Haunted Houses

Some Contractors Don't Know When to Quit

East Hartford has a hardworking ghost. Huguenot saddlemaker Makens Bemont and his family lived in this gambrel-roofed house from the 1760s to the 1820s. When the town undertook restorations on it 150 years later, stone masons restoring the chimneys heard phantom hammering and were once startled by the unmistakable sound of a hod of bricks falling. No fallen bricks were found. The story goes that the masons got so accustomed to the industrious ghost, they took to calling him Benny, and the foreman issued him work orders. Other presences have materialized. A woman with a candle was seen on the stairs, and a floating blue dress once scared the bejesus out of a little girl playing outside the house.