Shenanigan's/Shoreham Hotel

One of only two Eastern Shore locations with the haunted trifecta: a murder, suicide, and accidental death in the same building. A paranormal team leader locked himself in the basement (site of a 1970s killing) and ended up screaming to be let out, Betsey's ghost keeps Seasonal Room 6 impossibly clean after jumping from the third floor in 1983, and a 1930s writer's sadness lingers on the upper floors of this 1923 Ocean City boardwalk hotel.

A paranormal team leader from Pittsburgh deliberately locked himself in the Shoreham Hotel's basement one night. According to ghost tour founder Mindie Burgoyne, "He ended up panicking, screaming and begging to be let out."

The basement is the problem. It used to house the Sazarac Pub, operated by the Janulewicz brothers from 1969 to 1979. During the late '70s, a man was killed there by a Navy SEAL during a violent fight. Now it's storage, and employees are terrified to go downstairs. Boxes launch off shelves. Lights flip on and off independently of the electrical system. Cold air rushes through the space even when every door is sealed. The spirit in the basement is described as "very mischievous, if not angry," and it may be the most hostile presence in all of Ocean City.

The Shoreham is one of only two locations on Maryland's Eastern Shore to have the "haunted trifecta": a murder, a suicide, and an accidental death all in the same building. The murder is the basement. The suicide is Betsey.

Betsey jumped from a third-floor window in the summer of 1983, and she's attached to Seasonal Room 6. Staff have noticed something odd about that room for decades. It's always clean. After guests check out, housekeeping barely has to touch it because the room maintains itself in pristine condition. Guests who stay in Room 6 report a different kind of attention: air conditioners switching on and off, lights flickering, televisions changing channels or powering down on their own. Management has had electricians check the wiring multiple times. Nothing wrong with it.

The oldest ghost is a writer who took his own life at the hotel during the 1930s. Details about him have been lost, though his presence is felt on the upper floors, where guests describe an overwhelming sadness in certain rooms.

Josephine Hastings built the Shoreham in 1923 as a 40-room boardwalk hotel with private baths, marketed as "Ocean City's most up-to-date hotel." It opened on April 15, 1923. Dr. Horace O. Cropper and his wife Amanda bought it in 1926. Amanda was the granddaughter of Isaac Coffin, who in 1869 opened the first lodging establishment in what would become Ocean City, giving the hotel roots in the town's founding family.

The basement bar went through several identities after the Janulewicz brothers left: Surf and Suds, Mugsy's Speakeasy, McGee's. Shenanigan's Irish Pub and Seafood House opened there in 1989 and has lasted longer than any of them, though the storage area below remains distinctly unwelcoming.

A paranormal team from Pennsylvania conducted a formal investigation of both the basement and Room 6 and documented significant evidence in both locations. Their findings lined up with what staff and guests had been saying for years.

The Shoreham is a featured stop on the Ocean City Ghost Walk, a 1.5-mile tour through the historic district run by Chesapeake Ghost Tours. Burgoyne, who wrote "Haunted Ocean City and Berlin," says Ocean City has her favorite ghost stories of all the towns she covers. The Shoreham is the centerpiece. Three people died in this building under three different circumstances, and all three seem to still be here: one cleaning, one raging, and one just sad.