There's a Castle in the New Hampshire Woods

An abandoned luxury hotel, a mysterious fire, and the first of many rabbit holes.

The lost lodge of New Hampshire

Old rumors, parties in the woods, a fire, and a great rabbit hole.

Want to hear something wicked cool?

I like weird shit. Weird little stories and mysteries. Unexplained science and architecture. Scary stories that cusp on the edge of truth. Interesting people with interesting thoughts.

I’ll hear or read about something, dive into it, and suddenly I’ve killed an hour glued to a documentary made in somebody’s grandma’s basement in 1986.

Also, I like talking about weird shit with other people who like weird shit. It’s the best.

That’s basically the idea behind Want to Hear Something? No particular subject or rules. Just whatever is fun and interesting or thought-provoking. Call them curiosities. I got a lot. So I’ll share them with you guys!

For the first one, we’re staying close to home in the woods of southern New Hampshire.

I give you Episode 01.

Greystone Lodge.

So, there’s this hotel in the woods.

I live for this stuff. A haunted ruins? Give it to me. I grew up hearing rumors about Greystone Lodge, but had never made the trek up there. Honestly, I’d totally forgotten about the place until we moved back to the East Coast this past summer and my brother-in-law reminded me of it. I’m very grateful he did.

Greystone was this giant luxury lodge built around the turn of the century by a guy named Alford Hazzard. At one point, the place had over 60 guest rooms. HUMONGOUS. Hazzard would invite folks from Boston and New York to come up and enjoy the majesty of the Monadnock Region, and indulge in a fair amount of rowdy partying. I love thinking about this shit. To be a fly on the wall in that place in the 1920’s… or the 60’s… I’ll bet the place was bananas. It also had a nine-hole golf course. Ha!

This all being said, one thing’s for sure - people were getting shithoused.

A former bellhop wrote a play about working at the place called Greystone on the Rocks. He worked there when he was about 14, (yup), and he writes about the kitchen staff getting plastered and chasing him around with knives. Perfect.

In 1970 the place burned to the ground. End of an era for sure. The details of how it burned are still foggy, which is always fun.

My Dad was at school at a place called Hawthorne College in Antrim NH at the time which was very close to the property. He remembers going up there and partying when he was a young buck, and he also remembers the fire. Another kid from the school was actually taking photographs in the woods nearby and happened to snap a few shots of the blaze.

After the fire, the hotel was no more. Abandoned and forgotten. The skeletal structure you see when you go up there now is actually the ruins of the Property Manager’s house.

The rest has been swallowed by the woods. Or at least, this is what I was told.

So I finally went up there.

The trails leading up to the place are narrow and winding and overgrown and BEAUTIFUL. A witch’s tunnel . We were lucky enough to be in the capable hands of my brother and his side-by-side. He’s a beast.

And then you arrive at the ruins.

A castle in the woods.

We found a few little things while we were exploring, including an old shoe and a doorknob. The doorknob was creepy and the shoe didn’t fit me so we left them. Also, as we all know, if I had taken either of them there most definitely would’ve been a curse attached. Fuck that shit.

But here’s the best part.

After we went up there, I obviously got online immediately and started looking for more info on the place.

The first thing that popped up was this documentary from the 80s made by two local dudes who knew everything there was to know about Greystone Lodge.

I cannot explain how much I love this video. It is… chef’s kiss. These two New Hampshire old-timers talking about the history of Greystone. They’re absolute sweethearts. I love them. One dude is wearing Busch suspenders. You can’t write it.

Anyway, watch it. Even just a few minutes. You won’t regret it.

I wish I’d had the motivation to go check this place out when I was a kid. I would’ve fuckin loved it. I’d heard rumors of it. But somehow it took me this long to actually get up there.

Now I can’t stop thinking about what else is out there that I’ve been driving past my whole life without knowing anything about.

Maybe I’ll make more stops.

In the meantime…

Want to hear something else?

Subscribe if you want to come along for the next one.

---

Want to Hear Something? is a series by Sam Huntington about curious places, fascinating people, forgotten histories, and whatever rabbit hole comes next.