According to local lore, in 1913 a young heiress and her husband moved in to the beautiful mansion. For a while they seemed quite happy, but he was young and, as a doctor in the town, had many reasons to meet with his patients. Especially the attractive ones. He soon tired of his wealthy wife and began a pattern of cheating on her—often and sometimes publicly. Perhaps his boldest move was using a hefty part of her inheritance to purchase one of the first automobiles. Sure, he took her out in it a few times for a spin, but soon it was just a convenient way to travel to and from his trysts. A flashy car impressed the ladies, even then it seems.

His wife, utterly disillusioned would wait by the windows facing the drive. Every day she waited. And every day he’d come home, fresh from his womanizing ways, expecting she would simply accept his behavior. She did for a while. Then one day in June she took matters into her own hands. Maybe it was the heat. Maybe it was the knowledge he’d been using her for her money. In the end it doesn’t matter. It is relatively well-accepted that she had a gun, and he was an idiot.

She waited in the bushes by the driveway and when her ne’er-do-well spouse rumbled in and stepped out of the vehicle, she shot him. She was charged with his murder but finally acquitted. There had been no witnesses, although everyone in town could surely imagine her motivation. But murdering one’s spouse (even a flaky philandering spouse) was “simply not done” in that era. So, although she never served jail time, it seems that the town shunned her.

Living a tortured and then lonely life, it is no wonder some aspect of her seems to linger around the beautiful house where she had dreamed so often of happiness. Occasionally mysterious footsteps are heard and a filmy figure has been spotted near the windows she used to watch for her husband through. Is she hoping he’ll return again and they’ll reach a reconciliation? Maybe. Or perhaps she’s just hoping to get one more shot at him.

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The General Stanton Inn’s owners over the years have tried to maintain some of its original ambiance. The Inn still has traditional low ceilings and rough-hewn beams. And ghosts.

The original house, a modest one-room building was moved onto the property in 1667. For a while it served as a simple schoolhouse for local Indian children, as well as Thomas’s own offspring. Over the years rooms were added to the original structure (now called the “Indian Room”; in 1740 Joseph, a son of Thomas, added the “George Washington Cabinet Room.”

Joseph made a name for himself as one of Rhode island’s very first Senators in the US Congress and later a State Representative. But as things settled after the fall-out of the Revolutionary War, the family fell on hard times and the home (considered a mansion then) became an Inn. Joseph, the militia General the Inn’s named for, let his nephews run the business. It became quite successful as a regular coach stop between the towns of Providence and New London. While other business struggled under the early Prohibition, the Inn attracted gamblers and partiers of all classes and backgrounds.

People have reported everything from strange noises and sensations to actual apparitions at the General Stanton Inn, one of the hot spots for paranormal activity being the Washington Room. A male ghost has been spotted here, and people have reported being touched—often tapped on the shoulder—by something otherworldly in both the Washington Room and Williamsburg Room. Is a spirit from the Inn’s rich past trying to get someone’s attention? If so, it seems the spirit has gotten frustrated with visitors at least once, when a finger of a manikin was reportedly hurled by an unseen force at a workman in the attic. Perhaps it was merely the spirit’s way of delivering a somewhat coded and yet not so subtle message… But most spirit activity at the General Stanton Inn is what many would consider mild and well-mannered, so stay the night and arrange for a proper tour. Although not necessarily a spine-tingling experience, a stay at the Stanton can be quite educational.

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Oliver intended to use Belcourt to display his collections of armor, medieval manuscripts, stained glass and numerous things related to his love of horses.

In 1895 the house was officially opened with a grand ball, its hostess was Alva Erskine Smith Vanderbilt, the wife of Oliver’s best friend and business partner. Perhaps her husband, William Kissam Vanderbilt, should have suspected something was amiss. Whether he suspected his best friend and his wife of any indiscretion or shared emotion is a bit of a mystery. Regardless, after having three children, Alva divorced William and married Oliver.

The two traveled extensively, collecting as they went, until Oliver died in 1908. The next year Alva redesigned the first floor of Belcourt. Some have speculated that Oliver would have disapproved because he loved the place exactly as it was. Alva’s attention then shifted and she became active in the women’s movement and a great supporter of the arts. Traveling frequently, Alva let Belcourt fall into a state of mild disrepair. She died in 1933.

Belcourt does not necessarily seem to be haunted by its owners or any members of the large staff that worked there for decades. Rather, it seems Belcourt is haunted because of some of the antiques in its collection. Furnished with art and trappings from more than 30 different countries, Belcourt has a lovely Gothic ballroom featuring haunted chairs. Some visitors have reported feeling chills race up and down their spine while standing near the chairs, others have reported strange sensations of energy moving across their hands. Supposedly if you try to sit in one of the haunted chairs you’ll feel resistance, while trying to take a seat in the other may just get you tossed out of it.

