Stratford is a 386-year-old town with 386 years of stories and legends. One of my personal favorite genres of Stratford legends is “Scary Stratford” stories. Rarely a year passes but what I learn of a new haunted home or particularly frightening location or event in town. Yes. It’s true. Our town is enlivened with a plethora of “specters” from forest to shore.
Just this past weekend I learned of a Main Street home, which is ominously haunted, just south of the Pickle Barrel Deli. The home at 1853 Main Street is troubled with a woman visage who appears on the second floor of the home. There are many tales of her nightly wanderings through the home. Allegedly, the foundation of the home is compromised of stones from the one-time house of Stratford’s accused witch, Goody Bassett. This aspect of the home’s history is particularly intriguing since Goody was hanged in 1651 and the home at 1853 Main Street wasn’t built until 1900.
The original owner of 1853 Main Street was Harry Burnes (1882 – 1923), who was the town’s building inspector. It’s not recorded as to whether or not Mr. Burnes ever inspected his home for strange visages and ghosts. However, at some point, allegedly, the strange appearances of an ethereal woman began in this home.
Most of us have probably heard of the haunted “Phelps Mansion”, the hauntings of the Boothe Park homes and buildings, and the strange sounds and occurrences within the “William Samuel Johnson” home on Main Street. But my personal favorite Stratford scary story comes from Peck’s Mill in 1900.
In August of 1899, Stratford’s worst man-made disaster occurred when at least 29 people were killed when a trolley, traveling from Paradise Green to Shelton, fell from the trolley tracks and landed on its top in the drained Peck’s Mill Pond. Many of the passengers on the trolley were buried in the muddy bed of the drained Peck’s Mill Pond, and many people came to believe that not all of the dead aboard the trolley had been recovered.
One year later, the Bridgeport Herald reported in July, 1900, that two trolley men were approaching the Peck’s Mill Pond bridge on their morning run from Shelton to Bridgeport. As they came to the bridge, they saw what they knew to be the wrecked trolley car of the prior August below them in the pond. Rising from the pond’s bed were the human forms of about 20 personages who had been killed by the trolley’s fall a year before. Driving the trolley onto the bridge, two of the ghosts stood on the tracks blocking the trolley’s path.
Just then, the trolley man fainted dead away. The conductor took control of the car, knowing they had a schedule to keep. He slowly pushed the trolley forward. The conductor rang his bell to warn the ghosts off the tracks. He closed his eyes as he neared the ghosts, but his nerve gave out and he too fainted away.
As the now driverless trolley arrived on the other side of Peck’s Mill Pond, a man who had been awaiting the trolley waved his hand to flag the trolley down. He realized no one was piloting the extremely slow-moving trolley, so he jumped aboard.
Having no experience operating a trolley, he quickly surmised the location of the brake, bringing the trolley to a halt. Next, he ran for some water to revive the trolley crew.
Once the trolleyman and the conductor were again fully conscious, they resumed their trip to Bridgeport. Their passenger, being rightly curious about what had happened to the crew, asked for an explanation. The conductor recalled their being under siege on the trolley by the Peck’s Mill ghosts, and swore their passenger to secrecy.
When the trolleyman and his conductor returned without incident to Shelton later that day, they requested a transfer to a different trolley route and never operated the Peck’s Mill route again. This story, and others like it, have left many Stratfordites convinced that Peck’s Mill Pond is haunted by the ghosts of 1899 to this day.
The charming Bridgeport Herald newspaper article entitled “Ghosts at Peck’s Mill Trestle” may be downloaded in its entirety at https://5il.co/3pbtg.
