Haunted Boothbay Opera House

The Ghosts of the Prairie has an interesting entry on the Boothbay Opera House:

The Boothbay Opera House
Boothbay Harbor, Maine

The Boothbay Opera House building was originally constructed back in 1894 and for many years, it housed the local headquarters for the Knights of Pythias, a fraternal order in line with the Freemasons. Later on, the building was turned into a theater and has hosted every story of entertainment imaginable for this small Maine town, including minstrel shows; plays; movies; town meetings and basketball games.... and if you believe the stories, it has also played host to a ghost.

No one knows who this resident spirit may be, although some have an idea, but he is said to haunt the second floor room that was the meeting place of the Knights of Pythias. Since 1949, visitors to the building have spoken of a strange presence in the room. It is usually said that the piano that is located here will play by itself, as if some spectral piano player is manipulating the keys. Different witnesses also recounted the same thing happening in 1957, during a town celebration and again in 1977.

Some believe that the ghost may be that of a man named Earl Cliff, who played the instrument for programs in the theater in the early 1900’s, but no one really knows for sure.

Boothbay Harbor is located east of Brunswick, Maine on the southwestern coast.

© Copyright 1998 by Troy Taylor
[Source]

Other mention of this haunted location online include a 2004 mention on a chatboard by member Gislebertus of an EVP from an investigation there: "The best EVP I ever heard was a tape I heard while we were investigating the Boothbay Opera House. The guy was from the New England Paranormal Assoc. played it and in the background you could hear everyone in the background talking about things that had been going on in the house... It was very informal and the people were sitting about 10 feet from the recorder. All of a sudden you hear this male voice go "HEY" clear as a bell and louder than the other people in the room. They didn't hear it at the time, it needed no enhancement as it was clearer than the other voices. When he played it, it freaked out one of my students so badly she had to leave."

Damariscove Headless Wonder

Thanks to Tracy on the Haunted Maine mailing list for catching this neat item! The Boothbay Register recently printed an article about the "Damariscove Remembered" event. Around 150 people met to tell their stories about Damariscove Island the other weekend. The island was home to one of the earliest American colonies (1605).

One of the stories shared was about the island's legendary headless ghost.

Nobody in Saturday's audience said they had actually seen the headless ghost, but plenty of people referred to the "spookiness" felt at night when overnight camping was still allowed.

June Peabody Elderkin, who grew up on the island while her father served in the Coast Guard, said her dad always called Damariscove "the spookiest place."

According to legend, the ghost is that of Richard Pattishall, owner of the island in the late 1600s, who was beheaded by Indians and thrown, with his dog, into the water, their bodies washing up on Damariscove. Through the years some have said they could hear the dog barking.

There is a beautiful reproduction of an original article about Damariscove from The New England Magazine's September 1874 issue on Cornell University's site. Be sure to look at the illustrations!