The Hauntings of Stone’s Public House
Posted: 11.16.2024 | Updated: 11.16.2024
Boston. Beantown. Title Town. The Cradle of Liberty.
This storied city is one of America’s oldest and foundational cities, and it has certainly had a lot of history since its founding in 1630. From the Boston Tea Party to the Battle of Bunker Hill to Paul Revere’s midnight run, if one common thread stitches all of Boston’s history together, it’s a flair for the dramatic and colorful.
Nowhere is that more prevalent than in the haunted stories coming out of Stone’s Public House.
Who Haunts Stone's Public House?
What’s Stone’s Public House, you ask? It’s only one of the most historic and, yes, most haunted taverns in the already very haunted city of Boston.
For those wondering who exactly is haunting this old bar, it’s a difficult question to answer. Mainly because there’s not just one answer. There are quite a number of ghosts, odd incidents, and unexplained phenomena that inhabit the original brickwork.
Keep reading to learn more about each ghost, and take an in-person ghost tour with Boston Ghosts to get even more in-depth about haunted Boston.
History of the Pub
Stone’s Public House was built in Ashland, Massachusetts in 1832 by, appropriately enough, John Stone. It was constructed because John Stone heard the news that a railroad would be built through Ashland and Stone. He figured the rail line would cause Ashland to boom and bring customers his way.
His idea would later prove correct, as Ashland is now a lovely commuter suburb west of Boston. However, it was just a small rural settlement at the time, and the new tavern didn’t revitalize things immediately. For one, he built the bar way too close to the train tracks and the noise ended up scaring many potential customers away.
Because of that, John Stone only owned his bar for around two years, though he continued to reside on the property for the remainder of his life. Future owners didn’t have that much luck with the place over the next couple of centuries - the bar changed hands and went bankrupt several times before it was finally purchased by SAK Realty in 2005.
However, not just financial woes have plagued Stone’s Public House. In 1863, several years after Stone ceded his property to another owner, a young girl named Mary J. Smith stayed as a hotel guest. She was a playful child who, tragically, was hit and killed by a passing train when she was playing too close to the tracks.
Unfortunate events like this seem to plague Stone’s Public House; a woman named Henrietta Smith vanished without a trace after staying there in 1887. Burt Phillips perished in Stones in the 1890s. These tragic events stand in stark contrast to the image of the house today; with its music nights and craft brews.
Hauntings of Stone’s Public House
Whenever a place has an abundance of tragedy in its past, it tends to have an abundance of ghosts in its present. One such ghost that’s rumored to haunt Stone’s Public House is that of Mary J. Smith, the girl killed by the passing train.
Stone’s Public House has never forgotten Mary, even keeping a grim reminder of her in the bar itself; a bloody dress that Mary is thought to have worn the day she was killed. But that dress isn’t the only remnant of Mary - many people have spotted her figure hanging around the tavern over the years. From skeptical police officers spotting her silhouette in the 1980s to many guests reporting hearing or seeing her running around carefree upstairs, it seems that some part of Mary remains in Stone’s Public House, even if that part is just a memory.
There have also been many reports of strange occurrences and odd happenings. Locked doors unlock themselves at random, lights turn themselves on and off without human interference, and many psychics and mediums have reported feeling genuinely unnerved when they are brought to the upstairs rooms.
Perhaps some of the energy and pranks can be explained by the members of the staff who are still reported to haunt the premises. Sadie, the maid, Sam, the cook, and Will, the bartender, are three former employees rumored to still be around and are occasionally sighted by sharp-eyed guests. However, the biggest prankster among them is Burt Phillips, whose favorite jokes to play on guests include messing with their water taps and tapping passersby on the shoulder, only to disappear when they turn around!
A Deadly Game of Cards
However, not all the ghosts in Stone’s Public House are so fun and playful, especially the eponymous John Stone himself. Despite losing his bar within a few years of founding it, Stone is said to have never left the place entirely, even after death.
As mentioned above, he was known to still live on the premises, even after selling the tavern to new owners. He’d occasionally visit his old bar, getting drinks and playing cards with folks passing through. These card games weren’t exactly on the up and up - they were usually played on the second floor, away from prying eyes, and only at night.
In 1845, John Stone entered a card game with a man, Michael. Michael was a boarder in the hotel and was a bit of a card shark. John wasn’t aware of Michael’s reputation. After getting cleaned out one time too many, John accused Michael of cheating, having lost $3,000 during the game. Words were exchanged, emotions got heated, and John ended up killing Michael in a fit of rage.
Details about this are sketchy, but Stone either recruited some of his employees or perhaps some of his fellow card players to take Michael’s body and hide it downstairs in the dirt basement. Although there hasn’t been a formal investigation of the basement, locals and parapsychologists swear that a skeleton will be found if it’s dug up.
Perhaps, old John Stone feels remorse for his actions, as many people have claimed to have seen his face pop up and around the tavern. Maybe he’s sticking around, trying to earn some manner of penance for his murder…or perhaps he’s just making sure no one’s cheating at cards again in his establishment!
Haunted Boston
Whichever ghosts you do or don’t believe in, it can’t be denied that Stone’s Public House has a storied past and is a firm part of Massachusetts' haunted establishment. If you’re interested in learning more about haunted Boston as a whole, be sure to take a ghost tour with Boston Ghosts. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, and keep reading our blog for more real Massachusetts hauntings.
Sources:
https://www.stonespublichouse.com
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/stones-public-house
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