HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
Seacoast Landmark with a Ghost Story from the Building It Replaced
1677 Ocean Blvd, Rye, NH 03870
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Seafood restaurant pricing; check menu for current rates
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved, restaurant interior
Equipment
Photos OK
Seacoast New Hampshire Restaurant Heritage
Ray's Seafood Restaurant sits at 1677 Ocean Boulevard in Rye, New Hampshire, also known as Route 1A, along the Atlantic-facing stretch of town. The business traces back to a lobster pound Mrs. Parker and her son Ray Parker opened on the property in the early 1950s, selling fresh lobster rolls and expanding into a small clam shack called Ray's Seafood. In 1961 the Parkers converted the house also on the property into the first Ray's Seafood Restaurant, a full-service sit-down restaurant. Two sisters, Goldie and Blanche, had lived in that house and stored their belongings in its attic; their time there is the source of the paranormal reports associated with the business. Ray Parker died in 1973 and left the restaurant to the Widen family, who ran it until a fire destroyed the building in 1985. The Widen family rebuilt the restaurant, doubling its size, and the present restaurant opened in the fall of 1986. The Widen family still runs Ray's Seafood today.
Sources
The ghost associated with Ray's Seafood is known as Goldie, a woman who lived in the building with her sister Blanche during the 1960s, before the building was a restaurant. Their belongings remained stored in the attic of that earlier house, and the people who lived there came to attribute its unexplained activity to Goldie's continued attachment to the space.
The reported phenomena followed a consistent pattern in that earlier building: locked windows found open, the attic light switching on without apparent cause, cold chills, and the phone ringing with no caller. A fire destroyed that building in 1985, and a paranormal directory covering the account says there have been no reports of Goldie since; the present restaurant opened on the site in the fall of 1986.
No paranormal investigations by named organizations have been documented at this location, and the accounts come primarily from the pre-fire building's occupants. The connection to Goldie is an identification made at the time, not an independently verified historical claim.
Notable Entities
One of the oldest continually operating seafood restaurants on New Hampshire's Seacoast, in business over 50 years. The restaurant's ghost story, Goldie, is tied to the house that stood on this site before a 1985 fire; a paranormal directory says there have been no reports of Goldie since.
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