Moment in Oddity - Poop Eating Pitcher Plants
Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods. These plants can be found on every continent with the exception of Antarctica and some can even be seen in movies like the cult classic 'Little Shop of Horrors', ala the killer Venus Flytrap who lusts for human blood. These interesting plants secure their meals through various methods. Some utilize sticky, almost flypaper type mucus lining to trap their meals, others employ a snap trap method for survival and still others have hair like appendages which point inward to force their prey to move towards the plants' digestive organ. These plants all rely on their meal coming to them and they require a diet rich in nitrogen to survive. But what if their usual meal isn't so readily available? In higher altitudes where insect prey is not so plentiful, a type of pitcher plant has taken to eating poop. Yes, you heard correctly, I said poop. This is the Nepenthes hemsleyana (nah-pen-thees hem-slee-awnna) pitcher plant found in the forests of Borneo. These plants can grow very large, some as tall as 10 feet in height and they have developed a symbiotic relationship with the Kerivoula hardwickii (Carry-voo-la Hard-wicky-eye) bats. The bats have found the large pitcher plants a convenient and safe place to roost during the day. They then utilize the bowl, although not a porcelain one, to make their guano deposits. This keeps the plants thriving with rich nourishment. Carnivorous plants are certainly interesting and unique, but plants feasting on a fare of feces, certainly is odd.
This Month in History - Falkland Island War
In the month of April, on the 2nd, in 1982, the Falkland Islands War began. This was an undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom. This conflict was over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial dependency, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The latter being a British Overseas Territory in the southern Atlantic Ocean near the tip of South America. Argentinian troops invaded and occupied the British colony. On April 5th, the British dispatched their naval task force and Air Force to engage the Argentinian forces before launching an amphibious attack. This ultimately ended the conflict in 74 days with an Argentine surrender on June 14th, returning the islands to British control. During the 10 week conflict, 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel, and three Falkland Islanders were killed. This major dispute surrounding the territories' sovereignty stemmed from Argentine's assertion that the islands belonged to them and that the military action was justified to reclaim the islands. The British government regarded the action as an invasion of a territory that had been a Crown colony since 1841. Falkland Islanders who have been the primary inhabitants of the islands since the early 19th century, are primarily descendants of British settlers. They also strongly favor British sovereignty. Neither state officially declared war, although both governments declared the islands a war zone.
Haunted Inns of Cape May (Suggested by: Becki Fleming)
Cape May in New Jersey is one of the oldest seaside resort towns in America and has one of the largest collections of 19th century buildings in the country. Three hundred and eighty acres of the town are part of a historic district. Many of these historic locations are now inns that are reputedly haunted. They all are unique with their own character and charm and at least one should be on your bucket list for a stay. Join us as we share the history and haunts of nearly a dozen haunted inns in Cape May!
Cape May is nestled on the southern tip of New Jersey and was home for a time to the Kechemeche Indians of the Lenni-Lenape tribe. This tribe believed that the shiny quartz pebbles that washed up on the beaches held some kind of power that would bring good fortune and wellbeing. Early settlers and traders started to refer to these as Cape May Diamonds. The largest of these is on display at the Cape May County Museum and weighs in at 1,800 carets. The numbers of the Kechemeche dwindled drastically due to illness and disease and by 1735, were almost nonexistent. Those that were left were reloacted to Oklahoma with other Lenape tribes. The first explorer to discover the island was Sir Henry Hudson and he did this in 1609. It was later explored by Cornelius Jacobsen Mey in 1621 and that is where it gets its name, although initially it was just called Cape Island. English colonists settled and built the island into a prosperous fishing and whaling colony and by the mid 1700s, people started using it as a vacation destination. Visitors were brought in from Philadelphia by sloops, schooners, horse-drawn wagons and stagecoaches. There were no official inns at the time, so guests were housed in residential homes and taverns. Eventually there would be boarding houses and hotels added to the town. Cape May has a very haunting air about it. Every street seems to be oozing with spiritual activity, which is why so many places here are said to be haunted.
