Haunted Newport Locations

Few American cities have kept so much of their past standing. In Newport you can eat dinner in a building that became a tavern in 1673, walk past an armory chartered in 1741, and end the night at mansions built for the richest families of the Gilded Age. The buildings stayed. So, according to the people who know them best, did some of their occupants.

Newport was a seaport first, and seaports gather stories. Sailors came and went, travelers took rooms for a night, soldiers garrisoned the forts that guarded the bay, and not every one of them left the way they arrived. The tales told in the old taverns and barracks today grew out of that traffic of strangers.

Then came the summer people. The mansions of Bellevue Avenue were built to impress, filled with imported rooms, armor, and antiques that had already lived long lives in Europe. Owners, caretakers, and students who later lived inside those walls have described footsteps, figures, and objects that would not stay still.

None of this has to be believed to be enjoyed. But walk Newport after dark and you will understand why so many people who know these buildings well are careful about what they say they do not believe.