Haunted Delmarva: Cambridge’s High Street

CAMBRIDGE, Md. – Walking down High Street in Cambridge, you can get a feel for its history just by looking at some of the old brick paved streets. Bbut what you might not know is this street is home to some of the oldest buildings in the city.

“She said that her mother would often see a child just sort of out of the corner of her eye,” said Mindie Burgoyne, author of Haunted Eastern Shore.

Dead children roaming the halls and soldiers trapped in time. According to Burgoyne, these haunting images are a common appearance in two of Cambridge’s oldest homes located on none other than High Street.

“Both of them are linked to spirit stories or ghost stories,” said Burgoyne.

One of the historic houses, brought over to Cambridge from Annapolis, Maryland years ago, is rumored to be haunted by the notorious “floating ghost.” A ghost of a British soldier who is likely hiding because he doesn’t know the Revolutionary war is over and his side lost.

“Some workers were looking onto the house and they noticed a british red coat in the window on the second floor. One said to the other, ‘We got to tell him to get out of there because it’s not safe,'” said Burgoyne.

They said “not safe” because there was no floor installed on the second story yet. When the workers got into the unfinished house, the redcoat was no where to be found, leaving the workers frightened and confused, giving birth to the legend of the “floating ghost.”

Years later, when a new  unsuspecting owner moved in, she found the previous owners had left some belongings behind in the attic.

“So one of the things that was in the attic that she really liked was a cheval mirror, a full length mirror on a stand,” said Burgoyne.

Finding the mirror to be beautiful, she brought it down to her bedroom. But by doing this, she invited in an unwelcome guest. But it wasn’t the British soldier.

“When she brought the mirror into her bedroom she started to see the reflection of the child in that mirror and it so disturbed her that she put it back up in the attic,” said Burgoyne.

But the experiences in this house are child’s play compared to the house next door. The City of Cambridge’s oldest house is home to a ghostly encounter so terrifying that it left a homeowner scrambling, with no safe place to go.

“This house has an old story attached to it that the woman in the house looked out her window and in the yard she saw a confederate soldier,” said Burgoyne.

Out of curiosity, the woman went to the door to ask the mysterious man what he was doing. But by then, he was gone. He vanished without a trace. Later on, as she was walking out of her kitchen,  she spotted the same man. This time he was standing inside her house in the hallway, bringing her face to face with the unexplained.

“She was so scared she ran into one of the rooms on the side, she just stayed in there until someone came looking for her and she tried to explain what happened and it so frightened her,” said Burgoyne.

Perhaps this phantom soldier comes from the graveyard up the street, a one-of-a-kind graveyard filled with veterans from every war america has ever fought in. But this ancient graveyard is home to more than just veterans. It’s home to Cambridge’s “singing tree”.

“The description of the singing was not melodic singing but like a buzzing sound or like a hum,” said Burgoyne.

Many believe the sounds emanating from the tree may be from a woman named Anne Weller, whose headstone was obliterated overtime by this enormous tree.

“I’ve heard some tales that it’s Anne Weller singing because shes planted under the U tree. I’ve heard its Anne Weller singing because she was the choir director when her husband was the rector. But we don’t have any way of knowing that I don’t think,” said Burgoyne.

Whatever it is, it can only be heard in the dead of night.

“So it’s definitely tied to hearing and tied to late at night which could be because that’s a time when people are most in tune or because you can’t hear anything else,” said Burgoyne.

If you’re brave enough to walk on this street at night, just know you might not be alone.