider during a time when Maine was a dry state). Over the years, the inn has changed hands several times and has expanded to include an event center, restaurant and pub.

Somewhere along the way, ghost stories became associated with the inn.

One story in particular is told time and time again. It’s rumored that in the early 1900s, a caretaker at The Lucerne Inn caught his wife cheating on him in Room 8. He shot the lovers before killing himself. It’s said that his spirit remains in the room but is harmless. He causes mischief, moving furniture around, casting shadows on the walls and turning the lights on and off.

“Personally I haven’t experienced anything,” said David Silverman, who purchased the inn with his wife Jayne Silverman in 2016. “To me, the ghost stories are just sort of fun little myths. I’m just not a believer, but there are plenty of people who come here that are.”

Just down the hall from Room 8, Room 5 is said to be just as haunted. People will specifically call and ask for those rooms in hopes of experiencing something supernatural, the Silvermans said. Several have even set up ghost hunting equipment such as cameras, voice recorders and thermometers in hopes of collecting evidence of lingering spirits.

But it’s difficult to pin down exactly where the Lucerne ghosts reside. A group of guests using a Ouija board to communicate with spirits told the owners that a ghost had moved into Room 10.

“On the top floor, Room 11 is directly above Room 8, and on three different occasions, guests have called me at night or in the morning to ask if we could tell the people beneath them if they could quiet down because they couldn’t sleep,” Salinas said. “And all three times, I had to tell the guests that nobody was staying below them.”

There are plenty of employees at the inn who have never experienced anything remotely spooky. But they’re happy to share the location’s rich history with guests, along with a few ghost stories — all in good fun.

You don’t even have to stay at the inn to potentially spot one of its rumored ghosts. It’s said that the ghost of a little girl wearing a yellow sundress skips around the inn’s pub, sits at the tables and follows the bartenders around. She’s even been spotted outside on the lawn during a wedding, Salinas said. “I’ve never seen her. That would really freak me out,” Salinas said. “But I’ve had two guests come to the front desk and ask me who the little girl belongs to, and several people who have worked here through the years have told me the same thing.”

The Kennebunk Inn

45 MAIN STREET IN KENNEBUNK Flickering lights, inexplicable footsteps, flying objects — these are the classic ways that the ghosts of The Kennebunk Inn make themselves known.

The oldest part of the inn, built in 1799, served as a private residence for over a century. In 1928, a large wing was added onto the building and it was converted into an inn. But it wasn’t until much later that rumors of the inn being haunted became heavily publicized.

“In the 1980s, they had glasses flying off the shelves, things like that,” said Shanna O’Hea, who purchased the inn with her husband, Brian O’Hea, in 2003. “We’ve never seen anything like that, but I can tell you one story.”

Early in their days as innkeepers, the O’Heas would put the inn to bed each night, turning off all the lights and locking the doors. In the mornings they’d wake early to unlock the doors for the front desk employee.

One morning, they walked downstairs to find all the doors open, the lights on and the music blaring in the bar.

“We’ve had lights turn on and off before, which could be a bad circuit or something else,” Shanna O’Hea said. “But that one [event] was really hard to come up with an explanation for.”

They may never know the music-playing culprit, but the O’Heas do know the names of three of their resident ghosts. The most famous is Silas Perkins, a poet who worked as a night watchman there during the mid-20th century.

“He had a heart attack when crossing the street, then came back and died in room 17,” said Shanna O’Hea. “So that’s tentatively the most haunted of all the rooms.”

The second ghost is Cyrus (last name unknown), who used to work as a front desk clerk at the inn. And the third is a playful little girl named Emily, who likes to sit on the front steps of the inn and knock on guest room doors.

The O’Heas embrace their business’s ghostfilled history. In fact, in 2020, they added inscriptions for each of the ghosts to the inn’s bar during renovations. The names Silas, Cyrus and Emily can be found alongside the names of the building’s former owners on the surface of the bar.

“Most people I think enjoy hearing about it,” Shanna O’Hea said. “Some people say they feel a presence or have had experiences and talk to the ghosts. It’s a part of our history, so we don’t ignore it.”

The Kennebunk Inn is shown as it once looked in the 1930s and how it looks today.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE KENNEBUNK INN

Photos from the past of the Captain Lindsey Guest House in Rockland.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE LINDSEY GUEST HOUSE

Today’s view inside the inn.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE LINDSEY GUEST HOUSE

Captain Lindsey Guest House

5 LINDSEY STREET IN ROCKLAND

Built in the 1830s by Captain George Lindsey, the inn now aptly called the Captain Lindsey Guest House is said to be home to quite a few ghosts. In fact, members of the Paranormal Association of Maine have reported that the inn is haunted by as many as 36 spirits, including Captain Lindsey himself and another former owner, T.B. Severence, according to the book “Ghosts of Maine.”

Eric and Raleigh Churchill purchased the inn in February of 2021, and have already had a few peculiar experiences.

“We had a cleaning crew in here to do a deep cleaning,” Eric Churchill said. “They started at the top of the inn — it’s three stories — and worked their way down, and they said that they felt like they weren’t alone, that there was a presence.”

Eric Churchill was told that the inn is home to three spirits: young twins and an older lady.

“I don’t feel a threatening presence or really any presence at all,” he said. “Raleigh and I like to joke that if there is a ghost, we call him Ghost Malone because he’s kind of like a friendly, non-threatening spirit.”

He personally doesn’t believe in ghosts, but he enjoys hearing and passing on the many ghost stories connected with their inn. He even has a personal story to share.

Just after purchasing the inn, he was hauling boxes down into the basement when he saw something he can’t quite explain.

“I came up the stairs and rounded the corner and I swear I saw someone walk into the parlor,” he said. “As far as we understand, it’s the oldest part of the house. If anything were to be haunted, that would be it.”

He only saw the tail end of the person, so he assumed it was his wife, who had been offering guidance on where to store items.

“Hey, what’s next?” he asked, walking into the parlor.

There was no one there.

“I thought she was playing a trick on me,” he said. “So I looked around for her, then she came down the stairs. I said, ‘How did you do that?’ And she said, ‘I was upstairs the whole time.’”