The Chamberlin

A grand waterfront hotel built in 1928 on the grounds of Fort Monroe. The original Hygeia Hotel on this site was a favorite resort of the wealthy and powerful.

The Chamberlin stands as the fourth hotel to occupy this storied ground at Old Point Comfort, where hospitality and hauntings have intertwined for over two centuries. The first hotel here, the Hygeia, opened in 1821 and drew distinguished guests including Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson. On September 17, 1849, Edgar Allan Poe—who had served as Sergeant Major at Fort Monroe from 1828-1829—gave his final public poetry reading on the Hygeia's veranda, reciting "The Raven," "Ulalume," and "Annabel Lee" by moonlight before a rapt audience. He died in Baltimore less than three weeks later.

The present nine-story Chamberlin was designed by Richmond architect Marcellus Wright in Beaux Arts style and completed in 1928, rising from the ashes of its predecessor which burned catastrophically on March 7, 1920. That devastating fire at 4:45 PM trapped 400 guests and 200 employees, though all escaped. Some 20,000 spectators watched the towering inferno from Continental Park as the five-story landmark burned through the night.

The most famous spirit here is Esmeralda, a young woman who haunts the eighth floor Roof Garden ballroom. According to legend, her father—a ship captain or fisherman—went to sea one day and never returned. She waits for him still. "She's still waiting for him," reported a gift shop clerk. "She knocks things off shelves every once in a while, and sometimes she plays the piano." Guests hear notes being plunked out on the ballroom's grand piano when no one is in the room. If anyone peers inside to find the player, the piano sits empty.

A former elevator operator from the early 1980s provided the most dramatic account of Esmeralda's floor: "The 8th floor known as The Roof Garden, is haunted. I was doing a walk through around 10 PM up there and was halfway across the ballroom floor. I heard running behind me and turned to see wtf and was knocked flat on my back."

A teenage girl who perished in a fire haunts the seventh floor, trapped near where she died. Witnesses report seeing her peering out the windows and banging on the walls. During 2008 renovations, a contractor on the third floor heard footsteps on plastic flooring, then a door opening and closing—despite all units being locked. The same elevator operator documented an officer in Room 300 whose briefcase mysteriously moved between furniture locations repeatedly.

A Confederate soldier in full uniform materializes in the lobby, his gaze fixed on Fort Monroe rather than the building's occupants. He vanishes if anyone approaches. An apparition in a top hat appears on the veranda—people say it is Poe, returned to the spot of his final reading.

In Mary's Kitchen in the basement, staff during a 1980s banquet encountered objects flying through the air. A child visitor in the 1970s recalled playing with a girl on the seventh floor and communicating with an unseen woman on the stairs. The top floor reportedly remains restricted due to persistent supernatural activity.

Today The Chamberlin operates as a luxury retirement community, but hotel General Manager Lynda Ratliff acknowledged the legends in 2002: "I heard the story about the young girl's ghost almost as soon as I came here...and I still hear about it all the time from our guests." Not all residents, it seems, are among the living.