There is also a screaming suit of armor in the Gothic ballroom. The original owner of the armor was killed by a spear entering the visor’s eye slit. People claim the owner’s screams can still sometimes be heard around the time he died in March.

A carving of a monk is also supposedly haunted by its ghostly counterpart—so keep your eyes open. Cameras are not generally allowed in the castle, but a few people who sneaked photos (at risk of having their camera taken and being kicked out of the tour, so don’t do it) claim they have proof of orbs in several rooms.

Belcourt Castle is certainly worth a visit, many have said their guides were well-educated and that there is simply too much to see and learn about in a single visit. Whether you’re interested in the ghosts, the antiques, the history or the architecture, Belcourt seems to have something for everyone.

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The Sprague family was powerful in Rhode Island society. Investing early in textile mills and printing the popular calico cloth of the late 1700s and 1800s in bulk brought them riches. But it also seems to have brought them a share of tragedy. Two of the Sprague brothers, William and Amasa, ran “Sprague Print Works” in Cranston in the 1860s. Business was booming and the Sprague family was growing tremendously wealthy thanks to the wonders of industrialization and the factory system. And then, on New Year’s Eve day, 1843, Amasa’s badly beaten body was found. Amasa was dead and there were no eyewitnesses.

There was, however, an entire family to blame the murder on. It seems an Irish immigrant (a member of an unpopular minority at the time) by the name of Nicholas Gordon owned a small pub near the print factory. At lunch the Sprague’s workers would frequent Gordon’s pub and drink a pint or two. The idea that their workers were drinking on the job infuriated the Spragues and Amasa managed to get the city council to revoke Gordon’s liquor license.

Amasa had no real reason to ask such an action be taken, but he was a Sprague, and therefore quite influential. Gordon was just another struggling immigrant. The license was revoked.

Unfortunately, Nicholas Gordon had asked his entire family to come join him in Rhode Island due to the popularity of his pub. He felt certain he could find work for them since business was going so well, being as how he was so close to the Sprague’s factory. His family had only recently moved in when the liquor license got revoked. It must have been like a punch to the gut. Suddenly Nicholas’ booming business was nearly worthless.

So when Amasa’s body turned up, dispersions were automatically cast on the Gordons. Amasa’s body lay in state at the family home in Cranston before his burial. Perhaps this is why his spirit lingers there.

The police supposedly arrested every member of the family they could find, including an elderly matriarch and the pet dog. Claiming the Irish families were tremendously tight and surely there was quite a conspiracy as a result, the first trials were for Nicholas’ brothers. With a prostitute as the main witness (and she supposedly kept mixing the brothers up when delivering her testimony) and a jury that certainly included no Irish immigrants’ peers, the first trial found John guilty of the murder. They had no tangible evidence, and the prosecution and the judge both showed blatant examples of discrimination. John was hanged as a result. It took him twenty minutes to die. William was found unanimously not guilty. Nicholas was released on bail, most of his jurors voting for an acquittal. By the time his trial came up, the murder that originally had no witnesses now had nearly 100.

Perhaps it is no wonder that Amasa haunts the family home—rather it may be a greater marvel that John Gordon does not as it seems he certainly has a right to. Strange presences have been felt in the house and a man in black has been seen on the stairs. Cold spots are frequently felt and visitors often get strange and creepy feelings related to the “doll room” where a collection of traditional dolls stares at the visitors staring at them.

Strange things have shown up in photographs of the cellar and people have seen strange reflections in the cupola; some were debunked by the “Ghost Hunters” (TAPS) investigation crew in 2007. But TAPS also experienced some strange things while there. The RI Paranormal Research Group also performed a lengthy investigation of the site, finding sufficient evidence to support claims the mansion is indeed haunted.

But then there’s the ghost of the lovely Kate Chase Sprague. Kate may well be the ghostly woman first reported in 1925. In her time Kate was considered a remarkable beauty and a woman at the height of fashion. Her style was often mimicked by other ladies, and, as the wife to Governor William Sprague, she hoped to someday be the First Lady of the White House. But things did not go as Kate had hoped and she died at her father’s deteriorating estate in Washington DC, destitute and all alone in 1899. It is no small wonder then that people have believed they’ve seen Kate standing before the mirror in the mansion’s ballroom. Perhaps she returns to the mansion to relive better times just as Amasa returns to revisit tragedy.

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