When visiting the Douglassville, Pennsylvania area, you will encounter the Brinton Lodge, which has a reputation as being quite the local haunted tale about town. When taking a look at the original pieced of the home, which date back to the early part of the 1700s, you will find a structure that has supported a long line of ghost tales.
The Briton Lodge is a one-room building, which served the public as a tavern and roadhouse located about the Schuylkill Rover Canal System. As time passed, a family by the name of the Whitmans bought the property and made a great deal of changes to the establishment. Soon, the property was fit to be used as a summer home. For a long time, the Whitmans held onto the home until the 1920a rolled around and a man named Caleb Briton took over the possession of the property.
Briton decided to turn the joint into a gentlemen’s club, using the building and the surrounding grounds for this purpose. During 1972, Hurricane Agnes swept through the area, taking with it the usability of the property. It was nearly destroyed after destructive Mother Nature tore through the neighborhood. With violent winds, floodwaters attacked the area, even touching upon the second floor. Since Briton lacked flood insurance to protect the property, so he decided not to continue his interest in the club. There the property remained (in the same awful state that the hurricane left it in) until he eventually passed away and the property passed hands once again.
This time, in 1980, the Covatta family bought the residence during an estate sale and went about fixing up the entire plot. They added more rooms and placed more buildings in the back. After the renovations were complete, they opened the place to the public as a bar and eatery. This is when the spirits started to make themselves known. It was thought that there was at least five ghosts who called this joint their home.
During the early 1980s, a psychic paid a visit to the property and claimed that there were indeed a few apparitions and spirits haunting the premises. The psychic also told the owners that she was able to send away one of the spirits to the afterlife. The owner, Mrs. Covatta would retell the tale and couldn’t really say whether or not this was true, but would exclaim how psychics in the future who visited the property did not report on this particular spirits presence anymore.
The first spirit noted on the property was nicknamed “Dapper Dan.” He is quite the ladies man as far as ghosts are known. He enters a room and the women literally feel his presence as reports claim he pinches at the ladies and sometimes blows in the ears of females working the establishment. His ghost has been spotted on many different occasions, but his favorite stomping ground is on the second floor meeting area, as well as the hallway that brings guests to this room. Additional ghosts haunting the premises include an older woman that roams about the
private living quarters located on the third floor. A Lady in White has also been spotted on the ground, and possibly Caleb Briton.
