HGB Ep. 578 - The Life and Afterlife of Benjamin Franklin

Moment in Oddity - Pound Cake

One of the most basic cakes ever made is the pound cake. The oldest recorded recipe for pound cake was in Hannah Glasses' "The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy" in 1747. While most people might think the etymology of pound cake is due to the weight of the sweet treat, the name is actually related to the quantity of its ingredients: one pound of flour, one pound of eggs, one pound of sugar and one pound of butter and some salt. This staple of family gatherings and picnics would be quite dense using that recipe. The basic recipe has remained the same since 1747 and has endured probably because of the simplicity of the recipe. It was easy to remember for those who could not read or write. The pound cake originated in Britain and was so popular that the recipe quickly migrated to the colonies of America with the first recorded recipe in 1754 being attributed to Wicomico Church, Virginia. The original recipe started mutating in the 1800s, eventually adding ingredients to make it less dense and heavy. Ingredients like baking powder, milk, buttermilk, sour cream and vanilla have lightened the load of this dessert staple. Not only has the cake become lighter over the years, but the additional ingredients give the dessert a moist and tender texture. The fact that pound cake didn't acquire its name due to its weight or how much it cost, but rather to the uniform individual weight of nearly all the ingredients and that that formula actually worked, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - Robert Frost Poem Published

In the month of March, on the 7th, in 1923, Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" was published. Frost had been born in California, but after his father died when he was eleven, his mother moved him with her to Massachusetts and thus he would always be associated with New England. He graduated valedictorian from his high school and went on to attend Dartmouth and Harvard, but didn't finish a degree. He married Elinor White and the couple decided to try their hand at running a New England farm. They added four children to the mix and struggled in poverty for nearly 20 years. Feeling utterly depressed, Frost moved the family to England in 1912 and he tried his hand at poetry. He published a collection of them as "A Boy's Will" in 1913. World War I brought the family back to America and they settled on a New Hampshire farm while Frost continued to write. The American public fell in love with his poetry and Frost went on to read some of it at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy. He lectured at universities and received 44 honorary degrees. This particular poem was very popular and the last stanza "The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep." has been interpreted by some to be representative of death, while others see it as an appreciation of nature. Robert Frost did finally sleep in 1963.

The Life and Afterlife of Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was a little bit of everything: inventor, diplomat, statesman, author, publisher, a Founding Father and a bad boy. He helped guide America through the growing pains of becoming a constitutional republic guiding its own destiny separate from Great Britain. Philadelphia became his home and the caretaker of the cemetery where he was buried in that city once said, "If Ben Franklin haunts the city and the streets of Philadelphia, he haunts it with his personality and his invention." And it might seem that he haunts a couple of places with his actual spirit as well. Join us for the history and hauntings of Benjamin Franklin. 

Benjamin Franklin ran away to Philadelphia when he was seventeen, seeking a new life. When Franklin arrived in Philly, the city was coming into its own as a force in learning and culture. One of the largest libraries in the colonies had just been created. The city declared itself a place of religious tolerance as well, which brought people from many religions. Immigrants from Ireland and Germany flooded into Philadelphia during the 1720s and 1730s. For his part, Franklin would be a gift for the growing city. His life began in Boston though. He was born on January 17, 1706 and while his father desired for him to get a good education, the family wasn't well off and didn't have the money, so Franklin only went to school until he was ten-years-old. There were 17 children in the Franklin household and Ben's dad worked as candle and soap maker. Benjamin supplemented his education with books. He was a voracious reader. James, his brother, worked as a printer and he had Franklin come work with him and he taught him about printing. James would found the third newspaper Boston would have. Franklin had a desire to be published and he asked James to print a letter he wrote. James refused and so Franklin came up with an idea very similar to Lady Whistledown of Bridgerton. His Lady Whistledown was a middle-aged widow named Silence Dogood. Many of "her" letters were published and captured the imagination of Boston. Everybody was talking about Silence Dogood's opinions. James was not happy when he discovered that Silence Dogood was actually his little brother Benjamin. Shortly after that, Franklin left for Philly, but because he was under an apprenticeship to James and didn't tell James he was living, he became a fugitive. 

Since Ben knew printing, he found work in several print shops. The Governor of Pennsylvania convinced Franklin to sail over to London to get some new print equipment to start a newspaper, but apparently the Governor was full of crap and Franklin found himself in London with no way to get home. With the help of an English merchant that he worked for, Franklin was able to return to Philadelphia four years later. He was 21 at the time and started his journey of enriching Philadelphia by forming the Leather Apron Club, which was also known as the Junto. This was a group of tradesmen and artisans and was meant to mimic the Enlightenment groups that met at coffeehouses in Britain. The Junto created a library by contributing their own books and then Franklin expanded on that by starting a subscription library, so that they could raise funds to buy more books. Franklin wrote of this endeavor, "I made a proposition that since our books were often referred to in our disquisitions upon the inquiries, it might be convenient for us to have them all together where we met, that upon occasion they might be consulted; and by thus clubbing our books to a common library, we should, while we liked to keep them together, have each of us the advantage of using the books of all the other members, which would be nearly as beneficial as if each owned the whole." In 1731, Franklin wrote the charter for the Library Company of Philadelphia. A couple years before that, Franklin became the owner and publisher the Pennsylvania Gazette. He continued his practice of writing under pseudonyms.

Franklin brought his Enlightment values and another pseudonym to his next big endeavor, which was Poor Richard's Almanack, a booklet of information about weather and household tips, with some proverbs thrown in for good measure. The most widely known was "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." He published that every year from 1733 to 1758. In 1753, there were fifteen English newspapers published in the colonies and Franklin published eight of them with a couple of his printing partners, one of whom was one of the first female printers, Elizabeth Timothy. Very early in his time in Philly, Benjamin joined the local Masonic lodge and he worked his way up to grand master by 1734. He remained a lifelong freemason.

The main woman in Franklin's life would be Deborah Read, the daughter of his landlady. He first met her when he was 17 and she was 15. He asked her mother if he could marry Deborah and she said, no. While he was in England, Deborah married another man who eventually abandoned her and his fate was unknown so she couldn't divorce him. When Franklin returned to Philly, he took up with Deborah again, but they couldn't marry due to bigamy laws, so they lived together in a type of common law marriage. They had two children, a son named Francis Folger Franklin - born in 1732 - and a daughter named Sarah Franklin - born in 1743. Francis died from small pox at the age of four because his mother wouldn't allow him to be vaccinated. At some point before the relationship with Deborah started, Franklin had a son out of wedlock named William. Franklin did claim him and never revealed who the mother of William was and he and Deborah raised him. Despite Franklin eventually becoming a Founding Father, his son William was loyal to Britain and served as colonial governor for New Jersey from 1763 to 1776. After the Revolutionary War, he ran to Britain and died in exile. 

Benjamin would travel to Britain and other parts of Europe through the years and Deborah never joined him because she was afraid of the water. This freed him up for frivolity in Britain at places like the Hellfire Club. Franklin was never a member, but his good friend Sir Francis Dashwood was and he would join him there for debauchery that included drinking, gambling and orgies. People also suggested that the club practiced occult rituals and they paid homage to the gods Bacchus and Venus. Members danced in fancy clothes and often dressed as Biblical characters. The club motto was Fais ce que tu voudras (Do what thou wilt), which probably sounds familiar as Aleister Crowley adopted the same motto. The Hellfire Club started in the former Medmenham Abbey, but eventually moved to the caves at West Wycombe starting in the 1750s. The club was no longer active by the mid 1760s and legends claim that the caves remain haunted to this day. One of the spirits here is said to belong to a young maid, named Sukie, who was accidentally killed in the caves.The former steward of the club, Paul Whitehead, is also said to haunt the caves.

Part of the reason why Franklin would go to Europe was due to politics. He became very active in civics and served as a representative of the Pennsylvania Assembly starting in 1751. He would be elected Speaker of the Pennsylvania House in 1764. Franklin also organized the Pennsylvania militia and helped to get a city hospital built. He also set his sights on education and helped create and open the Academy of Philadelphia in 1751, This eventually grew into the University of Pennsylvania, which changed its name in 1791. And he started the postal system in the colonies. The British appointed him postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737 and eventually he became joint postmaster general for all the American colonies in 1753. The British would fire him in 1774 because he seemed a bit too supportive of non-Tory interests.  

Benjamin was also an inventor and we have many modern day conveniences that got their start with him. He invented the lightning rod and said of it, "May not the knowledge of this power of points be of use to mankind, in preserving houses, churches, ships, etc., from the stroke of lightning, by directing us to fix, on the highest parts of those edifices, upright rods of iron made sharp as a needle...Would not these pointed rods probably draw the electrical fire silently out of a cloud before it came nigh enough to strike, and thereby secure us from that most sudden and terrible mischief!" There are some common misconceptions with his Kite Experiment. Some claim he discovered electricity. That was discovered long before this. The kite also wasn't struck by lightning or Franklin would've probably been electrocuted. Ben described his Kite Experiment in this way, "As soon as any of the Thunder Clouds come over the Kite, the pointed Wire will draw the Electric Fire from them, and the Kite, with all the Twine, will be electrified, and the loose Filaments of the Twine will stand out every Way, and be attracted by an approaching Finger. And when the Rain has wet the Kite and Twine, so that it can conduct the Electric Fire freely, you will find it stream out plentifully from the Key on the Approach of your Knuckle. At this Key the Phial may be charg’d; and from Electric Fire thus obtain’d, Spirits may be kindled, and all the other Electric Experiments be perform’d, which are usually done by the Help of a rubbed Glass Globe or Tube; and thereby the Sameness of the Electric Matter with that of Lightning compleatly demonstrated."

