HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
Smyrna mansion of a Revolutionary governor, said to be haunted by a sentry shot in a 1777 British raid
217 Smyrna-Leipsic Road, Smyrna, DE 19977
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
State-owned historic property. Open for occasional tours and events rather than daily hours; check current scheduling before visiting. No standing admission price published.
Access
Limited Access
18th-century house with stairs and uneven historic flooring; rural grounds.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1773 · Built by Governor Thomas Collins · Revolutionary War site · National Register of Historic Places (1971) · Documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey
Belmont Hall stands on the Smyrna-Leipsic Road in Kent County, a brick Georgian house built around 1773 by Thomas Collins. Collins held a string of public offices — High Sheriff of Kent County, brigadier general of militia during the Revolution, and ultimately president of Delaware, the title the state used for its chief executive, from 1786 until his death in 1789. He was, by Wikipedia's account, the only person unanimously elected to that post by the Assembly.
Because Collins was a prominent patriot, his house was a target. He fortified the property with a stockade and posted sentries in the rooftop tower, the widow's walk. In 1777 a British party came to the house attempting to capture him. They shot the sentry stationed on the walk; the man died in the room below. The Daughters of the American Revolution later placed a plaque in the front hall commemorating his death.
The house and its outbuildings, including the gate lodge, were documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Belmont Hall passed to the State of Delaware in 1987 and is maintained as a historic property, opened for tours and events rather than daily public hours.
Sources
The ghost story at Belmont Hall is tied directly to a documented death. During the 1777 raid, the sentry posted on the rooftop walk was shot and died in the room below. From that fact grows the tradition that the house's banquet hall is haunted by the guard, and that a stain on the second floor — pointed out as the spot where he collapsed — is his blood, still visible after more than two centuries.
Regional travel writing on Smyrna's haunted reputation repeats the account, framing Belmont Hall as the centerpiece of a small town with an outsized number of ghost stories. The persistent detail is the bloodstain: visitors are told it marks where the sentry died and that it has resisted removal. No name survives for the guard, which keeps the story anchored to the event rather than to a personality.
The DAR plaque in the front hall is the bridge between history and legend. It commemorates a real wartime death, and the haunting tradition simply extends that memory into the present tense. The house is shown by arrangement, so the story is usually told on a guided visit rather than encountered by drop-in tourists.
Notable Entities
Belmont Hall is a state-owned Georgian mansion outside Smyrna that opens for periodic tours and special events rather than on daily hours. The house is shown by arrangement, and the banquet hall with its Revolutionary-era ghost story is part of what guides discuss. Confirm current scheduling before traveling; the property is not staffed for daily drop-in visits.
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