Colonial New Castle tavern where staff report a ghost that sends Prosecco glasses flying
114 Delaware Street, New Castle, DE 19720
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Sit-down restaurant and bar; cost of a meal or drinks. No admission fee to enter.
Access
Limited Access
Historic district sidewalks (brick, uneven) and a colonial-era building interior with a step at the entrance.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1674 · Colonial New Castle · Historic District building · Named for cooper Abraham Jessop
The building at 114 Delaware Street sits in Old New Castle, the colonial town that served as Delaware's first capital. The tavern's own history dates the structure to 1674, placing it among the older surviving commercial buildings in a town full of them. The block runs toward the town green and the New Castle Court House, anchoring one of the most intact colonial streetscapes in the mid-Atlantic.
The tavern takes its name from Abraham Jessop, a cooper who, by the tavern's account, lived and ran his barrel-making business in the area in 1724. The current restaurant is far more recent: the Day family opened Jessop's Tavern in November 1996, fitting out the old building as a colonial-themed pub serving Dutch, Belgian, and early-American dishes alongside a deep beer list.
New Castle markets its history aggressively, and the haunted angle is part of that. The town's older buildings turn up on walking-tour itineraries and in regional press features about Delaware ghost stories, where Jessop's is named alongside the Amstel House and the courthouse. The restaurant does not sell a ghost tour or paranormal event; the lore reaches the public mainly through staff who have talked to reporters about what happens behind the bar.
Sources
The haunting at Jessop's is a bar story, told by the people who work the bar. In a 2024 WDEL feature on haunted New Castle, a bartender identified as Jessica described glasses leaving the shelf on their own. "I always say that the ghost drank Prosecco because the glasses will fly off the shelf," she told the outlet, adding that the staff has had to replace Prosecco bottles after unexplained breakage.
What gives the account a little more weight than the average bar legend is that the staff tried to explain it away first. According to the same feature, they considered whether vibration from the restaurant's walk-in refrigerator was shaking the shelf and checked it, then ruled that out as the cause. No name, no tragic backstory, and no claimed apparition attaches to the activity — it is reported strictly as objects moving where they should not.
The building's age is the only context offered for why something might linger. New Castle's haunted walking lore treats the whole colonial block as a single haunted streetscape, and Jessop's, as one of its oldest occupied buildings, gets folded into that. The tavern itself stays focused on dinner service and does not program around the ghost.
Jessop's Tavern serves Dutch and Belgian-influenced colonial fare in a 1674 building at 114 Delaware Street in Old New Castle. Reservations are available through the tavern's site. The building is a stop pointed out on New Castle's haunted walking lore, and bar staff have described the resident object-movement activity to local press. No paranormal program is sold here — visitors come for the food and the colonial setting.
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