Franklin also invented bifocal glasses, the Franklin stove, which provided more heat with less fuel, the glass armonica, which was a musical instrument, and the urinary catheter. He never filed for any patents for any of his inventions saying that "we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, and we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously." But the man's greatest contributions to America, and eventually the world in general, would be his love of freedom and his support of the American effort to guide its own destiny. At least freedom for white men. Like all the Founders, Franklin was a slave owner. He owned at least seven people and their names were Joseph, Jemima, Peter, King, Othello, George and Bob. Peter and King would accompany him on his European trips and were given a small salary. King ran away in 1758 and was found two years later, having been taken in by a Christian woman who taught him to read and write. Late in his life, Franklin became a vocal abolitionist who urged Congress to do something about slavery.

In 1754, he proposed a plan to unite the colonies under a national congress named the Plan of Union and while none of the colonies agreed to the plan, elements of the Articles of Confederation would come from this. While in Europe in 1765, he rallied against passage of the Stamp Act of 1765. This law required that all legal documents, newspapers, books, playing cards and other printed materials in the American colonies carry a tax stamp. That failed and the act passed, igniting the timbers of revolution. The cries of taxation without representation would begin. The House of Commons conducted proceedings later and Franklin testified to have the Stamp Act repealed and it was. With this success, Franklin became the leading spokesman for American interests in England. The colonies of Georgia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts appointed him as their agent to the Crown.

Britain wasn't done with imposing regulations and bills to get more control of the colonies. Anti-British sentiments increased and then the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Franklin was still in England at the time. His wife Deborah had begged him to come home for months. She was lonely and her health was failing. Deborah suffered several strokes and died in 1774, before the war started. It would be five months before Franklin returned to Philadelphia. Ben was selected to serve as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress. The Congress consisted of delegates from all thirteen colonies and they met in Philly to form the Continental Army and elect George Washington as Commander-in-Chief and create the Articles of Confederation. They also tried to prevent war with the Olive Branch Petition that they sent to King George III. This would be the American government from 1775 to 1783. The Declaration of Independence would be drafted and then ratified on July 4, 1776. Although Thomas Jefferson was given most of the credit for drafting the Declaration of Independence, there were four other men involved: John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert R. Livingston and Benjamin Franklin. This would be the first of four key documents that established the U.S. that Franklin would sign. The others were the Treaty of Alliance with France (1778), the Treaty of Paris establishing peace with Great Britain (1783) and the U.S. Constitution (1787). He was the only man to sign all four. 

In 1776, Franklin was sent to France to get their help with the war. He got the French to sign a military alliance with America and they sent money, soldiers and supplies. Benjamin would become the minister to France starting in 1778, and he helped to draft the document that brought the war to an end, the Treaty of Paris. This was signed in 1783. Two years later, Franklin returned from France and in 1787, he was a Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention. He was the oldest delegate at 81. Fellow delegate William Pierce said of Franklin that he was "the greatest philosopher of the present age. He is 81-years-old and possesses an activity of mind equal to a youth of twenty-five." Since Philadelphia was hosting the convention, Franklin was the main host and he came into the meetings much like a king. He was in very poor health, suffering debilitating pain from gout and so he had to be carried into the meetings sitting in a French sedan chair chair carried by four convicts. When the convention ended in September 1787, he urged his fellow delegates to support the U.S. Constitution. It was ratified by the required nine states in June 1788, and George Washington was inaugurated as America’s first president in April 1789.

Franklin lived long enough to see this all come to fruition. It must have been a very gratifying end to a life spent in service. He was 84 when he passed away on April 17, 1790, in Philadelphia. There were 20,000 people at his funeral and he was buried in Philadelphia’s Christ Church cemetery. He left money to his passions of science and education in his two favorite cities: Boston and Philadelphia. Community projects were funded, a trade school was established, scholarships were funded and a science museum was founded. Franklin has been honored on stamps, schools and towns have been named for him and most importantly, his face is on the $100 bill. Franklin Court in Philadelphia is home base for everything about Ben Franklin in Philadelphia. The Franklin Museum is here and features exhibits based on his character traits rather than a time-line or major events layouts, which is kind of how we organized this episode. There is an actual working post office here, a recreated print shop with a working printing press, his toilet and what is referred to as a ghost house. His original home was torn down in 1812. When the Park Service acquired the property, they removed the row houses that had been built on the site and built an open-air structure that matches the dimensions of Franklin's house.  There are also 70’s style concrete bunkers housing archaeological remnants of the original house and letters describing the house.  

We also should mention that bones were found beneath the home that Franklin lived in on Craven Street in Britain. Twelve hundred bone fragments were recovered by archaeologists. It was determined that they probably were connected to an anatomy school run from the house by William Hewson, who was the son-in-law of the landlady, based on dissection marks on the bones. The bones are believed to be from 15 individuals. Hewson died after contracting sepsis during a dissection. He was only 34 at the time. His widow and their three children would move to America after the Revolutionary War to be near Franklin.

(Mort Fun Fact on Farts) Franklin wrote the book "Fart Proudly" and in there he said, "In digesting our common food, there is created or produced in the bowels of human creatures, a great quantity of wind."

Benjamin Franklin had a big spirit and perhaps that is why it is at unrest. His favorite haunt is Independence Hall and that's not surprising since this was the birthplace of the United States and stands proudly as the centerpiece of Independence National Historic Park. The building was constructed in 1732 as the Pennsylvania State House, but loaned its Assembly Room out for meetings of the Second Continental Congress and eventually the Constitutional Convention. George Washington sat in a chair here for three months during the latter convention and the chair was dubbed "The Rising Sun Armchair. James Madison wrote into the federal record the sentiments of Franklin about this chair, "Whilst the last members were signing it [i.e., the Constitution] Doct FRANKLIN looking towards the Presidents Chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be painted, observed to a few members near him, that Painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art a rising from a setting sun. I have said he, often and often in the course of the Session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting: But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting Sun." The full-bodied apparition of Franklin is most often seen in the Assembly Room. Franklin is often examining a copy of the Declaration of Independence when seen. He has been seen wandering other rooms as well. Many people describe his figure having a ghostly mist trailing behind it. 

Another favorite spot for the ghost of Ben is the American Philosophical Society that he founded in 1743. This is the oldest learned society in the United States and their collection of books, photographs, scientific instruments, paintings and other things is extensive. In 1789, the Society made Philosophical Hall its home. Beginning in the late 19th century, people began claiming to see the ghost of Franklin near the library of the Society. And some really crazy accounts claim that the statue of Franklin that stands in front of the Society has to life and danced in the streets. One person who had an experience in the Society was a cleaning lady. She was in the library in 1884 and she said a ghostly figure rushed at her and knocked her over as it made its way towards the stacks. The description she gave of the apparition, matched what Franklin looked like.

Spiritualists claimed to hear from Ben Franklin a lot during seances. An English medium named Mrs. Manley claimed to get a message from Franklin in 1872 and in it, he claimed to have invented the terrestrial telegraph. She wrote out the following message, "On arriving in spirit-life, having while on earth thought much upon the subject of electricity, I saw that the magnetic telegraph could be made a success to transmit news all over the earth and under the seas. At once I commenced looking for a human organism which I could impress to carry out what I so plainly saw could be done. … I watched my opportunity and when Prof. Morse’s father and mother came together in coition I was there and projected my thought into the brain of the embryo child, so S.F.B. Morse was really my son, more than the son of his earthly father." Samuel Morse would go on to invent the telegraph and he was born a year after Franklin died, so it was possible. 

Benjamin Franklin was many things during his lifetime. Is one of those things now a ghost haunting his favorite places? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 577 - Fort McHenry

Moment in Oddity - Veronica Lake hairstyle war factory (Suggestedby: Jim Featherstone)

In the 1940's, during WWII women began working in factories to support the war efforts due to many men having been deployed overseas. With five million women entering the workforce between 1940 and 1945, the American labor force at the time was one third women. The types of jobs performed by these women varied from working in munitions factories, aircraft and tank factories, shipbuilding and many more. A good majority of these jobs involved working with heavy machinery. As one can imagine, a woman's long hair style could be quite dangerous while working around grinding gears. Then, in walks Veronica Lake. She was a popular American film actress who was well known for her luscious locks and peek-a-boo hairstyle having her hair partially covering one eye. Her hair style was iconic and replicated by many women. Problem was, loose hair around heavy machinery could result in not only severe injury, but even death. Miss Lake was asked to make a film for the government about "Safety Styles" for women working in factories. In one photo, she is shown with her long hair tangled around a drill press. In a scene from the film, Veronica receives an updo hairstyle with no stray strands swinging in sight. Soon after, female factory workers adopted an even safer option. Full head caps were distributed to the factory workers allowing the wearers to completely tuck their hair away. Actors and actresses have always influenced society, but a famous actress sporting a hairdo that shaped the war industry safety protocol, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Baby Lindbergh's Kidnapping and Murder

In the month of March, on the 1st in 1932, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. was kidnapped from his New Jersey home. The kidnapper entered the 20 month old's nursery at approximately 9pm. The intruder used a homemade ladder to enter the second story room. Muddy footprints were found as well as a poorly spelled ransom note which was left on the windowsill of the nursery. There was also a symbol on the note which consisted of two intersecting circles and three holes. The note demanded $50,000 and shortly thereafter, parcels were sent to the Lindberghs which included pieces of baby clothing. The ransom money was delivered to an unknown man at St. Raymond's Cemetery in the Bronx. The kidnapping received national news coverage and was dubbed, "The Crime of the Century". Sadly, Charles Lingbergh Jr's body was found ten weeks later just a couple of miles from the Lindbergh home in a grove of trees in Hopewell, New Jersey on May 12th. He was identified by his homemade undershirt which had a missing piece that matched the remnant that was mailed to the Lindberghs in one of the parcels. The baby's father and nursemaid identified Charles Jr's body at the morgue. The kidnapping murderer was later identified as Bruno Richard Hauptmann. Hauptmann had used some of the ransom money to buy gas and most of the remaining money was found in his garage. Hauptmann was found guilty of the kidnapping and murder in February, 1935. He was later put to death in the electric chair for his crime.

