Alleged Haunting
According to The World's Most Haunted Places by Jeff Belanger, there have been sporadic accounts of a female "ghostly presence" at the Andrew Bayne Memorial Library for decades. The spirit, identified with Amanda Bayne Balph, allegedly began making herself heard especially since the deterioration of the Lone Sentinel elm.
When neither Amanda nor Jane provided heirs to the Bayne property and agreed to turn over their father's land to the borough, they added four stipulations: that the surrounding streets be named "Balph" and "Teece," the mansion be used as a library, the 4-acre (16,000 m2) estate not be developed, and the estate's elm trees not be removed. Throughout the 1900s, all the elm trees perished from Dutch elm disease. Suffering the loss of a large branch in a 1998 windstorm, the Lone Sentinel had to be removed for fear of it falling on nearby buildings. The library director said the ghost "seemed to be very active right around the time that our Lone Sentinel was dying".
Visitors have reported seeing a woman in the window wearing a large hat when the library was closed, and the ghost is also allegedly prone to playing with light switches, ceiling fans, and the library's computers.
Read more about this topic: Andrew Bayne Memorial Library
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