The Damned Story: In Preston sits Captain Grant’s Inn, a rustic bed-and-breakfast that for over two centuries has succeeded both as a temporary refuge for travelers and a permanent home … to ghosts!
In 1754, Captain William Grant built a “suitable” home in Poquetanuck Village for his beloved wife Mercy and their children. Even though Captain Grant later died at sea, the abode served the family well — Mercy lived there well into her 80s, followed by three generations of Grants.
According to the inn’s website, during the Revolutionary War, soldiers of the Continental Army were garrisoned there; during the Civil War, escaped slaves were sheltered there. The house underwent a significant renovation in the mid 1990s, and now features numerous named rooms, six working fireplaces and a three-story porch. Poquetanuck’s first cemetery is also located behind the inn.
Apparently, one room in particular — the Adelaide Room — is a hotspot for paranormal activity. One guest claims to have awakened in the middle of the night to see next to her bed a woman dressed in Colonial-era garb, holding hands with two children. There have also been claims of the TV turning itself on and off as well as the shower curtain being knocked down without provocation.
Some visitors have reported hearing random knockings and seeing unusual shapes; one guest described the sensation of having her face caressed by invisible hands, another told of the shade of a young child passing through them. Paranormal investigators have also allegedly recorded EVPs here, including the voice of a young girl. Phantom footsteps have been heard in the attic.
The owners of the inn have described their supposed ghosts as “protective” spirits, and have only reported positive — if eerie — experiences.
Captain Grant’s is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and has been featured on Home & Garden TV and in Yankee Magazine as well as being listed as a haunted inn by CNN and USA Today. It has also been in an episode of A&E’s “Psychic Kids: Children of the Paranormal.”
Our Damned Experience: We have yet to visit Captain Grant’s Inn, but it looks like a great place to spend a night with spirits and, apparently, without our children, you know, unless they are psychic (which they are not … yet).
If You Go: Capt. Grant’s Inn is a well-appointed and highly recommended bed-and-breakfast, open to the public year round. It is located on Route 2A in Preston, and offers every pleasant amenity for which a visitor could ask. For reservations, call 860.887.7589.
As mentioned, Captain Grant’s embraces its haunted history, so feel free to mention it when making arrangements.
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14 comments
Hey whats up everyone!
I’d like to share with you my awesome stay at Captain Grants Inn. My girlfriend and I saw the episode of Psychic Children on A&E a few months back that featured the bed and breakfast, and being a native of CT, I couldn’t resist a chance to have a possible paranormal experience there… So we booked The Adelaide Room for a night.
Let me just say that besides the whole paranormal allure the show gave it, the house was very beautiful, warm and inviting. The Innkeepers were very gracious and the breakfast was killer!
We were fortunate enough that only three other rooms were booked by couples who spent almost the entire night at Mohegan Sun, which was great, because it left most of the house empty for my girlfriend and I to explore. For the most part, during the evening before midnight, it was pretty quiet in the Inn, but there were cold spots everywhere. The most distinct I’ve ever felt. I remember walking toward the bathroom in our room and the only way to describe it, it was like swimming into a cold spot of water at the beach; like a dense, cold bubble of air. This happened in a few places around the house. There were also many times when the hair on the back of our necks would go up for no reason and we would get the sense of being watched. Very eerie, very cool.
It was about 12:30AM that the place started to liven up with activity. We heard such things as knocking that started from down the outside hallway and led into our room. It was then, I figured it was a good time to start some EVP sessions. Although we didn’t hear any voices, my recorder picked up many intelligent voice responses to my questions, including a little girl’s voice confirming her age was 5, a man’s voice saying “Get down”, and a woman’s voice, whom I believe to possibly be Adelaide herself, clearly asking a question to my girlfriend. No whisper, mind you, but a clear female voice that had a slight accent. We even heard a female voice say the name Mercy, which I later realized was Adelaide’s first name. All together, I caught about about 15 voices from what sounds like four of five different spirits.
Id have to say though, it was the footsteps coming from the attic (right above our heads) which started about 4 in the morning that was really the crème del la crème of the night. We heard heavy boot steps walk from above our heads toward where our bathroom was, then turn and came back. When I asked “It” to do it again, it did. Three times in total, and as I listened back on the audio later, there is also a deep vocal hum that occurs, as if giving me validation of what I just heard. It was definitely the most surreal paranormal experience I have had to date.
Later the next morning, after a delicious home cooked country breakfast, we talked a while with the Innkeepers Carol and Ted around the dinning table. Ted is a friendly, hospitable guy who is very much a skeptic and has only one occurrence that he says he can’t really explain, but Carol on the other hand, is very much a believer. It was fun to listen to all of the different experiences she and other guests have had, including confirmation on some of our own.
The experience at Captain Grants was so incredible, that we convinced our friends to book the whole house for a night this fall…I can’t wait.
We will be coming to this location from Sept 14th-15th, staying the night and having the entire location to ourselves. If you want, we will share our pictures, evps, experiences, and more with you and your viewers.
Michael- did you have any experiences while you were there?
My boyfriend and I will be staying in the Adelaide room for one night in a couple of weeks. I may regret saying this now, but I am looking forward to (and hoping) some spirits will show up that night.
Grace~We did hear some sounds coming from above the room you will be staying in, which was our room too. Also, a medium with us “saw” a gentleman near the cemetery directly behind the Inn. We also heard some unexplained noises in that cemetery, too.