Fort McHenry

Fort McHenry sits in Baltimore’s harbor and is probably best known as the site where America's National Anthem was penned during the War of 1812. The Battle of Baltimore was fought here with a relentless attack bearing down on the fort from the British. The assault was so harrowing, it's understandable how Francis Scott Key was inspired to write his poem. Today, spirits still linger from that era. Join us for the history and hauntings of Fort McHenry.

Whetstone Point in Baltimore was first home to Fort Whetstone, which was an earthen star-shaped fort. This served as a strategic defense of the harbor in Baltimore during the Revolutionary War and in 1777, the flag that flew above the fort featured seven red stripes, six white stripes and eight stars formed in a circle with a ninth in the middle of the circle and stars in each of the four corners of a square blue field in the upper left corner. This was a very early version of the American flag. The position was far enough from the heart of the city to give effective security without endangering the city. Any enemy ship coming into the harbor would have to face an attack from the fort. Surprisingly, the fort had no attack on it during the Revolutionary War. Since the fort was fairly primitive, it was decided to replace it with a better fortification and a French engineer named Jean Foncin was asked to do just that in 1798. This new fort would also take on the new name of Fort McHenry in honor of James McHenry who was the Secretary of War under President George Washington. He provided extensive support in the building of the fort.

Fort McHenry was designed as a bastioned pentagon surrounded by a dry moat and each bastion had a cannon. After the War of 1812 started, the fort was equipped with 18-, 24- and 32-pounder cannons. The Battle of Baltimore would be a defining moment in the War of 1812 and was fought on land and sea from September 12th to September 14th, 1814. Preparations for war began at Fort McHenry in August when British expeditionary forces landed at Benedict, Maryland. The man in charge of the fort at the time was Major George Armistead. Armistead had been born in Virginia and began his military career in 1799 and served as an artillery officer at Fort Niagara in May 1813. His success there brought him to the command of Fort McHenry in June 1813. His first order there was to make a flag "so large that the British will have no difficulty in seeing it from a distance." That's fitting as he would later be known as the “Guardian of the Star-Spangled Banner.” 

The British had just burned Washington D.C. in August of 1814. They had destroyed the U.S. Capitol, the White House and other government buildings, making this the only time after the Revolutionary War that the US Capitol was captured by a foreign force. The British were feeling confident and they set their eyes on Baltimore. They were not aware that American merchant ships had been sunk at the entrance to the Baltimore harbor to prevent entry of ships. The British Navy would have to fashion their attack as a bombardment from a distance. There were other British forces on land trying to make an assault on the interior of Baltimore, but the American militia forces surprised the British with their resilience. They did manage to outflank and overrun the American forces to the right, but the British knew that they couldn't endure a frontal assault, so they decided to put all their efforts into a naval fight. 

On the morning of September 13, 1814, at 6 am, British Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane ordered the bombardment of Fort McHenry to begin. And that bombardment would last for 25 hours, ending at 4:30 am on September 14, 1814. And then the National Anthem would be born. Francis Scott Key was a 38-year-old lawyer from Georgetown when he found himself aboard a truce vessel under the guard of the British ship HMS Surprise on September 14, 1814, writing a poem. Key had come to Baltimore from Washington, D.C. to procure the release of a doctor friend of his named William Beanes, who had been arrested by the British during the Burning of Washington. On September 7th, Key had earned the doctor's release by showing British Major-General Robert Ross letters written by wounded British soldiers who had been helped by American doctors, including Dr. Beanes. Key's rescue party was not allowed to leave the ship; however, because they had heard battle plans. They would have to wait until after the battle, but the British did let them reboard their truce vessel that was tethered to the HMS Surprise. Key spent the entire day of September 13th watching the bombardment of Fort McHenry and he observed that the fort's small storm flag continued to fly under the onslaught. When darkness came, he could no longer see the flag and thus he wouldn't know if the Americans still held the fort. 

On the morning of September 14th, the storm flag was lowered and replaced with a large garrison flag. This was a flag made by Mary Young Pickersgill and had 15 stars and 15 stripes. When Key looked out at the fort in the morning and saw this flag flying, he was elated and inspired. Included in his poem were the rocket's red glare from HMS Erebus and the bombs bursting in air from HMS Meteor, Terror, Devastation, Volcano and Aetna. Despite over 700 rockets and 1,800 bombs, only four men and one woman died with another 24 wounded. Key's poem "Defense of Fort M'Henry" would be printed as a broadside on September 17th. It later got national exposure through The Analectic Magazine. The poem was set to the tune of the British song "To Anacreon in Heaven" and retitled "The Star-Spangled Banner." There are four stanzas, but only the first one is sung and was first officially recognized by the Navy in 1889 as a national anthem. This would become official on March 3, 1931 when Congress passed a joint resolution that was signed by President Herbert Hoover.

Francis Scott Key visited his hometown of Frederick, Maryland in 1834 and gave a speech about what inspired him to write the poem that became our National Anthem. He said, "You have been pleased to declare your approbation of my song. Praise to a poet could not be otherwise than acceptable; but it is peculiarly gratifying to me, to know that, in obeying the impulse of my own feelings, I have awakened yours. The song, I know, came from the heart, and if it has made its way to the hearts of men, whose devotion to their country and the great cause of freedom I know so well, I could not pretend to be insensible to such a compliment. You have recalled to my recollection the circumstances under which I was impelled to this effort. I saw the flag of my country waving over a city – the strength and pride of my native State – a city devoted to plunder and dissolution by its assailants. I  witnessed the preparation for its assaults, and I saw the array of its enemies as they advanced to the attack. I heard the sound of battle; the noise of the conflict fell upon my listening ear, and told me that 'the brave and the free' had met the invaders. Then did I remember that Maryland had called her sons to the defense of that flag and that they were the sons of sires who had left their crimson footprints on the snows of the North and poured out of the blood of patriots like water on the sands of the South. Then did I remember that there were gathered around that banner, among its defenders, men who had heard and answered the call of their country – from these mountain sides, from this beautiful valley, and from this fair city of my native Country; and though I walked upon a deck surrounded by a  hostile fleet, detained as a prisoner, yet was my step firm, and my heart strong, as these recollections came upon me. Through the clouds of war, the stars of that banner still shone in my view, and I saw the discomforted host of its assailants driven back in ignominy to their ships. Then, in that hour of deliverance and joyful triumph, my heart spoke; and 'Does not such a country, and such defenders if their country, deserve a song?' was its question. With it came an inspiration not to be resisted; and even though it had been a hanging matter to make a song, I must have written it. Let the praise, then, if any be due, be given. not to me, who only did what I could not help doing; not to the writer, but to the inspirers of the song!...I again thank you for the honor you have done me; but I can only take the share of it. I was but the instrument in executing what you have been so pleased to praise; it was dictated and inspired by the gallantry and patriotism of the sons of Maryland. The honor is due, not to me who made the song, but to the heroism of those who made me make it."

After the battle, President James Madison promoted Major Armistead to the rank of lieutenant colonel and Armistead told his wife that “he hoped they would both live long to enjoy.” Unfortunately, that wouldn't be the case. Armistead would only live another four years, dying at the age of 38 from unknown causes. He was buried with full military honors. As for Fort McHenry, after the war, it was improved with expanded buildings and outer defenses were added. When the Civil War started, Baltimore was full of citizens who were pro-secession. The cannons at Fort McHenry were pointed in two different directions, one of which was toward the harbor in case of coastal attack and the other...well, that was toward the center of Baltimore itself to warn those pro-secessionists to get in line. The fort served as a prison for much of its time during the Civil War and many of the prisoners came from the battles at Antietam and Gettysburg. There were also pro-secessionists from Maryland who could be arrested after President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus. This had people calling Fort McHenry "The American Bastille." 

It was decided during World War I to convert the fort into a large US Army hospital. Dozens of buildings were added to the property to facilitate this endeavor and then they were dismantled afterward. During World War II, the Coast Guard moved in and made the fort a base and they used it for training. The fort was restored to the way it looked during the War of 1812 and part of it was open at this time as a museum because in 1925, Fort McHenry was made a National Park. It became a double designee in 1939 when it was designated a National Monument and Historic Shrine. This is the only location in the United States to get this dual designation. Through the years, any new flag design has been flown above the fort first, before it becomes official. The 49-star flag and 50-star flag are still located at Fort McHenry. Today, Fort McHenry is a tourist destination and has an award wining living history volunteer unit. The flag that inspired Francis Scott Key still exists, but has deteriorated and is very fragile. For this reason, it has a special display case at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

Anybody who studies the history of forts knows that many of them have been star-shaped. For some, that star shape has an occult significance and perhaps leads to some of the reports of paranormal activity. The interesting thing about what is technically known as the pentagram is that it also has Jewish and Christian significance too. In early Christianity, the pentagram was used to mark the five wounds of Christ on the cross. The pentagram itself goes all the way to ancient Sumeria and was found on pottery discovered in Ur. They used it as a symbol for the gods Ishtar and Marduk. In Judaism, the star is is expanded into two full triangles with one inverted and was derived from the Seal of Solomon created in medieval mystical traditions. Occultists embraced the pentagram as a magical symbol, particularly to depict spirit presiding over the four elements. The inverted pentagram was eventually deemed an evil symbol because this symbolized matter conquering spirit. Wicca embraced the pentagram and encircled it creating the pentacle. While forts used the star-shape because it allowed maximum defense capabilities without any "dead zones," it is interesting to consider that the shape might inadvertently be powering some other kind of energy.

