Ashley's Restaurant

Opened as Jack's Tavern in 1933, this Tudor-style building has been through so many names — The Mad Duchess, Loose Caboose, Gentleman Jim's — that it's been called the most haunted restaurant in America.

Ashley's Restaurant in Rockledge holds the dubious distinction of being named America's Most Haunted Restaurant. The building dates to the early 1930s when it operated as Jack's Tavern, a speakeasy-style establishment where men wore top hats and tails, and women dressed in their evening finest.

In 1934, nineteen-year-old Ethel Allen was found brutally murdered on the shores of the nearby Indian River. A regular at Jack's Tavern despite her youth, she was one of the last places she was seen alive. Her body had been mutilated, burned, and abandoned on the riverbank. She was identified only by a distinctive tattoo on her thigh: a rose with a noose around it. Some evidence suggested she may have been set on fire before death; others believe the precise wounds indicated a mob-related hit. No one was ever arrested.

The restaurant has changed names many times--the Loose Caboose, the Mad Duchess, the Sparrow Hawk--before becoming Ashley's Tavern in 1985. Throughout it all, strange activity has persisted.

At least one psychic who investigated claims to have had a vision of Ethel Allen's murder taking place inside the restaurant. Activity centers on the women's restroom. In 1982, manager Judy Cowles saw a pair of legs in boots under one of the stalls, but when she checked, it was empty. Patrons have seen a young woman's ghost in the bathroom mirror.

Visitors snap photographs of the quaint bar only to find figures in 1930s clothing that weren't visible to the naked eye. Paranormal investigator Steven Kurtzke identified the spirit of a seven-year-old girl in a blue dress, last seen in 1940 when her father was arrested and taken from the building.

Historians note there's no definitive proof Ethel Allen was actually connected to the tavern or murdered there--but the hauntings continue regardless.