to keep the site from being regarded as a “haunted fort” and to instead emphasize the nonsupernatural history of the National Monument and Historic Shrine, the managers of Fort McHenry decline to directly comment on phenomena that are still regularly reported by visitors.
Potential ghosthunters should also expect to have anything they ask to do at the site be curtailed by red tape. A favored tactic at Fort McHenry is to require application of a “special use permit” for anything its managers don’t really want people to do—the major exception to this being, it would seem, historic reenactment, for which the site has become a virtual playground. The important thing to remember is that the site is public property and that very little of what is involved in most investigations should actually require any sort of permission anyway.
CHAPTER 2
Fells Point
SOUTHEAST BALTIMORE
The Horse You Came in On, a historic saloon frequented by Edgar Allan Poe, is one of many reputed to be haunted in the Fells Point neighborhood of Baltimore.
We have lots of different sorts of hauntings. Some people we think we know. Some we’ve no idea. And some we’ve raised glasses with ourselves. People we know have come back and haunted the pubs we saw them in when they were alive.
—Leanna Foglia, Baltimore Ghost Tours
BARS, BORDELLOS, AND BOARDING HOUSES. Those were the three “Bs” that were the hallmark of Maryland’s rowdiest seaport in the eighteenth century. That is where the action was and, not surprisingly, that is where ghosts are today, in the buildings that once housed those establishments. Many of those bars are now cozy pubs but they still harbor spirits, some dating back to Fells Point’s earliest days and others quite recent. Whether old or new, however, the spirits all have one thing in common: their attachment to this unique area was such that they were reluctant to move on and cross over.
Today, Fells Point is a neighborhood of Baltimore, but once it was a notorious town in its own right. Thanks to its charming waterfront location, its well-preserved Colonial-era row houses, and its narrow cobblestone streets, the once unruly seaport has been “discovered” and is well along in the process of gentrification.
Fells Point was founded in 1730 by its namesake, William Fell, who was drawn to the location by its deep water and proximity to agriculture and thick forests. It soon became a shipbuilding and commercial center. About 1763, William’s son Edward Fell laid out streets and began selling plots for homes. The town grew quickly and in 1797 incorporated with Baltimore Town and Jones Town to form the City of Baltimore. The area grew wealthy on the tobacco, flour, and coffee trades through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The history of Fells Point is intertwined with some of the most significant events in America’s history and some of the first vessels commissioned for the U.S. Navy were built in Fells Point shipyards. They included the USS Constellation, built in 1797 and now moored nearby at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. (See the separate chapter in this book on this haunted and historic vessel.) Ultimately, however, the town became best known for producing topsail schooners—known incorrectly as Baltimore clippers—which were justly renowned for their great speed and maneuverability. During the War of 1812, they were frequently used as privateer vessels to prey upon British shipping. They had a deadly effect on the British, but ultimately brought retribution and a unique humiliation to the young United States.
Armed with Letters of Marque and Reprisal issued by Congress, these privateers—many sailing out of Fells Point—captured or sank some seventeen hundred British merchant vessels during the three-year conflict. For the American skippers and their crews, this was both a patriotic contribution to the war effort and a lucrative financial venture. Each ship taken was a prize to be sold. For the British, this became intolerable.
Finally, in retaliation, the British launched the Chesapeake Campaign in 1814 with the expressed purpose of “cleaning out that nest of pirates in Baltimore.” Their goal was to shut down the shipyards at Fells Point and halt the production of the deadly “Baltimore clippers.” Unfortunately for our new nation, the British, on their way up the Chesapeake Bay, managed to capture and sack Washington, D.C.—and in the process burn both the Capitol and the White House.
The vengeful redcoats then continued up the Bay, with the goal of capturing Baltimore and Fells Point by way of a combined land and naval attack. They failed on both fronts. Their ground forces were decimated by the Maryland militia at North Point, while the guns at Fort McHenry, strategically placed at the mouth of Baltimore harbor, prevented the British fleet from entering it. (See the separate chapter in this book on this historic redoubt and the ghosts that haunt it.)
Fort McHenry withstood a ferocious twenty-five-hour naval bombardment on September 12 and 13, 1814. It was during this bombardment that Maryland lawyer and poet, Francis Scott Key, was able to see “by the dawn’s early light” the huge “star-spangled banner” still flying over the fort. It’s well known that his poem became our national anthem. What is less well known is the role that Fells Point played in prodding the British to attack Fort McHenry in the first place. Quite simply, without Fells Point and its deadly clippers, there would have been no attack on Fort McHenry and there would thus have been no “Star-Spangled Banner.”
One can sense that history in the Fells Point of today—and, indeed, it should not be surprising that such a feisty population would produce more than its share of ghosts. Nor should it be surprising that a disproportionate number of these ghosts would be found in the places that sailors and shipbuilders frequented, namely bars and pubs, of which Fells Point still has a remarkable number—about 120. Many of these have their roots in the eighteenth century.
Some, like the Wharf Rat and the Horse You Came In On, were frequented by none other than Edgar Allan Poe. The poet is interred at the nearby Westminster Burying Ground but, many locals maintain, his spirit is not there, but can instead sometimes be seen in the wee hours swaying unsteadily down Thames Street, making his way from the Wharf Rat to the Horse. (See, however, the chapter in this book on the fascinating Westminster Hall and Burying Ground.) In fact, some believe, Poe haunts the Horse in particular. It is the custom there at closing to appease his spirit by setting out for him a glass of cognac, his favorite drink. In the morning the glass is found empty, washed and put away. So if you have a cognac there, you may be drinking out of the very glass that Poe sipped from the night before.
Fells Point today, as in Poe’s day, has an active nightlife. With plenty of live music, walkable streets, and friendly locals, it is easy to see why some spirits became so attached to their local “haunts” that they have not been willing to move on. Some pubs, like the venerable Bertha’s, famous for its mussels, have dozens of ghosts—or so we were told by our guide, Leanna Foglio.
Indeed, the best introduction to Fells Point ghost life is the ghost tour. Actually, there are two run by Baltimore Ghost Tours—the Ghost Walk and the Pub Walk. We did the Ghost Walk and were so impressed that we will definitely go back for the other.
The tours are the brain children of Amy Lynwander and Melissa “Missy” Rowell. It was, in fact, Missy’s personal encounter with a ghost soon after moving to Fells Point that stimulated the interest that led these friends to do the research that ultimately resulted in the tour.
Missy had dropped into the Cat’s Eye Pub on Thames Street to buy a souvenir T-shirt for her father, who had visited the pub some years earlier and had asked her to pick one up for him. The bartender at the Cat’s Eye was a tall, thin man, who bore a striking resemblance to Abraham Lincoln, and turned out to be a font of knowledge about Fells Point. He had been there for years, and
