Conveniently located, reasonably priced rooms, a great restaurant, ghosts. What more could one ask for in Cape May?
The Hotel Macomber always brings back great memories for me. When I first started coming back to Cape May in the 1990s (after summering here as a kid in the 60s and 70s) I would stay at the Macomber because the rooms were reasonable, the location was right across the street from the beach and most of all—it was haunted.
In those days, I had not yet written even one ghost column, let alone any books. I loved ghosts and hauntings, and I was in the early stages of exploring my psychic abilities. Cape May was like one big magnet for me. I can remember the thrill of going on the walking ghost tours to see what I could sense from the street level. Of course, getting inside each house allowed me to really get a psychic heads up, but that also meant having to pay to stay. Walking around town and making stops in front of Cape May’s many haunted homes allowed this psychic medium to become one with the paranormal energy of America’s oldest seaside resort. It started a long love affair with a haunted seaside town that continues to this day.
I have stayed in many of the rooms in the Macomber over the years. Some rooms have been active, others have not. The most famous room in the hotel, room 10 on the first floor, has a long reputation for bumps in the night—the paranormal kind of course. I have stayed in room 10 several times, and it is one of the most relaxing rooms I have slept in. Strange, you might say? A room so paranormally active and I was able to sleep like a baby? Yep. That is just the way it works. Some ghosts have very calm personalities, and may actually love a particular room so much that they too enjoy a good night’s rest.
The room 10 haunting is attributed to an older woman who is referred to by many as “the trunk lady.”
The story goes like this: A woman came to Cape May with her family for many years. Her husband died and her children convinced her to keep coming to her favorite hotel and her favorite room…#10. June and November seem to be two months the room is most active. Years after first staying here, I was able to find out more about the “trunk lady” from the son of a former owner of the hotel. The previous owner’s son told me “the trunk lady’s” name was Irene Wright.
Irene Wright was a regular at the Macomber. She was called “Miss Wright.” It is thought she was never married nor did she have any children. She did come with a large trunk, as many vacationers did back then, packing enough for a long summer’s visit. She stayed in room 10 and apparently could talk one’s ear off. She also wore large quantities of perfume. From what I can ascertain, she died sometime in the 1970s. She may have been coming to Cape May as early as the 30s, I have never been able to find out. According to someone who knew her, she loved Cape May and room 10 of the Macomber. Although, I was told she stayed in various places in town each summer.
My experience one night in room 10 was quite paranormal. We had gone to bed around midnight, after running some tapes down in the lobby to try to collect EVPs. It was the Monday night of Labor Day weekend back in 2006 and the town (and the Macomber) literally emptied out. I had just fallen asleep when there was a loud banging on my door. I jumped up and said, “Yes?” No one answered. I opened the door and looked up and down the long corridor, but there was not a soul in site. A few minutes later I was back asleep and the banging started again. This time I jumped up and flew open the door to reveal—nothing. I think I was more expecting to find another guest, locked out of their room, rather than a ghost. You rarely see ghosts, guests are more easy to spot.
I decided to leave my cassette tape recorder running on the table in the hallway across from our room. If someone or something was to knock again, I would capture the sound and maybe a ghostly EVP or two. EVP or electronic voice phenomenon is one of the few bits of tangible evidence we can capture in a ghost investigation.
Next came the sound of doors opening and slamming closed. Now I was wide awake. Realizing the laundry room was right next to room 10, I had a theory that a late night housekeeper might have been doing some laundry. It was, after all, right after a major holiday weekend and there were probably plenty of linens and towels to wash. The tape later revealed the sound of doors opening and closing and a few other odd bangs. In the morning, I went downstairs and mentioned it to the front desk clerk. I was told there was no one cleaning or doing laundry during the night, as a matter of fact, we were the only guests in the hotel and housekeeping had gone home earlier. Maybe the living housekeepers went home, but the dead ones were busy doing something.
