The old Rossborough Inn has been on Route 1 in College Park, Maryland, for over 200 years. But with all that history, are there also perhaps ghosts?
According to those who have visited it or even worked in the building, that could explain a few things.
“Probably the best-known story is the story of Miss Betty, who was the manager of the Rossborough Inn during the Civil War,” said Anne Turkos, a longtime archivist at the University of Maryland. “Miss Betty appeared to some Dining Services employees in 1981 she was dressed in a long yellow dress, and she was seen in multiple occasions. People also sometimes think that Miss Betty is responsible for the vase of flowers that appeared out of blue air. The doors opening and closing on their own footsteps being heard when people know that they’re the only person in the building and they’re sitting right there at their desk.”
Now, the building is used as office space, and there’s no shortage of stories. Kelsey Stewart has occupied a third-floor office until this week and said she would sometimes see what appeared to be the shadow of someone moving around in the office across from hers, even though it was empty.
She tried to blame it on the shadows of tree branches through the window, except there aren’t any trees there. She also had things happen in her own office, too.
“Last summer, with all the construction going on, I was in here in my office, and all of a sudden, the touch lamps that I don’t use — I’ve never used — they started flickering on and off,” said Stewart. “There are two so they’re not plugged into the same outlet. They’re not able to be activated without physically touching them, and they both started flickering on and off in a different rhythm.”
She said it was like they were communicating with each other. When she got to work that day, Stewart admitted she didn’t really believe in ghosts.
“I tried to explain it away, that it was construction,” said Stewart. “Then I was like, ‘well, wouldn’t it have happened more often if they were doing it [construction] consistently? So I guess I was made a believer. I guess I would attribute that to maybe Betty, or whoever else is here.”
Stewart’s old office also happens to be the room where a man, according to legend, died after being on the losing end of a duel at the old Bladensburg Dueling Grounds, which aren’t too far away. Legend has it, there used to be blood stains that sometimes showed up on the third floor.
In 2012, a team from Maryland Paranormal Research visited and allegedly recorded voices inside the Rossborough Inn, which you can judge for yourself here and here. Turkos, who used to work in the university’s Hornbake Library has had her own brushes with ghosts there and elsewhere on campus.
“In Hornbake Library, where the archives are now. I’ve heard footsteps on the linoleum floor when I know I’m there all by myself,” she said. “I’ve seen a fast-moving black blob going out, in and out of the doors. I’ve heard people rustling papers around when I know I’m the only person there.”
Over time, Turkos ended up putting together ghost tours on campus, and now they’re available digitally for anyone with a smartphone to take on their own time.
“I think people are fascinated by ghosts,” said Turkos. “I think it really gets people engaged with the history of our institution and where we’ve come from.”
But Stewart admits, it hits a little different when it’s your office that might be haunted.
“I definitely don’t want to believe there’s anything here with me in a place I have to be at pretty much every day,” she confessed. “But on top of that, it’s just kind of a surreal or eerie feeling to think like, maybe we are constantly surrounded by things we just can’t see. That’s just a thought that I can’t really wrap my head around.”
But, she also seemed confident that if it’s the ghost of Miss Betty inside that office, she’s probably welcomed there. After all, if she was running an inn and tavern, she would want people around, right?
At least that’s what Stewart hopes.
“Even if you know, as a human being, it’s a little creepy,” she said.
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