Lavish 1875 Victorian mansion with turrets and mansard roof, built for retail magnate Jerothmul B. Barnaby; anchor of America's first murder-by-mail case after his widow Josephine was killed by poisoned whiskey in 1891.
299 Broadway, Providence, RI 02903
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Open during the annual 'Halloween at the Castle' event and select Doors Open RI tours; private property otherwise. Event tickets typically $20-$40.
Access
Limited Access
Historic Victorian interior with stairs, narrow passages, and turret access. Exterior viewing from public sidewalk.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1875 · Designed by Stone, Carpenter & Willson in two phases (1875 and 1888) · Home of retail magnate and political figure Jerothmul B. Barnaby (1830-1889) · Anchor site of America's first prosecuted murder-by-mail case (Josephine Barnaby, 1891) · Contributing property in the Broadway Historic District (NRHP)
Jerothmul Bowers Barnaby (1830-1889) rose from modest origins to become one of Providence's leading clothing retailers, founding what became one of New England's largest department-store chains. He served on the Providence City Council and in the Rhode Island General Assembly, and was active in the state's Democratic Party. In 1875 he commissioned the Providence architectural firm Stone, Carpenter & Willson to design a showpiece mansion at 299 Broadway in what is now the Broadway Historic District. A major expansion in 1888 added the four-story octagonal tower, the dramatic mansard roof, and the iron cresting that give the building its 'castle' reputation.
Barnaby died in 1889 leaving an estate to his widow Josephine. In April 1891, while traveling in Denver, Colorado, Josephine received an anonymous package by mail containing a bottle of whiskey. She and a companion drank from it and Josephine died within hours; the whiskey had been laced with arsenic. The case became a national sensation as the first prosecuted murder-by-mail in U.S. history. A grand jury in Colorado indicted Dr. Thomas Thatcher Graves — Josephine's physician, financial advisor, and a Providence resident — for the murder. Graves was convicted in a 1892 trial, and while awaiting an appeal he died by suicide in his Pueblo, Colorado jail cell in 1893.
The Barnaby case remains historically contested. Decades later, mystery writer Barnaby Conrad (a descendant of the family) studied family papers and concluded that his own grandfather, John Henry Conrad — Josephine's son-in-law — had likely arranged the mailing and then bribed a guard to poison Dr. Graves in prison. The case has been the subject of multiple books and remains a touchstone in American true-crime literature.
The mansion passed through several owners over the 20th century and now functions as an event venue and private cultural site. It has been documented in the Rhode Tour project (Rhode Island Historical Society / Brown University), the Providence Preservation Society's architectural guide, and listed by Doors Open RI. The annual 'Halloween at the Castle' event draws visitors from across New England.
Sources
According to the Boston Globe's 2022 ranking of the spookiest places in Rhode Island, Rhode Tour, and the Online Review of Rhode Island History, Barnaby Castle's haunted reputation is anchored entirely in the documented historical tragedy of the 1891 mail-order murder of Josephine Barnaby rather than in dramatic apparition reports. Visitors during the annual 'Halloween at the Castle' event and Doors Open RI tours describe cold spots in the upper turret rooms, a heavy or oppressive atmosphere on the stairs, and the sense of being watched in spaces associated with the Barnaby family living quarters.
The Boston Globe lists Barnaby Castle among the ten spookiest places in Rhode Island. Local ghost-tour operators frame the mansion's atmosphere as 'the weight of unsolved injustice' — the Barnaby case was never resolved to the satisfaction of historians, with Dr. Graves's prison suicide cutting off his appeal and Barnaby Conrad's family-papers research pointing instead to John Henry Conrad as the likely mastermind.
No independent paranormal investigation has been published. The lore here is tied to history rather than independently corroborated phenomena, and the mansion's owners have leaned into the dark history through the annual Halloween programming rather than promoting active hauntings. We treat the murder narrative as documented history — naming the verified principals (Josephine Barnaby, Dr. Graves, John Henry Conrad) — and the paranormal claims as atmospheric tour-tradition material.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Tour the lavish Victorian interior during the annual 'Halloween at the Castle' event or scheduled Doors Open RI weekends. Costumed docents narrate the Barnaby family history and the 1891 mail-order murder mystery.
Photograph the turreted Second Empire / Victorian mansion from the public sidewalk on Broadway. The mansard roof, iron cresting, and four-story octagonal tower are visible year-round.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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