In Episode 389 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger investigate the haunted Nathanael Greene Homestead in Coventry, Rhode Island. Built in 1770, the stately Colonial home was a castle that oversaw the Greene’s iron forge empire. Many triumphs and tragedies graced this home over the centuries, and today they say the places is haunted by unexplained sites, sounds, and even smells.
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Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger
Edited by: Ray Auger
Theme Music by: John Judd
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
*A note on the text: Please forgive punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes. Like us, the transcripts ain’t perfect.
[WALKING ON THE STREET]
RAY: So we’re walking down Taft Street in Coventry, Rhode Island.
JEFF: Yup.
RAY: It’s a quiet, residential street right near a branch of the Pawtuxet River.
JEFF: It is. There was a time a few centuries ago when this was all farmland, woods, and homesteads.
RAY: Considering now this is basically a suburb of Providence, that’s tough to imagine.
JEFF: Our destination is right over there on our left.
RAY: I see a sign by the edge of the street that says Spell Hall.
JEFF: Right. That was the original name of this historic building that dates all the way back to 1770. Let’s head up the brick walkway.
RAY: It’s a gorgeous old house! It’s two-and-a-half stories, there are two brick chimneys on either side of the roof. The windows look old-time Colonial. It’s clearly been well preserved over the years.
JEFF: It has. But there’s another relic from the past that’s still knocking around inside. Though it was originally called Spell Hall, it’s better known as the Nathaniel Greene Homestead. And we’re here because they say… it’s haunted.
[INTRO]
JEFF: I’m Jeff Belanger and welcome to Episode 389 of the New England Legends podcast.
RAY: And I’m Ray Auger. Thanks for joining us on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England one story at a time. Most of our story leads come from you, so please reach out to us anytime through our website with your local tales of monsters, ghosts, aliens, roadside oddities, or any other wicked strangeness you think we should know about.
JEFF: We’ll look for the ghost of the Nathaniel Green Homestead right after this word from our sponsor.
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RAY: As we mentioned, the Nathaniel Greene Homestead, is a gorgeous and well-preserved historic home that dates all the way back to 1770.
JEFF: That’s right.
RAY: Think about that. We weren’t even America yet when this house was built.
JEFF: True. We were still an English colony.
RAY: And they say it’s haunted?
JEFF: They do.
RAY: I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise when a house gets to be over 250 years old there’s bound to be a ghost or two knocking around.
JEFF: There does seem to be a connection between these great old buildings and haunts, that’s for sure.
RAY: So here’s a little more backstory on General Nathanael Greene. He was born in Warwick, Rhode Island, back in 1742. He and his brothers were trained by their father as ironmasters. They had an iron forge in Warwick that was doing really well, so they decided to open a second forge ten miles north in Coventry. By 1768, the Coventry forge had grown to the point where 100 families lived nearby, each family had members who worked for the company. Nathanael had this homestead he called Spell Hall built in 1770 on a hill overlooking the Pawtuxet River. The home and its 83 acres of land, was a castle where Greene and his family could be near their business interests in town.
JEFF: The Coventry Forge suffered a fire in 1772, but they slowly rebuilt and brought the business back to full operation. However, there was another big problem in those early days.
RAY: What’s that?
JEFF: There’s tension between the American colonies and England. And Nathanael Greene believed it was only a matter of time before a war for independence began. Greene helped establish the Kentish Guards in East Greenwich. This was a military unit established by the Rhode Island General Assembly. Greene persuaded a British sergeant who had deserted his army to lead and train soldiers for the colonial cause. On the evening of April 19, 1775, after hearing the news on the first shots fired in Lexington and Concord, Greene mounted his horse, and joined the others from the Kentish Guards in a march toward Boston. Greene served as a Quartermaster General and was involved as a strategist in multiple Revolutionary War battles. He even appeared on a 1937 commemorative postage stamp alongside George Washington.
RAY: So one of our early rebel heroes standing up to tyranny.
JEFF: That’s our guy.
RAY: And today this homestead is haunted?
JEFF: That’s what they say.
RAY: Lemme guess… haunted by Nathanael Greene.
JEFF: I can see why you’d think that, him being the most famous person associated with the building, but no. He’s not the ghost, if we’re to believe the stories. So let’s head back to 1804, and visit this homestead.
[TRANSITION]
RAY: It’s the autumn of 1804 here in Coventry, Rhode Island, and we’re standing inside Spell Hall. After resigning his commission in 1783, General Nathaniel Greene and his wife moved to Georgia to own and run a plantation. Greene sold the house in Coventry to his brother, Jacob who now lives here with his wife Peggy, and their children. One of those children is their daughter, Julia.
