An exploration of the inn reveals a rambling mansion complete with a vast attic where things are always creaking in the night, a dungeon-like lower basement full of dark corners and original coal boilers, an immense locking vault complete with squeaking iron door, and most appropriately, the hidden staircase. This home was built to be haunted!
Both guests and staff have reported disembodied footsteps, unexplainable cold spots, doors that open by themselves, and even visible apparitions. One guest reported being visited in the middle of the night by an elderly lad who sat in a chair by the bed and said, "One Mrs. Brown in this room is quite enough!" It so happened that the guest and the original mistress of the house were both Mrs. Brown.
In 1999, the inn began hosting a "Haunting" on Halloween weekend, complete with a ghost hunt and seance provided by Haunted Vermont, a local company specializing in historically based realistic ghost events.
The Haunting of the White House includes a mini-discussion on spiritualism, afterlife theory, house history, and ghost-hunting techniques; then the "Ghost Hosts" take patrons around the inn to look for ghosts themselves. This is followed by a seance rich with special effects. The evening culminates with a real Victorian-era seance held in the inn's parlor.
The event has drawn very positive reviews, and shows have been sold out in advance. There also appeared to be certain unseen participants: One made its presence known at a spirit table session by blowing the parlor doors open with a crash. This occurred late on Halloween night itself and even surprised the hosts of the event because it was not one of the special effects.