There are many stories about several entities haunting the grounds at Fort McHenry. Doors rattle and intense cold spots are felt. People have reported seeing spirits hanging from the former gallows. Many of the spirits seen are from the War of 1812 and they are seen walking the bricks. Soldiers from various eras are seen not only from the War of 1812, but also the Revolutionary War, Civil War and World War I. That woman who died during the Battle of Baltimore, had her body torn in half by a rocket. She is said to haunt the site and is seen as a woman missing half of her body. She wanders aimlessly as though looking for her other half. This could be the Woman in White that is seen as well, or this might be an entirely different ghost who was the wife of an officer whose children died in an epidemic here in the 1820s. She is said to push people down stairs and has even knocked a couple of people unconscious. One of those people was an artist who said that he came through a doorway and felt like a frying pan hit him in the face before he went out cold.

The cool thing about ghost sightings at the fort is that usually a group of people all see the same thing. For instance, a group of re-enactors all saw a female prisoner in a second floor window. She was described as wearing a Victorian-era dress. No one is sure who she was, but probably a pro-secessionist. The jail is said to be very creepy and it had a death row during the Civil War. There are claims that if you rub your hand along the wall, you will feel an abnormal warm spot. First Call Paranormal was visiting in March of 2023 and walking around with a Spirit Box that said "person" right before somebody else came walking into the room. It was a rainy day and there was hardly anyone at the fort. It may have been nothing, but the guy said he thought it was interesting and wondered if he was being warned that a person was coming. (Person Spirit Box)

One of the more well known spirits is said to belong to Private John Drew. He was a soldier who killed himself after being caught sleeping on duty. The shame seemed to be too much for him. Since he had been locked up for his infraction, he is often seen in the cell where he took his life. Sometimes he makes it out into the ramparts to the spot where he was on guard duty. 

Lt. Levi Clagett is another spirit here. This is his obituary notice from September 21, 1814, "This afternoon, at 4 o'clock, the Baltimore Artillery Company of Fencibles, under the command of Captain (Joseph Hooper) Nicholson, will parade for the purpose of rendering the last tribute of respect to Lieutenant Levi Clagett & Sergeant John Clemm, who fell in defense of this city and their country's rights, at Fort M'Henry, during the bombardment of that fortress by the enemy. To have fallen in such a cause, would have, of itself, entitled the memory of the dead to respect and sympathy. But they needed no such adventitious circumstances to excite the most poignant regret at their untimely departure. They formed a prominent part of the rich price, which was paid for victory and safety. In civil life, they were men of the most amiable manners, honorable principles, and respectable standing in society. In the hour of danger, they evinced ardent and collected courage. Their friends lament their loss, with sorrow not loud but deep. May the reflection, that they died in a cause and at a time, when every tongue was eloquent in their praise; that they departed in the path of honor; that the gratitude of their countrymen will embalm their names in every heart, afford to the bereaved of their connections and friends, the only alleviation for such a loss. Their brethren in arms will cherish their memory; with affectionate care. They sleep on the soldier's bed, the bed of honor; and while their loss may call forth the manly tear of fraternal regret, their example will animate to deeds, such as living, they would have approved and aided." People claim his apparition can be seen walking or floating around the fort. He has been seen as both a translucent figure and a regular looking uniformed man, often mistaken as a re-enactor. His favorite spot to haunt is "Clagett’s Bastion" where he died. Incredibly, the Secret Service has been sweeping the fort and preparing it for a visit from President Gerald Ford and they spotted a uniformed soldier walking the same bastion where Clagett and Clemm died. There was supposed to be no costumed people or visitors on the property during this preparation, so the agents were left to wonder if they had just seen a ghost.

Southern Spirit Guide website reports, "One of the more interesting experiences reported on the grounds of the fort comes from near a large statue of Orpheus honoring Francis Scott Key. The large statue stands on the grounds outside the fort and it was here that one visitor saw the figure of man in uniform seemingly floating in mid-air. It was discovered later that that particular area had been the scene of an execution in 1862. A young private had been found guilty of murdering another soldier and it was here that he made his 'air-dance,' in other words, he was hanged." 

America's Haunted Roadtrip website reports, "One ghosthunting group that recently visited the site is the Maryland Tri-State Paranormal. Founder Ana Bruder told me that while they were there, her friend Laura suddenly said, “I feel like I am being watched.” Ana, who is sensitive to the presence of spirits, turned and saw the ghost of a uniformed soldier staring at her friend, just one of several spirits she detected while at the site."

Fort McHenry is famously known as the birthplace of America's National Anthem. It's fitting that a place that revealed so much American spirit and fortitude should also have actual spirits walking around. Is Fort McHenry haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 576 - The U.S.S. Forrestal

Moment in Oddity - The Cursing Stone Lyn Beasley

In Glasgow, Scotland back in 1525, the Archbishop, Gavin Dunbar was frustrated about reivers on the Anglo-Scottish border. Reivers were raiders, and Dubar issued a 1,069 word curse which was delivered from every pulpit in the diocese. The ranting curse was part of an excommunication of the reiver families, although they were not said to be religious people nor did they respect sovereign law or moral authority. I won't read the whole curse, but here is just a portion. "I curse their head and all the hairs of their head; I curse their face, their brain, their mouth, their nose, their tongue, their teeth, their forehead, their shoulders, their breast, their heart, their stomach, their back, their womb, their arms, their legs, their hands, their feet, and every part of their body, from the top of their head to the soles of their feet, before and behind, within and without." That was only 79 of the 1,069 words written in the curse. The Archbishop goes on to curse every aspect of their lives. In 2001 there was a piece of artwork installed at the Millennium Gallery in Carlisle, England. It was created by Andy Altman and was designed by artist Gordon Young. The piece is a 7.5 tonne granite boulder that is engraved with approximately 383 words from that historic curse. Since the installation, the stone has been blamed for an outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease, major Carlisle floods and several other local tragedies. For centuries, humans have put pen to paper to document their frustrations seeking solace. But penning a 1,069 word curse upon enemies and then having an art installation featuring that curse centuries later lead to tragedies, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - End of the Guadalcanal Campaign

In the month of February, on the 9th, in 1943, U.S. forces secured Guadalcanal, marking the end of the six month campaign. Guadalcanal is one of the southern Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. During WWII it was the site of clashes between Allied and Japanese forces both on land and at sea. The Battle of Guadalcanal was code named Operation Watchtower, and on August 7th 1942, Maj. Gen. Alexander Vandegrift, launched an amphibious assault with approximately 6,000 Marines. They surprised 2,000 Japanese defenders on Guadalcanal. While making land, the Marines were strongly supported by both the Navy and Air Force. Within 36 hours the U.S. had secured the airfield on Guadalcanal and the harbor on Florida Island.  Over the next several months, intense fighting ensued, including major naval battles like the Battle of Savo Island and the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. After enduring severe losses, the Japanese began evacuating in late January, 1943. During the spanse of the battle, the Allies lost 29 ships, and 615 aircraft vs  Japan's 38 ships and 683 aircraft. The Allied victory of the Guadalcanal campaign was a crucial turning point in the Pacific Theater demonstrating the strength of the U.S. military.

The U.S.S. Forrestal (For-uh-stahl) (Suggested by: Karen Miller)

The USS Forrestal was one of the largest aircraft carriers ever built. She served for nearly four decades before being decommissioned in 1993 and then she was scrapped in 2015. During the Vietnam War, the carrier experienced a devastating tragedy with bombs on board the ship that led to several fires and over a hundred men dead. And because of that, stories of ghosts on the ship have been told about her. One particular ghost was known as George. Join us for the history and hauntings of the USS Forrestal.

The first new design for an aircraft carrier in decades is currently being built in Newport News, Virginia. This is the Gerald R. Ford-class. Newport News was the birthplace of CVA-59, a member of the Forrestal class. She was ordered in 1951 and commissioned in 1955 and would be the United States' first supercarrier. The largest carrier in the world up until that time was the Japanese carrier Shinano and now the Forrestal would surpass it. Since this aircraft carrier was the first in the Forrestal class, the carrier took on that name, with its namesake being James Forrestal, the first Secretary of Defense in the United States. James Forrestal was sworn in under the Truman Administration on September 17, 1947. He served as Secretary of the Navy during World War II and guided it through the final year. The Cold War was a real test for the new position and President Truman and Secretary Forrestal had many differences over budget. He eventually left office in March of 1949 and tragically died less than two months later. Forrestal is often included as one of the most notable secretaries of defense and that is why this class of carriers was named for him. 

Many innovations were added to this new aircraft carrier: a steam catapult, and angled flight deck and an optical landing system. The carrier was 1,067 feet in length and was powered by 8 Babcock & Wilcox boilers and 4 Westinghouse geared Steam turbines. The Forrestal was followed by seven big-deck conventionally powered carriers that would serve the country for 54 years until the last one, the Kitty Hawk, was decommissioned in 2009. The aircraft carriers that followed these would be nuclear-powered. The Forrestal could carry nearly 5,000 enlisted men and 552 officers and 85 aircraft. She spent much of her initial training in the Caribbean under Captain Roy L. Johnson after launching on December 11, 1954. The Forrestal's first duty was to hang around the Mediterranean Sea during the Suez Crisis just in case she was needed. Her first NATO operation was Operation Strikeback, which took place in the North Sea. This took place over a ten day period and was a simulation of an attack by the Soviet Union on NATO members. This included Navy warships and aircraft from the countries of the Netherlands, Norway, Canada, Britain, France and the United States. The USS Forrestal was one of the 200 warships on site. 

King Hussein of Jordan was one of the first dignitaries to visit the carrier and this took place in 1959. The Forrestal and a C-130 would make history in November 1963 with 21 full-stop landings and takeoffs. This set a record for the largest and heaviest airplane to land on an aircraft carrier. In 1964, Operation Brother Sam was the United States helping with a military coup against the Brazilian president at the time. President Lyndon Johnson sent the Forrestal as support and the coup was successful and led to a 20-year-long military dictatorship in Brazil. In June of 1967, the USS Forrestal was sent for duty in the waters off of Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin. The next month, a tragic fire would kill many sailors.

