A spooky sighting earlier this week has the owners of a New Hampshire restaurant wondering if their establishment might be haunted.
The Library Restaurant in downtown Portsmouth posted a video to its Facebook page early Tuesday morning that appeared to show a ghostly image passing by their security camera.
"Our building - the Rockingham - is well known for its ghosts and notably the ones in the Library basement. Last night, for the very first time our motion detector alarms INSIDE the building were set off by this camera motion caught on video in the dead of night outside the window," the restaurant wrote. "It is not lights from the car - because you can see how others are picked up and there is no horizontal wind blowing. So what can this be! Make of it what you will but this has never happened before! Spooky coincidence for the time of year?"
Between the 16-17 second mark of the 1 minute, 41 second video, you can see what appears to be a white mist or cloud passing by the camera, just above the restaurant's iconic golden lion statues outside the main entrance. About a minute later, the video shows police arriving to check out the restaurant's alarms, which had been activated.
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In the restaurant's basement there are tunnels, including one that is said to stretch all the way to the ocean, longa source of uneasy energy.
"I have myself seen things fall off shelves, everyone has seen that, you can always try and rationalize that type of thing," said Adrienne Waterman, who co-owns the restaurant.
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The video had already prompted 59 comments as of Thursday morning, with some people sharing their own ghost stories.
"So cool," commented Caroline Spang Chase.
"You can see a poltergeist going by the camera. Very cool," said Chris Kozlowski.
"I have been to the library many times, and I assure you there is a female ghost in the bathroom area in the lower level," offered Elaine M. Cerami.
But spooky specters are not the kind of thing Executive Chef Marc Lipoma wants cooking in his kitchen.
"I am not a pretty superstitious or ghost person," he told NBC10 Boston.
"That's definitely a ghost and I've seen plenty of them," added Kelly Shea. "I used to live across the street. The women's restroom at the Library is haunted."
"It's real - I saw and felt things like that living there!" said Nate Schnable.
"Someone smoking a cigarette next door lol," quipped Alicia Capello, offering a less spiritual solution.
Roxie Zwicker of New England Curiosities came over to investigate. She's written a bunch of books and interviewed 30-40 people over the years with their own experiences at the location. She says with that many stories, these people must be on to something.
"Once you start adding this up, listen, is everyone having a good spirit at the bar or are they experiencing a good spirit in the building."
According to its website, the Library Restaurant has been in operation since 1975 and is located in the old Rockingham House, which was built in 1785 as a residence for Judge Woodbury Langdon and transformed into a hotel in 1833. The building burned in a fire in 1884 and was rebuilt by then-owner Frank Jones, a former mayor of Portsmouth and U.S. Congressman.
