The Haunted Kitty Knight House: The Woman Who Faced Down the British in 1813 and Never Left

The Kitty Knight House stands on a hill above the Sassafras River in the tiny village of Georgetown, on Maryland’s upper Eastern Shore, with a mailing address in nearby Galena. It is two 18th-century houses joined into one inn, with guest rooms upstairs and Deep Blue at Kitty Knight, a restaurant with a deck that looks out over the marinas and the river. The inn’s logo reads “Circa 1812.”

Its fame rests on one woman. When British troops burned Georgetown in May 1813, Kitty Knight is said to have stamped out the fire set in her neighbor’s house and persuaded the British admiral to spare it and her own. She later bought the house and lived there until she died. Guests and staff say she never left, which makes the inn one of the most storied haunted hotels in Maryland.

The ghosts of Kitty Knight House

Kitty Knight

The inn’s ghost is its heroine. Guests and staff report doors closing by themselves and voices in empty rooms, and most of the activity is reported in Kitty Knight’s old bedroom and the hallway that leads to it. The original version of this guide described her wandering the building in 19th-century clothing, as an older woman, which fits a woman who lived here into old age.

April Doughty, marketing director for the Jamestown Hospitality Group, which owns the inn, told Chesapeake Bay Magazine that “guests say that doors will shut, or you’ll hear voices when no one is there.” Tony Avallone of the Mid-Atlantic Paranormal Project, who has investigated the inn for years, believes there is a presence that could be Kitty Knight herself, and describes whatever is there as welcoming, enjoying the company of guests.

The cold in Kitty's bedroom

Tony Avallone, founder of the Mid-Atlantic Paranormal Project, has investigated the inn for about a decade and says his group visits a few times a year. He described spending a night in Kitty’s bedroom and waking at about 6:30 in the morning to a tug and an intense cold, cold enough to see his breath. The thermostat was off, and he said his footage showed no one touching it, while the rest of the inn was at a normal temperature.

These are an investigator’s own observations and have not been independently tested. They are, though, the most detailed account published about the room.

Children in the basement

Not every story is about Kitty. The same investigators say audio recorded in the old basement picked up children laughing and crying, and that in one room a child’s spirit seemed to roll a ball back and forth with them across a perfectly level floor.

Nobody has suggested who the children might be. The houses have stood for well over two centuries, through the raid, the 19th century and generations of families.

Orbs on camera

Investigators also describe orbs on their cameras that move in deliberate patterns through the rooms, some of which they say show human-like features. Orbs are usually dust, moisture or insects caught by the flash, so treat these with the most caution of all.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• Kitty Knight's former bedroom: The room where most activity is reported and where an investigator described waking in intense cold. Ask for it by phone; there is no online way to choose it.
• The upstairs hallway: The corridor leading to Kitty’s room, where doors are said to close by themselves.
• The basement: Not a guest area, but where investigators say they recorded children’s voices. Overnight paranormal events have sometimes included it.
• Deep Blue at Kitty Knight: The inn’s restaurant and deck, with sunset views over the Sassafras River.

History of Kitty Knight House

Georgetown and Fredericktown face each other across the Sassafras River. On May 6, 1813, during the War of 1812, a British raiding force under Rear Admiral George Cockburn came up the river. Local militia fired on the British and then retreated, leaving mostly older men, women and children in the two villages. The British burned much of Fredericktown, then crossed the river and set much of Georgetown on fire.

What happened next is the legend. Kitty Knight, a woman renting rooms in Georgetown, is said to have stamped out the flames set in her own and an elderly neighbor’s house, twice by most accounts, and to have pleaded with Cockburn until he agreed to spare both houses. The National Park Service notes that the first written record of her heroism is her own obituary, published after her death in 1855, so the details cannot be checked against accounts from 1813.

The documented facts are simpler. In 1836 Kitty Knight bought the house she had been renting, and she lived there until she died in 1855. She is buried in the churchyard of Old Bohemia, St. Francis Xavier Shrine, in Cecil County. Both her house and the neighboring house still stand and together make up today’s inn, and a roadside marker on the highway tells her story.

Over the years the joined houses became an inn and restaurant. Chef Robbie Jester has said his father owned Kitty Knight in the 1980s. The Cecil Whig reported in October 2016 that the inn and restaurant had closed quietly that September and that owners Ford and Ralph Hall had put the property up for sale, which is why an older version of this guide marked it as closed. It has since reopened under the Jamestown Hospitality Group, which runs the rooms and the Deep Blue at Kitty Knight restaurant, brought in Jester as a partner in 2024 to revive it, and has hosted overnight paranormal investigations with the Mid-Atlantic Paranormal Project.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Book by phone if you want Kitty’s former bedroom; online booking does not let you pick it.
• Time dinner on the Deep Blue deck for sunset over the Sassafras River.
• Read the Mistress Kitty Knight roadside marker by the highway before you check in.
• Look out for the inn’s overnight paranormal events, which it has hosted with the Mid-Atlantic Paranormal Project.
• Rooms are not wheelchair accessible, so check the layout with the inn if stairs are a problem.
• Kitty is buried at Old Bohemia, St. Francis Xavier Shrine, in Cecil County, if you want to pay your respects.

More haunted hotels nearby

• The William Fell (former Admiral Fell Inn), Baltimore: Fells Point’s waterfront inn, with phantom sailors and Room 413
• Lord Baltimore Hotel, Baltimore: the 1928 hotel and its little girl with a red ball
• Bewitched & BEDazzled, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware: a beach B&B with pillow-throwing ghost children
• Haunted hotels in Maryland

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.

• Kitty Knight House: official site
• National Park Service: Kitty Knight
• Chesapeake Bay Magazine: The haunted history of the Kitty Knight Inn
• Cecil Whig: Kitty Knight House closed, put up for sale (2016)
• Delaware LIVE: Robbie Jester aims to infuse new life into Kitty Knight (2024)
• HMdb: Mistress Kitty Knight marker
• Visit Maryland: Kitty Knight

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