Before we talk about the fire, we need to share a little background about the bombs that were on board on the Forrestal. The Forrestal had been stationed at Yankee Station in the South China Sea and was taking part in a bombing campaign against targets in North Vietnam. This was the longest and most intense bombing campaign in US Naval history at that time. The Forrestal was running out of bombs. The carrier met up with the ammunition ship Diamond Head. On board that ship were Fat Boys, which were Korean War-era surplus that had thinner skins and thus were more sensitive to heat and shock and their older Composition B explosive was more volatile because of its age. Nobody wanted to mess with these Fat Boys because they were too risky, but the USS Forrestal was desperate for ordnance, so they took on sixteen of these Fat Boys. They also had Zuni unguided rockets that had to have electrical pigtails connected at the catapult to prevent malfunctions and accidental firing. Ordnance officers didn't like how much time it took to launch, so they didn't hook up the pigtails. So what happens next was almost inevitable. 

The fire on board the U.S.S. Forrestal was devastating. It started with in the morning around 10:53 when a Zuni rocket shot across the flight deck from a plane parked on the starboard side of the carrier. The rocket struck  an A-4 on the port side. Four hundred gallons of jet fuel poured out of the A-4 and at least one of its bombs fell to the deck. Chief Aviation Boson's Mate Gerald Farrier, who was the head of the firefighting crew, got on scene within a minute and started fighting the fire with a hand-held extinguisher. The first of the hose crew arrived about 30 seconds after that and they got salt water pouring on the fire. Unfortunately, that bomb that dropped to the deck exploded 30 seconds later and decimated the fire crew. A few seconds later, a second bomb exploded. The aft end of the carrier would be rocked by seven more explosions in succession within the next five minutes. Forty thousand gallons of jet fuel fed the fire, so there was no stopping it. The two inch thick armored flight deck was no match for the explosions and holes were punched through it in several places and flaming bits of metal and fuel poured down into the compartments below, most of which were crew berthing areas. The fire on the deck was contained within an hour, but the fires below deck raged until the next day. When all was said and done, 134 sailors and airmen died and 161 others were seriously injured. Damage exceeded $72 million, which is $415 million in today's dollars.

(Mort - I have a fun fact about the fire. Us - Mort, we don't need any death statistics about fires right now. Mort - Ah shucks. Ok, how about this, John McCain was aboard the ship when the fire took place and this was shortly before he became a Prisoner of War. Us - we'll take that.)

Tragedy and fires would continue for the USS Forrestal thru the decades. In October of 1968, an aircraft went off the angled deck and hit the water nose first and then flipped onto its back with six crew on board. Three were recovered and three died. A catastrophic fire erupted while she was moored in Norfolk on July 10, 1972. Investigations found that a crewmember started the fire that forced firefighters to cut a hole in the flight deck and pour hundreds of gallons of water throughout the carrier, which caused her to list and some feared she might capsize. An A-7 Corsair II from VA-81 crashed on the flight deck on the evening of January 15, 1978, killing two deck crewmen. This was due to a miscommunication with the pilot thinking he was okay to land and he realized too late that he was mistaken and the flight deck was full of other aircraft. He ejected in time and lived with only minor injuries. On June 24, 1978, LCDR T. P. Anderson was killed when his A-7E Corsair II crashed into the sea during a practice bombing mission. There are plenty of reasons for this carrier to be haunted.

There were good times though too. A really cool thing earned the Forrestal the distinction of being the largest naval warship ever to come up the Mississippi River. During a mission dubbed Ocean Safari '87, the ship and crew performed so well that they were awarded a special liberty, which were ways that Navy personnel were rewarded with trips to other parts of the United States. The Captain at the time was a native of New Orleans, so he decided they would go there for Mardi Gras. The Forrestal was there for four days and conducted tours for over 40,000 visitors. People got to ride one of her four aircraft elevators. (Mort - Whee, Us - Mort, get off that thing!) In 1989, the Forrestal was sent on a secret mission off the North West coast of Puerto Rico. On her second evening there, SEAL Team Six arrived on the flight deck via two helicopters. The team and the crew of the Forrestal then cruised for 3 days to the South West Caribbean sea off the Panama and Colombian coasts. SEAL Team Six then left on their mission. This was so secret, we still don't know exactly the purpose, but it was probably one of two things: an attempt to capture Manuel Noriega or apprehend Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. 

The end of the USS Forrestal's Naval career would come in 1993 after more than 37 years of service. The Navy decided to decommission Forrestal and this happened on September 11, 1993 at Pier 6E in Philadelphia. In June of 1999, there were efforts to turn the carrier into a museum and Baltimore put in a bid to have it moved there, but these plans and the funds never came together. Next, there was an effort in 2007 to turn the ship into an artificial reef, but that plan also never came to fuition. In 2013, it was announced the Navy was taking bids from companies to scrap the carrier and All Star Metals in Brownsville, Texas won. The ship was towed from Philly to Texas by a team of tugboats and by December 2015, she was no more, save for her stern plate that was saved and restored and is on display at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida. The ships anchors were given to the USS John C. Stennis during refueling and complex overhaul in July of 2023.

Shortly after the fire, crew members claimed that secured hatches would open and close on their own. Shadow figures and apparitions were reported. Sometimes, sailors would hear weird garbled voices on the intercom phones and disembodied moaning was heard. Public Relations Officer Lt. James Brooks sent out a news release in 1988 and he wrote, "Whatever, or whoever it is, crew members swear ghosts are responsible for the flickering lights, voices on disconnected phones, and all things that go bump in the night. Incredibly, when performing their duties below deck, men adamantly claim that they’ve seen ghosts." In that news release, Brooks also featured a photograph of a disembodied pair of khaki slacks entering a hatch. Brooks claimed that the photo featured George the Ghost, who had been haunting the carrier for at least three years. No one is sure who exactly George may be. Some claim he is a pilot who died in 1986. The name George is also said to have come from the ship's former food officer who died during the fire in 1967. He is seen as a full-bodied apparition in a khaki uniform, so people believe he had to have been an officer or chief petty officer. People have also claimed to be pushed, woken up from their sleep by something they couldn't see and things have been thrown around.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Gary Weiss saw a khaki-uniformed man passing through the holds and realized it was a ghost when it disappeared from area that had no exit. Weiss and another crew member were working in the freezer when they heard a disembodied voice say, "Hello, shipmates." They stopped what they were doing and looked at each other. They knew neither of them had said that and there was no one else around. Weiss had also heard unexplained footsteps and saw supplies and food go flying.

Petty Officer Dan Balboa was in charge of the Officer’s Mess and he said that crew members avoided the freezer storage lockers for years after the fire because they had been used as temporary morgues and they got weird feelings in there. Balboa said that one cook refused to go in the freezers and asked to be transferred off the ship because he saw the ghost of someone he knew. He also said, "I’ve sure heard some strange sounds when down there. One night, when I was below taking inventory, I heard the heavy steel deck grating being lifted and slammed back down several times. Yet, each time I turned around to investigate the sound, nothing was there. Another time I was checking the freezers’ temperatures and all the doors that I had just latched, reopened by themselves."

Stan Shimborski was a welder who was working to dismantle equipment in the freezer storage area in 1993. He told reporters, "I no sooner got down to work, when I hear this loud clanging noise. I think it’s another worker down there. I get out my wrench, and I clang back, ‘clang clang.’ A few seconds later, I hear this return clang, ‘clang, clang.’ For the heck of it, I clang again, ‘clang clang.’ Again a few seconds, ‘clang, clang.’ Finally, I decided to see who it was that was returning my clangs. Leaving my work, I go through the doors and at the end of the long room is the figure of a horribly burned chief petty officer  just staring at me. Then he slowly faded away. Needless to say, I got out of there fast!"

M.C. Farrington wrote on the Hampton Road Naval Museum blog about some experiences with George he had heard from fellow crew mates on the Forrestal. He wrote, "The Sailor working closest to me claimed that he had an experience with George. He had been working with one other man at the bottom of a vertical access trunk that terminated at two reefer spaces. They had just finished filling up one reefer and had just opened the hatch leading into another empty one. One new problem that developed was that they could not get the lights in the space to turn on, but a much worse problem quickly became apparent. Despite having to traverse a further 25 feet to place the boxes along the opposite bulkhead of the newly-opened space, the petty officer overseeing the work above had refused to send down any more men to bridge the gap. The man at the end of the chain would have to quickly run each new box across the reefer from the entrance after receiving it from the second-to-last man (the teller of the tale) at the bottom of the trunk. Meanwhile, a box continued to come down about every five seconds. Despite the new challenges they were facing, the Sailor at the doorway tried to keep up with the pace. After handing off the first box to the Sailor inside the darkened space, he pivoted upward to catch the next box being handed down from above, but he was shocked when a pair of hands emerged from the pitch-black doorway and grabbed it from his hands when he pivoted downward again. After the following box dropped into his hands, he pivoted back down to the Sailor who was again back in the doorway and asked him, 'How’d you do that?' as he handed over the box. 'How’d I do what?' the man replied breathlessly. 'How did you get back here so fast?' 'I got back just now.' 'No, you grabbed the last box just a few seconds ago and now you’re back again.' 'No I didn’t. I just got back.' Meanwhile, more boxes were coming down the access trunk unabated, so the two had to put their argument on hold, yet neither of them were able to keep the pace after that, nor were they ever able to sort out just what had happened. Neither could I, after hearing the tale that day down at the bottom of a similar trunk near a similarly dank, dark reefer space. But there’s one thing I did know. 'George is supposed to be an officer; a ‘khaki,’ right?' 'That’s what I heard,' replied the Sailor. 'Then it can’t be George,' I said, 'because no khaki, living or dead, would ever come pitch in all the way down here.'"