Leaving a cassette tape recorder running in the hall and later in the room captured several EVPs.
I asked if there was anyone with us and a ghostly voice on the tape replied…
Listen carefully within the white noise. A voice says, “We love this bedroom.” Here it is looped together several times.
Listen to it several times. Everyone seems to hear something different with EVPs, as each of our brains try to interpret what the random sounds are actually saying. I think it says, “We love this bedroom,” which makes sense. Right after that, a man’s voice says something like, “I’m happy to hear that.” Listen to the next EVP and see what you think it says. Headphones work even better for listening to EVPs.
Here is the same EVP looped seven times. The distortion comes from the noise reducing software. The problem with cleaning up EVP recordings is that the initial EVP may become morphed into something completely different in the process.
The fact that this is a man’s voice indicated that the ghost in the room (at the time) was someone other than Miss Wright. The hotel is home to several ghosts and ghosts are transient. They come and they go, just like the living come and go, especially to a hotel at the beach. Whoever I caught on tape that night back in September of 2006 knew I was there and knew that I was asking questions. Ghosts seem to have the ability to see or hear us, even if we cannot do the same in return.
During another visit to the hotel, I had befriended the new night manager. A group of us had been hanging out in his suite and enjoying some wine when we heard doors slamming in the hotel. It was off-season and we were the only ones there. Each time we would go to investigate, we would find all the doors properly shut and everything in place. When my friends and I finally decided to go downstairs, we found the lights in the lobby had been dimmed to about 10% and the room felt strangely cold. My friend Pierre was the only guest staying at the hotel that evening and both he and the manager slept in the lobby the rest of the night!
Fall is the best time to experience the ghosts of the Macomber, before the hotel closes for the winter. In the summer, just enjoy the great location and the comfortable rooms. The Union Park Restaurant, located inside the Macomber, is also a great place to eat . Many years ago, a previous owner was renovating the kitchen and dining room, when he saw a woman in an old-fashioned dress float through the room and disappear into the kitchen. When he went to check, no one was there. Stories suggest this was a former waitress who choked on a chicken bone and died. I have not been able to substantiate this chicken bone story, but I have personally experienced some great paranormal activity while dining in the Union Park.
One night during the fall I was dining with friends at Union Park when the chandelier right above us started flickering wildly, while all the other chandeliers stayed perfectly lit. I was not having chicken that night by the way, so I don’t think it was the ghosts warning me about bones!
The Macomber will always hold a special place in my heart in Cape May. I love staying here and I think you will as well. If you want a great overnight ghost adventure, make reservations to stay here in the off season. Chances are you will experience something paranormal. Just remember to tell me about it.
To read more about the ghosts of the Hotel Macomber, check out The Ghosts of Cape May Book 1.
You can also visit the Macomber’s website here. Just remember to come back!
If you have had a Macomber ghost experience—let us hear about it below.
Isn’t there a soldier that walks around there too? Why do these ghosts
stick around?
Hi Lynn – I had sensed two men in uniform (ghosts) in the hotel years ago, but nothing recently. They may have been nothing more than a residual energy and not really ghosts at all. The building was leased in the 1940s by the army and navy as a soldiers quarters. The area under the front steps was a “drunk tank” for those in uniform who partied a little too hard on leave. Maybe a few got carried away and are still haunting.
Most ghosts have unfinished business or some form of attachment that keeps them tethered to a former home or place of employment.
Thank you Craig. I hope you will be having some ghost tours in October when we are down. I have talked to the people that work in the Halloween shop and they have experienced some weird stuff. Must be the dunk tank!
Be well.
Lynn
I stayed at the Macomber one October weekend, I wanted to stay there because of the “haunted” history. Sadly, I didn’t see anything (or anyone unusual hehe). Maybe they knew I was looking. Still a great place to stay.