Hotel Macomber
The Hotel Macomber sits at 727 Beach Avenue and when it was built in 1916, it was the largest frame structure east of the Mississippi River. The hotel was built in the late Victorian Provincial Shingle Style which is American in origin and pushed back on the fancy ornamental patterns of the Victorian Queen Anne styling with plain, shingled surfaces and re-embraced Colonial American architecture. At the time, this was being used in many seaside cottages. The architect and builder are unknown, but the first owner was Sarah Davis and its original name was New Stockton Villa. The hotel had three-and-one-half stories above a raised basement, a two-story porch and a gable roof on the front with shed dormers along the sides. The first floor opened up into a lobby with a living room to the left. That room led out onto a glass-enclosed porch. Past the lobby and living room was a large dining room serviced by a large kitchen. The second and third floor had the exact same design with two suites at the forefront that featured their own large bathrooms, several smaller rooms with private baths and then a couple of joined rooms that shared a bathroom.
Today, the Hotel Macomber is a family-run boutique hotel with the award winning Union Park Restaurant. The hotel sits right across from the beach and has spectacular views. Despite its height, the hotel isn't equipped with an elevator, so you do need to be able to climb stairs to stay there. The suites are called Captain Mey's and come with a porch. The Cornelius Rooms are oceanfront suites without porches. The Berths IIs are rooms with two beds that offer both ocean views and non-ocean views. The Jacobsens are standard rooms with lacy canopy beds. And finally there is the Osprey's Nests, which is the biggest ocean front room with the most expansive views. The hotel offers the perfect setting for weddings. And even better for us, reportedly the hotel has several ghosts.
The original owner, Sarah Davis, had a hard life. She had a daughter named Cannell who died of encephalitis in the 1920s. Sarah couldn't get past her grief and eventually took her own life at the hotel in 1934. She loved the hotel and is said to have remained to make sure that things run smoothly. She turns on cheery music and does chores around the hotel like unpacking for people and ironing clothes. Guests claim to see her coming down the stairs and standing by the check-in desk. And she may have been joined by her daughter Cannell. People have seen the spirit of a little girl in the hotel and psychics claim that she is Cannell. Sarah isn't the only owner haunting the place. Another couple that ran the place are said to have returned to the hotel after death as well.
Room 10 is thought to be the most haunted room in the hotel. The main ghost that haunts this room has been nicknamed "The Trunk Lady." The spirit is believed to belong to a Hotel Macomber regular named Irene Wright whom everyone called "Miss Wright." She started coming to the hotel in the 1930s and always arrived at the hotel alone with a large trunk. She never married and had no children. Miss Wright always stayed in Room 10, wore lots of perfume and talked everyone's ear off. It is thought that she died sometime in the 1970s and has returned in the afterlife to one of her favorite spots. Of course, she brings with her the phantom scent of perfume. Guests and employees have reported hearing the sound of a trunk dragging down the hall. Her apparition has been seen rocking in one of the rocking chairs on the porch. And banging on doorways is attributed to her too. Craig McManus is a well known psychic in Cape May who has penned several books on the subject of haunted Cape May. He told NJ.com that he sensed five ghosts during a seance at the Hotel Macomber. "He said one was a woman, Irene Wright, a widow from Reading, Pennsylvania, affectionately known as the 'trunk lady' who always stayed in room 10 with her steamer trunk. This room was active mostly during the months of June and November. McManus said that one night while staying in room 10, he was awoken twice by loud banging on the door. He jumped up, opened the door, only to find that no one was there. He was later told that he was the only visitor staying in the hotel that night. Eventually he digitally recorded a woman’s voice saying 'I'm still here.'"
A hardworking waitress who dates back to the Great Depression is another one of the ghosts here. The story here is that she was poor and would occasionally steal food and one day she choked to death on a chicken bone. Her spirit has stayed here and she is angry, so she likes to move silverware and glasses around, she flickers the chandelier lights in the dining room, pushes people into the walk-in refrigerator and her full-bodied apparition has been seen floating in the kitchen in a ragged dress.
