Marcus LiBrizzi - Ghosts of Acadia

Copyright 2011 by Marcus LiBrizzi

All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-0-89272-921-0

Designed by Lynda Chilton

Distributed to the trade by National Book Network

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication information available upon request

For Jacob, Tyler, and Ali

B rooding over the village of Bar Harbor, Maine, stands a place of legendary proportions. This vast, sprawling structure goes by the name of Ledgelawn. With enough ghost sightings to fill an entire volume, Ledgelawn lives up to its reputation as the most haunted mansion on the island. Indeed, it casts a spell of darkness and horror to this very day.

The spectacular, shingle-style manor commands an oversized lot on the south side of Mount Desert Street, two doors down from the Church of the Holy Redeemer. Even the most casual passerby can feel a ghostly pall hovering over the old mansion. Built in 1904, Ledgelawn was one of the last of the true cottages, an incongruous term referring to palatial estates built of simple bungalow-style elements such as cedar shingles. At one time Ledgelawn was the setting of lavish parties and balls, with candlelight and orchestral music spilling from the open windows and carriages lining the curving drive. At one of these events, the Hope Diamond even made an appearance, glittering on the neck of an illustrious guest.

Long before the close of the towns Golden Age, Ledgelawn abruptly ceased its festivities. The fastening of a funereal wreath on the massive front door began a long era of doom and mystery. Yet the house survived the 1947 fire that destroyed so much of Bar Harborthe unstoppable flames came within inches of Ledgelawn before something drove them away. The fire abruptly shifted direction, sparing the historic property. After functioning for decades as an inn, Ledgelawn came under the ownership of Ocean Properties in 2010. Although the great structure may not stay open to the public, it will always remain a landmark to the paranormal.

The most celebrated phantom of Ledgelawn is arguably its most sinistera specter of a young dark-haired woman with madness in her smile. The story goes that a woman named Mary Margaret took her own life at Ledgelawn when her fianc jilted her shortly before their wedding day. Mary Margaret possessed all that a person might desireriches, youth, and beauty. Ironically, these gifts left her completely defenseless to the pain of a broken heart and the sting of public humiliation.

To the third floor of the mansion went the distraught girl, and in a sewing room on the east side of the house she found her wedding dress, hanging white and ghostly. Whether the sight of the dangling dress suggested the unthinkable, well never know, but what happened next is legend. Decking herself out in the wedding gown, Mary Margaret hung herself by attaching the long veil to the beams of the sloping ceiling. That is where her family later found her, a ghastly parody of the blushing bride. Mary Margarets face was so bruised that she was nearly unrecognizable. The final horror was the grotesque smile twisting the blackened face of the corpse.

Since then, the specter of Mary Margaret has appeared on countless occasions. She looks almost as she did in life, young and lovely, except for the strange smile that distorts her whole face. The setting of the suicide became a guest room at the Ledgelawn Inn. People who checked into Room 326 were apt to wake up to the image of a woman in white floating in the moonlight at the foot of the bed. Or, as experienced by one guest, a phantom veil appears to sway all night from the sloping ceiling. Anyone inside the structure must beware since Mary Margaret freely walks the halls of the old estate, manifesting herself elsewhere in the dwelling, despite her odd attachment to the room where she died.

Some witnesses have heard the ghostly legend, but most have not and therefore arrive without preconceptions. In one instance, the ghost appeared to an elderly woman, Donna Gerda, who had just arrived from Brazil. Donna Gerda spoke only Portuguese, and she knew nothing of the house or its history. Yet on the morning after her arrival, she saw the apparition in all its classic form. As Donna Gerda was descending the grand staircase, she was in full view of the front desk, staffed by two employees, Jomar Castro and Sherry Gallant. They both saw her stop suddenly and begin waving her hand and nodding her head excitedly, but she wasnt looking at them. She was looking at someone that neither of them could see. When questioned later, Donna Gerda described seeing a young, dark-haired woman wearing a veil and a long white dress. Before disappearing, the phantom woman kept smiling up at Donna Gerda in a most disturbing fashion.

As a caretaker of the mansion for fourteen years, Mike Gallant has had his own unforgettable encounters with the unsettling wraith, but one instance stands out in particular. The event took place in October 2000, when Mike and the staff were shutting down the inn for the season. Nothing strange happened until the ghost cornered him upstairs. He had left the rest of the workers on the first floor in order to inspect the guest rooms above. Despite the fact that all the doors were open, and all the lights were on, a deep sense of gloom and confinement was building up inside the old manor house. Certainly, the darkness grew as Mike proceeded in his workafter he finished inspecting each room, he turned out the lights to indicate that the job was done. During this time, no one came upstairs past Mike, engulfed in the growing shadows of Ledgelawn.

When Mike climbed to the third floor, things really began to get strange. A light he had turned off in one room suddenly turned itself back on again. What happened next has etched itself permanently into his mind. He had just turned off the light for the second time, and he was leaving the room when a quickly moving object caught his eye. Swiveling in its direction, he faced Room 326.

He saw the white apparition of Mary Margaret slip out the door of an adjacent room and float across the corridor into Room 326. As the specter was passing by, she slowly turned her head around to make eye contact with the astonished caretaker, then flashed him a smile of fathomless intent. She was only ten or twelve feet away, so Mike got a good look. In his words, it was as if time stopped when I looked at the object, and I began to focus, and in a split second realized I was seeing a woman in white smiling at me as she passed. It occurred to him that he was effectively trapped, for the hallway formed a cul de sac , with only one way in and out.

Ledgelawn is home to other phantoms. One of these is the spirit of a young woman who worked as a maid in the mansion years after it was sold by the original family. One morning, servants found this woman at the bottom of one of the back staircases. Her neck was twisted and broken. Rumor had it that someone pushed her down those stairs. Certainly, she had been uncommonly pretty, and in the whispered tales of the town, she was having an affair with her married master. Arguments ensuedand either the wife or the maid made implacable demands. Then all ended with a sudden death quickly hushed up in the interests of the wealthy owners of the estate.

The phantom maid manifests herself as a feeling of nameless dread, or the sensation of being watched when no one else is present. Commonly, the specter travels as a preternatural draftice cold on the hottest summer daythat snakes throughout the mansion. Other times, this vengeful ghost slams doors and echoes the sounds of a heated argument in rooms that are dark and empty. Her favorite place to haunt is a suite that once housed the separate bedrooms of the master and mistress of the manor. For years, each of these rooms contained an antique portraitof a man in one room, and a woman in the other. On many different occasions, guests and staff at the hotel have been surprised to discover that the portrait of the man had been strangely altered during the night. In the morning the picture still sat behind glass, but only the back was visible in the gilt frame. Apparently, the phantom maid turned the picture around in a show of rage against her former master.