Conners Emerson Parade, Birch Bay & YMCA Photos, Tonight’s Halloween Events

Carrie Jones

Oct 31, 2025

SULLIVAN AND BAR HARBOR—Sightings of the dead woman began in 1799 at the Blaisdell house in Sullivan. But before they saw her, they heard her. A strange noise in the cellar. Then another. Then another.

As the new century arrived, so too did Nelly (Hooper) Butler’s voice.

Just her voice.

She spoke to the god-fearing family, pillars of the community. Captain Abner Blaisdell had been a sergeant in the American Revolution. They were respected.

And then Nelly began talking to the family, her disembodied voice murmuring in the home’s rooms. They bravely asked who she was.

Nelly Butler, she answered, the three-years dead wife of Captain George Butler. She’d died in childbirth at twenty one. Her father, Dennis Hooper, lived about six miles down the road.

Many claim that Hancock County is the site of the first documented haunted house in the United States.

That haunting was Nelly.

That claim arises from the writings of a traveling minister, Abraham Cummings, who wrote “Immortality Proved by the Testimony of Sense: in which Is Contemplated the Doctrine of Spectres, and the Existence of a Particular Spectre.” It’s a long-winded title for a somewhat loquacious man and was published by J.L. Lovell back in 1859.

At 85 pages, the pamphlet is part religious treatise and part submission of testimony, given under oath, of those who interacted with the ghosts.

Nelly would knock on walls. She’d whisper. She’d invite the family members into their own cellar to chat. And they’d go. Lydia Blaisdell, just 15, often heard Nelly’s voice the most.

And Nelly, it seems, had a few missions. She wanted her husband to remarry and to have the bride be Lydia. Eventually, during some of these interactions, George and Nelly’s living sister arrived. The knocking began. And then something whispered.

That something, they believed, might be Nelly.

Or it might have been the devil.

Everyone wasn’t exactly sure—at least not at first.

The ghost was seen by multitudes. Under oath, dozens swore to it. And eventually the ghost convinced Lydia and George to marry, but warned them, that Lydia, too, would die, shortly after she gave birth.

She was right.

Ten months later, Lydia was dead and Nelly herself stopped showing up. George remarried and this wife survived to have at least four children. The story was over. Or at least it was . . . for now.

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SOME MOUNT DESERT ISLAND’S GHOSTS

Mount Desert Island has its own ghosts, though none have proven as well documented or spectacularly talkative as Nelly Butler.

One of the first printed ghost stories of Hancock County is in the Feb 7, 1885 edition of the Lewiston Sun Journal. It’s a short piece that references a Bar Harbor Herald story.

“It is said that a boarding house on Thurlow’s Island is haunted. Raps are heard on doors, under the floors and in all directions, sometimes low, sometimes so loud as to drown the voices of those near. Several persons have been investigating the premises but no clue to the cause of the noises have been found. The boarders are leaving. It is said the sounds have been heard three or four months but not told of till lately.”

The voices sound terrifying and harrowing cries and screams are a staple of many a ghost story. The story about the Bar Harbor Club is no different.

The club began in 1929 right after the Great Depression. The party had an Arabian Nights theme. But really only white, wealthy people could be nominated to be a member of the club. Its peak membership was around 1929-1946 according to a story by Susan Heath for the Bangor Daily News. Members paid $18,000. The club solicited some not-so-ghostly memories and lore, including one story that when local kids dipped into the pool one night, the members decided to flush the sullied water out to sea and refill it.

When the club closed for a while, the Tudor-revival building grew increasingly shabby. Eventually, after a lot of town and attorney back and forth about zoning and codes, the Bar Harbor Club reopened in 2005.

But before then, a lot of people snuck in and had some parties. Some of those people allegedly had close encounters of the ghostly kind. 

Marcus LiBrizzi, author of The Ghosts of Acadia, shares an unsubstantiated story that one day, a woman went into the Bar Harbor Club and was strangled in the restroom. There was no police investigation. There was no body ever found.

“The killer apparently removed the body at night and buried it somewhere nearby on Bar Island. As the legend goes, the woman was wearing a perfume that lingered for a long time after the killer removed the body from the room where she died,” he writes.

And now she allegedly haunts the club. When she’s there, you can smell her perfume, he says, in the restroom where she died, in the Vanderbilt Lounge, and sometimes women in the building alone get a visit by the perfume.

The scent?

It’s patchouli.

Another unsubstantiated story that LiBrizzi shares about the building’s alleged haunting is that an old member lost everything. Homeless, bereft, and possibly looking for shelter from the frigid Maine weather, he found shelter in the club. During the night, it became so cold, that his whole body froze, but that happened after he turned off the light. Now, allegedly, the light in the room stays on, but guests allegedly can hear him moan and the breaking glass of the window from when he broke in.

How about you? Do you have a favorite Bar Harbor or Hancock County haunting story to share this Halloween? Leave a comment below because I’d love to hear it!

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CONNERS EMERSON SCHOOL HALLOWEEN PARADE

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MDI YMCA TRUNK OR TREAT

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BIRCH BAY VILLAGE

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LEDGELAWN TRICK OR TREAT

For those of you who head to Bar Harbor to trick or treat, Sgt. Soren Sundberg says that the police department will close Ledgelawn Avenue again this year, Friday, October 31, for Halloween. The road will be closed to vehicle traffic from around 3:30 pm to 8:30 p.m. for the safety of pedestrians.

You can trick or treat on other streets, too!

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OCTOBER 31 —TRICK OR TREAT AT THE FIRE STATIONS

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The Ivy Manor Inn’s Halloween Party

BAR HARBOR—The Ivy Manor Inn in downtown Bar Harbor is having a Halloween Party again this year!

There will be drinks and snacks, Halloween music, and a costume contest with prizes! It’s from 5 p.m.- 9 p.m. on October 31 with the costume contest winner being announced at 7 and it’s open to the spooky public. 🙂 Backup location in case of bad weather will be at William’s on the Green in the Acadia Hotel.

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Meet at Thirsty Whale at 7 p.m. and go from there ! Wear your best spooky costume and let’s make this night a THRILL. More information here.

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NOVEMBER 1 and 2: PUMPKIN WALK FOR CONNERS EMERSON BUILDING

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NOVEMBER 1 — Let’s Dance!

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HALLOWEEKEND DOUBLE FEATURE!

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Parts of this story were reprinted from last year.

LINKS TO LEARN MORE

Map of Sullivan

LiBrizzi’s book.

Kennebec Journal Augusta, Maine · Tuesday, February 10, 1885

The Bangor Daily News Bangor, Maine · Thursday, June 25, 19

There is a Halloween video and more photos on our Facebook page. We will likely keep updating with photos throughout the day/weekend.