My Fiance and I stayed in Room 10 October 2010 and caputued some Orbs in room 10 and in the hallways! and I was downstairs sitting on the porch and a large shadow figure walked behind me! There was no one around and at the same time my fiance was upstairs in our room 10 and the lock chain kept swing up and trying to hook its self? We are getting married there in 2 weeks and cant wait to stay again and again in the future!!!!
The room 10 looped EVP; “We love this bedroom”, also sounds like; “We loved it here” or “We’re locked in here”
We are two girlfriends who spend a few days at the Macomber every summer. We were given room 10 because of the two beds and knew nothing about the hauntings until we took the ghost tour and they started pointing at our room. LOL My girlfriend and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. That night when I went to bed I felt like my heart was beating out of my chest and a feeling of real anxiety struck me. I had a hard time breathing smoothly. I can fall asleep anywhere, but not that night. We had the windows shut despite the ocean breeze following their instructions due to the air conditioning. The following nights, I said “screw it” and left them open wide. I slept better after that. Hearing the EVP where John suggests it says “We’re locked in here” I hear “We’re locked in the bedroom” and maybe opening the windows lessened the tension in the room. My girlfriend heard noises like a dryer running in the laundry room in the dead of night. Now I read that the hotel does not use the laundry room at night. We were so keyed up that on our last night I’m in the bathroom in the early morning psyching myself to go back out to my bed in the dark and when I opened the door I scared the crap out of my friend who screamed thinking something was coming at her. We had a good laugh.
So after staying at the Macomber about a month ago, I came across this spooky article after a Googled “haunted hotel Macomber”. Judging by the date of this writing and posts, I’m happy to report that the Macomber is still up to its old tricks.
Shortly after my fiancé and I checked into our room (41 not 10), I tried to iron my very wrinkled shirt that I wanted to wear that evening. Let’s just say the hotel doesn’t provide the best irons to their guest. Three passes into it and all of this blue-green ooze came out of the iron and onto my shirt. The ooze immediately solidified and was almost impossible to get off. I reported it to the management in hopes of getting some compensation for the ruined shirt… never happened.
The next morning I tried to scrape the plasticky stuff off…couldn’t…so in the suitcase it went. We went to breakfast for about an hour and returned to our room. While looking for something in the suitcase, I was shocked to see that the mysterious substance vanished completely! Thinking that a staff member opened my suitcase and quickly cleaned the shirt, I went downstairs to speak to the manager. She assured me that no one from the cleaning staff cleaned the shirt and I believed her when I realized that our room had not been serviced yet. I walked away even more puzzled than before.
The next day we checked out of the hotel and I mentioned to the manager that I’m still curious about how the shirt became clean. She stated “We have a lot of weird stuff happening here in supposedly one of the most haunted places in Cape May!”
Come again, lady?!?
She also explained how the crew from Ghost Hunters was checking in that night to film an investigation in the infamous room 10. As we walked to our car in the parking lot, there was a small van parked near us with a logo painted on the sides reading “Ghost Finders”.
After learning about the history of strange tales in the hotel by reading numerous writings online, it started make sense of another weird happening that we encountered there. One evening, I woke up at 3:15am and couldn’t go back to sleep. While counting sheep, I suddenly heard rapid knocking on one of the thin wooden doors near our room. At the time I thought it was a bit strange that I didn’t hear footstep down the creaky sub flooring ( which was heard during the day) and I didn’t hear the sound of a door opening and closing. It was also a bit strange that someone would be coming back to their room at such a late hour. Let’s face it, Cape May isn’t quite like Vegas.
So that’s our spooky experience at the Hotel Macomber.
In case your were curious about the blue-green ooze, please find the attached picture of it. My fiancé is big on reporting on Trip Advisor so hence the photo. As I’m typing this, I couldn’t help but notice that I’m wearing the shirt in question, sans ooze, thank you!
I hope to read some more weird tales about this place and maybe watch that episode on Ghost Hunters!
