We suspect that there is really more than one ghost. The ghost(s) are not malicious or scary; rather he/she/they are mischievous and possess a good sense of humor.

We have heard many stories about the ghost from previous owners of the building and from others who have heard stories from their parents and grandparents. The common tale about the ghost came from Althea Powell who lived here with her father. Her grandfather was a dentist and operated his business out of the first floor. He also lived there with his family and his mistress, whom he used to spend time with by taking the back staircase when everyone was asleep. Also Althea Powell is convinced that he is our ghost. Another common assumption is that a young woman killed in a smoky blaze while she was sleeping upstairs is the ghost. It is rumored that she was the mistress of the Proprietor of the Old Yarmouth Inn.

But the Old Yarmouth Inn has been home to many families and thousands of travelers over the last 3 centuries. There are no records of the number of travelers that arrived on the doorstep sick, and no record of those that may have died here.

When Althea Powell's family occupied the Old Yarmouth Inn it functioned as a boarding house for the teachers that taught and the Old school - now the fire station on 6A.

One day Althea was playing in the attic and found the hidden door that led to the secret room where it is assumed that the Old Yarmouth Inn hid slaves and operated as part of the Underground Railroad. If that is true then it can be assumed that the ghost could be a recently freed slave seeking shelter en route to a safer life.

The possibilities are endless, but we do have a recorded sighting of one of the ghosts on Thanksgiving 1999. Carleton Davis, the former artistic director of the Cape Playhouse was staying in the room called Quisset Harbor. He woke at 4:00 in the morning to find a gentleman standing at the foot of his bed. Carleton told me that the "man" seemed puzzled that Carleton was in the room. Carleton was unafraid and was convinced that he was seeing an apparition. He described this "man" as a "Jowly individual with big full cheeks and a calm manner. He was dressed in late 19th century clothing with a flounced white blouse with large cuffs and full sleeves. As they stared at each other the man faded from Carleton's sight.

In the summer of 2002 three gentlemen were staying here on a vacation from the British Virgin Islands. On of the men, Michael Blaize woke up to feel a "body" sit on the edge of his bed. He pulled the covers up over his eyes hoping he was dreaming, but the "figure" arose off of the bed and traveled to the foot of the bed and began caressing Michael's feet. He was now fully covered in his blanket and comforter and begging for the morning to come, when he felt this ghost grab the 2 bed posts and began shaking the bed. This ended as quickly as it started and Michael got up, packed his bags and took his chances on the outside deck for the remainder of the night until the sun rose and he felt safe. The next morning we listened in stunned silence as he told the story. We exchanged glances of disbelief and wanted to laugh until Arpad's 89 year old mother stepped out on to the deck and announced that she could not sleep because of the all the racket and banging coming from the room across the hall. We all believe that this ghost played on Michael's fear of the supernatural and showed up to scare him, and entertain the rest of us.

Arpad and I have never seen the ghost. We have felt cold drafts that cannot be explained. These are usually followed by bizarre reactions from Comet, our dog. On numerous occasions I have returned from a tour of turning off the lights in the various dining rooms to find all the lights back on again. There have been ashtrays that have slid down the bar and then tossed into the air. My sister Maureen, Arpad and I listened in disbelief as the window next to our table began moaning and rattling with out provocation and then fell silent Our bartender has had to hold glasses that slide all over the bar as she tries to pour drinks. One woman, who guffawed at the idea of a ghost, was soon a believer when the air conditioner cover fell off and defied gravity as it traveled 10 feet to graze the tip of her head. My own sister refuses to go in to the kitchen after hours since the time 7 years ago when our Hobart mixer turned on while she was making an early morning cup of coffee. Most recently the wait staff has begun hearing their names being whispered by an unknown source.

During the fall of 2003 and we hosted a couple of Séances that were supposed to be nothing more than theatrical performances, but aroused our ghost nonetheless. There is a gas stove in the Dining Room we call the Red Room. On the stove was a glass Vase filled with silk roses and blue marbles. One morning during the time that the room was being decorated for the Séance, we came downstairs to find the vase split perfectly in two laying on the hearth on either side of the gas stove. The blue marbles were laid out in front of the hearth and the roses were fanned out between the marbles.

I would like to blame my own absent mindedness of losing my keys or my glasses on the ghost, but this isn't the case. But there are still an awful lot of strange things that just cannot be explained.


Note from the site web designer

Before reading the above story and in the beginning stages of designing this site, I experienced seeing the ghost - and interesting enough it was not on site at the Old Yarmouth Inn!

When I was working on the photograph that is used on the home page of this site, I saw a man's face in the portion of the photograph that I was cropping out. The face was as plain as day and startled me so much that I jumped up from my desk (with a few choice words because I couldn't believe what I saw) and ran out of the room. When I came back to the photo I could not see him again. The image I saw was so vivid and one that I won't forget; the lower portion of his face below his cheekbones was not showing, his face was oval, high cheekbones, white hair with a receding hairline and a high forehead. When I later told Shiela Fitzgerald of my experience, she told me that the man I was describing sounds like the same man that guests at the Inn have seen.

If you're wondering what part of the photo he appeared in, it's no longer there. There were two wall lamps in the photograph on the back wall. He appeared in one of the lampshades. On your next visit to the Old Yarmouth Inn you will see two wall lamps in that room. He appeared in the lampshade on the left, closest to the window.

Darlene Billmair
Insite Media Design