Haunted Reynolds Tavern, Annapolis: Mary Reynolds and the Colonial Inn

Reynolds Tavern is one of the oldest buildings in Annapolis and calls itself Maryland’s oldest tavern. It sits on Church Circle across from St. Anne’s Church and a few doors from the Maryland Inn, serves afternoon tea upstairs and drinks in a cellar pub, and keeps just three guest rooms on the upper floors. That makes it one of the rarest overnight stays in the city.

It also has a well-told ghost story. The spirit most people name is Mary Reynolds, who ran the tavern after her husband died. The reports include dents in a freshly made bed, objects that move, a voice singing carols, and an overnight investigation in 2004 that claimed far more than one ghost. This guide covers what has been reported, what the building’s history actually shows, and how to book a room.

The ghosts of Reynolds Tavern

Mary Reynolds

The ghost most often named is Mary Reynolds. William Reynolds opened his tavern here in the 1740s, and after his death his widow Mary kept it going. The tavern’s own website names its newest room after her, and the city’s tourism office mentions her as the tavern’s resident spirit.

Nobody claims to have seen her clearly. She is credited with the quieter kind of haunting: things moved when nobody was in the room, and the feeling that the house is being looked after by someone who still thinks of it as hers.

The bed upstairs

The most often repeated report is a simple one. In an upstairs bedroom, a bed that had been made up and left was found with a human-shaped impression in it, as if someone had been lying there, when nobody had been in the room. It has been reported more than once.

Christmas carols

Staff and guests have described a woman’s voice singing Christmas carols with nobody there to sing them. Like the bed, it is usually put down to Mary.

The 2004 investigation

In 2004 the Maryland Ghost and Spirit Society spent a night in the tavern with monitors set up through the building. Its leader, Beverly Litsinger, said afterward that the team had found five spirits rather than one. During the night a dish broke in the kitchen with nobody near it.

According to the Annapolis newspaper The Capital, the owners were worn out by the attention and decided not to publicize any more investigations. That is one reason you will not find the ghost promoted on the tavern’s own pages today, though the stories are still told on Annapolis ghost walks.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• Mary Reynolds Room: Named for William Reynolds’ wife, the ghost the stories name. It is in the 1906 rear wing, reached from the second-floor landing, and overlooks the courtyard.
• Washington Suite: A large two-room suite with Church Circle views, original wood floors, antiques and a pediment bed.
• Jefferson Suite: The other two-room suite in the original house, with a four-poster bed and a fireplace.
• The 1747 Pub: The old brick cellar, now a pub. A good place to hear the stories from the staff.

History of Reynolds Tavern

William Reynolds, a hatter, built the house on Church Circle around 1747 as his home and shop, and part of it soon opened as a tavern called the Beaver and Lac’d Hat. Architecturally it is a two-and-a-half-story brick building with a gambrel roof and internal chimneys, and its brickwork is an early use of the all-header bond, with every brick laid end-on. Legend says George Washington drank here, but there is no record of it. What is documented is that the city corporation and the Mayor’s Court met here, and that enslaved people were bought and sold at the tavern, a part of its history that should not be left out.

After the tavern years the building was briefly a boarding house run by Reynolds’ son-in-law. In 1812 the Farmers Bank of Maryland took it over as a banking hall, then built a new bank next door and turned the tavern into a home for its officers, who lived here into the 1930s. A rear wing was added in 1906, and in 1929 the Daughters of the American Revolution placed the tablet that still hangs on the front wall.

When the bank let the building go, there was a proposal to pull it down for a gas station. Prominent Annapolitans stepped in to save it, and the Library Association of Annapolis used it as the city’s library until 1974. A restoration in the 1980s then brought it back into use as a tavern, restaurant and inn.

Today the ground floor is a restaurant and tea room, the cellar is the 1747 Pub, and the upper floors hold three guest rooms with original wood floors and antiques. The suites cost from about $345 to $375 a night and the Mary Reynolds Room from about $285, with breakfast served daily in the historic dining room.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Book early. With only three rooms, weekends and Naval Academy events fill up fast.
• Ask for the Mary Reynolds Room if you want the room named for the ghost; choose a suite if you want the original 1740s rooms and the Church Circle view.
• Have a drink in the 1747 Pub in the cellar and ask the staff for their stories.
• Walk across Church Circle to the Maryland Inn, home of the Bride of Room 405, and up to the Governor Calvert House on State Circle.
• Pets are not allowed and guests must be 12 or older.
• Park at the Gott’s Court garage two blocks away, where guests get a discount.

More haunted hotels nearby

• Maryland Inn, Annapolis: the Bride of Room 405, across Church Circle
• Governor Calvert House, Annapolis: faces in the glass floor
• Haunted hotels in Baltimore: the Lord Baltimore and The William Fell, 40 minutes north
• Haunted hotels in Maryland: every haunted hotel in the state
• 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.

• Reynolds Tavern: official site
• Reynolds Tavern: Historic Suites
• SAH Archipedia: Reynolds Tavern
• Southern Spirit Guide: The haunted taverns of Annapolis
• Visit Annapolis: Meet me in an old cellar at Reynolds Tavern
• Reynolds Tavern (Wikipedia)
• HMDB: Reynolds Tavern marker

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