The basement harbors the spirit of a grumpy old man. People call him the "Growler" and that is because he likes to growl and groan. He likes to knock things over too. There are possibly other children ghosts here to that play with Cannel. During the summer, there are sounds of children talking and laughing when there are no children around. And a spirit known as the friendly farmer hangs out in the lobby and greets guests sometimes. And one room has an arguing couple that no one sees when they open the door. There definitely seems to be a large number of spirits hanging around Hotel Macomber.
Inn at 22 Jackson
The Inn at 22 Jackson is located on one of the busiest streets in Cape May and is, of course, a restored Queen Anne Victorian. The inn is navy blue, purple, white and outlined with lights. The inn is three stories and has a veranda on the first and second floors. The house has been through several owners and each one has had their own haunting experiences. One of the owners named Maria McFadden would often feel as though someone were walking by her in the kitchen when she was the only person in the kitchen. Legends have claimed that the spirit here had been a nanny named Esmerelda who lived on the third floor turret and she had supposedly died tragically in the house. But there are no records to back that up. However, there was a family who lived here in the 1950s named the Wolfes and the children had an imaginary playmate named Esmerelda. A psychic who walked the property believes that the spirit here is named Anne and she does seem to like the third floor.
Windward House Inn (Now Closed)
Windward House Inn Bed and Breakfast is also located on Jackson Street at 24 Jackson Street. This bed and breakfast boasted over 30 years of hospitality, but appears to be closed today. This house was built in 1905 in the Edwardian Victorian style with three porches. The family that built it lived in it until the 1940s. After it was sold, it was opened as guest cottages and then in 1977 it was bought by Owen and Sandy Miller and they opened this as the Windward House Inn. They filled the bed and breakfast with Victorian furniture. Some of the doors have stained glass door and others have beveled glass. Sandy Miller said that they had experienced some unexplainable things. Once they had a guest come to them and say that they thought a guest had been locked in the bathroom for a really long time and that perhaps something had happened to that person. The bathroom locked via a hook and eye system. She and her husband broke through an outside window and found that the bathroom was completely empty. It happened again two weeks later, but this time they just pushed hard on the door and broke the lock. Again, the bathroom was empty.
A psychic believes that the restroom had once been a storage closet that previous owners had kept valuables inside, so perhaps that is why the door keeps getting locked. She also believed there are two spirits in the house that mostly hang out on the first floor. A woman from a much earlier time and a man from the 20th century. There is also a ghost on the third floor. A guest awakened one night and heard the clicking of shoes across the floor like heels on wood, only the floor in this room was carpeted. The woman heard the footsteps go into the bathroom and she panicked that someone had gotten in the room, so she ran into the bathroom and found no one. This room has been called the Wicker Room and is said to be the most active. One guest saw the full-bodied apparition of a hazy woman sitting on the edge of the bed. The South Jersey Ghost Research Team got evidence that led to believe that an Irish maid is the spirit.
Angel of the Sea Bed and Breakfast
The Angel of the Sea is truly glorious with a wraparound porch and intricate gingerbread details! This is a large bed and breakfast located at 5 Trenton Avenue that has 27 rooms spread out through two buildings and has been open since 1989. The rooms are Victorian themed and full of charm. This was built in 1850 as a summer cottage for Philadelphia chemist William Weightman. Weightman had introduced quinine to the United States for a malaria treatment. The house is not standing on its original site. In 1881, Weightman decided he would prefer an ocean view and he hired a bunch of farmers to move the house, but the house was too big for this to be accomplished. So, the farmers decided to cut the house in half. They would move each section separately and then reconnect the house. They accomplished this by rolling the sections on tree trunks using mules and horses for power. Now, anybody who sees the inn today can see that this is not two halves of a house pushed together perfectly. The farmers weren't able to do that, so they improvised by enclosing the sides of the house that weren't together, so now it looked more like two buildings. When Mr. Weightman died in 1905, the house was sold and it served a number of purposes from a hotel to a guest house to a restaurant.
