Baltimore's Harbor Haunts: True Ghost Stories

by Melissa Rowell, Amy Lynwander

Baltimore, Maryland, has harbor neighborhoods that have a long and colorful history of industry, immigrants, and ghosts. This spellbinding book exposes some of their unknown scary histories and uncovers 37 hauntings along the water. From the ghost of a drowned boy in Canton to the famous haunts of Fort McHenry, tantalizing stories pay homage to the people who remained behind. Meet the more "spirited" residents of the Canton, Fell's Point, Inner Harbor, Federal Hill and Locust Point neighborhoods, including the ghost with a favorite polka on the juke box and the lady who rewards cleanliness with money. Featuring 68 b/w photos of the haunted sites, this spooky volume is not to be missed.

Genres: Horror

160 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2005

Reviews

[Sian Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly, this represents a transcription of the authors' ghost tours of the Inner Harbor area. For me, a good ghost story combines real history and oral history, and I found the stories in this collection to be fairly lightweight on the real history and lacking in real storytelling to pull together the present-day anecdotes. In person, the text must be embellished by the actual presence of the buildings being described (present here only as black & white photos), but on the page, it's rather straightforward and not particularly atmospheric. Would I go on the authors' ghost tour? I might, crossing my fingers that they often go off-script.

[Roberta Decenzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a quick spin on haunted areas of history that doesn't cater to over dramatic this was pretty good. It offered quick historical background of each district as well as a quick review of the sites historically as well as spiritually. In essence it acts as a virtual tour of some of the sites in the city which I found extremely helpful in making my plans before visiting.