I have been to Cape May a hundred times love it I never knew Cape May was haunted until years later after I stopped going there…….the whole town is haunted………… I stayed at the Palace Hotel right across from the beach its far from town but they always have rooms available……….. Me & my boyfriend usually went in the summer but one time we went in the winter & it was literally a ghost town nobody was around not a soul…….. So we stayed at the Palace Hotel we saw no other people the hotel was almost empty……… Once we were in are room I went out on the balcony & on the other side of the balcony was a door to the room next to ours so I turned the door knob & the door opened they forgot to lock the door…….. So that night my boyfriend stayed in are room & I went to sleep in the room next door……. Wow was that a mistake first of all it was very late around 1:00 A.M. so not a sound in the place I turned off the lights & was lying on the bed trying to fall asleep…….. All of a sudden I could not move a muscle my eyes were open but I didn’t see anyone in the room or on top of me……… I immediately thought it was a medical condition some kind of paralysis, reaction to something I ate……… After a few minutes I was able to move again & right away jumped out of the bed ran for the door crossed the balcony & ran into my boyfriends room where he was awake watching cable tv……….. I told him what happened & he just laughed & went back to my room to check things out but of course nobody was in the room…….. So we turned everything off & went back to his room together & went to bed………. But I never went in that room again & never forgot about that night…….. Years later because of all of these psychic reality shows I realized it must have been a ghost they describe exactly what happened to me & by this time I knew Cape May was very haunted maybe the most haunted place in America…….. I will go back again I live in New York so not far I can’t wait I really miss it………
Wow! I booked a room at the Maycomber this past weekend as a last minute fall get away for myself and my husband. Not knowing anything about the ghosts. But I lived in a haunted house growing up…I believe for sure. I may not have booked knowing the history, however we over all had a lovely time. So here is what happened to us we had room 6, two doors away from room 10. The first night was fine for the most part, but in the middle of the night I was woken up because the bed was shaking ever so slightly, at the time I was thinking small tremor or maybe generator in the floor under me. I was also was thinking maybe I had too much to drink and my insides just weren’t settled. And I had broken slept the rest of the night, As well as the next night and I sleep like a rock just about anywhere. Saturday night we went to the awesome restaurant in the hotel Union Park Dining room had a lovely meal, a nice bottle of red, then went to relax on the porch and enjoy the night air. Out on the porch we met a couple who told us about room 10 and it being haunted and we all had a chuckle that we were glad it wasn’t our room. We said good night and retired to our room. It was quite late at this point 2am at least. My husband and I talked for a bit and then as I faced him and by doing so faced the door. I couldn’t help but notice shadows through the cracks in the door kept passing our room. We heard no weighted foot steps, no creaks in the floor. This went on for some time. Then we heard loud knocking down the hall as well, which freaked us out, more than likely it was the ghost of room 10. At that point my husband made a poorly time joke,”was wondering when they were going to present themselves.” I could barely sleep, but my husband had no problem sleeping at all. He also said when we left today that as soon as we got there he felt spirits, but didn’t want to freak me out. I had to ignore the shadows in the hall and try to sleep. I kept the TV on till sunrise.
We spent Mother’s Day weekend at the Macomber Hotel. We love it there. My granddaughters, ages seven and four, wanted to have a race down the hall. My husband and I were in Room 2 and my son and dil were in room 1 so it was from one end to another that the girls would be racing. I let them race and followed them. There was a beautiful piece of old furniture down the hall with a mirror attached to it. I stood in front of the mirror checking out my hair when I heard three loud knocks on a door somewhere. No one else was in the hallway. I took the girls by their hands and ran back to my room.
The next day I walked down the hall by myself and realized that the mirrored piece of furniture was close to room 10. I did hear about the ghost stories. I walked past room ten to the very end of the hall. I then heard a door open loudly and close but did not see any doors open, nor did I see anyone. I walked quickly past room 10 and then ran the rest of the way back to my room. Mind over matter? I don’t know. I’m pretty sure I heard what I heard.