The house would move again after suffering significant damage during a 1962 Nor'easter. It was going to be demolished, but Reverend Carl McIntire bought the house and had both sections moved by flatbed truck to its current spot on Trenton. From 1962 to 1981, the Angel became a dormitory. By 1982, the place was uninhabitable and left abandoned until 1988. Developer John Girton bought it with his wife Barbara and crews up to 75 people worked round the clock to get the Angel back to restored, following original designs. The Angel opened a year later after $3.5 million and over 103,000 man hours of labor. John and Barbara sold the bed and breakfast to their daughter Lorie Whissell in 1995, who ran it for the next 20 years. In 2015, Theresa and Ron Stanton bought the Angel of the Sea. Somewhere along all the moves, the Angel seems to have picked up some spirits. People who have stayed here have experienced their beds vibrating, televisions turning off and on of their own accord and strange photos.
The Victorian Lace Inn
The Victorian Lace Inn converted to condos in 2018, but before that, it was a bed and breakfast located at 901 Stockton Avenue. This had been built in the Colonial Revival style with cedar siding in 1869. Things that happen her include objects disappearing and reappearing, disembodied footsteps and furniture moving on its own. Paranormal investigator Cindy Starr-Whitman stayed here with her husband and they heard the footsteps and heard the sound of things moving around even when nothing was moving. She also said that when things were cleaned up and put away, they would reappear again.
Cape May Puffin Suites
And the haunts just continue on Jackson St at 32 Jackson Street. This is home to the Cape May Puffin Suites, which are four individually owned and operated vacation rental condominiums. This location was designed in the Dutch Colonial architectural style and features a large wraparound front porch. Investigators that have stayed at the inn have captured EVPs and gotten EMF spikes. Orbs are a common occurrence in pictures too.
Peter Shields Inn
The Peter Shields Inn is the former summer cottage of wealthy businessman Peter Shields. Shields hailed from Pittsburgh and he joined a group of entrepreneurs that wanted to reclaim Cape May’s former glory, so they set up the Cape May Real Estate Company in 1903. Shields was the President. Philadelphia architect Lloyd Titus designed the cottage in the Georgian-Revival architectural style and it was completed in 1907. The Shields didn't stay long following two devastating things. The Cape May Real Estate Company went bankrupt and the Shields 15-year old son Earl was killed in a boating accident. The family returned to Pittsburgh and sold the cottage. It eventually served as a private residence, an exclusive club for boat-owners, the Tuna & Marlin Club and as the Peter Shields Inn. There are nine rooms and a restaurant. The spirit that haunts this inn is thought to be Earl, the Shields' son. Travel Channels Ghost Stories featured the haunting here in 2010.
Psychic Craig McManus told CapeMay.com, "I can remember a few years ago getting a call from a woman who was staying at the Peter Shields Inn. She had asked if I would do a channeling session with her, which I agreed to do. It would be held in her room on the third floor of the house...As I walked into the expansive house and mounted the grand staircase, I could sense the ghost of a young man. The woman working there at the time told me it was the ghost of Peter Shields. I would later research him to learn what I have just related in the above paragraphs. He was indeed a torn and defeated man, finally resigning his post as president and leaving town in 1912. As I conducted the channeling for my client, the large bedroom door, which was closed, kept opening slowly—very slowly. The windows were closed and there was no noticeable draft, yet something was opening the door—three times in a row. I invited whoever wanted to come in to join us, as long as they did not interrupt my channeling session. There was a definite presence in the room. It was not trying to communicate. It just watched us from the sidelines. I felt nothing but the feeling of being watched. Sometimes ghosts are inquisitive instead of being talkative. This ghost was giving me the silent treatment, and it eventually left the room."
