Concord's Colonial Inn

One of America's oldest operating inns, with the original building dating to 1716. The inn was once owned by Henry David Thoreau's family and served as a makeshift hospital during the Revolutionary War. The building combines three historic structures.

Concord's Colonial Inn stands at 48 Monument Square, one of America's oldest continuously operating hotels, with its original structure dating to 1716. The inn is included in the National Register of Historic Places and sits just half a mile from the North Bridge—where the "shot heard 'round the world" was fired on April 19, 1775, beginning the Revolutionary War. The blood shed that day would forever mark this building.

The original structure was built by James Minot in 1716. In 1775, when the Minutemen clashed with British Regulars at the North Bridge, Dr. Timothy Minot Jr. lived and worked in the western section. British commander Lieutenant Colonel Smith had marched from Boston without surgeons or transport wagons. When the battle left two colonists dead and four wounded, along with three British soldiers dead and nine wounded, Dr. Minot opened his home as an emergency hospital. He converted what is now the Liberty Room into a treatment ward, used his bedroom—now Room 24—as an operating room, and designated Room 27 as a morgue for the dead.

The crude medical practices of the 18th century meant many soldiers did not survive their wounds. They died on Dr. Minot's operating table, their blood soaking into the floorboards of Room 24. Their bodies were stored in Room 27 before burial. The trauma of that day never left.

In 1799, the property was sold to John Thoreau, the grandfather of writer Henry David Thoreau. John had been shipwrecked on American shores and made his fortune as a privateer raiding British vessels during the Revolution. The house remained with the Thoreau family for forty years; Henry himself lived here between 1835-37 while attending Harvard, eight years before his famous retreat to Walden Pond. His aunts later ran it as a boarding house, entertaining guests in the sitting room where spirits are still seen today.

In 1889, John Maynard Keyes acquired the property and opened it as a hotel. He combined three historic structures into one in 1897 and named it the Colonial Inn. The ghosts, apparently, came with the buildings.

The first documented haunting report came in the summer of 1966. Newlyweds Judith and M.P. Fellenz checked into Room 24 for their honeymoon but departed after just one night. Shortly after, the innkeeper received a remarkable letter. "I have always prided myself on being a fairly sane individual," Judith wrote, "but on the night of June 14, I began to have my doubts... I saw a ghost in your Inn." She described awakening to find a greyish, glowing figure standing near the foot of the bed. "It was not a distinct person, but a shadowy mass in the shape of a standing figure. It remained still for a moment, then slowly floated to the foot of the bed, in front of the fireplace" before vanishing. Her husband's response: "The ghost was included in the price of the room."

Room 24 has since become the inn's most famous and sought-after accommodation. Guests report lights flickering or turning on by themselves—one woke to find every light blazing along with the television. Others hear hushed whispers emanating from the closet, feel unseen hands gently tucking them into bed, or watch the door slam shut without explanation. Apparitions of wounded soldiers in colonial dress have materialized, only to vanish moments later. Some witnesses describe a middle-aged woman they call Rosemary, believed to be a nurse's spirit still tending to patients who died two centuries ago. Others have seen a grey figure they believe is Dr. Minot himself, eternally checking on those he could not save.

Room 27, the former morgue, draws curiosity seekers hoping to encounter whoever—or whatever—lingers where the dead were stored. Throughout the labyrinthine hallways connecting the three original structures, both guests and staff experience unexplained phenomena. An older woman and a tall, slim man in a tophat have been spotted in the sitting room. A young girl wearing a bonnet walks near the front desk, greeting guests who are never quite sure if she's real. Bartender Subas Khadka has worked at the inn long enough to know: "You'll hear them—whispers, voices, someone calling your name."

The Colonial Inn has been investigated by multiple paranormal teams and featured on ghost-hunting television programs. Patriots' Day is still commemorated each April with a parade near the inn and a ceremony at the North Bridge. But for the soldiers who died on Dr. Minot's operating table, the war never ended.