Haunted? New Hampshire restaurant claims ghost set off motion detector alarms

PORTSMOUTH. NH — Spooky season is well underway as Halloween fast approaches, and suddenly the owners of a restaurant in New Hampshire are wondering if their eatery is haunted.

The Library Restaurant inside the historic Rockingham Hotel in downtown Portsmouth shared a video on Facebook that appeared to show a ghost-like image float by their security camera.

“Our building - the Rockingham - is well known for its ghosts and notably the ones in the Library basement. Last night, for the very first time our motion detector alarms INSIDE the building were set off by this camera motion caught on video in the dead of night outside the window,” the restaurant wrote. “The motion detectors inside cannot see what the camera outside sees! It is not lights from the car - because you can see how others are picked up and there is no horizontal wind blowing. So what can this be! Make of it what you will but this has never happened before! Spooky coincidence for the time of year?”

At the 16-second mark of the video, what appears to be a white cloud is seen passing by the camera just above the steakhouse’s iconic lion statue.

The video has generated thousands of views and reactions, including one person who commented, “That’s definitely a ghost and I’ve seen plenty of them. I used to live across the street. The women’s restroom at the Library is haunted.

Another person added, “You can see a poltergeist going by the camera. Very cool.”

The Rockingham House, built in 1785, was once owned by Judge Woodbury Langdon and was said to be the “most handsome” brick house in New England, according to the restaurant’s website.

George Washington, Franklin Pierce, James K. Polk, Theodore Roosevelt, Chester Arthur, William Taft, and John F. Kennedy all visited Rockingham House, the restaurant said.

The Rockingham House was purchased for development in 1973 and the restaurant reopened in 1975, introducing the Library theme.

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