McManus returned to the inn the next Spring and heard from staff that they thought they had a ghost named “Ernest” and that many of them had seen him. McManus then said, "After dinner, I made a trip to the restroom, which is located on the lower level in what used to be the home’s cellar. This area was also an after-hours bar called the Tuna & Marlin Club in the 1940s and 50s. As I moved past a large bust of Shakespeare standing in the corner of the basement, I was overwhelmed with a dreadful feeling of remorse. Not panic or anxiety, just sadness and despair. I had just walked into something or someone that I was not about to take lightly. It was not a malevolent energy at all, just a strong one. Had I found Ernest, or did Ernest find me? I raced upstairs to let a friend, who was dining with us, know what just happened. 'Someone either died down there, or was murdered,' I told her. My friend and her husband went downstairs next to check out the energy. On their return, they confirmed the strong feelings that they too could sense. Both friends were energy workers and I felt they may be able to offer a solid second opinion when it came to sensing ghostly energies."
The Southern Mansion Bed and Breakfast
The Southern Mansion is located at 720 Washington Street and was built in 1863 for Philadelphia industrialist George Allen. Architect Samuel Sloan designed the mansion in the Italianate villa style and the construction was completed by Henri Phillipi. The Victorian home is three stories and crowned by a cupola. It is framed by clapboard and has a front porch the surrounds three sides. George Allen and his descendants owned the house for 83 years. The last Allen to live here was Ester Mercur and when she died in 1946, her husband sold the whole house including the furniture for $8,000. The mansion was converted into a boarding house and this caused structural weakness. The house was also painted a stark white. The mansion was poorly maintained and by the 1980s the license for the boarding house was revoked. In 1994, a family named Bray/Wildes were vacationing in Cape May when they saw the horrible condition of the mansion. They purchased the house and went through all the furniture and artwork, salvaging what they could and filled 25 dumpsters with garbage.
Then they began the massive renovation placing new I-beams for support and replacing all the electrical and plumbing. Five chimneys were rebuilt with the original bricks, the house was returned to its earth tone color and the slate and tin roofs, copper gutters, brackets, porches, soffits, trims, moldings and fascia boards were replaced. The property had gardens at one time and these were replanted. The Southern Mansion was reopened in the Spring of 1996 with further renovation to a new South Wing being completed in 1997. This inn claims to have the biggest suites of any of the bed and breakfasts on Cape May. They host weddings here as well. And the mansion also hosts a couple of ghosts. The last descendant in the house, Ester, had been an alcoholic and she finally died from that in the house. She likes to explode glasses, particularly during toasts at weddings. One of the strangest stories about Ester comes out of the kitchen. The chef was mixing some batter when all of a sudden the colors green and purple bubbled up in the batter. And that bubbling up eventually exploded up onto the ceiling.
Owner Barbara Wilde said of Ester, "It's just like she's saying, 'Look at me.' I lived here during the whole renovation and nothing ever bothered me. I'd feel it, but it wasn't scary." The South Jersey Ghost Research Group investigated in 2004 and several members were touched and cold spots were felt. Psychic Craig McManus claims that Ester is joined by another ghost who might be the real culprit behind the smashed glasses. This was Daniel Crilly who had been one of the owners of the boarding house. Apparently he would smash wine battles in the house. Other unexplained things that happen in the inn include doors locking by themselves, eerie feelings especially in lower meeting rooms and the strong smell of roses.
The Queen Victoria Bed and Breakfast
The Queen Victoria Bed and Breakfast is located at 102 Ocean Street and is made up of three buildings: Prince Albert Hall, The House of Royals and The Queen Victoria. Before any of these houses were built, the Columbia Hotel was here. The massive fire that destroyed much of Cape May in 1878, destroyed this hotel. The Queen Victoria building was built using several styles: Italianate Villa (the twin turret windows), Edwardian (the front porch), and a French-inspired mansard roof. The land here was purchased from Charles W. Potts by Douglas Gregory who was a Delaware River pilot and he had the home built for his family in 1881. The property has exchanged hands through the years and served as a community service center for the Navy, a medical practice, a summer boarding house, apartments and now the inn, which was opened in 1981 by Dane and Joan Wells. They sold to Doug and Anna Marie McMain in 2004. There are nine guest rooms in this building.
