In more than 200 years of history, the General Stanton Inn has only had six owners since the time the Native Americans owned the land. In 1655 the land was given to Thomas Stanton, an interpreter for the Native American tribes in the region, as a show of gratitude. Thomas had arranged a successful hostage exchange between rival tribes. Essentially, when the Manesses tribe kidnapped a Niantic princess they demanded far too much wampum for her safe return. The Niantics went to Thomas at his little trading house on the Pawcatuck River and asked him to intercede on their behalf. He brokered a deal and was granted a nice chunk of land by a Niantic Sachem as a result. That land became the Stanton estate in Charlestown, Rhode Island.
The General Stanton Inn’s owners over the years have tried to maintain some of its original ambiance. The Inn still has traditional low ceilings and rough-hewn beams. And ghosts.
The original house, a modest one-room building was moved onto the property in 1667. For a while it served as a simple schoolhouse for local Indian children, as well as Thomas’s own offspring. Over the years rooms were added to the original structure (now called the “Indian Room”; in 1740 Joseph, a son of Thomas, added the “George Washington Cabinet Room.”
Joseph made a name for himself as one of Rhode island’s very first Senators in the US Congress and later a State Representative. But as things settled after the fall-out of the Revolutionary War, the family fell on hard times and the home (considered a mansion then) became an Inn. Joseph, the militia General the Inn’s named for, let his nephews run the business. It became quite successful as a regular coach stop between the towns of Providence and New London. While other business struggled under the early Prohibition, the Inn attracted gamblers and partiers of all classes and backgrounds.
People have reported everything from strange noises and sensations to actual apparitions at the General Stanton Inn, one of the hot spots for paranormal activity being the Washington Room. A male ghost has been spotted here, and people have reported being touched—often tapped on the shoulder—by something otherworldly in both the Washington Room and Williamsburg Room. Is a spirit from the Inn’s rich past trying to get someone’s attention? If so, it seems the spirit has gotten frustrated with visitors at least once, when a finger of a manikin was reportedly hurled by an unseen force at a workman in the attic. Perhaps it was merely the spirit’s way of delivering a somewhat coded and yet not so subtle message… But most spirit activity at the General Stanton Inn is what many would consider mild and well-mannered, so stay the night and arrange for a proper tour. Although not necessarily a spine-tingling experience, a stay at the Stanton can be quite educational.
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