The Haunted 1870 Wedgwood Inn, New Hope: Sarah, the Hidden Stone Room and a Painter Who Never Left

The 1870 Wedgwood Inn stands on West Bridge Street, a short walk from the Delaware River and the center of New Hope. The hip-roofed Victorian house, painted the blue that gives it its name, was built on a colonial-era stone foundation, and the land beneath it has a long history: Washington’s army camped here in December 1776, and in the 1800s the house was a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Carl Glassman and Dinie Silnutzer have run it as a bed and breakfast since 1982, adding the neighboring 1833 Umpleby House and a Victorian carriage house to form the Wedgwood Collection of Inns. Their hospitality is the main reason people come, but the ghost stories, above all the story of Sarah, have earned the inn a place among the haunted hotels in Pennsylvania, alongside its New Hope neighbor the Logan Inn.

The ghosts of 1870 Wedgwood Inn of New Hope

Sarah

The inn’s best-known ghost is Sarah, a 12-year-old girl. In the version told by Visit Bucks County, she was a servant girl seeking freedom on the Underground Railroad who became separated from her parents, and she is still searching for them. She is said to appear mostly to children, especially girls around her own age, and to tell them the story of her escape.

There is no record that names Sarah, and the details vary from telling to telling. What makes her story resonate is the house’s documented link to the Underground Railroad and the stone room found beneath it in 1999.

Scratching in the walls

Guests have reported scratching sounds inside the walls, most often around the old servants’ staircase. Some connect the sounds to the hiding places used by people escaping slavery; others simply blame an old house.

Joseph Pickett, the painter

Joseph Pickett was a New Hope storekeeper who became a celebrated self-taught painter. His painting Manchester Valley is said to show the view from the inn’s backyard, and the story goes that he still drops in to admire it. There is no record of him living here, so treat this as a friendly local legend.

Other ghosts

Our original guide said multiple ghosts are linked to the inn, and some accounts mention soldiers from the Revolutionary War camp. We have not found specific, sourced stories about them, so we have kept to the ghosts the inn and Visit Bucks County describe.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• The 1870 Wedgwood House: The main house where Sarah’s story belongs. Ask for a room here rather than in the other buildings.
• The old servants' staircase: Where guests most often hear scratching in the walls.
• The underground stone room: Found under the old porch during renovations in 1999 and preserved; you can look into it through a window in the fireplace lounge.
• The garden: With sculptures and a miniature covered bridge where guests leave love locks, and the view Joseph Pickett is said to have painted.

History of 1870 Wedgwood Inn of New Hope

In December 1776, about three weeks before the crossing of the Delaware and the Battle of Trenton, the ground where the inn now stands was a temporary camp for George Washington’s troops; the inn puts their number at about 1,200. During the Revolution the property was a headquarters house known locally as “The Fort”. Our original guide described it as the site of a British fort, but we have found no source for that, and the colonial-era use was American.

The house you see today was built in 1870 on the old stone foundation. In the 1800s the property was a stop on the Philadelphia Quaker Underground Railroad, one of the routes that helped people escaping slavery move north. During renovations in 1999 the owners uncovered an underground stone room beneath the old porch, which they preserved; it is the clearest physical link to that story. Older accounts also mention a secret staircase and a hidden tunnel, which we have not been able to confirm.

Before 1982 the Wedgwood was a rooming house with six bedrooms and shared bathrooms. Carl Glassman and Nadine “Dinie” Silnutzer, both Rutgers graduates, bought it that year and turned it into a bed and breakfast. In 1985 they added the 1833 stone Umpleby House next door and a Victorian carriage house, and a rear addition in 2000 brought whirlpool suites and event space. The inn says it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The owners founded the Bucks County Bed and Breakfast Association, run an apprenticeship school for aspiring innkeepers, and wrote How to Start and Run Your Own Bed and Breakfast Inn. William Shatner once stayed for three weeks while performing at the Bucks County Playhouse. Visit Bucks County counted 18 guest rooms across the inns in 2022.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Ask for a room in the main 1870 house, and ask the innkeepers to show you the stone room through the fireplace lounge window.
• Families with children around Sarah’s age are the ones with the best stories here, according to the legend.
• Walk two minutes along Bridge Street to the Aaron Burr House and the Logan Inn, New Hope’s other haunted stays.
• Take one of New Hope’s evening ghost tours, then finish with a drink at the Logan Inn.
• Book early for fall weekends, when New Hope and Lambertville are at their busiest.

More haunted hotels nearby

• Logan Inn, New Hope: New Hope’s most famous haunted inn, with its haunted Room 6
• Historic Hotel Bethlehem: about an hour north, home to the singing ghost of May Yohe
• Inn at Jim Thorpe: an 1833 inn in the Poconos
• Haunted places in Philadelphia: Eastern State Penitentiary and more
• Haunted hotels in Pennsylvania

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.

• Visit Bucks County: Happy 40th anniversary to the Wedgwood Inn (2022)
• Visit Bucks County: Historical hauntings in Bucks County
• 1870 Wedgwood Inn: About us
• 1870 Wedgwood Inn: official website

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