09-25-2022 Capital Style - Flipbook - Page 46
was fined 100 pounds of tobacco, White said.
The Secret Tunnel: At one end of the King
of France Tavern in what once was the wine
cellar, a tunnel has been carved out of the
ground at about the height of an adult’s waist.
According to long-standing legend, the tunnel
leads to the Maryland State House, providing
a convenient way for the leaders of a city under
enemy attack to quickly and furtively get out
of Dodge.
Because the passage would present a safety
risk today to anyone foolish enough to venture
inside, no one knows where it actually leads.
While it is unclear how long the tunnel has
been there, it clearly hasn’t been used in some
time.
White points out that the tunnel appears to
head off in the direction of nearby St. Anne’s
Episcopal Church instead of toward the State
House. Perhaps, he theorized, there was actually a warren of tunnels connecting different
buildings.
“If you think about it, we were at war back
then so it could have been used as an escape
route,” he said. “What I like about these old
hotels is that there are so many things you don’t
know.”
The Haunted Hotel Room: Hotel guests
wishing to test their nerves specifically book
Room 405, hoping for an otherworldly encounter with the ghost of the young woman known
only as “the bride.” According to the story, the
woman had been engaged for 12 years to U.S.
Navy Capt. Charles Campbell, who had spent
their entire engagement at sea.
Finally, in 1817, she received a letter from
Campbell saying he was being discharged and
asked her to meet him at the hotel where he
frequently stayed so they could be married as
soon as he set foot on land.
The bride spent long hours striding back
and forth across the floor, Vellon said, before
she saw her future husband walking down the
street toward her.
But as the bride watched, a horse and
carriage came galloping down the hill. The
driver was unable to stop the horse in time, and
he struck Campbell and trampled his broken
body into the ground.
The horrified bride rushed downstairs and
held the captain in her arms as he died. A few
hours later, she threw herself from the fourthfloor window and died below on the cobblestone street.
The hotel staff has reported that guests in
Room 405 occasionally report hearing footsteps pacing across the floor, or have the sensation that someone in the apparently empty
room has just sat on the bed.
“Maybe eight to 10 people in the past
19 years have seen a white apparition in a
wedding gown,” Vellon said. “They always say
the same thing: the bride is nice, not scary, a
friendly presence.”
ROBERT JOHNSON HOUSE,
23 State Circle
The Parlor: It’s true that there might not
be as many historic objects in this gracious
46
| CAPITAL STYLE | Fall 2022
The Robert Johnson House, located across the street from the State House, was George
Washington’s preferred hotel.
One of
several
fireplaces
at the
Maryland
Inn holds
items
from a
past era.
old brick inn overlooking both the Governor’s
Mansion and Maryland State House as there
are in the other two buildings.
But as Washington’s preferred hotel, it is
arguably the most significant historically.
Just across the street, Washington formally
resigned his military commission heading up
the armies of the Continental Congress of the
U.S. on Dec. 23, 1783. The following month,
the Treaty of Paris was ratified in the State
House on Jan. 14, 1784, formally ending the
Revolutionary War.
You can cover every inch of the small lobby
where Washington held court in under two
minutes and come away confident that your
feet have trod the exact ground on which
Washington propped his boots while he was
seated in a comfy chair, contemplating the new
nation.
How cool is that?