The YouTube channel Snarled shares a story from one of their followers. In the 1970s, a sailor had gone down below to an area where they stored tools and this was a dark and cluttered space. Most sailors didn't care to make supply runs here. He saw a man out of the corner of his eye watching him from across the room. When he turned to look at the man, there was no one there. The sailor quickly grabbed the tool he had come down for and hurried back up to where his mates were working. He didn't say anything to anybody. A little while later, this same sailor was making his way through one of the carrier's long corridors when he smelled smoke. He even started coughing. He then saw a man running towards him, wearing a sweaty and sooty white t-shirt. When the man looked up, the sailor could see that the man was toothless and his eyes were sunken. This thing then reached for the sailor and passed right through the sailor. The sailor again didn't tell anybody. For weeks after this, he kept experiencing strange things like that smell of smoke with no fire, disembodied laughter and boxes that would tip over by themselves. Just before his tour ended, he and his friend named Bruce were bringing an engine part up to the deck when they saw four men on the deck engulfed in flames and they watched as the men jumped into the water. The sailor and Bruce quickly put down the engine part and dived into the water to help the men. The sailor reached one of the men and when he grabbed his hand, it was ice cold. They noticed that none of the burn victims looked human. They had charred skin that was barely there. The sailor and Bruce were pulled up out of the water by the other sailors and there were no other men found in the water. The sailor and his friend Bruce then compared notes and realized that they both had been having paranormal experiences, but had been too scared to share them with each other. 

Tomcat Tweaker posted on Reddit, "Forrestal was super haunted. I knew the reputation and was pretty excited at the chance to see something when I saw I was going to spend some time on her. I was only on her for two weeks and, had 0-0400 hanger watch twice during that time, and saw stuff each time. Once I saw a pair of chocks get kicked out from a wheel. About pissed straight down my bell bottoms. I probably didn't move for 30 minutes, trying to justify what I saw. The other time (like 3 nights later) I saw a guy sitting on wing, swinging his legs for like 5 seconds. He wasn't there, then was, then wasn't."

There is nothing that demonstrates military power better than an aircraft carrier. If you have never been aboard one, we highly recommend the experience. The U.S.S. Forrestal suffered many tragedies, but she served our nation well through the decades. One is left to wonder what became of her ghosts. Was the U.S.S. Forrestal haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 575 - Haunted Wall Street

Moment in Oddity - Bog Butter

Michael Boyle is a farmer in CO Donegal, Ireland. While excavating a drainage area on his farm, something strange was sighted. The object did not look natural. They proceeded to remove the item out of the peat bog. Immediately Michael smelled what he stated was a cheesy like butter scent. As it turns out, he had just unearthed an artifact known as 'bog butter'. This is an antiquated method of preserving dairy or animal fat. Cool, oxygen-poor depths of Ireland's peat bogs proved to be an excellent way to preserve the butter. It is not unusual to find bog butter in both Scotland and Ireland. The practice dates back to the Iron Age but has even been used as recently as the 19th century. This particular chunk of bog butter may just be the largest ever found in Ireland weighing in at about 50 pounds. Paula Harvey, an archaeologist who inspected the site where the butter was found and even tasted some of it stating, "It does taste like butter, unsalted butter at that. I had a sliver and I'm still here to tell the tale". The bog butter is being analyzed by experts at the National Museum of Ireland. There is optimism that the butter will eventually be displayed locally at the Kilclooney Dolmen Center. We love butter but cannot imagine consuming something that has potentially spent hundreds of years in a peat bog. In our opinion, bog butter certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Charles Darwin Birth

In the month of February, on the 12th, in 1809, Charles Robert Darwin was born. His grandfather and father were doctors. His father's domineering  insightful medical observations taught Charles much about human psychology. As a teen, his choice of studies were not popular in the English public schools. His father considered Charles a degenerate with his only interests being game shooting. Because of this, his father sent him off to study medicine at Edinburgh University. Darwin was influenced by freethinkers at a young age which sculpted his radical views of the world. This led him to becoming the English naturalist, geologist and biologist that the world knows recognizes him as today. He is most well known for his theories on evolutionary biology. For the time, his suggestions that animals and humans shared common ancestry were shocking to the religious Victorian community. However, his beliefs were quite interesting to the growing numbers of professional scientists. At the time of Charles Darwin's death, his theories on evolution had extended throughout the world of science, literature and even politics.

Haunted Wall Street

The name "Wall Street" immediately brings images of financial markets, the stock exchange, ticker tapes and a giant bronze bull, but Wall Street was originally a wall that formed the northern boundary in the 17th century of what would become New York City. Eventually, the area near this wall would become the heart of America's financial district. Wall Street has inspired books and movies and led to probably hundreds of suicides. It's not surprising that Wall Street would have its share of haunts because not only is the Stock Market a volatile thing, but the financial district has a gory past. Join us for the history and hauntings of Wall Street.

The Financial District is located in lower Manhattan and is often referred to as FiDi. It's northern border is City Hall Park, which had been the site of public hangings in the 1800s. And even before that, during the Revolutionary War, patriots were held in two jailhouses that were here and many were starved, died of sickness or were hanged. Their bodies were buried in the park and it is thought many of those bodies still remain there. At the foot of Wall Street, near the water, a slave market had sold men, women and children into bondage in 1736 making New York, at the time, the second largest slave-owning port city. There was even a slave rebellion here in 1741 and over 100 men were captured and imprisoned in the dungeon that had been located in the basement of British City Hall, that is today known as Federal Hall National Memorial. Many of the prisoners were executed. And just steps away from the New York Stock Exchange is the famous Trinity Church, whose graveyard was founded in the 1690s. Many, many people were buried here and it got to the point where the sexton buried people on top of each other or he dug up bones and put them in the charnel house, so that he could bury a fresh body. There are probably 120,000 people buried here and quite a few are probably unhappy about being moved or covered over.

But what the Financial District is really known for is money. The New Amsterdam settlement that was founded by the Dutch in 1624, would be anchored in the future Financial District. The main economy in the beginning was fur trading. The original name of Wall Street was Het Cingel, meaning "The Belt." The British would take over New Amsterdam in 1664 and rename it New York City. The Compromise of 1790 established Wall Street as the financial capital of the US. The Buttonwood Agreement was signed by 24 stockbrokers in 1792 and this founded the New York Stock Exchange. The first skyscrapers in New York City would be built in the Financial District and Bowling Green would become a residential section with the worst housing conditions in the city. Manhattan is set upon solid bedrock, so building huge structures here made sense. 

The first skyscraper would be the Tower Building, which stood eleven stories and was designed by Bradford Lee Gilbert. This was the first building to have a steel skeleton and was completed in 1889. And how did Gilbert come up with such a design? Well, he asked himself, why couldn't we turn a railroad bridge on its end and build further up into the sky? The Tower Building was demolished in 1914. Eventually Wall Street would become home to the New York Stock Exchange, the Federal Reserve Bank, NASDAQ, and dozens of banks, brokerage firms, insurance companies, trust companies and securities dealers. Wall Street has been a route to quick riches and devastating losses like the stock market crash of 1929. With a history like this, it isn't surprising that this section of Manhattan is crawling with ghosts.

Charging Bull and Bear Statues

Let's start with a couple of well known statues set up on Wall Street, the Charging Bull and the Bear with its threatening paw. People wait in long lines to snap a selfie with the Charging Bull bronze sculpture that sits in the heart of the financial district. We know because we did. The sculpture weighs over 7,000 pounds and was created in 1989 by sculptor Arturo DiModica. For tourists who visit at night, they might get more than they bargained for. There are claims that the bull's eyes glow green and this is an otherworldly greenish glow. There is sometimes even a low growling sound. It is said, according to legend, that the bull seems to awaken in this way when the market is bearish. And that brings us to the Bear statue a short distance from the bull. The Bear is bad luck in the Stock Market, meaning things are going down. Something described as a spectral chill eminates from the Bear statue during a downturn in the market. Even on hot summer days, people claim to feel this "financial frost." The full-bodied apparitions of two men, in business suits of an earlier period, have been seen near the statues and they seem to be in a duel with each other. In Lee Brickley's The Ghosts of Wall Street: Paranormal Activity in the Financial District He shares the experiences of seasoned trader Martin Weller who recalled looking down from his offices above the statues one night and "he noticed the figures wrestling by the statues. Startled, he watched as their struggle intensified, their translucent forms flickering in the moonlight. 'I've seen market volatility, but never like this," Weller recalls. 'I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was as if the market's struggle had taken a physical, or rather, spectral form.' A night watchman named Benjamin Strauss shared with Brickley, "The figures seemed to be absorbed by the Bull and the Bear. Their forms shimmered for a moment and then disappeared, swallowed up by the bronze beasts. It was as if the spirits of the market had become one with these symbols of financial power and uncertainty." Are the bear and bull harbingers of what is to come for the Stock Market?

Federal Hall

As we shared earlier, Federal Hall was the home of a prison during the Slave Rebellion. It is located at 26 Wall Street and was fashioned in the Greek Revival style, designed by Ithiel Town and Alexander Jackson Davis, and completed in 1842 to serve as the Custom House. Before that,  John Damen's farm had been here and he sold the land to Captain John Knight in 1685 and eventually it ended up in the hands of the Mayors of New York. The first structure built here would become City Hall and was designed by James Evetts. It served its purpose from 1699 to 1703. There was a library, firehouse and debtors' prison here as well. In 1765, the building was renovated with a third story being added. French architect Pierre Charles L'Enfant was commissioned to do another remodel to the building to make it more American after the Revolutionary War and he added Georgian styling. In 1789, the building was renamed Federal Hall to reflect that New York was the first capital of America. President George Washington took the oath of office here and the Bill of Rights was drafted in the building. This building would house New York government offices when the capital moved to Philadelphia and when the New York City Hall was completed in 1812, Federal Hall was demolished. It was replaced by the Custom House, which later became the Subtreasury, which held millions of dollars worth of gold and coins. 

