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Saratoga County Ghosts |
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Ghost Stories
from the Olde Bryan Inn
Restaurant
and High Rock Spring 1787
Saratoga Springs, NY
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Ghostly
Tales
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In 1787, tavern owner Alexander Bryan, from Waterford, came to the bluff
overlooking a valley in the wilderness. As an army scout, he had provided
General Gates with indispensable information before the Battle of Saratoga ten
years earlier. The canny Irishman noted the flow of visitors to a rocky cone in
the valley that spouted mineral waters. The Indians called it “The Healing
Spring of the Great Spirit”, and the white settlers, especially the wealthy and
influential Schuylers from their plantation on the Hudson River, were regular
visitors. Bryan’s rough log tavern offered a variety of alcoholic drinks for
those who were unimpressed by the springs. In later days he built an intricate
stairway up the face of the bluff, so that patrons could reach his front door
easily.
In the early 1800’s, the building at 9 Maple Avenue achieved its present
appearance – a log structure enclosed within a larger building of cut stone. It
served its original purpose for many years, then became a hand laundry and then
a private home. Somewhere, in those over two hundred years of history, the
building acquired at least one ghost.
A Saratoga woman named Nancy grew up in the building when it was a residence in
the 1950’s. When she visits the restaurant of today, she still has strange
experiences. At about age eleven she experienced much activity on the second
floor. The area of the present upstairs men’s room was her bedroom. One night
she awoke, hearing a voice calling her name. Nancy saw an old woman wearing a
high-necked green Victorian dress, and felt almost “under a spell”. It was hard
to sit up and look at the woman. Thankfully, the ghost disappeared.
Nancy and her sister often heard water running in their bathroom lavatory, when
no living person could have turned it on. The upstairs bathroom had a door that
led into the attic. Late one night on a trip to the bathroom she encountered a
colonial soldier riding a white horse. Hardly the typical bathroom trip! She
noted that he carried a lance of some sort, and plunged back into bed, fearful
for her safety. Was Alexander Bryan still fighting some foe that others cannot
see?
Her brother Kevin also had strange encounters. He sometimes found the shower
running when no one used it. On other occasions, when using the large mirror, he
saw an old woman appearing in the reflection. Spinning quickly, he never found
such a person behind him.
Eventually, the family sold the house and, before vacating the building, Nancy
decided to explore the attic. Among the boxes stored there she found one that
attracted her interest. Opening the lid, she found an old green high-necked
Victorian dress, which probably belonged to her grandmother, Beatrice. She left
it there. About ten years later she met one of the new owners, who told her the
dress was still there.
In 1993, she took one of her sons to dinner at the Inn, to show him where she
used to live. She hadn’t recounted many of the old stories when they got there.
Before the meal he went upstairs to the men’s room. When he returned he had a
strange, almost shocked look on his face. “Mom, you won’t believe this,” he
blurted. “When I was coming down stairs, I looked over into the dining room and
saw an old woman coming down from the upstairs through the air!” he said
excitedly. The boy hadn’t been told that the stairway, now removed, used to be
where he had seen the woman descending. Beatrice may still walk on the stairs of
her time.
There are countless other stories told by former chefs, waiters and waitresses.
Objects move overnight, especially in the bar area, after the building is
closed. Maybe Alexander Bryan loved the excitement of his time and is trying to
recapture it for the new owners. You might find it worth your while to have
dinner at The Older Bryan Inn some evening. After the appetizer course, look
slowly up the present stairway. Then look to see if there is another, fainter
one, visible in the room. Maybe Beatrice will come down and join you, or, if you
are really lucky, Alexander Bryan may appear, with or without his horse.
Excerpt from: ‘Saratoga County Ghosts’ by David J. Pitkin (see author's 2005
updated book entitled 'Haunted Saratoga County')
Copyright 1998 Aurora Publications, Salem, New York 12865 |
