One of the unique stops along the Retreat Trails is the Retreat Tower.  This tower was built by the patients of the Vermont Asylum (now the Brattleboro Retreat) in 1887.  At the time, doctors believed that hard, meaningful labor could help mental patients regain their stability.  So a group of patients was put to work building this large stone tower, as a scenic overlook of the Asylum grounds.

While I’m sure that the doctors had the best of intentions, some patients chose to use the tower in a different manner.  In the years following its construction, according to the book “Weird New England” a fair number of patients climbed to the top of the tower and hurled themselves off of it onto the rocky cliff below.  While the number of suicides at this site is a closely guarded secret, the tower was sealed off and remains so today.

For those looking for the haunted side of Brattleboro, ghost hunters report sightings of an airborne human-like form at the top of the tower that appears briefly and then disappears into space.

You can find the tower off of the “Tower Climb” trail on the Retreat Trail system.  It’s a fairly easy 10 – 15 minute walk from our Inn.  The tower is visible from the Retreat Meadows and a lot of the north side of Brattleboro as well – particularly in the winter and fall as the trees clear.

The tower opens to the public typically just one or two times per year.  The dates are not consistent, but you can certainly keep an eye on our twitter feed to know when it opens – as we will definitely be there.

With Halloween approaching, I put together this quick video to showcase some of the spooky side of Brattleboro.  This video takes you on a quick tour of the  Retreat Cemetery and Retreat Tower as well as Madam Cherie’s “Castle”.  Each of these sites has a “haunted” history and several sources mention ghost sightings.   Best of all, each of these places are a short walk from our Brattleboro Vermont Inn.   Check out each of our individual posts for details (some are still coming, so be sure to keep an eye on our site or follow us on Twitter to get the updates) about the locations, and enjoy this quick look at the haunted side of Brattleboro – if you dare…

So being that Halloween is just around the corner, I thought it would be time to share a unique hike that is just a few minutes away from our Inn in Brattleboro.  The hike is in the Madame Sherri Forest in Chesterfield, New Hampshire (which is just over the bridge from Brattleboro – directions below).

The 448-acre forest is part of the Wantastiquet-Monadnock Greenway, a series of trails connecting the mountains of southwestern New Hampshire and includes a trail which connects to the Mount Wantastiquet State Forest. (See our hike up Mount Wantastiquet).  The forest is named for the eccentric Madame Antoinette Sherri, who built a European chateau on Gulf Road in Chesterfield back in 1924.

Madame Sherri was a music hall singer in Paris in the early 1900’s.  She married Andre Riela in Paris and they relocated to America in 1911 to join his family here.  Madame Sherri and her husband became prominent theatrical costume designers and ran a successful costume shop in New York City.  They are actually cited as having taught Charles LeMaire (the noted Hollywood costume designer) the art of costuming.   During the Prohibition Era, Madame Sherri and her husband would travel to Chesterfield NH to “party” with friends of theirs from the Broadway scene.  After her husbands death in NY in 1924, Madame Sherri purchased a farm in the area she had grown to love, on Gulf Road in Chesterfield.  Her plan was to build herself a summer home.  The exotic stone castle that she ended up having built in the woods, as well as her unique touring car (a cream colored Packard), her French accent, and of course the numerous interesting visitors from the theatrical world kept local gossips busy for years.  Her pet monkey and her frequent chauffered rides around Brattleboro wearing nothing but a fur coat certainly added to the mystery and intrigue around this interesting woman.  Rumors persist that Madame Sherri ran a brothel from the castle.

In the 1950s the home was abandoned as Madame Sherri grew older and moved to Brattleboro’s Maple Rest home.  The stone castle had been abandoned and neglected for years when it was destroyed by a fire in October 1962.  Madame Sherri herself died three years later, at the age of 84.   To this day visitors report hearing voices, music and the sounds of parties from a time long passed.  Occasionally a visitor will even encounter the ghost of Madame Sherrie, beautiful and young, gracefully descending the stone stairway which still stands today.

To get to Madame Sherri’s forest from our Brattleboro Inn, take a left from the driveway and head to the traffic circle.  At the circle, bear right onto Route 9 west to Chesterfield. Just after you cross the bridge into New Hampshire, make a right onto the first street (Mountain Road). Then take your first (immediate) left which will put you onto Gulf Road. Travel up the scenic Gulf Road for just a little more than two miles; Madame Sherri’s Forest is on the right.  There is a small parking area.  Cross the footbridge and head up the hill for to see the stone stairs…