When the Federal Reserve Bank was opened in 1920 the Subtreasury was moved there and the building served a variety of purposes including a passport office. For the most part, much of the building was vacant and this was because nothing could be decided how to use it and most everybody was against demolishing it because of its historical value. During the New York World's Fair it held exhibits about finance and then after a fight and raising of private funds, it was decided to open the building as the National Memorial it is today. The selling of war bonds and blood drives were hosted during World War II. After 9-11, 300 members of Congress held a session here for the first time since 1790 to show support for New York City and solidarity to the country. Extensive renovations were done to the building right after that too as cracks and other long term damage were exacerbated by the collapse of the Twin Towers. The place has seen a ton of history. 

Visitors and staff claim to hear disembodied voices and they have seen full-bodied apparitions, one of whom is said to be George Washington. This could be residual as it is often seen near the spot where he took the oath of office. A security guard was locking up one night when he saw a figure out of the corner of his eye and he turned to tell the person that they needed to leave when he was astonished to see a stern looking man wearing Colonial period garb. He then watched as the figure disappeared into the shadows. Visitors feel a chill near the spot of the oath taking and near Washington's statue. They claim to feel as though they are being watched. Some people even claim to see Martha Washington hanging out with her husband. And Alexander Hamilton might be here as well. He had been the first Secretary of the Treasury after all. A janitor thought he was alone in the building when he heard loud footsteps on the marble floor approaching him. They sounded as though they were behind him and when he turned around, there was no one there. Books in the library end up on the floor and objects have been known to move around. Investigators have captured EVPs saying "I solemnly swear." Colonial attired individuals are also seen outside of the building. 

J.P. Morgan Bank Building

The mysterious J.P. Morgan Building is located at 23 Wall Street and that is what everyone calls the building, 23 Wall Street. This is a four-story building that became home to the most influential financial institution in America during the late 19th century. It started as a partnership between Anthony J. Drexel and J.P. Morgan Sr that was named Drexel, Morgan & Co. Drexel died in 1895 and his name was dropped. The bank had been housed inside the Drexel Building, which Morgan felt was too small and after much wrangling, he finally got the Drexel family to sell it to him and he demolished it, replacing it with the building that stands today. Architects Trowbridge & Livingston were hired and the cornerstone was laid in 1913 by J.P. Morgan Jr. His dad had died before the building could be started. The new bank opened on November 11, 1914. The building was damaged in the Wall Street Bombing of 1920 that killed 38 people, including a Morgan employee. This would remain the House of Morgan until 1988. The building was later owned by Africa Israel, an international investment firm, and then the China International Fund and Sonangol Group. There was fighting, lawsuits, a Blink Fitness Chain leased basement space and then a 99-year lease was signed by Jack Terzi of a holdings company who defaulted and now the building stands empty. 

The spirit that haunts the location is none other than J.P. Morgan himself. Years ago, a maintenance worker was working late at night and he was cleaning a boardroom when a strong chill came over him. He felt like something was behind him and he spun around and saw a ghost sitting at the head of the table. It seemed to be looking at a ledger. He felt the ghost looked like Morgan because it had a bushy moustache. The spirit faded away. Sounds like something residual. A security guard watched a figure stride through the entrance hall one evening. This figure was wearing a suit from an earlier time, but he still thought it was a real person, so he called out because they weren't supposed to be in the building. This man turned and looked at him and the guard had no doubt that it was the long dead Morgan. The ghost then disappeared. This crazy account was shared by Lee Brickley in his book, "A group of financial analysts working late one night. They were huddled over spreadsheets in a conference room when they heard the unmistakable sound of a gavel striking wood, echoing through the silent building. Venturing into the main hall, they were stunned to see a spectral figure, standing at the podium, presiding over an invisible audience. As they watched in disbelief, the figure turned to them, revealing the familiar countenance of J.P. Morgan. The ghostly financier then vanished." Morgan may not be the only ghost here. Other employees claim that victims of the bombing in 1920 haunt the building and have been seen in period clothing and their disembodied footsteps are heard. One female custodian claimed that something brushed her cheek one evening.

Trinity Church

With 120,000 bodies in the cemetery, it's no surprise that the church is said to be haunted. The church is located at the Broadway and Wall Street at 89 Broadway. Anglican services had been held in the colony's fort chapel in the late 1600s and the members wanted to have their own building, so they petitioned New York's Royal Governor and he gave them a charter. The first Trinity Church was built in 1698 and faced the Hudson River. In 1705, the church was given 215 acres and this provided room for a cemetery. The Great Fire of 1776 destroyed the church. The second church was finished in 1790 and was wider and longer and faced Wall Street. President George Washington was at the consecration ceremony. He not only attended the church, but so did Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. This church had to be demolished when heavy snow caved in the roof in 1839. British architect Richard Upjohn designed the current church in the Neo-Gothic style and it was opened in 1846. The grand steeple rises 281 feet and this made it the tallest building in the United States until 1869 and it was the tallest building in new York City until 1890. The parish has existed for over 300 years.

The church's offices are located behind the church at 68-74 Trinity Place and there is a pedestrian bridge to Trinity Church. Apparently, employees had many experiences with ghosts in their offices and many of these experiences were shared by a man named Jeremy Sierra on the church's blog. A woman named Rita saw a ghost in period clothing with a big-brimmed hat on the fourth floor in a storage room and then she saw the same ghost at a later date, peering into her office. Two other employees saw this same spirit on the 10th floor another time, peeking around a corner. In the archives, a box of note cards threw itself off of a shelf as an archivist watched. Alexander and Eliza Hamilton are buried in the cemetery and Hamilton has been seen near his grave. He also hangs out at City Hall Park. An inventor named Robert Fulton has been seen wandering around the churchyard with a model of his steamboat named The Clermont. Comedian Adam Allyn is buried here and people swear they hear laughter coming from his headstone. And why not throw in Captain Kidd who haunts everywhere. He apparently provided a winch to raise the stones for the church steeple and he wanted to be buried there. He died in London, but somehow his spirit made his way here and walks the churchyard. 

There is a Lady in White that wanders in the churchyard. She wears a colonial-era style white dress and large bonnet. The bonnet hides her face, but people can feel the sorrow coming from her. Lee Brickley shares, "John, a Wall Street banker who lives nearby, recounted his encounter with the apparition. 'I was walking my dog in the churchyard one morning, just as the sun was beginning to rise. Suddenly, I saw this woman standing by one of the gravestones. She seemed so out of place, like she had stepped out of another time. I approached her to see if she needed help, but as I got closer, she simply vanished into thin air. I was left standing there, utterly baffled.'" And a man in a military uniform has been seen. Brickley shares this, "Samantha, an executive at a nearby investment firm, had a chilling encounter with the spectral soldier. 'I was leaving the office late one night when I saw this figure standing by the churchyard wall. I thought it was a reenactor or something, but as I got closer, I realized there was something off about him. He was transparent, like a mirage. I tried to speak to him, but he didn't respond. He just stood there, staring out into the distance. Then, in the blink of an eye, he was gone. I was left there, standing in the cold, unable to shake off the eerie feeling that I had just witnessed something supernatural."

The Stock Exchange

The New York Stock Exchange started in 1792 with the Buttonwood Agreement that was signed by 24 stockbrokers. It was called Buttonwood because it was signed under a Buttonwood tree. Stock trading was informal in the early years. Deals were made in coffeehouses and taverns. A formal organization was created in 1817 and an NYSE Board was formed. A constitution was also written to govern trading. A room at 40 Wall Street was rented so the brokers had a place to gather twice a day. They had a list of 30 stocks and bonds at the time. As the United States grew, more and more bonds were added to finance infrastructure. Stocks were issued by railroads, insurance companies and banks. By 1865, there were 300 stocks and bonds and the Exchange bought a permanent home on Broad Street. Roaming the trading floor would soon follow and continues to this day. The stock ticker was introduced in 1867 and this made stock trading even easier. The opening and closing bell started in the 1870s and the original bell was a Chinese gong. 

Telephones came to the Market in 1878 and by 1886, trading volume hit 1 million shares. The NYSE moved to a new building with a bigger trading floor in 1903 that was designed by George B. Post. This is located at 18 Broad Street and features a Beaux Arts style with large colonnades holding up a pediment featuring commerce and industry. The interior was grand with large windows, Georgian marble walls and gilded ceiling. The gong was replaced with a brass bell at that time too. This was the first air-conditioned building in North America. There also was this new fandangled pneumatic tube system. October 24, 1929 brought the market crash that led the nation into the Great depression. The Exchange and Market recovered post World War II and during the war, women worked on the trading floor for the first time. Technology throughout the decades has improved the Stock Exchange. An additional stock trading floor is located at 11 Wall Street and is called The Garage.

Traders and employees have reported unexplained sounds and shadowy figures. There are employees who have reported seeing a group of traders dressed in period clothing gathered around what probably was ticker tape, talking excitedly. A ghostly figure has been seen near the "Bell Podium," wearing a suit from the early 1900s, looking very sad. When approached, it disappeared. A maintenance worker was fixing an electronic ticker one night when he was startled by a hand touching him on the shoulder. He turned around wondering who else was in the empty building and saw that it was a man in a period suit standing there. The man pointed at the ticker machine and then evaporated. The machine began working instantly. And speaking of a ticker tape machine, there was one that would turn itself on at night and started spewing tape even though it was unplugged and hadn't been used for a couple years. This happened several times and even crazier, the numbers on the tape were clearly from a bygone era. And the spirit of a janitor has been seen in the building and it is believed the ghost belongs to a janitor who hanged himself in the building during the Great Depression.

