Cold Springs Ghosts

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Many staffers say ghosts seem to be lurking at  Historic Cold Springs Village

By Amanda Hopkins

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Oct. 17, 2012

During her fourth year working at Cold Springs, Patterson recalls leaving her building to retrieve water from outside. Upon walking back, she noticed a little girl staring out of a second-story window with her hands tucked under her chin. Patterson, thinking she had been assigned an apprentice, smiled at the girl, and the girl smiled back. When Patterson went back inside the Spicer Leaming building, she went to the floor where she had seen the girl and nobody was there.  

“I dropped the water and ran next door,” says Paterson. “My co-worker said, ‘Are you OK? You are white as a ghost!’ And I said, ‘That’s because I just saw one!’”  

Paterson says she was so frightened that she almost quit her job.  

Although she has not seen the girl since the event, Patterson says she still feels the little girl’s presence. “She pulls on my clothes,” she says. “She opens and shuts doors, and she rocks in the rocking chair.” The ghost seems to hang out upstairs by a doll bed most frequently, according to Patterson. 

The next season, a couple that had heard the story asked Patterson to tell them about it. “The man started sobbing,” Patterson recalls. He then revealed that he had donated the doll bed to HCSV. “He told me the doll bed had belonged to his 10-year-old daughter who had died, and that was her favorite toy.” 

While the ghosts of the little girl, malevolent man, and Native American seem to be the most sighted in town, they are not the only spirits who wander the area. There have also been reports of a short woman in the ice cream parlor who waits with candles for her husband to return, a man at the Dennisville Inn who calls for his “working girl,” and a farmer that disappears behind the tractor in the village. 

Jeuchter believes there are numerous reasons why spirits could be drawn to the area. “We bring in a lot of old furniture that has been donated to Cold Springs — we are adjacent to the oldest Presbyterian church and cemetery — and of course, they could be tied to the land itself.” 

“There is a lot of history here,” says Devaney. The 26 buildings that make up HCSV date as far back as 1691, with some built in the early 20th century. “How much is true, how much is made up, who knows?” says Stephanovich. “When people get word of [the stories], and something happens to them they tie it to a ghost. I can’t say I believe or not but I have had experiences here that have made me stop and think.” 

Baldo says the most important tools are your senses: “There are a million gadgets out there, but you have to keep your eyes and ears open all the time. If you are staring at an EMF meter, you might miss a ghost standing right next to you!”  

 This article is the third of four to be published this month on ‘haunted houses’ and ghosts in the Atlantic City region, written by Amanda Hopkins.

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