About this time of year, it’s common for the local historical society to get requests for stories or information on Windham ghosts and some people want to report what they think may be a haunted house. Others ask about cemeteries and which ones can be considered fertile ground for unusual happenings. Usually the information they have is from the Internet, but the files of the society contain some interesting observances that could be considered “ghostly” and worthy of further study.

In the late 1950s, an architect from Massachusetts took a great deal of interest in one of Windham’s oldest homes – the Goold house on Windham Center Road, listed in 1990 on the National Register of Historic Places.

This architect had heard that the “tower” had a bell-ringing ghost in it and he studied the building, drawing extensive sketches, but never did hear the bell ring. He sent copies of his drawings to the historical society in Windham. The background to this bell tower can be found in old town histories.

During the War of 1812, Nathan Goold who lived in the house was a captain of the Windham militia. It was during this period, 200 years ago, that the story surfaced about the tower ghost. The Goold house did have a sort of “tower” in which a bell was hung. The bell was to be used to “sound an alarm” to neighbors of any trouble in regard to the war.

The story goes that for years after the bell had been removed, the floorboards in the tower would squeak and footsteps could be heard, though no one was ever seen.