Haunted Maryland - Ghost Stories from the Old Line State

13/02/2025

THE MAR-VA THEATER - Pocomoke City, MD

The Mar-va Theater was built on Pocomoke City’s Market Street in 1927 as a vaudeville theater, and the spirits of two beloved mayors, and a little girl are believed to haunt the place. At least those are the spirits people have seen or felt. The theater was named Mar-Va because of its location on the Maryland (Mar) and Virginia (Va) border. Today the Mar-Va is fully restored and is an active movie theater. It even has a theater company.

Like jails, courthouses, battlefields, and graveyards – places where there is a high injection of human emotion tend to have a thin veil between the two worlds. Old theaters, like the Mar-Va Theater, have a high level of collective emotion because people come together and engage their imaginations collectively to appreciate an art form. The actors use their emotions to get into character and perform, and we – the audience use ours to fire up our imaginations and live in the moments they create.

ONE MAYOR DIED ON STAGE - ONE DIED ON THE STREET
They say that Mayor Lippholdt was speaking on stage at an event in 2011. He was presenting an award – then suddenly he stopped talking – looked up to the balcony, stared a few seconds, and then dropped over – right on stage. He died one day after his 85th birthday. What a great place to pass into the next life.

Mayor Clarke - who once owned the theater and like Mayor Lippholdt, loved the theater and was instrumental in its restoration, collapsed of heart attack on the street in front of the theater. Many who work in the Mar-Va think Dawson is still there … helping them. They’ll lose things and ask him to help find them. Sometimes the lights go out in the back of the theater … sometimes they come on by themselves.

TOILETS, LIGHTS, CURTAINS, AND A LITTLE GIRL
The cleaning ladies believe that there are many spirits at the Mar-Va. One of them was cleaning the stage area when she brushed against the stage curtain and it began to swallow her up. As she tried to break free, the curtain wrapped even more around her and restricted her movement. She thought it was person behind the curtain attacking her, but once she broke free the curtain just hung there – as still as when she first walked up to it.

She later stated that none of the cleaning crew would work in the stage area alone and that she wouldn’t enter the theater alone, nor would she enter without wearing her cross necklace.
Allie, a person who works in the theater said that the toilets flush by themselves. They all have motion sensors as a flushing mechanism, and when no one is in the theater but the staff, the toilets will arbitrarily flush.

Lights come on in unused parts of the theater, and on one occasion she turned a light off, then left the room, and then saw that it had come on again. When she returned to the room the light switch was in the OFF position… but the light was on. So she turned it on again – and then off, and it finally went out.

Allie shared another story about a time that she was alone in the theater before a show was to start. She was popping popcorn in the concession stand. She heard a noise in the lobby and went out to see if someone had come into the theater. The doors were locked and no one was there. So she returned to the concession stand and closed the door. Then the k**b started to rattle on its own like someone was trying to come in.

Allie said the most disturbing thing that happened was after everyone was gone and Allie had just locked all the doors. She heard a noise in the dressing rooms under the stage. She called out to see if someone was in there. No one answered. She heard it again and then investigated. She went into the dressing rooms and checked the bathrooms and found no one - silence. Then as she walked back into the theater she saw a little girl standing there - in front of the stage… just staring at her. She didn’t respond to Allie, she just stared.

Then she vanished.

Read the complete story about the Haunted Mar-Va at
https://chesapeakeghosts.com/mar-va-theater/

01/02/2025

13/12/2024

IT'S FRIDAY 13th Y'all

Today is the ONLY Friday of 2024 that coincides with the 13th day of the month. It has been considered an "unlucky" day since the Middle Ages. And the number 13 has been associated with negative karma for as long.

- In some cultures, it's considered unlucky to have 13 people seated at the dinner table.

- Some Hotels have no "room 13"

- Some tall buildings don't have a 13th floor.

- Some airlines refuse to have a 13th row on their planes.

In Norse Mythology, Loki, the 13th god brought chaos and death. The most common association with bad luck has to do with the Last Supper and the crucifixion. Judas was the 13th guest at the Last Supper table (12 apostles plus the Virgin Mary), and Christ was crucified on a Friday.

This negative karma was renewed - in fact cemented - when there was a mass arrest of the Knights Templar on Friday, October 13, 1307. The Knights were the guardians of the Holy Land.

But perhaps the most famous of all reminders that Friday 13th is a day of bad karma and all things terrible is the American horror Franchise of twelve slasher films that brought us "Jason" in his hockey mask.

People love to be scared. Do you have an "unlucky story" about Friday the 13th?

Have a scary day!

~ Mindie Burgoyne