November 7, 2011
My boyfriend and I had stayed at another B&B for a few nights. With the weather being mild we decided to stay another night, which happened to be Captain Grants 1754 B&B
the Amy room. We checked in about 1230pm and went off to Mohegan Sun, we returned late about 1130pm very tired. As my norm I use a sound spa with white noise to help me sleep. I had let my boyfriend know a little bit about the history, I did not want to scare the living daylights out of him. I told him to wake me if he gets nervous or hears anything. That night he did hear things and could not wake me , as I was out cold. He told me he heard knocking and footsteps coming from the Adalaide room. He also stated the white noise with the sound spa changed to a different tone (whispering). He basically got no sleep from 3am on.
Took some photos while visiting with my son. Think I got a possible ghost face (or up to 3) while shooting random pictures fluidly, thus the blurriness, sorry.
My boyfriend and I stayed at Captain Grant’s the weekend after Thanksgiving, in the Adelaide room. Michael, we saw your group’s comments in the guestbook there, as well as many other interesting stories. Well, I tried my best to entice the spirits, asking them to move things before we left the room, moving things myself to see if they would be moved back…but, nothing. But, my boyfriend did wake up between 3 and 4AM (that seems to be the witching hour there), and heard knocking or tapping coming from the attic. The next morning, we confirmed with one of the owners, Ted, that there were no guest rooms in the attic, and therefore, no one could have been up there at that time. I didn’t get to hear it myself, but I will definitely be staying there again! Even if you don’t have any ghostly experiences, it was a very nice place to stay, and the owners were incredibly nice (Ted suggested an awesome flea market in Jewett City that we went to). Ted did seem a little bemused at the mention of the knocking, and did say that others have experienced that there. Also, if you go with the intention of ghost hunting, be aware that the walls are thin, and sounds carry like nobody’s business there (which is why I was very hesitant to do any EVP work there). I guess if you go and no one else is staying, it won’t be a problem though!
I just visited the inn and met Ted, Carol and staff and found them to be very wonderful. Took a boatload of quick pics as Ted gave my son and I a quick tour of the place, very nice of him to do that.
I took pics all over the place while trying to get my son in some of the shots as well, thus blurry photos to try to keep up with him while he moved around the place. However, in the Adelaide room, a blurred shot of my son’s head reveals a blur to the right that has an eerie semblance of a face, and even up to (2 more) children’s head when looked at close up in high quality, for believers..otherwise, of course, anything can be easily explained away until it happens to that person for the first time.
Grace, funny you emailed me, I was just going to try to print out a good quality photo and mail it to Ted & Carol at Captain Grant’s Inn!
Kindest regards,
Mark
I just booked Captain Grant’s for the 2nd time (April of this year) and I absolutely cannot wait to see if I have similar experiences to what I had the last time I stayed (March of 2011). Last year I stayed in the Adelaide room with a friend and wrote quite a bit in the room’s diary. I went up into the attic by myself a little before midnight and got some INCREDIBLE orb photos. I mean…you’d think it was the moon but the moon was on the opposite side of the house. I didn’t sleep much while we were there, as I was absolutely intrigued about the noises I was hearing.
Footsteps back and forth and back and forth in the attic…. the sound of marbles or heavily weighted balls being rolled down the hallway and the distinct sound of children’s laughter at 4am or thereabouts. Absolutely amazing.
There was a couple that stayed across the hall in the Elizabeth room that was at breakfast the next morning and when I mentioned the childrens’ laughter the woman of the couple said, “yeah, I heard them laughing too…. I thought it was pretty rude to be making so much noise so late – where are they, by the way?” I said, “ummmm…. we were the only ones here last night”. And she looked at me quizzically for a second and then she realized that she heard the voices of ghost children – as did I.
Sad in one way – but they were laughing and having a good time apparently…. so that makes it a little easier to accept.
Best 2 nights for experiencing paranormal phenomena. Really looking forward to going back (solo!) in a couple months.
Looking forward to seeing you again, Ted & Carol!
Captain Grants Inn is amazing. Not only is this location beautiful, but the owners and staff are great. I am the founder of a Paranormal Investigation group based out of Connecticut and we a couple of us recently stayed at Captain Grants Inn just to get a feeling of the place and see if it would be worth investigating. We did bring some equipment and We caught a lot of EVPs in the billiards room. We brought a Digital recorder and a Mel meter with us while we played billiards, waiting for it to get later for a spirit box session. We turned both pieces of equipment on and played a few games of billiards. When we got back from the trip we reviewed the audio and to our surprised about 10+ different words and sentences were whispered throughout our 45 minute clip. Without a doubt there is something paranormal at Captain Grants Inn. We did not stay in the Adelaide room, but we will be sure to book it soon. If anyone has a questionable pictures from Captain Grants Inn, please e-mail them to me: m.nick1982@hotmail.com.
Special thanks to Ted and Carol, amazing stay.
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2 pics (1 is an enlargement) from Captain Grants of my son, Sam.
Special thanks to Ted and Carol!!
We stayed for one night on March 29th to March 30th of 2014 in the AMY room~ cute room was pleased with the inn and the breakfast was just delish and the carrot cake jam was just out of this world!!! In fact we bought two jars to bring home!!! We had a problem with the clock not holding the time, It was a hour behind in time so when I looked at the clock when I was woken up suddenly by someone pulling the covers away from me which I have to be honest I was FROZEN in fear…The clock said it was 2;38 it was really 3;38 which means it was the witching hour!! I screamed for my boyfriend Mike whom of course was snoring away next to me and he told me he did it and to go back to sleep then he fessed up in the morning that it was not him and he just said that to me so I would not be freaked out and that I would go back to sleep then he proceeded to tell me that it happened to him twice!!!
Just Booked A Room
Just booked a room for this upcoming September. I am so excited and I can not wait. Even if something does not happen, the room itself (the Adelaide room) looks amazing.
creepy
when I went there with my bf it was creepy so my boyfriend and I went to a bed room and fucked and it was when I was 15 same age I am now
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