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Subject: [FOLKLORE] The Farnsworth House
Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2000 13:28:14 EDT

The Farnsworth House

The Farnsworth House Inn on Baltimore Street has a long, and some say
haunted, history in Gettysburg. The original part of this structure, which
today boasts an excellent restaurant and inn, was built in 1810 and a brick
portion was added later in 1833, constructed by John McFarland. During the
battle, the house was occupied by the Sweney family and was eventually opened
as an inn by the George Black family in the early 1900’s.


Today, the house is a showcase of history and it retains the original walls,
flooring and rafters... and some believe it also retains a few of the
occupants who passed through the house years ago.

During the battle, the house was occupied by Confederate sharpshooters, who
used the garret (attic) of the house as a vantage point to fire at the Union
troops on Cemetery Hill, just a few hundred yards away. According to the
legends, a sharpshooter was taking aim at a door on a house a short distance
away, between the Sweney House and the Federal lines. He was using the
doorknob as a target to see just how hard the wind was blowing. He fired and
when he did, the bullet pierced the wooden door and struck and killed a woman
named Jennie Wade, who was in the kitchen kneading dough. She became the only
civilian who was killed during the battle.

It has been said that the deeds and the presence of these sharpshooters has
left an indelible mark on the Farnsworth House. According to the ghostly
traditions of the place, the sound of a jew’s-harp has been heard drifting
down from the attic when no one is present there... a musical instrument
commonly played by soldiers during the Civil War.

And if these soldiers still linger here... they do not do so alone.

After the battle, the house was used as a Federal headquarters, further
adding to the history. The battle itself also left a mark on the place in the
form of more than 100 bullet holes which can be seen on the south side of the
house. Most of these marks still remain, even after all of these years, and
many of the bullets removed from the wall are on display inside.

In 1972, the house was purchased by the Loring Shultz family, who began
restoring the place to the way it looked in 1863. The inn and restaurant are
operated today by the Shultz family who run the place and operate not only a
theater for ghost stories but also organize the inn’s popular "ghost tours".

The owners and staff members are a veritable treasure chest of stories
relating to hauntings at the Farnsworth House, from the spectral
sharpshooters to tales of guests who have heard phantom footsteps on the
stairs; have detected unexplained noises; have felt invisible intruders
sitting on the ends of their bed; and many more. If this is not one of the
most haunted buildings in Gettysburg, then it most be near the top of the
list.

A year prior to this writing, my wife and I were lucky enough to visit the
Farnsworth House and be treated to not only a wonderful dinner, but to some
of the numerous ghost tales as well. I have since spoken to staff members at
the house, who while they choose to remain anonymous, gladly shared some of
the strange happenings of the place.

While many of the stories here are the types of things that one might expect
from a haunted place... the sincerity of the tellers sets them apart from
what you might expect in a "typical" situation. In addition to the incidents
already mentioned, staff members have reported seeing movement out of the
corner of the eye, only to turn and find nothing there. Some have also
reported seeing shadows moving through the dining room at night, after
everyone else has gone home, only to find the place is deserted. There are
also a number of reports of footsteps pacing through the main floor at night,
and of employees hearing these footsteps following behind them, only to turn
and see no one is there. On other occasions, staff members have been tapped
on the shoulder, or touched, by unseen hands.

On one occasion, two different waitresses reported a similar experience. One
summer evening, a waitress in period costume rushed into the kitchen and
claimed that her long apron had been roughly yanked by something she could
not see. The force of the pull had literally spun her completely around. This
occurred in an outdoor dining area, adjacent to the Farnsworth courtyard. It
had also taken place in front of a table of understandably surprised patrons,
who also witnessed the apron being forcibly yanked.

A few days later, the same thing happened to another waitress, although this
time it happened in the back hallway. The second waitress was not aware of
what had happened to the first woman, although both of them were visibly
shaken by their experiences.

On another occasion, two staff members were standing and talking in the inn’s
tavern. As they chatted, they were facing the back hallway which ran between
the kitchen and the tavern. Suddenly, one of the women realized they were no
longer standing there alone. Down the hallway, she spotted an older women in
what looked like a period costume. The strange woman seemed to be looking at
items stored on the shelves there. The staff member glanced away for a moment
and when she looked back, the older lady was gone.

Concerned now that a customer may have wandered into a staff area, because
she knew that she was certainly not an employee, she went into the kitchen to
see if the woman had returned in that direction. No one had seen her come
inside... even though the kitchen was the only place the old lady could have
gone.

Not surprisingly, the "vanishing lady" fit the description of a ghostly
visitor who has been reported many times at the Farnsworth House over the
years, even though the woman who described her, while aware of this ongoing
tale, was not aware of the lady’s description. The apparition has been
reported many times, by a wide variety of people, although who she actually
is remains a mystery.

One Valentine’s Day, which is a busy night during a normally slow winter
season, the restaurant was packed with people and all of the extra work made
it so that several staff members had to stay until the early hours of the
morning to get things cleaned up. Just before they were ready to go home, an
employee went to put away the last tray of clean silverware in the pantry off
the dining room. Moments later, there was a loud crash in the pantry and a
groan from the staff member who had just walked in there.

According to her story, she had just placed the tray where it was supposed to
go, and was walking away, when the tray suddenly raised up under its own
power, flew several feet and then dumped into the middle of the floor,
showering the pantry with pieces of silverware.

Needless to say, the normally welcome spirits were very unwelcome that night
as the staff angrily had to re-wash the tray of silverware.



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