Whistler’s Inn overlooks beautiful gardens from leaded windows and has charming hosts, but what lies beneath the quaint charm? Charming ghosts?
Whistler’s Inn History
Set in the rolling Massachusetts countryside, the lovely mock-Tudor house that is now known as Whistler’s Inn was built in 1870. Railroad tycoon Ross Winans Whistler bought the house and lived there with Theodora after they married in 1884. The house is situated in a small valley and was originally called Hidden House. The gardens are romantically planted with Wisteria and roses.
Ross Whistler died in 1927, leaving his wife in the huge rambling house. The widow, grieving and faced with spending the rest of her life alone, hired a young woman from Sweden to help her. Nancy complained that she couldn’t cope and was given permission to bring her sister and brother-in-law to work at Hidden House. There was a hidden passion between Nancy and her brother-in-law, Paul, but he died, very young and very suddenly, perhaps from the stress of his wife and her sister, his mistress, in the same house. He was buried in the graveyard across the road. Some of the rooms at the Inn now overlook the old graveyard. Perhaps that is what gives people the idea that ghosts walk here.
The Rivals & The Tycoon
Nancy and her love rival sister remained together in the house, but it was not easy. They are buried across the road too, and there is speculation that the three lovers, and the one-time owner of the house, millionaire Ross Winans Whistler, all cling to the old place. Ross didn’t die here, though; he succumbed to heart disease in Nassau, Bahamas, at the age of 69. Three of the fourteen bedrooms are said to have a spiritual presence and the attic is a very uncomfortable place for living people.
Who is in Room 7?
When the current owners inherited the house they found that things would suddenly flood. Walk into a room, immediately turn and walk back out, and find you are wading through an inch of water. This happened to Richard Mears the first time he stayed in the house alone and went to check on room 7 just before leaving. Pipes would then burst on a fairly regular basis. He and his wife noticed areas of warmth and cold too, particularly in rooms 1, 5, and 7.
The possibility of spirits has brought customers to the Inn but it has meant some extra work when people have wanted to change rooms, for undefined reasons. A feeling of discomfort, uneasiness, and sudden changes in temperature are some of the quoted issues. There have been no reports of visualizations or of being touched by anything. Strange things still happen with the plumbing, even 30 years later. There was the time a window fell out too, but that could happen anywhere. Couldn’t it?