Prince Albert Hall was built in 1882 by Douglas Gregory as an investment property and it was operated as a boarding house. Subsequent owners also ran it as a boarding house. In 1989, the house was renovated into the hotel it is today. There are six rooms in this building and there is a large porch, third floor roof deck and English gardens. The House of Royals was built in 1876 by Charles Shaw, who also built the Chalfonte Hotel and the Emlen Physick Estate. The first floor was a general store offering stationery, sundries, and patent medicines. The second floor was a gentleman’s gambling club. This club had both private rooms and a large community room. The third floor was more than likely a brothel. This building survived the fire. It's the most beautifully decorated of the three buildings and has ten rooms.
One of the most well known ghost stories connected to this property entails a woman descending from the third floor on the stairway and making her way to the front desk. She then disappeared. This is in the House of Royals and many people believe that this is a young woman who worked in the brothel and that she probably died there. She brings with her the strong scent of perfume, cold spots, and she likes to bump into beds and people. Rooms end up in a disarray sometimes and sometimes the electricity goes out completely on the third floor. And there is a story that a toilet exploded on the third floor and the ghost was blamed for that.
Chalfonte Hotel
The Chalfonte Hotel sits at 301 Howard Street and is one of the oldest original hotels here. It rises three stories with a belvedere and a two-story porch. This was built as a private home for Henry W. Sawyer in 1875. Sawyer also designed the house and it was built by William Moore and Brothers. The house is covered in gingerbread accents. Additions were made in 1879. Sawyer sold the hotel in 1888. The Richmond Satterfield family bought the place in 1911 and ran the establishment for 50 years. Anne LuDoc and Judy Bartella bought the hotel in 1978. The current owners, Robert and Linda Mullock, bought the Chalfonte in 2008. There are several rooms and suites and two cottages for rent. The Magnolia Room hosts breakfast and dinner and the King Edward Bar serves up drinks. This hotel has no elevator and just recently got heat and air in the rooms, as in just in 2021. There are no phones, no clocks and no televisions in the rooms.
According to psychic Craig McManus, one of the main spirits here belongs to a young woman who is often seen holding a baby up in the cupola and looking towards the ocean. It is thought that she lost her husband at sea and she is watching and waiting for him. The haunting is most probably residual. Another spirit who is here seems to be a grumpy man. McManus was investigating one night and he caught an EVP of a male yelling, "McManus, F*ck you!" The Mullock family owns the hotel and Dillon Mullock was outside the hotel when he looked up and saw a figure walking in the hallway. There should have been no one in the hotel as Dillon was the only one there. He ran inside to catch the intruder and found that the hotel was indeed empty.
Elaine's Cape May
Elaine’s Cape May is located at 513 Lafayette Street. This is a true destination location and incorporates a boutique hotel, restaurant, Phinney's Pub and Patio Bar. And this place sits right next to the Washington Street Shopping Mall. The building was constructed in 1864 and was purchased by the Read family in 1899 who made this a large plantation home for their family. The Reads had one daughter who was named Emily and she was a sickly child who eventually died in the house. This became The Winchester, a large tavern inn. Elaine's used to host a dinner theater and ghost tours. There are many ghost stories connected to this location. Emily's spirit is thought to still be here. She is either a prankster ghost or there is another spirit here that likes to play tricks. These include covering a room in feathers and hiding tools. Emily is heard calling out for her mother and crying. A bartender has had several experiences with Emily and he claims that he usually sees light rather than a full-bodied apparition. It's like a spectrum of light through a prism with all different colors like a rainbow. Guests have seen the spirit of a young lady wearing Victorian clothing. Even delivery people have seen the ghost. A man on a tour took a video of a cloud of light disappearing into the building. Other things experienced include disembodied laughter of children, batteries draining and floral smells. The most haunted room is believed to be Room 6.
Cape May is a quaint seaside getaway with plenty of Victorian architecture to enjoy. A step into this village is like stepping back in time. Which is something any of us can use. A chance to step away from the chaos of the real world. Perhaps that is why so many spirits are attracted to this area. We only covered the inns, but there are ghosts haunting so many other buildings and even the very streets. Maybe. Are these Cape May Inn haunted? That is for you to decide!
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