HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
A 1921 movie palace in downtown Easton where a former owner and staff say the elevator runs on its own and a long-dead actress has been seen stepping out of it.
40 E Dover St, Easton, MD 21601
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Ticket prices vary by performance; see the box office or events page
Access
Wheelchair OK
Restored downtown theater; level street entry
Equipment
No Photos
Est. 1921 · Early-1920s vaudeville and silent-film house · Art Deco redesign in the 1930s · Restored nonprofit performing-arts center
The Avalon Theatre sits at 40 East Dover Street in downtown Easton, the seat of Talbot County on Maryland's Eastern Shore. It opened in 1921 as a venue for vaudeville and silent pictures and was reworked in an Art Deco idiom during the 1930s as sound film took over. Like many small-town movie houses, it ran for decades before economics caught up with it; the theater went dark in the 1980s.
The building was rescued and reopened as a community performing-arts center, and it is now run by the Avalon Foundation, which programs films, concerts, and stage performances year-round. The box office on Dover Street keeps regular weekday hours, and the foundation lists upcoming shows on its events page.
The theater is one of the named stops on the Easton walking tour run by Chesapeake Ghost Tours. Guides recount its ghost story from the sidewalk during the walk rather than taking groups through the building, so the paranormal lore reaches most visitors as part of a guided evening rather than during a performance.
Sources
The central Avalon story, as told by Chesapeake Ghost Tours, comes from a former owner of the theater. He described the building as the site of a death: an actress was found dead in the elevator. He and an Avalon staff worker later said they watched her spirit step out of the elevator, look at both of them, then turn and pass back through the closed doors.
Staff accounts collected for the tour describe the elevator riding up and down on its own "whenever it likes," and report hearing the door chime and seeing the doors open with no one getting on or off, particularly after closing. The author Helen Chappell added other reports for the tour, including figures seen in the balcony that vanished when looked at and activity on the landing behind the stage leading down to the basement green room.
A separate Easton account names the elevator-riding actress "Marguerite" and describes a second presence on the third floor; that name and detail rest on a single travel write-up and are not confirmed by the tour operator's own account.
Notable Entities
Attend a film, concert, or stage event at the restored Avalon. The theater is a regular stop on Chesapeake Ghost Tours' Easton walk, though the haunting is recounted on the street rather than inside the building.
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