{"id":511,"slug":"farnsworth-house-inn-gettysburg-pennsylvania","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The brick face of the Farnsworth House at 401 Baltimore Street still carries more than a hundred bullet holes from July 1863 — the house's own count, and the kind that can be verified by looking at it. During the three days of the battle, Confederate sharpshooters worked from its garret with a clean line of sight down Baltimore Street toward Cemetery Hill. Local tradition — repeated by the inn itself — holds that a round fired from the house may have been the one that killed Jennie Wade, the battle's only civilian death. The ballistics on that claim are beyond recovery; the bullet holes, however, are not — they are counted, pointed at, and photographed daily."]},{"heading":"The documented record","paragraphs":["The original stone portion of the house went up in 1810 under John F. McFarlane, on land subdivided from Reverend Alexander Dobbins' estate; the brick addition followed in 1833. McFarlane held it until his death in 1851, when it passed to the Bank of Gettysburg, then through the Sweeney and Black families before Loring and Jean Shultz bought it in 1972 and made it the inn their descendants still run — four generations and counting. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.","The name attaches it to Brigadier General Elon J. Farnsworth, killed July 3, 1863 leading a futile cavalry charge against the Confederate right — the inn's own literature says the charge ran within yards of the walls, a claim the file declines to certify pending battlefield geography. The house's wartime service is firmer: a sharpshooter post up top, and by Gettysburg custom, the wounded were tended in buildings like it afterward."]},{"heading":"What the lore adds","paragraphs":["The inn's ghost tradition is an industry now — it calls itself the birthplace of ghost storytelling in Gettysburg, where the candlelight tours started before the books and television crews arrived, and USA Today's readers have ranked it among the country's best haunted hotels — fourth, by one recent count. The Shultz family has claimed as many as sixteen distinct spirits in residence at one time, each with a name and a temperament. The durable entries: a wounded Confederate sharpshooter who keeps the garret, a midwife called Mary associated with the Sarah Black room, a child spirit, and a figure the staff call the Smiling Man. Whether sixteen simultaneous residents is a haunting or an occupancy problem is a question the file declines to settle.","Guest reports run to footsteps on unoccupied floors, voices in empty halls, blankets rearranged overnight, and — the house's signature claim — cats that are felt moving through rooms that contain no cats. Overnight guests have filed these for decades; the inn's tours now include a garret climb, a Victorian viewing parlor in the cellar, and guided paranormal sessions after dark. The hauntings are documented chiefly as bookings.","To its credit, the house sells the difference between its two inventories honestly enough: on the tour, the bullet holes are history and the footsteps are lore."]},{"heading":"What remains","paragraphs":["What's verifiable is already remarkable: a house with a century of bullets in its brickwork, a garret that commanded a street people died on, and four generations of one family keeping the place as inn, restaurant, and archive of its own stories. The sixteen ghosts are filed as the inn reports them — claimed, named, and taking reservations."]}],"name":"Farnsworth House Inn","aliases":[],"type":"INN","type_label":"Inn","cats":["DARK_HISTORY","BATTLEFIELD","PARANORMAL_TOURISM","HAUNTED_PLACE","HISTORIC_INN"],"groups":["dark-history","hauntings","lodging"],"desc":"Inn research record.","full_desc":"An inn in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, built in 1810, Farnsworth House Inn is filed here for what the record attaches to it. Inn research record. It sits in the archive under dark history, paranormal tourism and haunted places. The dossier holds 2 reported claims, 1 legend and 2 documented facts, with the verified spine filed separately from the lore. It still takes guests.","address":null,"city":"Gettysburg","county":null,"state":"Pennsylvania","postal":null,"region":"Northeast","lat":39.8103,"lon":-77.2308,"coord_kind":"EXACT","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":"https://farnsworthhouseinn.com/","phone":null,"year_built":1810,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":null,"research_notes":"Operator claim that Farnsworth charge occurred yards from the house is not adopted; battlefield geography requires NPS verification.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"HIGH","score":77.5,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.85,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.8,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0.85,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":1131,"type":"NAMED_GHOST_LEGEND","description":"Inn lore describes a wounded sharpshooter in the attic and the spirit of a midwife called Mary in the Sarah Black room. The reports concentrate at Attic, Sarah Black room. The Gettysburg hotel's reports are the kind old lodgings accumulate — footsteps after hours, presences in rooms, the house working the night shift. The claim is neighborhood knowledge — retold locally, verified nowhere. Sources including 'Farnsworth House (Gettysburg)' keep the claim in circulation. A ghost with a name