HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
1890 Victorian Shore Hotel Haunted by Children's Laughter
345 Main Ave, Bay Head, NJ 08742
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Hotel room rates and dining prices vary by season. Check thegrenville.com for current information.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Downtown Bay Head, flat terrain, Victorian structure with some stairs
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1890 · New Jersey Victorian Shore Architecture · Jersey Shore Hotel Heritage
The property that became The Grenville was purchased by Anna Nunemaker in 1886 for $400. The main building was constructed in 1890 by Wycoff Applegate and his wife Susan, who established it as a shore hotel in the Victorian resort community of Bay Head, Ocean County.
Several of the Applegate children died young. The specifics of those deaths are not documented in available sources, but the pattern — young deaths in the building that became a hotel — forms the basis of the property's central paranormal association.
In 1922, the hotel was sold to Nellie Georgette, who renamed it the Georgette Hotel. It operated under that name until 1945, when it was sold to The Grenville Corporation. A fire destroyed the Grenville Arms on the same block, and the former Georgette was renamed The Grenville. The Spurgat family purchased the building in 1956. Harry and Renee Typaldos have owned it since 2003.
The Grenville has continued to operate as a hotel and restaurant under the Typaldos family, receiving consistent recognition for its food and hospitality. It has been named among the most haunted hotels in New Jersey by multiple regional sources.
Sources
The Grenville's paranormal lore is organized around the children. Several of Wycoff Applegate's children died young after the hotel's 1890 construction, and guests over the subsequent century and more have reported the specific sound of children's laughter in corridors where no children are present.
Parallel to those reports, witnesses have described apparitions of figures in 19th-century formal dress walking through rooms and hallways — described in some accounts as former owners or guests who died at the property. The period-specificity of the dress descriptions is consistent across accounts.
The current owners, Harry and Renee Typaldos, have addressed the hotel's paranormal reputation publicly and characterize the reported entities as benign. The hotel's official acknowledgment of the haunted tradition — without either denying or dramatically amplifying it — positions The Grenville within a category of historically rooted shore properties that carry their ghost lore with a certain matter-of-fact confidence.
The hotel has been included in regional and national lists of haunted New Jersey hotels, drawing visitors who combine the award-winning dining and shore-town setting with the building's atmospheric Victorian character.
Notable Entities
Sleep in the 1890 Victorian shore hotel that has been routinely named one of New Jersey's most haunted. Guests report children's laughter in corridors and apparitions of 19th-century-dressed figures in rooms and hallways — associations that the current owners connect to Wycoff Applegate's children, several of whom died young after the hotel's construction.
Dine in the award-winning restaurant at this Victorian shore hotel, consistently recognized for its food and hospitality on the Jersey Shore. The dining room occupies the ground floor of an 1890 building with documented paranormal associations.
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