Haunted Rhode Island

Bed down with spirits that still call some inns and hotels home

The Black Duck Inn
Newport
This inn, build in 1898 in the heart of Newport’s downtown, is home to a mischievous and utterly friendly spirit, according to the inn’s owner, Mary Rolando. The spirit loves practical jokes, and has a special fondness for playing games with locks, lights, and clocks. The ghost often locks deadbolts throughout the house, turns lights on and off, and tromps about loudly, as if he was wearing heavy boots. Alarm clocks are a special toy. One time, Rolanda said, all the alarm clocks in all the guest rooms began sounding at the same moment, with no rational explanation that Rolando or her staff could fathom.

The Inn at Villa Lon
Newport
This lavish house, built in 1856, has an eventful history that makes it a likely place for ghosts to inhabit. In fact, it has a reputation of bristling with spirit activity, according to psychics who have made video and audio recordings of spirit activity. The house was a stop on the Underground Railroad; the site of a forest path used by Indians; and the location of a murder in the early 1900s and a vicious stabbing in the 1940s or 1950s. A previous owner, who was once sleeping in a room that is now the ballroom, said she awoke one night to the sight of a Narragansett Indian in full war paint. A housekeeper saw two gentlemen in Victorian-era dress escorting a black child through the ballroom. Once a year, neighbors see in the yard in front of the inn an early 20th-century automobile of the kind that was owned by a notorious philandering doctor who lived in the house and who was shot dead in the front yard. During a séance at the inn, a glass of water began spinning by itself. A visiting psychic witnessed a perfume bottle slid across a dresser top and said she believed an argument took place in the room and a perfume bottle was thrown against a wall. On many occasions, people have seen images of a woman, heard children’s voices, see a ghost cat, and felt themselves being touched or prodded.

Harbor Side Inn
Block Island
In a recent conversation, a manager at this inn said the place is “definitely” alive with representatives of the spirit world. She recalled an incident when she was alerted by a loud crash in the restroom. The door to the restroom was locked from the inside; all the stall were locked from the inside; a metal trash can that had been bolted to a wall had been flung across the room; and the room had no windows or other ways to depart. Also, according to legend, a woman in 19th-century garb has been seen entering room 302. Desk clerks have reported a sensation on being grabbed from behind, as if someone were trying to move them out of the way.