outlasts a ghost without one; the reports keep it employed.","evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","evidence_label":"Local folklore","entity":null,"where":"Attic, Sarah Black room","first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Farnsworth House (Gettysburg)","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farnsworth_House_(Gettysburg,_Pennsylvania)","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]},{"id":1132,"type":"REPORTED_ANOMALIES","description":"Overnight guests report footsteps, voices and cats moving through unseen in the halls. The Gettysburg hotel's reports are the kind old lodgings accumulate — footsteps after hours, presences in rooms, the house working the night shift. The file holds testimony rather than proof; the claim remains anecdotal. The account appears in 'Farnsworth House (Gettysburg)'. The pattern of small anomalies is itself the claim — none dramatic alone, persistent together.","evidence":"ANECDOTAL","evidence_label":"Anecdotal","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Farnsworth House (Gettysburg)","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farnsworth_House_(Gettysburg,_Pennsylvania)","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"Historic inn named for Brigadier General Elon John Farnsworth; offers lodging, dining and ghost storytelling. Farnsworth House Inn's documented history in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania is the record the rest of the file stands on. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. The record appears in 'Farnsworth House Inn'. The entry's timeline holds it; the lore holds the rest.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Farnsworth House Inn","url":"https://farnsworthhouseinn.com/","publisher":"Farnsworth House Inn","type":"OFFICIAL_SITE","authority":2}},{"description":"The house absorbed over a hundred bullets during the battle and served as a Confederate sharpshooter position per tradition. The documented date is 1863. Farnsworth House Inn's documented history in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania is the record the rest of the file stands on. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. 'Farnsworth House (Gettysburg)' documents the entry. The detail belongs to the verified spine of the entry.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":"1863","date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Farnsworth House (Gettysburg)","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farnsworth_House_(Gettysburg,_Pennsylvania)","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"Inn lore describes a wounded sharpshooter in the attic and the spirit of a midwife called Mary in the Sarah Black room. The Gettysburg hotel's reports are the kind old lodgings accumulate — footsteps after hours, presences in rooms, the house working the night shift. The claim is neighborhood knowledge — retold locally, verified nowhere. Sources including 'Farnsworth House (Gettysburg)' keep the claim in circulation. The retelling is the record now — the legend metabolized the facts long ago.","earliest":null,"evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","source":{"name":"Farnsworth House (Gettysburg)","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farnsworth_House_(Gettysburg,_Pennsylvania)","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"entities":[],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"ghost_tours":"Bookable ghost tours and paranormal investigations.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-14T10:36:20+00:00","source":{"name":"Farnsworth House Inn","url":"https://farnsworthhouseinn.com/","publisher":"Farnsworth House Inn","type":"OFFICIAL_SITE","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Farnsworth House Inn","url":"https://farnsworthhouseinn.com/","publisher":"Farnsworth House Inn","type":"OFFICIAL_SITE","authority":2},{"name":"Farnsworth House (Gettysburg)","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farnsworth_House_(Gettysburg,_Pennsylvania)","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[{"field_name":"short_description","existing_value":"Inn research record.","incoming_value":"Bullet-scarred 1863 inn where Confederate sharpshooters reportedly fired from the attic.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"research_notes","existing_value":"Operator claim that Farnsworth charge occurred yards from the house is not adopted; battlefield geography requires NPS verification.","incoming_value":"New record from encyclopedia/official-source pass; VERIFY task auto-queued for primary-source corroboration.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."}],"wiki":{"title":"The Farnsworth House Inn","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Farnsworth_House_Inn","desc":"Inn in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania","extract":"The Farnsworth House Inn is a bed and breakfast and tourist attraction located in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The building is purported to be haunted, which the business uses in its promotional literature. Apart from being an inn, the building has also served as a tourist home and shop.","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Welcome_sign_for_Farnsworth_House_Inn.jpg/330px-Welcome_sign_for_Farnsworth_House_Inn.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":90,"lat":39.82565,"lon":-77.23127},"counts":{"claims":2,"history":2,"legends":1,"entities":0,"sources":2}}