Hill House a creaky time for inquiring ghost hunters

BANGOR – When was the last time you saw a ghost – or felt its presence? Hmmm … never, you say? Well, now you stand a ghost of a chance to meet one in person, or should I say in “spirit,” at the Thomas A. Hill House in Bangor.

Dana Lippitt, a staff worker of the Bangor Museum and Center for History – formerly the Bangor Historical Society – which owns the Thomas Hill House at 159 Union St., claims that she can testify to the fact that the ghost of Samuel Dale, former Bangor mayor and house owner, is dead and well, and still residing in the house.

Although no visual sightings of Dale’s ghost have been reported, strange and unexplainable events have occurred within the walls of the old house, built in 1836. The “ghostly” events have included footsteps on the stairs, doors closing when no one is present and lights going off and on.

“I recall once that while I was giving a paranormal [investigator] and his crew a tour of the house, the female psychic with [the group] wanted to take some photos. She tried taking a photo of the fireplace in the cellar, but each time her flash did not go off. She tried a fifth time and was successful, but the photo’s exposure did not come out,” said Lippitt.

The Thomas Hill House is not only the home of a wealth of Civil War and Bangor historical artifacts dating back to the 1830s, it is still the home – to the ghost – of Samuel Dale, according to some believers.

“I can’t explain it but I felt a strong sense of energy in the house,” Lippitt said. Many people say that Dale resided in the house for 25 years, but others would argue that it is more like 134 years.

The unusual, beautiful Greek revival-style brick house was built in 1836 for Thomas A. Hill, a local lawyer and real estate investor. According to local property records, Hill lost the house to a bank foreclosure when his real estate investments went belly up during the Panic of 1837. In 1846 after a few years of leasing the house, Samuel and Matilda Dale purchased the house from the bank. Dale served as mayor of Bangor 1863-1866 and again in 1871.

As the story goes, after the Great Chicago Fire of Oct. 9, 1871, citizens of Bangor contributed funds for the benefit of the fire victims. The kind people of Bangor managed to raise $10,000, which was entrusted to Mayor Dale to hold until it was time to send the money to Chicago. The money mysteriously vanished, and no explanation was offered for its sudden disappearance.

Meanwhile, about two weeks later, Mayor Dale refurbished the drawing room of the house at elaborate expense in preparation for a visit by President Ulysses S. Grant in celebration of the opening of the European and North American Railroad.

No one knew how Dale paid for refurbishing the room and many suspected that he used the money earmarked for the Chicago Fire Relief efforts to pay the cost of redecorating.

To everyone’s amazement, in December 1871, just two months after the money disappeared, Samuel Dale died unexpectedly.

Unwilling to pay off on Dale’s life insurance policy because suicide was suspected, the insurance company had Dale’s stomach and its contents sent to a laboratory in Boston in order to determine cause of death. Since medical technology was very limited at that time, cause of death was never determined.

It is said that the ghost of Samuel Dale wanders through the house out of remorse for stealing the city’s fire fund money and for killing himself. So if you’re looking for a “ghostly” experience the next time you are in Bangor, visit the Thomas Hill House at 159 Union St.

The Thomas A. Hill House is open by appointment. For information or an appointment, call 942-1900. The Bangor Museum and Center for History is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and noon-4 p.m. Saturday at 6 State St. For information, visit bangormuseum.org.