JEFF: 27-year-old Julia Greene has been called the most beautiful woman in Coventry, and considering her wealthy family, and she has a Revolutionary War hero as an uncle, Julia is a sought-after catch. Men have tried to win her attention and affection, but so far, everyone has fallen short.
RAY: But today, another young man is going to try to win her heart. His name is Theodore Foster, from Brookfield, Massachusetts. The 26-year-old Foster studied law at Brown University in Providence, graduated four years ago, and has been practicing law in Rhode Island ever since. Though he seems destined to become a Rhode Island judge, some of his business practices have been questionable.
JEFF: A lawyer trying to make his fortune, maybe bending a few rules?
RAY: That’s the rumor. Still, Foster is charming.
[KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK]
RAY: That must be him at the door now.
[DOOR OPENS, MAN WALKS IN]
JEFF: Julia Greene greets her suitor and the two share some tea in the sitting room.
RAY: Foster’s charm is clearly working. Julia smiles, she laughs, she seems taken by the young man. Plus, considering their ages, she figures there isn’t much time to lose. Julia has already been called a spinster by some folks in town.
JEFF: After a courtship, Julia and Theodore marry on December 12th. Theodore now has access to the Greene family homestead, and their business interests. Being an attorney, he believes he can run things better than anyone.
RAY: But he’s a lawyer, not an ironworker.
JEFF: That’s true, but business is business, right?
RAY: I mean… I guess? Sort of? To some extent?
JEFF: That’s what Theodore believes. Business is business. Besides, he can always invest the family’s money in some of his other ideas.
RAY: Sure, but his track record so far hasn’t been so great as far as being an attorney and investing in other businesses.
JEFF: Sure, but that’s because he didn’t have enough capital. It takes money to make money, Ray. Now that’s he’s in charge of the Greene family business and fortune, he can make some real moves.
RAY: And that’s just what Theodore starts to do. He’s investing their money in one enterprise after another.
JEFF: Meanwhile, back at home, the couple’s family is growing. In the coming years Julia would give birth to four sons and three daughters. But all the while, her husband, Theodore is squandering her family’s fortune.
RAY: While Julia tends to their children, Theodore is spending their money. Pretty soon, the Greene family loses the Coventry iron forge because they’re out of cash. The sale of the business goes toward Theodore’s debts.
JEFF: Though Julia is getting nervous about finances, her husband tells her not to worry. Meanwhile, Theodore sinks his family further into debt.
RAY: It’s now October of 1821. Theodore has taken ill, and his family is just about broke.
[LAST BREATH]
He soon draws his last breath… he was 43 years old. His wife and children are forced to leave their family home in Coventry and move to western Massachusetts.
JEFF: Julia is angry at herself more than anything. She believes it’s her fault for marrying a man who lost her family fortune. Theodore is buried in the family plot in Coventry, but his grave isn’t marked. And that brings us back to today.
[TRANSITION]
JEFF: To this day, we don’t know exactly where Theodore Foster is buried. But we do know that Julia died in 1831 at age 53 and is buried in Dalton, Massachusetts, out in the Berkshires.
RAY: So who do we think is haunting the Nathaniel Green Homestead? Is it Julia because this was her house and she feels guilty for the fortune she lost for herself and her children? Does she blame herself?
JEFF: Maybe. But there’s one other candidate. Elizabeth Margaret Greene was born here at the homestead in 1814. She went through three husbands who all died on her. She lost children in this house, and she would be the last of Jacob Greene’s line to live in the Nathaniel Greene Homestead.
RAY: So she’s also a candidate because of all of the death and sadness?
JEFF: She is. People have reported strange smells, like break baking, even though no one has cooked in the house in many decades. And while many who work or volunteer here have heard strange sounds they can’t explain, or seen things out of the corners of their eyes. It’s unnerving. Imagine being in here alone and you hear someone walking upstairs?
RAY: Yeah, that would freak me out.
JEFF: By naming these things that bump in the night. Calling it Julia Greene or Elizabeth Margaret Greene, we give ourselves a sense of control. It’s a false sense, because how can we really know for sure, but still, we connect with their sadness or disappointment and speculate the reason why they may want to linger in this historic home.
RAY: Plus, when you walk inside, it looks like two hundred years ago. The furniture, the décor, this place is like a time warp back to when families lived and died in here.
JEFF: So true. If these walls could talk… well, at the Nathaniel Greene Homestead… maybe they can.
[OUTTRO]
RAY: And that takes us to After the Legends where we take a deeper dive into this week’s story and sometimes veer off course.
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To see some pictures of the Nathaniel Greene Homestead by the great Frank Grace, click on the link in our episode description, or go to our website and click on Episode 389.
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Until next time remember… the bizarre is closer than you think.
