Odd Facts About Your Hometown

[Tommy]

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1. We have a castle in our town. It is one of the few that was ever built in America and it's still standing making it among a very small number of still standing castles in the world:

The castle was built by Colonel Samuel Taylor Suit to convince Rosa Pelham to marry him. Construction began 1885 but the castle was never finished--Suit died just years into it's construction.


2. Our town has two official names. We are the twin sister of Bath, England. For postal purposes are town's name is Berkeley Springs, but Bath is also listed as it's official name.

3. We were America's first spa

4. We are famous for our mineral springs, which have a constant temperature of 74 degrees F. People from all over the country visit for our water which is believed to have healing powers.

5. We are listed as number 12 on the list of America's Top 25 Art Towns.

6. We are home to George Washington's bathtub. He came here frequently in bathed in the mineral springs:

7. Berkeley Springs (and the aread around it) is among the most haunted areas in the world. Most of the hauntings are Civil War related. And yes, the castle is considered to be haunted by Colonel Suit and Rosa and other people (and animals). If you guys want me to tell you about some of the hauntings that happen here, I will.



Okay, I'm sure there is more, but I can't think of anything else at the moment.

 

[nance]

Ohhh that's really awesome... I want a castle in my town! Ok.. um The Seinfeld Guy... he went to my middle school which is in my hometown... um... and that's about it.

 

[kylo4]

That's really cool! When I went to Italy, I saw a broken down castle there. I've been to Castle Oma before too.
kylo4

 

[twinzz2003]

1. We have the only bridge you can turn off on and were on Ripley's Believe it or Not for that.
2. My town used to have a winter lodge and they say it is haunted. My mom's friend lived there. So anyone want to know that story I'll tell you.

Tommy I want to know. I love ghost stories.

 

[*SPYnish*]

I like the Castles, In my country There Are a lot of Castles, Palaces, Roman constructions ...

This is The Alcazar of Segovia

 

[twinzz2003]

Hey! I know something else weird.
3. Our fort in the Civil War wasn't finished until right when the war ended. LOL!

 

[Marlene]

Hrm...I can't think of anything really except that a part of Spiderman was shot about 8 blocks away form my house.

 

[AliasHombre]

Uhhh...lets see....smoking weed is only a $25 fine.

 

[a.k.a.Kate_Jones]

hmm... there isn't much about my town, but one thing I think is really cool is that the Santa Anita Race Track is in my town, and there's a photograph of Clark Gable and Walt Disney sitting in the stands. and also quite a lot of Seabiscuit was filmed there. (another Tobey Maguire movie, Marlene! :lol

 

[AliasHombre]

Ohhh i got alittle one.....The largest college owned stadium in the world is in my town.

 

[twinzz2003]

Interesting. That movie Seabiscuit looks very good.

 

[SydB_JenG]

1. Parts of "It's a Wonderful Life" were filmed here
2. Some magazine called my town the BEST place in all of USA to live because of our lake and Ski mountain.

 

[AliasHombre]

Is it a big ski mountain?

 

[crazy spinster]

well, it's not an "odd" fact, but a kind of cool one. kristi yamaguchi (gold-medal winning figure skater of the albertville winter olympics, if anyone doesn't know or can't remember) is from my hometown. she went to the same high school that i did. obviously we didn't attend it at the same time - i was only in the fourth grade when she was at the olympics. but i remember seeing her at lake elizabeth (the central park) when she returned after winning at the olympics. it was cool. ^_^

oh, and tommy and twinzz - i wanna hear about the hauntings! i love a good ghost story.

 

[Tommy]

My versions aren't very scary and they really aren't meant to be, it's just stuff that happens here.

Here are just a few:

When the castle was still opened to the public, you could stay there over night. Many people see Rose, but that's not even the strangest part. After Suit died, Rose moved into the unfinished castle. She threw lavish parties and eventually ran herself out of the castle and became bankrupt. After her death, people say she came back to the castle. During one of her parties, a man was drunk and he tried to rape Rose. He chased her up the stairs and when Rose got to the top, she pushed a cabinet full of china on him---he was killed. Apparently, people have heard at night foot steps running up the stairs and then china breaking.

Not only was the castle never finished, part of it was burnt down too. At one time, Rose also had a carnival at the castle. She had elephants, tigers, etc brought in. The part of the castle near the animals (behind the standing part of the castle in the cleared off area) caught on fire. That part of the castle was burned to the ground along with the animals and all of the keepers. Supposedly, (again at night) you can hear animals and people screaming in pain.

Now two non castle related ones. They both take place that at a Presbyterian Church here. Near the church are many Civil War remains of buildings--including a hospital.
1) This seems to happen about once every 30 days. When you are traveling and you reach a three way stop where the sign for the church is in front of you. Your car goes dead and the sign starts to shake. A man dressed in a Union outfit staggers out from behind the sign. He is injured, bandaged, and bleeding. When he finally reaches your car, he collapses on him. He stays there and your car remains dead until you get out to help him. When you do, he disappears and your car starts back up.
2) At that same church every few months, you can see Union soldiers march from the hospital (across the road) to their graves at the church.

I personally don't believe in ghosts, etc. but these things have happened to more than one person and they've even published pictures of the 'hospital marching' Union soldiers in the newspaper.

There are hundreds more that I can tell you, but those seem to be the most known around here