Camden - Camden ghost stories told - Community

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Camden ghost stories told

By Kim Lincoln
The Herald Gazette Reporter

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CAMDEN (Oct 23): A number of strange occurrences have been documented in Camden buildings over the years.

Now those stories have been combined with Camden area history and been taken to the streets by way of haunted history tours.

Sally Lobkowicz, the lady in the red cloak.

For the past three years, Sally Lobkowicz, dressed in a red cloak and carrying a lantern, has offered such tours in Boothbay Harbor, Damariscotta and Wiscasset. This past summer she began doing tours in Camden. The tours run through Halloween.

A mischievous ghost named Sally is said to roam the Camden Opera House, built in 1894.

As the story goes, the woman was jilted by her fiance and threw herself off a balcony to her death.

Sally has been known to turn the lights on and off and open and close doors. One of her favorite tricks is playing with the elevator door.

“Late at night after a show is over and the doors are closed the elevator door opens and closes by itself and you might feel something move,” said Kerry Hadley, opera house director.

A paranormal consultant did an investigation of the building and took pictures on the orchestra level that show Sally’s spirit, Hadley said. A Maine Media Workshop student also created a photograph of Sally on the stage.

This image on stage of Sally, the Camden Opera House ghost, was created by a Maine Media Workshop student. (Image courtesy of Camden Opera House)

No tour of Camden would be complete without discussing Eleanor French, a young girl who plummeted to her death off Maiden’s Cliff in 1864.

As the story goes, French was picnicking on the mountain with her sister and a friend, when her hat blew off. When French went to grab it, she got too close to the edge and fell off.

“She does haunt the cliff in the spring and summers while the wildflowers are there," Lobkowicz said. "She might even have a presence at the cemetery where she is buried.” She is buried in French Cemetery in Lincolnville.

There have also been sightings of French’s hat, complete with a pink ribbon, floating in Megunticook Lake.

The Camden Post Office has stories of a past postal employee, who died on the job, and continues to roam about the post office, which was built in 1913.

There are many stories of how the man, named Fred, died, and longtime postal employees report hearing strange rustling sounds, said Postmaster Scott Boardman.

The man reportedly died in the coal room, a room that used to house a coal-fired furnace.

About five or six years ago, Boardman said, one of the postal carriers, who was about to leave for the night, saw a shadow that went under a door and back toward the coal room.

The carrier contacted the Camden Police Department and officers checked the building, “but they didn’t find Fred,” Boardman said.

During one of the haunted history tours in August, Linda Brown, who works with Lobkowicz, was leading a group through the back parking lot of St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church when Kim Robinson, who was on the tour, snapped a photo containing an orb.

“Apples started falling from a tree in the yard," Robinson said in a Red Cloak Haunted History Tours press release. "We joked about a ghost letting us know that he/she was present. On a whim, I decided to snap a photograph of the apple tree and was surprised to see a white orb in the photo. I took another photo, but the orb didn’t appear in the second photo.”

An image of an orb, taken near St. Thomas' Episcopal Church in Camden in August. (Photo by Kim Robinson)

The tour also includes discussions of sightings in Rockport and stops at the Village Restaurant and some local homes.

The tours are appropriate for all ages. Tours leave at 7 p.m. most days except for Tuesdays and Thursdays. Tickets cost $10 for adults and $7 for children under 12 and are free for those under 5 years old.

Contact Lobkowicz at 380-3806 for a reservation.