Haunted hotel guide · Montgomery, Vermont
The Haunted Black Lantern Inn, Montgomery: The Showering Ghost of Room 3
The oldest building in Montgomery, an 1803 brick stagecoach stop below Jay Peak, where the ghost in Room 3 just wants a quick shower.
The Black Lantern Inn is a red brick inn with a long covered porch on Route 118, right beside the village green in Montgomery, in the hills of northern Vermont a short drive from Jay Peak and the Canadian border. Built in 1803 as a stagecoach stop, it is the oldest known building in town, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Montgomery House.
Its ghost story is one of the gentlest in New England. Locals call the spirit of Room 3 the showering ghost, because the shower in that room is said to turn itself on, run for a few minutes and turn itself off again. Here is the story, the history of the building and how to plan a stay.
Black Lantern Inn at a glance
Haunted Rooms Score
- Address 2057 North Main Street (Route 118), beside the village green, Montgomery, VT 05470
- Built 1803 as a stagecoach stop; listed on the National Register in 1992
- Most haunted spots Room 3 and its shower
- Best-known ghost The showering ghost of Room 3
- Booking the haunted room Ask for Room 3 when you book by phone
- Good to know Ten rooms and suites (six in the main inn, four in the Burdette House) with coffee and homemade muffins each morning. The restaurant is closed for now, so plan dinner elsewhere
The ghost of the Black Lantern Inn
The showering ghost of Room 3
The story goes like this. Guests and staff in Room 3 have heard the shower start up on its own, with nobody in the bathroom. It runs for a few minutes, as if someone has stepped in for a quick rinse, and then shuts itself off again.
Plumbers who checked the fixtures are said to have found nothing wrong. Locals took to calling the spirit the showering ghost, and the name stuck. Nobody has suggested who he or she might have been in life.
How much is known
This is a small-town story rather than a well-documented haunting. It has been repeated in ghost round-ups for years, including Only In Your State’s list of haunted Vermont stays and our own earlier list, but we could not find a firsthand account from a named witness, and the inn’s own website does not mention a ghost.
That is no reason to skip it. A two-century-old brick inn that was once the center of town life has seen a great many travelers come and go, and Room 3 is a perfectly pleasant room to test the story for yourself.
The most haunted rooms and places to look
- Room 3: Home of the showering ghost. Request it directly; online booking does not let you pick a room number.
- The old public rooms: The building hosted church services and town meetings in the early 1800s.
History of Black Lantern Inn
The Montgomery House was built in 1803 on the route of the Bayley-Hazen Military Road, the Revolutionary War road cut north through Vermont toward Canada. It is the oldest known building in Montgomery. It is a two and a half story Federal style brick building with a twin-gabled roof on a stone foundation, two three-bay fronts with center entrances and a porch across the middle, and it still has its original wide wooden floors fastened with cut nails.
For the first half of the 19th century it was the civic and social center of the town, hosting church services and town meetings as well as travelers. As tourism grew in the late 1800s it became more of a hotel, a role it played on and off through the 20th century. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, and innkeeper listings describe it as a restored stagecoach stop.
The inn closed abruptly in 2015. Rather than lose it, a group of local residents came together to buy it and reopen it. Today it has six rooms in the main inn and four suites in the neighboring Burdette House, with coffee and homemade muffins each morning; the restaurant, which used to open Wednesday to Saturday evenings, is closed with no reopening date announced. Montgomery is known for its covered bridges, and Jay Peak is a short drive up the road.
Tips for a haunted stay
- Call the inn (802-326-3269) to request Room 3 and to check availability; the restaurant is currently closed, so book dinner in Montgomery Center or at Jay Peak.
- Combine it with a ski day at Jay Peak or a drive around Montgomery’s covered bridges.
- Look for the original wide floorboards, held down with cut nails from the early 1800s.
- Bring a towel and an open mind: the shower in Room 3 is the only ghost on record here.
- Head south for a night at the Green Mountain Inn in Stowe, a little over an hour away.
Want to investigate, not just sleep?
Sleeping in a haunted hotel is one thing. Investigating one after dark is another. On a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt our team takes you through the building with professional ghost hunting equipment, runs EVP sessions and lets you explore on your own during free roam.
- Fort William Henry Ghost Hunt, Lake George, NY: Investigate the rebuilt 1755 fort in upstate New York.
More haunted hotels nearby
- Green Mountain Inn, Stowe: Boots Berry and Room 302
- Old Stagecoach Inn, Waterbury: Nettie Spencer and Room 2
- Haunted hotels in Vermont: Every haunted inn in the state
- Haunted hotels in Vermont
Stayed in one of these hotels? Tell us what happened
We collect first-hand accounts from guests and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your stay. We read every story before it’s published.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Black Lantern Inn haunted?
Local legend says Room 3 is home to a showering ghost: the shower turns itself on, runs for a few minutes and turns off again, and plumbers are said to have found nothing wrong.
Which room is haunted at the Black Lantern Inn?
Room 3. Ask for it when you book by phone.
How old is the Black Lantern Inn?
The building was put up in 1803 as a stagecoach stop and is the oldest known building in Montgomery.
Is the Black Lantern Inn on the National Register of Historic Places?
Yes. It was listed in 1992 as the Montgomery House.
How far is the Black Lantern Inn from Jay Peak?
It is a short drive south of Jay Peak, in Montgomery village.
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.
- Black Lantern Inn: official website
- Wikipedia: Montgomery House (Montgomery, Vermont)
- Jay Peak Resort: Black Lantern Inn (2021)
- Innsite: Black Lantern Inn, Montgomery
- Only In Your State: Haunted places in Vermont where you can stay the night
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About the authors
The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every hotel in our guides using hotel histories, local archives, news coverage and the accounts of guests and staff, and we review each guide regularly so you are not booking a hotel that has closed or changed its name. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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