Bunhgole Liquors: Salem's Haunted Liquor Store

A few weeks ago we went up to Salem on a pre-Halloween excursion. We did a lot of our usual things. We drank cocktails made with pumpkin vodka. We visited witchcraft stores. We bought candy at Ye Olde Pepper Company. We visited a cheesy haunted house where we had to wear 3-D glasses.

You get the idea. We also took photos of Bunghole Liquors on Derby Street. It's a popular photo stop because it has a cool retro sign and "bunghole" sounds like a dirty word. Of course a bunhgole is actually the hole cut into a wooden cask so liquor can flow out, but the owners of Bunhole Liquors still play up the raunchy innuendo of the name. Their website has the motto "We're not #1 butt we're right up there," and you can buy t-shirts with slogans like "I Got It In the Bunghole."

Like many places in Salem, Bunghole Liquors is surrounded by some strange legends and weird history. According to their website the building on Derby Street was originally a funeral home where embalming was performed in the basement. During Prohibition the funeral home operated as a speakeasy. Guests would drink contraband alcohol in the basement surrounded by corpses and embalming equipment. It sounds creepy to me but I guess some people will do anything for a drink! The secret password to get in was "See you in the bunghole."

There are persistent rumors that a network of tunnels once ran between various buildings in Salem, and according to Sam Baltrusis's book Wicked Salem the bootlegging morticians smuggled in their illicit booze using a tunnel that ran from the basement of the funeral home down to the harbor. Is that true or just a rumor? I don't know but you can read more about Salem's tunnels in Christopher Jon Luke Dowgin's 2012 book Salem Secret Underground: The History of the Tunnels in the City.

After Prohibition the owner of funeral home gave up on embalming and went into the liquor business legally. In 1933 Bunghole Liquors became the second liquor store to open in Salem after Prohibition.  The tunnel (if it existed) was sealed up and the embalming equipment was sealed in the walls behind plaster. So let that sink in for a minute. Bunghole Liquors used to be a funeral home. Corpses were embalmed in the basement. The equipment was just shoved into the walls and hidden away. And there may have been a secret tunnel.

That sounds like the setup for a horror film to me, and unsurprisingly some staff at Bunghole Liquors have reported some strange things when working late. According to Baltrusis's Wicked Salem workers at the Bunghole tend to avoid the basement, a location where security cameras have recorded unexplained lights. Several have reported seeing a woman disappear after walking into the store. Perhaps strangest of all are the accounts of an unseen phantom cat that rubs against the legs of people working there. 

It's all kind of spooky, but what do you expect from a store that sells wine, beer and spirits? Get it? Spirits? I know, a bad pun. 

Provincetown's Haunted Guesthouse

I just came back from visiting Truro and Provincetown. It was so relaxing my mind has been emptied of almost all thought - but I do still have some folklore rattling around in there.

Topographically, the outer part of Cape Cod is an amazing place, with huge dunes, dense forests of scrubby pines and oaks, and, of course, the rough and stormy Atlantic Ocean. It's beautiful, magical, and weird, so it's not surprising there's a lot of interesting folklore from this part of Massachusetts, like the Black Flash, the haunted Martin House, and the enigmatic Jenny Lind Tower.

If you want to have an exceptionally magical and weird experience while you're out there, you might want to stay at the Carpe Diem Guesthouse in Provincetown. It's reputed to be haunted!

According to Mark Jasper's book Haunted Cape Cod and the Islands, employees at the guesthouse have reported recurrent paranormal activity in several areas of the 19th century building.

For example, a housekeeper working alone in the basement heard someone whisper in his ear and then touch his back, but couldn't see anyone when he turned around. Creepy. His experience was later confirmed by a guest using the outdoor hot tub, which is near a basement window. The guest asked the desk manager about the man and woman walking around in the basement wearing Victorian clothing. When the manager descended into the basement to investigate he found no one there. A housekeeper who lived in the basement has also claimed he saw a shadowy figure walking into his room.

Each guest room at the Carpe Diem is named after a famous writer, and the one named after William Shakespeare has also seen its share of strange occurrences. One employee often felt a watchful presence in this room, and a guest who spent the night there said she heard a voice telling her to "Get up and get out!"

The owners of the guesthouse think one of the ghosts may be a former manager named Kevin, who liked working there so much he decided to stick around after death. They don't know who the other ghosts are, but since the building was a 19th century funeral home I am sure there are plenty of candidates.

The ghosts at the Carpe Diem sound pretty mellow, and there no bleeding walls or glowing eyes staring in the window. If you want to have a gently creepy experience it sounds like a great place to stay!