The Woodburn Mansion

The first documented Woodburn ghost appeared around 1815, about 25 years after the house was built. Dr. and Mrs. Martin Bates, the owners at the time, were entertaining Mr. Lorenzo Dow, a well-known itinerant Methodist preacher. One morning at the breakfast table, Mrs. Bates asked Mr. Dow to begin the meal with prayer. Mr. Dow hesitated and asked if they should wait for the other guest in the house. Surprised, Mrs. Bates explained there were no other guests. Mr. Dow described in detail the gentleman he met on the staircase. The older gentleman supposedly wore a powdered wig, knee britches, and a ruffled shirt. This description bothered Mrs. Bates a great deal because it was an exact sketch of her father, Mr. Charles Hillyard III.

Mr. Hillyard, the builder of Woodburn, has been seen by others since Mr. Dow. Mr. Hillyard, according to Dover history, was known to enjoy a strong drink. If a glass of wine is left downstairs at Woodburn during the night, an empty glass in the morning indicates Mr. Hillyard has been on the prowl again.

Mr. Frank Hall, another owner of the house, claimed to sometimes pass Mr. Hillyard on the stairs and described him as others had in the past.

Governor Tribbitt's wife, Jeanne, regularly checked the stairway for Mr. Hillyard's presence. She even left wine out for him a number of times with no results. She noted, "I made sure that I didn't tell my husband I was doing this, or he would have drank the wine just to tease me!"

When Governor Charles Terry Jr. was living in the mansion, one ghost in particular was seen helping himself to vintage wines in the dining room. A previous owner of Woodburn reported that he'd fill his wine decanter every night, and find it empty the next morning. These wine-drinking apparitions usually appear dressed in revolutionary-era clothes, even in modern day. Occupying the most haunted house in Delaware is hard work, and even ghosts need to wind down sometimes. One ghost is quite younger than the rest, and it makes you wonder what occurred to have her haunting Woodburn.

A young girl is seen often in the garden, wearing a red checkered gingham dress. She loves to splash and play in the pools and fountains, and she was seen 'crashing' the inauguration of Governor Michael Castle in 1985. Guests of the new Governor felt something tugging at them throughout the ceremony, and then they saw the young girl floating shyly in a corner of the reception hall.

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