Call for info: Portland's haunted mansion... or castle?

Hi folks! I have a question that may be too far back for most of you, but just in case someone once upon a time told you a story about it, I figured it was worth asking. Does anyone have any stories/recollections of hearing about a so-called "haunted house" or castle on Munjoy Hill?

It's a crazy Gothic home that was just up the hill from the Observatory.  It was torn down in 1914, but I keep finding vague references to it being haunted (this may purely be because it LOOKED haunted). I know recollections about it were still lurking around as late as the 1940s/50s.

Any thoughts or loose bits of story rattling around would be appreciated, as so far I have very little to go on so far! Thanks guys!!!  ...also of course any other haunted house stories from Portland are always welcome!

Here's what the crazy thing looked like (in other words, no wonder it had a reputation for being haunted):

A UK haunted house for Stephen King?

I was poking around in the newspaper archives, and found this tantalizing little article in New Hampshire's Nashua Telegraph, back in late 1977.

According to the article, King had been on the lookout for a haunted house to rent in England. Also according to the article, he found a suitably spooky property in Fleet, a town in Hampshire, England. He planned to move house to the overseas location until he completed the novel that this setting was to inspire.

Who knows if this bit of haunted property ever gave King the inspiration to set ink to paper? Early in 1977, before placing the ad, King released one of his great haunted house (and haunted human) books, The Shining. It wasn't until 1998 that he released his next book that centered on a haunted property, the hair-raising Bag of Bones. However, it isn't England that serves as the setting for Bag of Bones -- it is squarely set in King's fictitious (but oh so real) town of Derry, and migrates up to the lumber and lake country of Maine (perhaps near his post-UK residence in the Kezar Lake country near Center Lovell, Maine).

Is there a tale locked in a trunk somewhere that shows the fruit borne of this overseas destination? Or is his short story "Crouch End" the only noticeable outcome of his UK rambles? The word is that instead of writing a haunted house opus, he found himself instead writing Cujo, and fortuitously meeting future collaborator Peter Straub to boot.

Cemetery Dance's website cites the move as the inspiration for a fragment published in their 2009 book of King's material Uncollected, Unpublished: "The attempted novel was the result of both the King family’s abortive move to England and a discussion between King and his editor of the time, Bill Thompson. The discussion revolved around the writing of a novel using the detective character, Lord Peter Wimsey, created by Dorothy L Sayers."

Not much of a subject for a haunted house setting, but perhaps we can blame King's publicist for the misdirection, or perhaps (like some of us) he simply prefers a haunted setting, no matter what he's trying to write.

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EDITOR'S NOTE:
Center Lovell has most recently been in the news because of the owner of a bed and breakfast who is running a contest to find the next owners of her Center Lovell Inn -- write your essay and enter, if you like! More info here: http://wincenterlovellinn.com/contest-rules-entry/ or read about it in the CNN article here: http://money.cnn.com/2015/03/13/news/center-lovell-inn-contest/

Hell House in Maine revisited

While most folks know that Stephen King's books focus predominantly on the state of Maine, few know that some of the classics of the horror genre are set in our home state as well. Maine Crime Writer blog, run by Patrick Shawn Bagley, takes a moment to focus on one of these: Hell House by Richard Matheson, author of other horror books such as I Am Legend, basis of the Vincent Price classic "Last Man on Earth." Hell House was later made into a terrifically chilling motion picture starring Roddy McDowall, "The Legend of Hell House." Since Matheson did the screenplay himself, it mirrors the book almost exactly.

Bagley sets the scene by stating, "I can’t think of a better way to kick off the Halloween season than by visiting Richard Matheson’s Hell House. The Belasco House in Caribou Falls, Maine is the 'Mt. Everest of haunted houses.'"

Read the rest of his post about this fictitious Maine haunt here.

Edward Hopper's Haunted House in Maine

Edward Hopper, like many other famous American artists, found in Maine an inspiration to produce art that was as indicative of Maine's nature as it was of his own nature, not to mention his talent. 1926 found him painting a stark watercolor that cried keenly with the sort of yearning and emptiness that he found almost everywhere he went, if one is to judge by many of his works.

One of the best-known of his Rockland works is Haunted House (collection of the Farnsworth Art Museum), a depiction of The Atlantic House, an old boarding house, now destroyed, located at 5 South Street.
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