Est. 1774 · National Historic Landmark · Revolutionary War · Continental Army · Rhode Island Heritage
The property at 50 Taft Street in Coventry, Rhode Island was home to the Greene family ironworking operation before Nathanael Greene built his residence there in 1774. He named it Spell Hall. The foundry on the same grounds produced materials critical to the colonial economy, and Nathanael was deeply embedded in the commercial and political life of the colony.
When war became unavoidable, Greene helped found the Kentish Guards, a Rhode Island state militia, before joining the Continental Army in 1775. His military advancement was rapid: he served under Washington at Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown, eventually being appointed Quartermaster General. His administrative reorganization of Continental supply lines significantly extended the Army's operational capacity.
In 1780, Washington appointed Greene Commander of the Southern Department to address the military catastrophe following British successes in South Carolina. Greene's subsequent campaign — described by historians as one of the Revolution's most sophisticated — never decisively defeated the British in direct engagement. Instead, he used strategic retreat to exhaust Cornwallis's forces across hundreds of miles of Southern terrain, ultimately forcing the British consolidation that led to Yorktown. 'I am called the Fighting Quaker,' Greene reportedly said, though he was a non-violent Quaker by upbringing.
Greene died in 1786 before returning permanently to Rhode Island. The Homestead is a National Historic Landmark, open to the public April through October, with staffed tours Friday through Monday.
Sources
- http://www.nathanaelgreenehomestead.org/
- https://ournewenglandlegends.com/podcast-389-the-haunting-of-the-nathanael-greene-homestead/
- https://www.battlefields.org/visit/heritage-sites/major-general-nathanael-greene-homestead
- https://www.rimonthly.com/haunted-places-rhode-island/
- https://www.warwickonline.com/archives/lifestyles-stories/greene-homestead-s-mysteries-explored/article_31d92db3-118e-56b9-9c0e-451d4fb85cf3.html
ApparitionsPhantom footstepsPhantom soundsPhantom smellsCold spotsDoors opening/closing
The Homestead's paranormal reputation has been catalogued in Rhode Island Monthly and covered by the New England Legends podcast, which dedicated an episode to the property. In the magazine's account, Homestead Association representatives describe the scent of baking bread, brief sightings of an older woman in a bedroom mirror, and the sound of someone stomping up the stairs with every door latch rattling when alcohol is brought into the house.
The most frequently reported phenomena are auditory: footsteps in unoccupied rooms, the sound of a door slamming somewhere in the structure when all doors are confirmed closed, and — most distinctively — what visitors describe as the cannon fire and screaming sounds of a battlefield. This last category is unusual; the property has no battlefield history, and the reports may reflect a form of auditory bleed from the general's documented psychological state, or simply pattern-matching by visitors primed by the military narrative.
The figure in the upstairs bedroom mirror has been described as an older woman, glimpsed briefly. Staff attribute it to a female member of the Greene household without specifying which individual. The accounts are brief and consistent — a peripheral glance, a figure that resolves into nothing when looked at directly.
The scent of baking bread appears in visitor accounts without any active kitchen activity on the property. This type of olfactory report — an absence of source, domestic in character, associated with a historic residence — is one of the more common categories of non-visual paranormal report at Colonial-era properties in New England.
RTS Paranormal has conducted formal investigation events at the Homestead, open to the public as 'Paranormal Extreme' evenings, allowing participants to conduct their own measurements and walkthroughs.
Notable Entities
The Woman in the Mirror
