Center Church Spirits

People who nod off during Center Church pm the Green services at 311 Temple Street claim they hear a voice asking if they have been saved.  Sometimes they even see a face that asks this question.  They then recognize that this image of  Theophilus Eaton, the co-founder of New Haven and of the church.   This is not the only ghostly experience people have had.  Occasionally, they see something ghostly only to see it disappear into one of the crypts down below in the church.

Center Church along with New Haven was founded in 1638 by John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton.  For more than one hundred years, Center Church was the only church in New Haven.  The fourth and present church is built over a portion of the New Haven Green that served as a burial ground.

A crypt tucked away in the basement of the church which now contains the identified remains of 137 people such Margaret Arnold, Benedict Arnold’s first wife, and more than 1000 unidentified bodies.   A few headstones are in the crypt instead of the Grove Street Cemetery.  While many of the stones’ inscriptions have faded, some remain clear and easy to read, such as the headstone of Mrs. Sarah Whiting, “the painfull [sic] Mother of eight Children.”

Ghosts of New Haven Blog 19 Center Church Spirits © 2018 by Dr. Philip Ernest Schoenberg, Ghost with a Blog # Ghost