Ashton Villa and nearby historic buildings attract tourists the year around. The villa is not open for public tours but is available for rental. Visit www.galvestonhistory.org/attractions/architectural-heritage/ashton-villa or call the Galveston Historical Foundation at (409) 765-3402.
Historic preservation and the lure of the Gulf Coast have made Galveston as glamorous a place today as it was in the late 1800s, when Miss Bettie lived in the villa.
THE NORTH ROOM
RED BROOK INN, OLD MYSTIC, CONNECTICUT
THE CRARY HOMESTEAD, MYSTIC, CT
There will always be houses that we pass on the road and say to ourselves, if I had a real home to go back to it would look like that and the presences of some of the people who once lived in that house would still be there. They would watch over me. The two brothers were about to stay in that sort of place.
Historic Haley Tavern circa 1740, and the Crary Homestead, built about thirty years later, are nestled on seven acres of wooded countryside on a hillside overlooking Route 184 and Welles Road. Albert Clodig and his brother, John, drove through the wooded New England countryside on a road just outside of Mystic. “That’s the Crary house,” said Albert. “I was drawn to it from the moment I saw its picture.” A winding drive led up to the large center chimney farmhouse. It was a warm New England red, set back from the road on pastureland enclosed by stone walls.
“When was the Crary Homestead built?” asked John.
“In 1756, during the day of the adventurer Aaron Burr in this country. But with your love of music, you will probably say to yourself, ‘Ah, I shall be sleeping in a house built the same year the great Austrian composer, Mozart, was born.’”
“I shall do just that when we are warmer,” agreed Albert, “for I find this weather quite cold for March and am looking forward to a blazing fire within.”
“And bread and pie baked in a brick oven,” said John. “Did I mention that?”
“We are so glad to see you,” said Ms. Keyes. She turned to Verne Sasek, her late husband, and asked, “Would you take them up to the North Room, dear?”
“I’m eager to see Mystic and look forward to our two days here before my concert in Manhattan,” said John. A professional organist, he was on his way to the city to give a recital at St. Thomas Church but Albert had prevailed upon him to visit Mystic instead of going directly to New York. “You tell me this place is unique,” said John. “Well, I know I don’t take enough time to enjoy my life,” he admitted. “Often I simply go from one place to another, never experiencing what the places I’m in are really like.”
This experience in itself, will be different, he thought as he entered the Crary house.
A large fireplace cast an amber glow over the room as they entered. Looking around him he thought of old paintings he had seen. There were stenciled floors and iron door latches. Period furniture and lighting devices and New England glass and pewter all captured the spirit of a bygone day. How the rooms of the past had corners filled with dark, somber shadows that both surrounded the people and added dimension to them.
“And when do you cook over the embers on the hearth?” John asked Ms. Keyes.
“Usually during the holiday season,” she replied. “You must come back to visit us.”
“I shall,” he said, staring into the flames. “But now we must retire; Albert and I have much to tour tomorrow. The Mystic Seaport Museum, an aquarium, and historic houses that belonged to some early sea captains.” The Clodigs went to their room. There were toilet articles on a washstand and bureau common in the late 1800s, and a large four-poster bed with a thick down mattress stood beside a narrow slate blue door.
Since the March night was unseasonably cold, the Clodigs had requested that a fire be lit in their bedroom. Watching the hypnotic flicker of the orange flames, they soon nodded over their reading and fell asleep. Albert says he does not believe in ghosts but he recalls that cold Thursday night well. Sometime just after midnight he suddenly woke to see a figure standing in the corner of the room.
“Looking straight in that direction, I saw a woman with white hair and a dark shawl wrapped around her standing in the corner staring at us. For some odd reason, I just thought she belonged there.”
The way he described the apparition was to call it “a pleasantry.” “I didn’t really think of it as a ghost,” he said. For a few minutes the woman stood there, her hands folded in front of her, calmly gazing toward the bed. Then she disappeared. When Albert Clodig looked over at his brother, he saw that he was still asleep, so he did not wake him, but it was more than an hour before he went back to sleep himself. Nor was Albert the only guest to see this mysterious lady, whose clothing and demeanor give the impression of a lady from the past.
Ms. Keyes herself has felt the presence of this person in the North Room. She describes one occasion when she and her daughter were unpacking boxes upstairs and she had the distinct feeling that a third person was there in the room with them.
“My daughter looked up and said, ‘Mother, I don’t think we are alone in here.’ I didn’t think we were either, but I was reluctant to admit it. More than one guest who stayed in the North Room has come to breakfast and told us that we have a presence in there, but no one has ever been frightened. In fact, a gentleman said, ‘You have a friendly spirit in