The Hamilton Custom House 

The Hamilton Custom House is today the National Museum of the American Indian located at 1 Bowling Green. This is a gorgeous seven-story building in the Beaux-Arts style that was decorated by 12 artists with Corinthian colonnades, sculptures and nautical motifs. The four sculptures that grace the entrance were designed by Daniel Chester French and are titled Four Continents, representing Asia, America, Europe and Africa. At the top of the main entrance is a keystone that depicts the head of Columbia. The columns are topped with carved heads of Hermes and there are twelve statues that personify seafaring nations. There is a ton of symbology around this building! The interior has murals by Reginald Marsh, Multicolored mosaics, bronze gates leading to a passageway to the Great Hall and there is a large rotunda. There is marble everywhere.

The main spirit seen here dates back to the early 20th century and is thought to be a customs officer based on the uniform he wears. The full-bodied apparition is seen walking in the corridors as if on patrol. A female employee told Brickley, "I was alone in one of the galleries one evening when I saw a man in an old-fashioned uniform walking towards me, I was startled but assumed he was part of a historical reenactment. I began to ask him about his uniform, but before I could finish my question, he vanished. It was as if he walked right into a wall." A legend claims that a customs officer was accused of embezzling and he subsequently killed himself. A visitor claims to have heard a voice whisper in her ear, "I didn't do it." Is this his ghost? There are also people who claim to not only see individuals in the building late at night when they look from outside, but guards claim to hear the bustling noises of business even though the place is empty. The people looking in from outside know its strange because the employees inside are all wearing period clothing.

The Woolworth Building

The Woolworth Building is an iconic building located at 233 Broadway. The architect was Cass Gilbert and the architectural style is Neo-Gothic and because it looks like a cathedral, it was nicknamed "The Cathedral of Commerce." Some of the decor was inspired by the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom. The first four stories are surfaced in limestone and the rest of the building has limestone-colored and glazed terracotta panels in shades of blue, green, sienna and rose. The structure rises 792 feet into the air and was the tallest building in the world until the Chrylser Building was completed in 1930. The interior features a glorious lobby with ceiling mosaics, veined marble from the Greek island of Skyros, gold-leaf decorations and grotesques. The basement features a pool. The Otis Elevator Company supplied the elevators, capable of traveling 700 feet per minute. The Woolworth Building is named for F. W. Woolworth who immigrated to the US in 1886.Everyone is familiar with what made him a success: The Five and Dime! Woolworth made a deal with banks to get financing. He contributed $1 million and the bank put in $500,000 and signed a 25-year lease for several floors of the building. Construction was completed in 1913 and a grand opening dinner was held. Woolworth died in 1920 and his heirs sold the building in 1924. The 1970s brought extensive renovations and today the building has both commercial leases and residential condominiums. The penthouse is going for $79 million. 

Ghost stories have haunted the Woolworth Building since its opening. The elevators moved between floors without riders. The lights flickered or turned themselves on and off. A female ghost in a period dress is seen in the lobby. She seems to be full of melancholy and is probably residual since it doesn't interact with people. A ghostly maintenance worker has been seen for decades and seems to be going about his duties and usually has a toolbox with him. And a former boardroom seems to host ghostly gatherings. An employee heard the faint sounds of laughing and music coming from down the hall and when she got near the boardroom, she was sure there was a group of people in there, but when she opened it , the room was empty. And there's this weird account from Brickley, "Another intriguing account comes from Jonathan, a security guard who had a close encounter with the building's spectral tenants. Late one night, while making his rounds, he saw a light flicker on in one of the upper-level offices. Upon investigating, he found an elderly man, dressed in an early 20th-century business suit, engrossed in examining a set of blueprints spread out on the office desk. Startled, Jonathan challenged the man, only to see him disappear right before his eyes. The blueprints, however, remained on the desk, tangible proof of the spectral visitation. The blueprints were, in fact, original plans of the Woolworth Building, kept secure in the building's archives."

The Federal Reserve 

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is located at 33 Liberty Street and rises fourteen stories, but also has five stories going underneath the ground. Architects York and Sawyer designed the building to resemble Italian Renaissance palaces and Samuel Yellin constructed the decorative ironwork. The facade is made from limestone and sandstone. The interior has vaulted ceilings covered in Guastavino tile. The basement houses the massive three-story gold vault that sits right on top of Manhattan's bedrock. There is 6,331 metric tons of monetary-gold reserve in that vault. There are six other vaults in the basement full of money and securities. Construction began in 1919 and was completed in 1924. The building was expanded in 1935. The Federal Reserve Bank in New York is one of twelve in the country created when the Federal Reserve Act was passed in 1913. The structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. 

The labyrinth of corridors within this large bank plays home to a phantom banker. Many employees have seen this banker wearing a early 20th century suit. He likes the old vaults according to a security guard named Marcus. Marcus told Lee Brickley, ""I was doing my rounds late one night when I saw him. He was standing near the old vaults, looking as real as you or me. But when I approached him, he simply vanished." There is also a female ghost that weeps. Employees hear soft sobbing and sometimes see this ghost wearing an early 20th century dress. Nobody knows who this woman could be or why she is crying inside the Federal Reserve.

Battery Park

We visited this park on our visit in 2020, so that we could get a picture of the Statue of liberty, which can be seen from the park. This is the gateway to Ellis Island and the Statue. The Lenape and Munsee tribes used the Battery area for hunting and fishing. Eventually Fort George would be located at The Battery and it remained until it was destroyed in 1790. It was decided to change the grounds into a public promenade. But the threat from Britain wasn't gone so in 1807 Castle Clinton was built at the Battery as a circular sandstone fort. This still stands today and is now a National Monument. The fort never saw any battle and was converted into a 6,000 seat entertainment venue and the name was changed to Castle Garden. In 1855, it became an immigrant processing depot. By 1896, this became the first New York Aquarium and remained that until 1941. The fort was renovated and reopened in 1975 and since 1985 it has served as a visitor center and launching point for ferries to the Statue of Liberty.

Spectral soldiers are seen here and unexplained lights appear. Glowing orbs have been photographed. The soldiers usually appear in the park at night and are dressed in Revolutionary War uniforms. The group of soldiers seems to be residual as they follow the same route. Brickley shares the experience of a Wall Street trader named Robert, ""I was strolling through the park, lost in thought. Suddenly, the air grew cold, and I heard a faint sound of drumming, growing steadily louder. It was as though an invisible army was marching towards me. Then, out of the mist, a group of soldiers appeared. They were translucent, almost ethereal, and were marching in formation. I could see the pain and determination in their eyes as they passed through me, leaving me chilled to the bone. They disappeared as suddenly as they had appeared, leaving nothing but the echo of their spectral march in their wake." A female in period clothing from the Victorian era has been dubbed the Phantom Picnicker and she has been seen by security guards and visitors sitting on a park bench. She has the scent of lavender perfume around her. And the park has a ghost dog has been seen playing and barking and then disappearing.

Fraunces Tavern

Fraunces Tavern is said to be one of the most haunted bars in NYC. The original structure was built by the DeLancy family in 1719 at 54 Pearl Street and was either their private residence or a rental property. A man named Samuel Fraunces bought the building in 1762 and opened its as a tavern named Queen's Head Tavern. During the Revolutionary War, Fraunces left the tavern to his Loyalist son-in-law to run while the British had control of New York. Later, this place became popular with patriots like the Founding Fathers and George Washington set it up as a pseudo headquarters. As a matter of fact, George Washington gathered a group of his officers here on December 4, 1783 to thank them for their service in the recent defeat of the British. He then bid them farewell as he headed home. The museum above the still working bar has a first-hand account of this farewell and has many tributes to Washington and the Founders. The Department of Foreign Affairs worked out of the building from 1785 to 1788 and then it became a tavern again. The tavern became a boarding house in 1798 and ballerina Anna Gardie and her husband lived there and both were stabbed to death in what was ruled a murder-suicide. Serious fires almost destroyed the building three times. In 1900, the building was almost demolished, but the Daughters of the American Revolution saved it. They restored it to its 18th century appearance. It reopened in 1907 as a museum and restaurant. In 1975, four people were killed here in a bombing. In 2019, the building celebrated 300 years of existence. 

The place just has to be crawling with spirits then, right? A bartender tells the story of a woman who worked at the bar and was closing up when evening and she passed out. When she came to, she claimed that a man appeared out of nowhere and walked up to her and then her lights went out. When the CCTV camera was checked, she had been alone in the bar. A night porter heard what sounded like a party going on, with clinking glasses and chattering. Staff members have reported hearing voices and unexplained temperature changes. The spirit of an elderly woman in colonial garb is sometimes seen. And Brickley reports in his book, "Perhaps the most infamous spectral resident of Fraunces Tavern is a gentleman known only as the "Dandy." Dressed in late 18th-century fashion, complete with a powdered wig and a tricorn hat, the Dandy is known for his flirtatious interactions with female staff and patrons. He is often seen winking or tipping his hat before vanishing into thin air. The Dandy's flirtations aren't limited to visual encounters. Several women have reported feeling a light touch on their shoulders or a whisper in their ear, only to turn around and find no one there. Over the years, the Dandy has become something of a spectral celebrity, his antics adding an element of playful mystery to the tavern's ghostly lore. One unforgettable encounter with the Dandy was experienced by Sarah, a server at Fraunces Tavern. One busy Friday evening, as she was carrying a tray of drinks to a table, she felt a distinct tap on her shoulder. Assuming it was a customer trying to get her attention, she turned around, but found no one behind her. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a figure in colonial attire standing by the bar. He winked at her and lifted his hat in a courteous greeting before dissolving into the bustling crowd. Sarah was left standing in awe, her tray of drinks momentarily forgotten."

Clearly, Wall Street isn't just a place that is home to lots of money. Are there spirits hanging around in the Financial District? Is Wall Street haunted? That is for you to decide!