The 1907 Georgian Revival inn built by a Cape May real estate magnate whose teenage son died in a hunting accident that same year — a paranormal investigator later encountered the father's spirit on the staircase.
1301 Beach Ave, Cape May, NJ 08204
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Room rates vary seasonally; dinner in the restaurant is available to non-guests. See petershieldsinn.com for current pricing.
Access
Limited Access
Historic 1907 mansion with multiple floors and stairs; oceanfront location
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1907 · Cape May Real Estate Company History · Georgian Revival Architecture · Cape May Historic District
Peter Shields was president of the Cape May Real Estate Company at the turn of the twentieth century, a period when Cape May was positioning itself to compete with the booming Atlantic City resort to the north. In 1907, Shields commissioned a Georgian Revival mansion at 1301 Beach Avenue — directly across from the oceanfront, designed in the architectural mode of the era's most prestigious summer residences.
The same year the mansion was built, Shields's teenage son Earle died in a hunting accident. The documented cause was a loaded gun that discharged as Earle stepped between boats. The accident was not at the inn but its timing — the year of the house's completion — has attached the tragedy to the building in local memory.
Shields himself reportedly never overcame the grief. Local accounts describe a man changed by the loss, and it is his spirit — not his son's — that paranormal investigators and the local tradition associate with the building.
The Peter Shields Inn was featured on Great American Country's television program 'Ghost Stories,' bringing national attention to the property's paranormal reputation. The building operates today as a boutique inn and restaurant, one of Cape May's better-known fine-dining destinations.
Sources
The ghost associated with Peter Shields Inn is Shields himself: not a mysterious unnamed figure but the builder of the house, identified by paranormal investigator Craig McManus during a formal investigation of the property. McManus described encountering Shields on the staircase — a dejected presence, marked by grief, which McManus attributed to the trauma of losing his son Earle in 1907.
McManus also reported sensing a second presence in a bathroom near a space connected to where the accident occurred. The proximity matters in terms of the haunt's internal logic: the physical location of the sensation is tied to the geography of Earle's death rather than appearing as a free-floating presence.
The Great American Country television program 'Ghost Stories' featured the Peter Shields Inn in one of its episodes, connecting the building's documented tragedy — Earle's hunting accident death — to the reported paranormal activity in a format accessible to a general audience.
Cape May's paranormal investigation community, which is extensive given the town's reputation, has treated the Peter Shields Inn as one of the more historically grounded haunted locations in the city. The spine of the story rests on documented history: a real person, a real death, a real building.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Stay in the 1907 Georgian Revival mansion on Beach Avenue, directly across from the Cape May beach. The inn operates a full restaurant; guests have access to all floors including the staircase where paranormal investigator Craig McManus reported encountering the spirit of Peter Shields himself.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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William Weightman Sr., managing partner of Powers & Weightman and the man who introduced quinine to the American market as an anti-malarial, built a summer cottage at the corner of Franklin and Washington Streets in Cape May around 1850. In 1881 he had it moved to an ocean-view lot, but the farmers he hired discovered the structure was too large to move intact. They cut it in half, moved the sections separately, and found they could not reconnect them. The two buildings were enclosed separately, creating the two adjoining structures that now house the B&B.
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Congress Hall opened in 1816 as a boarding house on the Cape May beachfront, becoming one of the earliest seaside resorts in the United States. The original wooden structure burned in the Great Fire of 1878 and was rebuilt in brick the following year. Four sitting presidents — Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Ulysses S. Grant, and Benjamin Harrison — vacationed here, with Harrison using it as an informal summer White House in 1890 and 1891.