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reservations.
Tides Inn-by-the-Sea
Open mid-May to mid-October
252 Kings Highway
Goose Rocks Beach
Kennebunkport, ME 04046
207-967-3757
www.tidesinnbythesea.com
Old V
an Buren Inn
V
an Buren, Arkansas
After encountering the ghost at the Old Van Buren Inn,
one thirteen-year-old girl developed strange psychic powers.
Although she had never had any kind of psychic experiences
before, as soon as she saw the ghost, her short, sheltered
world shattered. She started hearing voices, seeing visions,
and having prophetic dreams. She told her mother that she
could even see through the walls.
The inn, once the upstanding Crawford Bank, then an il-
licit speakeasy before changing hands through a number of
failed businesses, has long been known for its ghostly ac-
tivity. It is now owned by Californian Jackie Henningsen;
townsfolk tried to keep the secret of its ghosts from her after
Jackie bought the ailing building with its marble floors, tin
roof, and landmark turret and restored it to its original
splendor.
They couldn t keep the secret for long. Jackie had a visit
from the ghosts on her very first day.
340 GHOSTLY ENCOUNTERS
Wherever I went in the building, I had the creepy
feeling that someone was watching me. That night,
when I was upstairs, I heard something coming up the
staircase. The dogs jumped up and started barking. I
opened the door to the hall, but no one was there. The
dogs ran down to look, but nothing was there.
No one told me when I was looking at the place
that it was haunted. Before I bought it, I went up and
down the street, introducing myself to all the shop
owners. It wasn t until after I bought it that they all
came to visit, one by one, and started telling me the
stories.
The most famous story is about a man who mur-
dered his wife on the front steps. Another long-told
tale, though not verified, surrounds a crazy lady who
was locked in the attic by her husband, rumored to
have been the bank president. But I learned that there
are lots of other ghosts, too. A lot of different people
used to rent the building, and all of them had a hard
time with the ghosts. One lady had a dance studio here
for six years. I went to see her, and I asked if she had
noticed anything. She told me that every night, after
the students went home, there would be a woman
standing on the landing upstairs. The first night she
thought it was one of the mothers, but when she went
up, the lady vanished. She always stood on that one
landing in the hallway. It s the same place where the
workmen wouldn t go. When I asked them why, they
said they saw a woman there too, but every time they
turned around, no one was there.
For several years it was very very active. I would
hear all kinds of noises footsteps, voices coming
OLD VAN BUREN INN 341
from upstairs, even when I knew I was the only person
there. My own dog, who used to follow me every-
where, wouldn t go upstairs with me. Neither would
my granddaughter. It was scary.
As if things weren t frightening enough, the ghostly ac-
tivity escalated when Jackie brought in some antique bed-
room furniture she had purchased at a yard sale. It was a
local gentleman, whose daughter had murdered someone.
He sold his household effects and left town. After I put the
furniture up in the bedrooms, I started hearing all kinds of
strange noises that I hadn t heard before.
Things just got crazy. When I would go to bed, the bed-
covers were all rumpled, like someone had sat down on the
bed. The hot water heater would get turned on and off, the
lights would go on, all the fans would start going. Every
night, the tape on the telephone recorder would go on. I fi-
nally had to unplug the phone at night.
Jackie was finally driven to call the law. One night, when
she was all alone in the building, she found muddy boot
prints on the upstairs landing. The large prints went from the
hall into the Green Room and then just stopped. I was
afraid someone was in that room. But how did he get up-
stairs without leaving mud on the steps? And there were no
footsteps coming back down. I was more afraid a man had
broken in. Panicked, Jackie called the police. Even they
were baffled by the dark crusts of mud upstairs.
Maybe things have calmed down a bit, or maybe Jackie
has just gotten used to her roommates from beyond, but she
is finally comfortable with them in her home. Maybe they
aren t as agitated anymore, or maybe they are happy with
what I have done to the place.
342 GHOSTLY ENCOUNTERS
Sightings
The story of the little girl is the strangest thing, says
Jackie.
A lady came in for lunch one day, and kept
saying how much she loved the town. She came
back with her daughter two weeks later. It was
on a Sunday, and I had already closed. She said
she just wanted her daughter to see the extra-
ordinary building. The little girl looked up and
saw the ghost lady in the window of the Cran-
berry Room. Ever since then, the girl has been
having visions. She started experiencing psychic
stuff. She told her mother there were things in
the wall. She started hearing voices and having
vivid dreams. The lady called me, and she was
very upset. She said the child was only thirteen.
Other people have seen the lady in the
window, but they didn t get the powers. One
woman was across the street when she looked
up and saw the ghost. She came in all shaky. An-
other lady saw the ghost when she was in her
car at the stop sign. She said the apparition
stood in the window and stared at her, then
faded away. The ghost is always described as a
young lady with curly hair and a high lace collar.
One lady saw a man in a mirror, standing be-
hind her. She screamed, but no one else was
there. She made herself look back in the mirror.
The man was gone.
OLD VAN BUREN INN 343
Another time, a lady was going through a
box of pictures I bought at an estate sale. When
she got to one old photo, she screamed. She
told her husband the eyes in the photo were
alive. The photos came from a family where the
daughter had killed someone.
One couple with a small baby asked me if I
had gotten up and taken a bath at three A.M. The
lady claims she got up with the baby and heard
someone walking around, and then the bath-
water running.
Best Rooms/Times
Although the Green Room and the adjoining bath-
room receive most of the ghostly reports, the Cran-
berry Room is where the woman is sighted. Ghostly
activity seems to pick up after dark.
The Inn/Hotel
The magnificent Old Crawford Bank Building, built in
1889, sits proudly on the corner of Seventh and Main
Streets, as did three other banks. There was a bank on
each corner, and a total of seven banks in old Van
Buren. The Crawford Building, however, was by far the
finest. It took seven years to complete, and was the
only one of its kind. The wood used in the bank was
entirely hand-hewn, and the building had luxurious
marble floors, wainscoting, glazed brick, ornate tur-
rets, and a variety of other special features. With so
much glitter, it s no wonder that it attracted the at-
344 GHOSTLY ENCOUNTERS
tention of Jessie James, who kept local accounts in the
Crawford Bank.
With the depression in the 1930s, the bank took
on a new face. The business was bought out by an-
other bank, but the third floor became a notorious
speakeasy, where dancing and carousing went on at
all hours. It was during this era that a famous murder
took place on the steps of the old bank.
The grisly crime of passion became the talk of this
small town in the illicit days when the Crawford Bank
served as a speakeasy and dance hall. When an out-
raged husband learned that his wife was having an af-
fair with his best friend, he followed the unsuspecting
couple. He hid in the shadows while the couple dined
in a cozy restaurant down the street, then made their
way to the speakeasy, laughing and openly affec-
tionate. As the couple went up to join the merriment
at the bar, the stewing husband sat on the front steps
downstairs, watching and waiting.
He must have waited a long time, because author-
ities found eleven of his cigarette butts on the side-
walk next to the steps. When the couple finally came
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