Description of Place: The Governor’s Mansion is a white two-story American Federal mansion. Standing at the top of a hill, the front of the house has a portico supported by four Dorian columns. The two front doors open into a grand foyer and double staircase to the upstairs. It has six bedrooms and four bathrooms. The Governor’s office is downstairs where it has a view of the garden. The grounds are patrolled by security guards with two Doberman pinschers to deter trespassers.

Ghostly Manifestations: The White House in Washington D.C. is quite possibly the most famous “public” haunted house in the United States, but it is by far not the only one. Numerous buildings and structures in the nation’s capital have been reported as domiciles for the spirits of those who have passed on to the next world and as one continues crisscrossing the country, they would be likely to find several more. Several of the governors of Connecticut have noticed that with the responsibility of the state which they have taken on that they have also accepted the unwarranted attention of a previous incumbent who for some reason believes his term in office is not yet completed.

“I’ve worked for four governors of the state for over twenty years.” German-born Gretchen Kraus started working in the Governor’s Mansion in the early Sixties and eventually became the main housekeeper. “The story of the ghost of Governor Hardwick has been passed down for almost a hundred years since his death by the house staff. Usually things calm down after a few days after he makes his presence known, but back in 1979, he seemed a bit more agitated.”

At the time, Benson DuBois, a household manager who became a special consultant and later Junior Governor, was the only voice of logic and reasoning for much of the strange goings on at the time, but even he was at a loss for words during some of the strange shenanigans.

On November 1, 1979, then Governor James Gatling announced he was going to start plans in building a park dedicated to former Governor Lionel Delaney. The event must not have set well with the ghost of Delaney as things started occurring. Things started vanishing and turning up in odd places. The speech for the park’s inauguration vanished and turned up a cupboard of the kitchen as a teapot from the kitchen appeared in the hallway outside the bedroom of the Governor’s daughter, Kathryn Gatling. Inexplicable power problems also happened as lights sometimes flickered or the household appliances sometimes just started up under their own power. Marcy Hill, the secretary to the Governor, typed up a speech once and handed it in to him, but it became inexplicably replaced with a page containing a quote from Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven.”

While a light thunderstorm occurred outside, a portrait of Governor Delaney suddenly crashed to the floor, damaging the picture frame and nearly ripping the picture. A large heavy ornament on the parlor of the mansion, it weighs almost a hundred pounds and its sudden weird collapse scared many of the people who were there as it fell. While no one is quite positive, it is thought a vibration from the thunder caused it to fall from its bent nail. Kraus never believed that hypothesis.

“If that was the case,” She insists. “Why did it wait till then to drop? Why not at another time when things weren’t quite so surreal ?”

As Kraus predicted, eventually things did return to normal, but after Dubois succeeded Gatling as Governor, he approved a budget to restore and update parts of the mansion. Hardwick’s ghost once more became restless by walking the halls of the mansion late at night and by eavesdropping on discussions. Several staff members recalled a shadow that lurked in doorways and glided down corridors. A press secretary drinking coffee in the kitchen dropped his coat over the back of a chair, turned to the counter to get some doughnuts and then turned back to get his coat as he found the chair now pushed to the far wall without so much of a sound.

Kathryn Gatling later returned to the house to lead tours of the house and grounds for tourists. In March of 1995, she was leading a tour through the parlor as several people looked up and noticed a man standing on the high staircase to the attic watching them as they went through the house. They didn’t seem to mind him as they continued on, but then there in the parlor, they saw him again. He was identified as Roger Hardwick in a portrait dating back to 1875!

"Guests ask for new and current stories all the time." She confesses. "I try to be very genial with all requests, but I'm not fond of ghost stories and I'm not completely sure I believe in ghosts."

A former night manager to the Hotel Tipton in Boston, Massachusetts, Abby Witherspoon has been the housekeeping manager since 1999, replacing Antoine Sheridan, who replaced Gretchen Kraus in 1987. She supervises twenty-two employees including the cook and groundskeepers. In June 2008, she and Katy entered the mansion one rainy morning through the kitchen and were moving through the dining room where they passed who they believed was then Governor Daniel Malloy sitting at the table in the dim room huddled over his breakfast before a fire in the fireplace. Abby recalls Katy and her both chorusing, "Good morning, Governor." followed by a distant near inaudible "Good morning." from the Governor. A few minutes later, they found the governor working in his office after being wakened early by the rain. A few minutes later security was searching the house. They found a cup and saucer in the dining room but not the person who had left them there.

There was no fire in the fireplace either. 

History: Designed and built by noted American architect in Charles Bulfinch in 1798, the Governor’s Mansion was ready for residence in 1801. The hauntings first started to occur in the 1880s during Governor Lionel Delaney’s tour in office and has reoccurred with varying lengths of activity since then. Some of the recent hauntings occurred during the two four year terms of Governor James Delaney (1979-1986) and his successor, former junior governor Benson DuBois, who became the state’s first black governor. Dubois served two terms himself ending in 1994.

Identity of Ghosts: The legend behind the ghost is that it is the ghost of former Governor Roger Hardwick who some suspect his death while in office might have had suspicious overtones. Rumor has it he was poisoned by a jealous aide, James Delaney, who wanted his job and maybe even his wife in 1879. His activity in 1979 was attributed to the fact that he was upset about a park about to be dedicated to Delaney. Rather than open an ugly investigation that could embarrass the current Delaney family, Juinor Governor DuBois at the time recommended to Gatling that the park be named Governor’s Park to credit all the men of the state and their donations to the job and state. The hauntings died down after the inauguration of the park, but random sounds and sightings still occur.

Source/Comments: Benson (Episode “Ghost Story”) - Hauntings loosely based on Bradmar in Denver, Colorado.