Water Street home to history …. and hauntings

STORY BY MACKENZIE TEWKSBURY

Water Street is home to a beautiful view of the Washington waterfront, a quick walk downtown and

a trio of houses that represent hundreds of years of history.

The Hyatt House, the Myers House and the Marsh House are the three oldest standing structures in Washington, dating as far back as 1775. Each house stands tall with a unique story unlike any other — including some that will make skin crawl, hair stand up

and goose bumps break out. The Hyatt House, located at 222

Water St., breeds its own chilling tale of a sea captain ghost that frequents the attic. Legend has it that when two young girls slept in the attic one night, they were awoken by a ghostly figure in a long black cape and a pillbox hat with long scraggly hair, watching them.

“Kids and their imaginations” was the comforting thought the family of the two young girls clung to. Until they no longer could.

Whiting Toler, a longtime next-

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Legend says a sea captain haunts the attic of Hyatt House (left) on Water Street in Washing-

ton; Del Miltenberger (above), who helped Myers House owners Herman Gaskins excavate

the cellar, holds two witch bottles. A third bottle remains upside-down in the hole, which

was thought to capture evil spirits.

[PHOTOGRAPH BY VAIL STEWART RUMLEY]

[PHOTOGRAPH FROM HERMAN GASKINS]

34 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016

door neighbor of the Hyatt House, said his grandfather told the story to his coworkers and they stopped dead in their tracks: they knew exactly who the two young girls saw.

Capt. Lockwood Hyatt. He was a British, Orthodox Jewish sea

captain who spent his time in the attic watching ships come and go and always wore a long black cape, a pillbox hat covering long scraggly hair.

“It sure was a coincidence that (the girls) described a man they have never known,” Toler said. “It’s not a story you can push off easily.”

Even with the Hyatt House’s spooky past, Toler remains undaunted by the specter of his next-door neighbor.

“I’ve never been afraid to go in there. I’d love to go in there and talk to it,” Toler said.

These houses have withstood the test of centuries, but needed some restoration. Dee Congleton, owner of the Marsh House, was careful not to lose the many years of important history when she bought and restored the house in 1995.

“We improved upon what was here and we didn’t lose any original features,” Congleton said. “That would be a travesty.”

This trio of houses brings chilling stories, vital history and notable artifacts to Washington. Congleton said she is constantly finding nails, shards of pottery, china and bottles in her house and garden, and Herman

[PAINTING BY WHITING TOLER]

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Gaskins, owner of neighboring Myers House, found similar items. Within the boxes and boxes of china, nails and pottery Gaskins has gathered over the years, lay something a little bit more … eerie.

Witch bottles — the placement of which was a historical practice believed to trap souls of witches and evil spirits — were found in the basement, beneath the home’s front door.

The Myers House is, in fact, the oldest building in Washington, as many structures were lost to fire during the Civil War. When Gaskins bought the house in 1980 for use as the law firm Gaskins and Gaskins, it needed major restorations. The dirt basement was one of his projects.

“We were doing a lot of jack-leg archeology,” Gaskins said. “We were digging down in the basement and came across five bottles.”

Soon afterward, Gaskins learned the historic importance of the bottles. Superstition says when buried upside down beneath a front door, a witch bottle prevents evil spirits from entering the house. When the bottles are turned upward, the spirits escape.

In an attempt to preserve the historic artifacts, Gaskins turned up the bottles; decades later, he said he’s seen no sign of supernatural or extraordinary phenomenon in the law office.

“I make a living here every day,” Gaskins said.However, Gaskins recalls a mysterious story about the

previous owner of the Myers House taking her last breath about a week after the bottles were turned upward.

While the houses on Water Street are some of the jewels of Washington’s rich history, they’re also instilled with a hair-raising past — and present.

(Opposite page) Local artist Whiting Toler painted this image of Capt. Lockwood

Hyatt, said to have appeared to two young girls; Burying witch bottles was a

common practice first documented in the late 1600s in Suffolk, England. Here,

Myers House owner Herman Gaskins, with help from Del Miltenberger, unearth

witch bottles found in the cellar of the Water Street house.

[PHOTOGRAPH FROM HERMAN GASKINS]