Crowding together the seen and unseen in Rhode Island

Just outside the city of Narragansett is the Wederburn Mansion. Located on the southeastern coast this four story white clapboard mansion was built by a rich sea captain Japhet Wederburn. The captain made his fortune in the China sea trade. Rarely being at home his house was run by a servant Huldy Craddock. The captain never had time for women until one day he returned from his voyages with a wife. A Spanish lady Dona Mercedes Wederburn was from Barbados the daughter of a wealthy family. She was petit and fragile her hair done up with a tortoise shell comb and a black, lace mantilla. The couple was happy until the captain returned to sea leaving his young wife, who spoke no English with Huldy for company. Dona Mercedes would spend her days crying, looking out to sea and wanting to go back home. Huldy tried to convince her to accompany her to the shops and wanted to teach her English but Dona Mercedes became a recluse. At times she didn’t even eat for days. Finally the captain returned. Huldy came down with a stomach illness and her sister offered to find another servant for them but the captain said he was taking his wife to Barbados to visit her family. Two years later the captain returned without his wife saying she was staying on in Barbados and on his next voyage he died at sea.

Many different families lived in the Wedderburn House until finally in 1925 a charitable organization turned it into a summer retreat for poor children.

Over fifty years families were witness to ghostly occurrences. When the house was owned by the Squire family all three of Mrs. Squire’s children would tell her of the sad lady in black crying by the third floor window looking out to sea. She had a comb in her hair and was wearing a black veil. Other families had similar experiences and if approached she would disappear.

In 1925 the charitable organization having bought the house saw it needed to be renovated. Workers working in the library saw that a hearthstone of the fireplace needed replacing. The owners wanted the fireplace removed and the workers pried up the fireplace floor with a crowbar. They discovered a crude, wooden coffin. Inside were the black laced remains of Dona Mercedes Wederburn with the tortoise shell comb still on her skull. She is still waiting to return to her beloved Barbados…

We might say how very odd if we were convinced someone had let us into a building only to find no such person ever existed. At the Cartier’s Health Center (a nursing home built in the 50s) in Central Falls, RI a temporary nurse working the night shift arrived for her first night on the job at the health center. She was let into the nursing home by a well-dressed, friendly woman and given directions to the unit. Later that nigh when the nurse went to the candy machine in the ground floor she passed the same woman who was smiling and humming. When speaking to an aide she commented that at that age she would be happy to be as alert and cheerful as the woman downstairs. The aide replied that there couldn’t possibly be anyone in the locked building and that no other employees or residents fit that description. At the end of her shift this was confirmed.

Haunted buildings aside what about a haunted road? Imagine walking alone at night or any time along a shadowy, quiet road. The wind whispering through the trees…

Tower Hill Road in Cumberland is a narrow, twisting road with a lot of hills. Along this road people have seen the ghost of a little girl in the front yard of a house and by what is known as the Deadliest Curve the ghost of a little boy has been spotted running with his ghostly dog while a toddler from the beyond rides along on his tricycle. Others have seen strange apparitions in the woods and fields by the side of the road and those traveling along here get a strange being watched and haunted feeling.

What could be more romantic or give people a nostalgic feeling than a carousel of colorful, gaily painted horses and wagons. But a haunted carousel?

The Charles Loof Carousel (aka the Crescent Park Carousel) in Riverside, is over 100 years old and was once part of an amusement park and a ballroom. In the 1960s the ballroom burnt down in a tragic fire that also took human lives. The carousel remained. An employee claims that when she opens up in the morning there are times when the music turns on by itself and lights flicker. A woman in bell hooped skirts has been seen walking by the water. Along the bike path where there used to be train tracks at night you can hear the trains and see flashing lights. On Crescent Beach in 1989 a man murdered his wife and buried her in the sand. Now anyone who sits near this spot gets a feeling of anger and a freezing coldness overcomes them.

And of course a tour of some cemeteries is a must. In Exeter you will find the Chestnut Hill Cemetery. On January 18, 1892 a young girl called Mercy Brown died. For some reason her father thought she had become a vampire and dug up her body. With local help the body was brought to a doctor who drained it of any remaining blood. This violation of her resting place has caused Mercy to appear in this graveyard at night. Witnesses report seeing strange blue lights moving in the graveyard.

Then there is the Old Veteran Cemetery where twigs snap when no one is around, shadows move by the lake, strange shapes kneel behind gravestones and at night in the center of the cemetery is a tree that resembles a demon.

Not quite your style? Try the Vampire’s grave in Exeter where a long and winding road passes over two mini bridges and at the end is a church and cemetery where a lady vampire is buried. As you leave here and have passed over the second bridge the vampire appears in front of your car and a truck comes from out of nowhere and follows you all the way to the highway and then disappears.

You all come back now, hear?