Harrie's Jailhouse

In 2021, Carrie Carella and Heather Kelly opened Harrie's in the historic former Pameacha Jail building, which dates back to the 1850s. The building was featured on Ghost Hunters due to its paranormal reputation.

Harrie's Jailhouse occupies the former Pameacha Jail, a brownstone holding facility built in 1846 on the grounds of the Middletown Alms House. The small jail contained twelve cells constructed of local brownstone blocks, where prisoners convicted of minor crimes awaited trial or served short sentences. The principal county jail remained in Haddam, but this satellite facility served Middletown's immediate needs for decades. The cells were eventually removed and transported to Haddam for use there, though one section of original brownstone wall remains visible in a small alcove where diners now enjoy their meals.

The adjacent Alms House, built in 1814, represents Connecticut's first attempt at state welfare and stands as one of the oldest poorhouses still surviving in the United States. The conditions within were grim by modern standards. At one point, over one hundred orphans were crowded into the attic, while the insane were shackled to walls in the basement. The death count for the Alms House complex reached easily into the hundreds over its decades of operation. The institution housed the infirm, epileptic, mentally ill, and destitute children together under one roof until 1853, when operations moved to the Middletown Town Farms facility on Silver Street.

The building sat relatively quiet until 2016, when TAPS—The Atlantic Paranormal Society—arrived to investigate for Ghost Hunters Season 11, Episode 10, titled "Stone Cold Colonists." The new tenants and business owners of the recently renovated complex had reported persistent paranormal activity. Residents claimed to see a gentleman in a top hat wandering the property. Apparitions of children appeared throughout both the former jail and Alms House. Shadow figures moved through rooms. Doors slammed without explanation. Residents found their beds disheveled despite locking their apartments. One bedframe bore deep scratches with no rational explanation. In the gym, a heavy medicine ball rolled six feet across the floor entirely on its own.

The TAPS investigation yielded compelling evidence. Most significant was an EVP—electronic voice phenomenon—capturing a child's voice clearly saying "play dress up." The recording suggested the spirits of orphans who once lived and died in the attic remained connected to the property. The property owner, Lee Godburn, who had purchased and renovated both buildings beginning in 1999, found relief in TAPS' findings. He finally understood what spirits he was dealing with.

In March 2021, Carrie Carella and Heather Kelly opened Harrie's Jailhouse in the former jail building, attracted partly by its unique character and history. They quickly discovered they were not alone. Staff and owners began experiencing unexplained phenomena: flickering lights, sudden cold drafts, objects falling from tables and the bar without cause. The owners learned the building harbored a permanent resident—a young girl from the 1800s named Sarah, believed to have been between eight and ten years old when she died.

Sarah's identity remains uncertain, though she may have been one of the many orphans housed in the adjacent Alms House attic who wandered between the buildings. Her presence manifests in mischievous ways. She plays with the lights, creating sudden flickers. She creates drafts that chill unsuspecting staff. Most dramatically, she throws things and knocks items off tables and the bar, sending them crashing to the floor. One patron witnessed a television remote control fly off the TV and bounce across the bar.

The owners have developed a unique method of appeasing their spectral resident. Whenever things start dropping unexpectedly, or when a weird vibe settles over the restaurant, they prepare a mocktail and set it out for Sarah. The offering helps her feel included among the living patrons and staff who now occupy her space. Whether entirely effective or not, the gesture acknowledges her presence and seems to calm the activity.

Some visitors come to Harrie's specifically hoping to witness the child ghost during their meal or drinks. According to staff, Sarah often does not disappoint. The encounters have become part of the restaurant's identity—a former jail where diners can enjoy elevated pub fare while sharing the space with the spirit of a little girl who never left.

The building's haunted reputation extends beyond Sarah. The entire Warwick Street complex carries the weight of its history—the hundreds who died in poverty and illness at the Alms House, the prisoners who awaited their fate in the brownstone cells, the orphans crowded into the attic with nowhere else to go. The "play dress up" EVP captured by Ghost Hunters suggests some of those children remain, still wanting to play despite the passage of nearly two centuries.