Middleton Tavern

A 1740s Annapolis tavern where Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin all drank. A seance in the mid-1990s identified the resident ghost as Roland Johnstone, a cigar-smoking colonial who haunts the upstairs kitchen and once crossed the bar room floor in full colonial dress before vanishing.

"He liked it, and that was that." That's how a medium described the ghost's reason for sticking around during a seance at Middleton Tavern in the mid-1990s. The spirit's name was Roland Johnson, a well-dressed, cigar-smoking man from the 1700s who found the bar agreeable and saw no reason to leave.

Owner Jerry Hardesty organized the seance with a noted medium, hoping to get answers about the pranks that had been happening upstairs for years. The medium confirmed a middle-aged presence who enjoyed disturbing people, and that matched what the staff already knew. Corporate secretary Christina Nokes put it on the record: "Our resident ghost, Roland, has appeared and otherwise made his presence known by pulling pranks in the upstairs kitchen for years. He turns on faucets, spills coffee, rearranges silver, and flickers lights."

Nobody wants to work alone upstairs. The bartenders and waitresses avoid the top floor bar and fireplace area after dark if they can help it.

The building dates to about 1740, constructed as a private residence by Elizabeth Bennett. In 1750, ferry operator Horatio Middleton bought it and turned it into an inn for travelers. His ferry ran round trip from Annapolis to Rock Hall, cutting travel time between Philadelphia and Virginia. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and members of the Continental Congress all came through. The Freemasons met here. The Tuesday Club, an elite society of "enlightened, well-educated gentlemen," held meetings in the same rooms where Roland now tips over coffee mugs.

Tench Tilghman stopped at Middleton Tavern in 1781 while racing to Philadelphia with news of Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown. Washington recorded a miserable 1791 ferry crossing in his diary, noting the vessel hit a sandbar at Greenbury Point and he slept in a cramped bunk with his head resting on his boots. (Middleton himself had died in 1770, so the ferry was under different management by then.)

The biggest paranormal moment came in 2019, when night manager Mike Conway (previously a skeptic) watched a figure in full colonial dress slowly cross the bar room floor and vanish, leaving cigar smoke behind. A bartender locked eyes with Roland's reflection in a mirror and watched him disappear. Another bartender felt an invisible hand touch theirs while mixing a drink, then watched the glass tip over by itself.

Not everyone agrees on who the ghost actually is. Tour guide Melissa Huston thinks it might be George Schmidt, the building's owner who was fatally shot outside the tavern in 1876. Schmidt was killed by a drunk patron named William Barber after an argument about a contested local election spilled into the street. The murder happened right in front of the building, which gives Schmidt a reasonable claim to the haunting.

Roland (or Schmidt, depending on who you ask) may not be alone. Staff and visitors have described a figure in 18th-century seaman's clothes standing outside staring toward the harbor, where Horatio's ferries used to dock. Inside, wall-mounted lanterns have been found turned upside down. Tables and chairs rearrange themselves when the building is empty. When the tavern first installed electronic cash registers, the machines malfunctioned in ways that had no technical explanation.

Two fires in 1970 and 1973 left only a shell of the building, but Annapolis rebuilt it. After Horatio Middleton died in 1770, his wife Anne and son Samuel kept the ferry and tavern running. Later owner John Randall (a Revolutionary War officer, architect trained by William Buckland, and early 19th-century mayor of Annapolis) was close enough friends with James Monroe that the president may have visited during his time in office.

The tavern today displays Civil War muskets, old Naval Academy uniforms, and Maryland landscape paintings. Roland still works the upstairs kitchen, and the cigar smoke still shows up when nobody is smoking.