Garde Arts Center

The Garde Arts Center opened in 1926 as a vaudeville and movie palace. The ornate theater was built on the site of the former 1798 Williams Mansion and maintains much of its original grandeur along with some otherworldly residents.

The Garde Arts Center stands on ground steeped in tragedy. Before this Moroccan-revival movie palace rose at the corner of State and Huntington Streets in 1926, the land belonged to Thomas Wheeler Williams, one of New London's most prominent whaling merchants. Williams, who represented Connecticut in the U.S. Congress from 1839 to 1843, built his baronial mansion on this site in the 1830s. His estate occupied the entire block, a testament to the fortune he amassed after launching New London's whaling industry in 1819 with the successful voyage of the brig Mary. But wealth could not shield the Williams family from heartbreak: five of his nine children died before reaching adulthood, their young lives extinguished within the mansion's walls. His first wife Lucretia perished in 1829 at just 32 years old.

The mansion was eventually torn down in 1925, and the following year, under the direction of Arthur S. Friend—a New York movie studio attorney and early partner of Cecil B. DeMille—architect Arland W. Johnson designed an exotic theater that would transport audiences to another world. Artist Vera Leeper of Denver created the stunning Moroccan murals, clad in knickers and painter's frock as she crawled through scaffolding, applying paint with a knife rather than a brush in a technique never before used in American theaters. The Garde opened on September 22, 1926, with the silent film "The Marriage Clause," its Wurlitzer pipe organ filling the auditorium with music. Warner Bros. purchased the theater for one million dollars in 1929 to introduce their revolutionary "talking pictures" technology.

Nearly a century later, the paranormal activity at the Garde is described by staff as continual. Theater ushers, performers, and guests from decades past reportedly still come to host guests, enjoy a show, or perform on stage in their spectral form. The most frequently witnessed apparition is that of a little girl clutching a balloon, often seen wandering the balcony area. Some believe she may be one of the Williams children who died so young in the mansion that once stood here.

Visitors and staff have also reported seeing a full-body apparition of a man hunched over in a chair, as if wearily watching an eternal performance. One of the most remarkable accounts comes from a theater employee who fell from a ladder while working—he claims an unseen force caught him before he hit the ground, saving him from serious injury. Some speculate this helpful spirit may be a former lighting employee who died while working at the theater, still watching over those who maintain the Garde.

When TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society) investigated for their Ghost Hunters episode "The Haunting of the Garde" in 2016, lead investigator Jason Hawes had a compelling experience on the catwalk high above the stage. The video footage captured disembodied voices and sounds that followed Hawes through the narrow walkway—evidence he believed pointed to an intelligent haunting, as the spirits seemed to interact directly with the investigation team.

The Garde has embraced its supernatural reputation, hosting annual paranormal investigation events with renowned investigators. John Zaffis—known as "The Godfather of the Paranormal," nephew of the legendary Ed and Lorraine Warren, and star of SyFy's "The Haunted Collector"—has led guests through nighttime investigations of the theater alongside Seaside Shadows founder Courtney McInvale, a practicing medium and author of haunted history books. These events allow participants to explore who haunts the gilded theater and communicate with spirits who never left their beloved movie palace.

The Garde Arts Center was named the 2022 Outstanding Historic Theatre in America by the League of Historic American Theatres. After a fifteen-million-dollar restoration by Centerbrook Architects that concluded in 1999, the theater's exotic Moroccan interior has been carefully preserved—including, it seems, the spirits who call it home. Whether they are the tragic Williams children, devoted theater employees, or patrons who loved the Garde too much to leave, something continues to watch from the balcony shadows, waiting for the lights to dim and the show to begin.