Page 27 - Indulge October/November 2016

before that stop, these people weren’t buying anything that were black — you couldn’t see anything through them.
we were selling!” One of the women on the tour was taking pictures when
she started to scream. On her camera — and we all saw
Guide Kelly James recounts an eerie experience during it – was a woman in the window, dressed in Victorian
a 2015 tour at their very first stop, the Moravian Brethren clothing. You could not see it in the window, but it was
House: “Before I even started speaking, one of the women on clear on the pictures.”
the tour said, ‘I see a woman up in the window dressed all in
white, and she said she sees you and that she’s happy you’re Don’t let that scare you off, though. Boyertown is a lovely
doing this.’ And then she said ‘[the woman] kind of looks like place to stay. In fact, just across the street from the opera
a nurse.’ [The Brethren House] was a [Revolutionary War] house, a housekeeper at The Twin Turrets Inn works all hours
hospital at one point, and I hadn’t even said that yet.” to make sure you’re comfortable. Not too long ago, Margaret
says, a family rented a room in the turrets for the weekend.
Glide on over to Easton and you’ll find haunted — and “On Saturday morning, the mother and father came down for
horrible — history there, too. Like the 1939 explosion at breakfast, but their children were not with them.” The inn’s
Sandts Eddy Quarry, in which 20 tons of dynamite went current owner asked if the parents wanted to wait for the kids
up at once and claimed 31 lives; or the tale of Marty before eating. “They won’t be joining us,” the guests said. “We
Laros, who tried to poison his family — all eight of them had to take them to their grandparents’ house in the middle of
— and ended up killing his mother, father and a boarder. the night.” “Why?” the owner asked. “Late last night a woman
came into the room and asked if she could get us anything …
Then there’s the ghost who haunts the State Theatre. and then she vanished.”
Said to be J. Fred Osterstock, a manager from 1936 to
1965, he’s been seen on stage and off for decades. He’s Bad service? Au contraire. It was just Mary Dilliplane, a live-
such a fixture the popular Freddy Awards are named for him, in housekeeper for the inn’s original owner, Horace Boyer. “One
and he even has his own Twitter account: @FredtheGhostPA. morning,” Margaret says, “he came down for breakfast and she
was not there.” She eventually was found by a chauffeur, who
These tales and more are usually included in the city’s had to climb in through a turret window to bypass a locked door.
two haunted walking tours in October. Guides not only tell
spooky stories, they act them out — often with some creative She’d hanged herself in the closet.
scares along the way. All proceeds go to the Greater Easton
Development Partnership, says organizer Paul Luongo. — See Page 28 for Ghost Tours —

Another place that will give you goose bumps is
Boyertown, home of so many ghosts it’s been called one of
the most haunted small towns in America.

Margaret Harner and her husband, Carl, are members
of the town’s historical society and guides for two jitter-
inducing jaunts: a ghost walk and the Colebrookdale
Railroad’s Eerie Limited train ride.

Some of the ghosts likely stem from the 1908 Rhoads
Opera House Fire — so horrific it’s credited for many
modern fire safety laws. It started with a single kerosene
lamp; by the time the blaze was extinguished, 171 souls had
perished — and it seems not all of them have moved on.

Among Margaret’s favorite tales are two that revolve
around the opera house, which was rebuilt with, as she
puts it, the same “footprint” as the original.

On the bottom floor of the structure is a real estate
agent’s office; above that, apartments. She says the agent
once booked an appointment to view the rentals with a
woman who brought along her son.

As they made their way to the apartments’ outside entrance,
“The 5-year-old threw a fit, absolutely refused to go in. So they
took him into the office, calmed him down, and asked what was
wrong and why he didn’t want to go through the door. He said,
‘It was all those people screaming and running down the stairs.’ ”

After the fire, many of the victims were later found
in that stairwell, crushed in the panic — a fact the boy
couldn’t have known.

During one ghost walk, Margaret says, “we were in
front of the [former Rhoads] building. All the windows