Own A Piece of History

Right now, despite the slump in the real estate market locally, there are two rather interesting older homes for sale right in New Windsor. The first of these is the old Anders property, sitting right on Main Street across from the bank. It's a beautiful older home and has been kept in good shape by the current owners.

The second property is just outside of town on Springdale Avenue and has been a bed and breakfast inn for many years. It was built sometime in the late 1800's and has a history of being haunted. In the early 1900's, it was called the Windsor Castle and was a popular place to stay for visitors to the area. IN more recent years, it has been known as the Yellow Turtle Inn.

Visitors to the property in modern days have reported strange sightings and unusual noises. The third floor, in particular, seems to attract spirits. Years ago, a family living in the house reported the sounds of marbles rolling down the hall outside one of the bedrooms in the middle of the night.

The Junkyard

To appreciate this place, you have to be able to get a sense of its size, considering it sits along an old country road outside of Taneytown. I the photo to the right (best seen at larger size by clicking on it), the cars actually stretch from before the old mill on the right to quite a ways beyond the bran all the way on the left. The areas in between the buildings are jam-packed with rusted old cars and it's impossible to see from the road just how far back the piles of old junkers goes. From the road, I could see dozens.

In among the truly awful are a few gems however, such as this classic old Hudson. Too bad the body is in two pieces! The contrast between the emblem and the completely rusted grill makes for an interesting picture.

It's rather amusing to see how many different types of cars are in this lot - everything from old classics to sports cars and everything in between. I did have to laugh when I noticed the sign along the road though. Would anyone really notice if someone dumped some more junk here?

But my favorite from this morning's trip is this one of the front side of the old mill. See if you see what I see in this picture.

Strange or Not?

Why does the stone in the middle show virtually no sign of wear, compared to the ones on either side of it? All three are from the mid 1800's and the one in the middle is actually older than the other two.

It's actually not really a mystery as the one in the middle was carved by Boss Hammond from a very tightly-grained black stone that is similar to slate, and as a result, all of the stones he carved have stood up very well to the ravages of time. Sebastian "Boss" Hammond was a slave who purchased his freedom one gravestone at a time, the majority of his stones found in the area around New Windsor in Carroll County. He left no signature on his work, but administration records in Carroll County show the executors of several estates paying him between $11 and $21 for grave markers. This particular one is found in the private cemetery of the Cassell family out side of Westminster.

Our Haunted Museum

I live in New Windsor, MD, which is a typical small, Carroll County town that was a far busier place 100 years ago. There are a handful of small businesses along Main Street, but generally it's mostly a residential area now. We do however now have a small museum, located in one of the oldest houses in town, and rumor has it, we have a few ghosts. Back in the fall of 2006, just before the museum opened to the public, the local history group, the New Windsor Heritage Committee, invited a paranormal investigator to speak with the group. She was from the Gettysburg area and had spend some time a few days taking pictures in the old graveyard right behind the museum.

She told us during the meeting that she had detected a young girl's spirit in the upstairs, and had felt several other presences as well. And the photos she showed us from her trip to the graveyard were jam-packed with orbs.

If any house in town deserves to be haunted though, it's probably the Bloom House down by the railroad tracks, built in the late 1800's. Adam Bloom and his young family moved in to the house in 1890 and he opened a creamery nearby, which was, apparently, quite successful. His oldest daughters attended private school in town and life proceeded on an even keel. But several years later, Adam grew more and more despondent and his daughter Estelle later claimed that he had been heavily influenced by a traveling missionary who convinced him of his own sinful nature. Whatever the reasons, on May 20, 1898, Adam shot himself in his workshop and took quite a few hours to finally die of his wounds, no doubt in a great deal of pain. Local historian, R. Bryce Workman, has written a small book, available at the New Windsor Museum, detailing the life of Estelle (Stella) Bloom and her sister Marion, both of whom had become involved with very prominent writers during their lives, in and around our sleepy little town. At the end, though, Estelle died alone in the old family home, having suffered the ravages of both cancer and too much alcohol.