Some places can survive fire, renovation, and time itself without shaking their ghosts. In Newtown, Pennsylvania, the Temperance House opened in 1772, and never quite let go of its dead.
Built by Revolutionary War veteran Andrew McMinn, it began as a colonial tavern and schoolhouse, a place where rum flowed as easily as lessons. McMinn, no stranger to vice, was known for chewing tobacco while teaching and drinking the stock dry with his wife, Nancy. If the old stories are true, they never really left.
Over the years, the Temperance House became a local landmark. During the Revolutionary War, General Francis Murray used it as lodging. In the 1840s, Chillion W. Higgs, a member of the Newtown Temperance Society, took over the inn. He banned alcohol entirely and renamed it The Sign of the Good Samaritan. The inn served guests mineral water, ginger beer, and lemonade, none of which seemed to scare off the spirits.
Today, the Temperance House has thirteen guest rooms, a full kitchen, and, ironically, a 33-tap draft beer system. But even as modern comforts took over, the building’s ghosts never left.
A House That Won’t Stay Quiet
Reports of strange activity at the Temperance House stretch back decades. A 1989 Los Angeles Times article describes a ghostly boy seen in the Edward Hicks Suite and the Willard Parlor. A receptionist named Joanna Lansing recalled a morning when a beer keg mysteriously spilled with no one else around. The inn had just been remodeled.
In more recent years, guests and staff have reported much more.
On the second floor, visitors have seen two little girls and a boy. They move small items from room to room. In Room #5, couples have heard giggling at night. Some have seen a small child in white standing silently by the bed.
Room #9 has a heavy door that often slams shut without anyone near it, startling more than a few guests. In 2022, current owner Kathy Buczek shared a story with a local reporter that might explain it. She said Edward Hicks, the famous American folk painter, died by suicide in that part of the building in 1849. While Room #11 is traditionally cited as the location, it may have once been part of a larger space or anteroom.
Laughter in the Bridal Suite
In the bridal suite, newlyweds have reported the sound of children laughing when no one is there. Other couples have heard a music box play from nowhere. One guest went looking for the source, assuming it was outside. When they asked the front desk about it, Kathy simply said: “We don’t have a music box.” The sound has been reported by other visitors since.
Then there’s the chill. One guest stepped into a cold spot near a doorway and jokingly exclaimed. A moment later, the cold swept around his wife, she jumped and let out a sharp, involuntary “Eee!” It wasn’t painful, just unnerving.
Some of the more surreal moments blur the line between ghost story and folktale. A couple dining one evening watched a young woman in a white gown glide down a hallway followed by two cats. No one else saw a thing. Later, while repairing foundation mortar in the basement, Kathy saw a cat’s claw push through the cement. Whether coincidence or callback, it’s a story that sticks.
And the activity isn’t just limited to guests. Faucets turn on by themselves. Croutons have reportedly launched themselves from a sealed container, landing on a difficult customer, then settling back on the shelf upright. Phones ring in empty rooms. Doors slam shut with no wind. Cold spots. Unseen presences. The usual roll call.
Edward Hicks and the Sign That Stayed
While Edward Hicks is best remembered today for The Peaceable Kingdom, he was once better known as a sign painter. One of his signs, an oval painting featuring a moose at Niagara Falls, hung at the inn in the mid-1800s, back when Joseph Willard renamed it the Niagara Temperance House. The moose didn’t stick, and neither did the name, but Hicks’ legacy lingered. Edward lies buried just a few blocks away at the Newtown Friends Cemetery.
If the stories are true, his spirit may have never left the building.
The Temperance Fire and the Legacy That Remains
The inn nearly didn’t make it. A fire broke out late one night in May 1978, damaging the second and third floors. The cause was never determined, but it didn’t destroy the inn’s reputation, or its spirits. After restoration and more remodeling in the decades since, The Temperance House reopened with updated rooms and a popular restaurant and bar. The irony of a bar in a building that once banned alcohol isn’t lost on anyone. Neither is the fact that so many of its hauntings come from children and mournful figures from a more restrained past.
The land itself has a long history. Shadrach Walley once owned the land before William Penn granted it to Andrew McMinn. The inn has passed through the hands of schoolmasters, sign painters, soldiers, teetotalers, and restaurateurs. It was once a school, a meeting house, an oyster bar, and a home to ice cream socials. For a time in the 1940s, its neighboring Victorian building became apartments. But through every chapter, one thing has remained constant: something unseen lives here.
Maybe the children still play between the walls. Maybe Edward Hicks keeps painting in whatever comes next. Or maybe places like this, with too many stories to hold, never stay quiet.
The Temperance House today operates as both an inn and restaurant, offering modern hospitality within its historic walls. You can view current dining options, room availability, and upcoming events on the inn’s official website.
Have you stayed at the Temperance House, or crossed paths with one of its lingering guests? Share your story in the comments or send it to us directly. We’re always listening.
Sources
- Los Angeles Times, “Ye Olde Temperance House,” June 11, 1989.
- Bucks County Courier Times, “Ghostly Children Said to Haunt Historic Inn,” September 23, 2019.
- Phillyburbs.com, “Owner Shares Chilling Tales from the Temperance House,” October 27, 2022.
- Visit Philadelphia, “Haunted Spots in Bucks County,” September 26, 2024.
- Reading Times, “Reminiscences of Andrew McMinn of Newtown,” November 14, 1878.
- The Bristol Daily Courier, “Temperance House Built by Teacher-Veteran,” August 24, 1965.
- The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Fire Heavily Damages Historic Temperance House,” May 16, 1978.
- The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Newtown Tavern’s Origins Tied to William Penn Grant,” May 19, 1968.
- The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Edward Hicks: The Sign Painter of Newtown,” September 6, 1981.
- 1790 and 1792 Federal Census Records, Newtown, Pennsylvania.
- Oral history and interviews with Kathy Buczek, as cited in Phillyburbs.com, 2022.
