Annapolis

For our last official tour of haunted Maryland, we took an easy trip right down the road to downtown Annapolis.  Since we had already gone on the Annapolis ghost tour last November, we revisited the most haunted sites on the tour and re-familiarized ourselves with the stories we heard on the tour.  We even bravely topped our night off with Reilly bravely climbing the Brice house steps in hot pursuit of it's resident ghost.  Unfortunately, we didn't not meet any spooky specters, but we have, once again compiled our top three stories for your viewing pleasure!

1. Maryland State House: Construction on the State House began in 1772, but the Revolutionary War delayed further work for a few years.  After the war was over, the powers that be resumed work on the building. The exterior was finished in 1788, but the interior still needed a little TLC. To help finish the inside of the building, a plasterer named Thomas Dance was hired to sculpt the inner dome. Thomas took his job VERY seriously, and was quite arrogant about his skill as a master plasterer. One fateful day, after Dance had finished up his work for the day, he leaned back on his later to admire his work.  Unfortunately, he either leaned back to far or lost his footing, and he plunged to his death.  Thomas was never able to finish his work, and his unsatisfied spirit has remained at the State House ever since, roaming around the dome forever.  Visitors have reported seeing a figure overlooking the city in the top windows of the State House, and some have reported feeling a chill while inside the building.  An instance that is particularly noteworthy involves an irate tourist, who upon seeing the inner dome during a tour, voiced his dissatisfaction with its design.  He complained loudly that it "wasn't so special" and that he'd seen more impressive things elsewhere.  This apparently didn't sit too well with Thomas and suddenly the grand doors of the State House were blown open, and the dissatisfied tourist got the brunt of the forceful wind.  Needless to say, he kept mum for the rest of the tour.  Apparently Thomas doesn't take too kindly to people insulting the masterpiece he died for.

Reilly attempts to coax Joe into a photo

2. Joe Morgue: Around the end of the 18th century, Annapolis was the home of a particularly quirky grave digger named Joseph Simmons (1736-1836) - nicknamed Joe Morgue because of his obsession with death.  He worked in the cemetery around St. Anne's Church, which, back in the day was much bigger than it appear now (that's right, when you're driving around church circle there are bodies beneath you!).  For a while, it seemed as if Joe Morgue would bury everyone in Annapolis at one point or another.  He would often threaten children who ridiculed him "I'll have you one day!", as if he was promising to bury them.  Since Joe Morgue lived to be about 100, it's likely he made good on this threat once or twice.  A strange recluse, Joe Morgue attempted to bury a man alive once.  The man in question, Jeffery Jig, was most likely a narcoleptic and fell into a coma-like state occasionally.  On one particular instance, his stupor lasted longer than usual and his family believed him to be dead.  As they were burying him, the funereal goers started to here thumps coming from inside the coffin. Realizing their grave error (hah), they immediately told Joe to stop burying the coffin.  Joe ignored their pleas, saying that if the man was not dead yet, he soon would be.  Only when he was forcefully restrained were the able to prevent him from burying poor Jig alive.  When Joe finally passed on in 1836, he was buried in the new St. Anne's Cemetery just between Northwest Street and College Creek, but dead didn't necessarily mean gone for old Joe Morgue.  His spirit has been seen in many places throughout Annapolis, from the cemetery he is buried in, to the one he worked at for his entire life, and unexplained electrical problems have been known to happen in the churchyard.  He is even sometimes seen inside the church, sitting at his regular pew in the back, before disappearing in to the church yard to carry on his eternal duty as grave master.

3. Brice House - Deemed the most haunted house in all of Annapolis, Brice House holds a true horror story quite literally behind it's walls. Built in 1766 by James Brice, this Georgian-style mansion served as the Brice family home for over a century. Now the headquarters of the International Masonry Institute, much has been unearthed about Brice House's dark past over the years.  First and foremost, while undergoing some renovations, hoodoo spiritual offerings were found under floorboards in the kitchen, most likely put their by slaves of the past to ward off evil spirits.  But what, you might ask, was so evil about Brice House that slaves felt the need to protect themselves?  Perhaps the girl in the wall can answer that question.  It was long rumored that one of the Brice men had hidden a treasure somewhere in the house's walls, so when renovators discovered a hollow wall in a closet, they became very excited.  Much to their surprise however, hidden treasure was not what they found.  Behind the wall was the body of a woman, curled up and dressed in 19th century clothing.  Most disturbing was the fact that there were scratch marks on the inner wall of the secret hideout - suggesting that whoever the girl was wasn't dead when the wall trapped her in.  It is speculated that the woman was mentally ill, and, back in those days this would be seen a shameful for the family.  In order to avoid the shame of a  mentally ill family member they hid her from the world, and walled her up, believing that it was up to God if she lived or died or not.  Since the Brice's did not actively kill her, they believed they were not responsible for her death.  Her ghost seems to think differently however.  Locals have reported hearing the sounds of panicked screams and sobs around the mansion at night - police have even been called numerous times to investigate the area, as many people have been convinced the screams are the sounds of someone being assaulted.  Each time the police investigate however, they find nothing.  Thumps have been heard on the walls, and many have reported feeling a sense of horrible dread in the house, as if something is not quite right.  While we were on the tour, we heard of a local legend which claims if you go up and knock on the door at night, a ghost will appear in the doorway.  Though our own experiment in this regard failed, some people have posted photos on the Ghost Tours Facebook Page of their own supernatural encounters at Brice House.  Don't believe in the legend? Head on down East Street and try it yourself, you might just be surprised at what you find.

We used more outside sources for this tour than usual, you can find our information about the State House and St. Anne's through the attached links, and the story's of Joe Morgue and Brice House in the following books:
Lake, Matt (2006) Weird Maryland. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc
Okonowicz, Ed (2010) The Big Book of Maryland Ghost Stories. Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books

Now we're off to north of the Mason-Dixon Line to the bloodiest battlefield of the Civil War: Gettysburg!