Brinton Lodge
Brinton Lodge was first built in the early part of the 1700’s, though it seems its hauntings are probably from the twentieth century.
Also known as Covatta’s Brinton Lodge, the Lodge was run as a gentleman’s club for many years prior to being turned into a restaurant by the Covatta family. it had been a private residence for many years when Caleb D. Brinton purchased it about 1927. In 1972, the flood waters resulting from Hurricance Agnes wiped out Brinton’s investment as there was no flood insurance on the property. Brinton died in October of 1974 and is rumored to be one of the several ghosts that haunt the property. It is suggested that he is upset that his private lodge is now open to the public, but he doesn’t seem to be that upset as he has been seen tipping his hat while wandering through.
A number of articles floating around the web concerning the Lodge discuss the various ghosts that are said to be there in addition to Caleb. There is Dapper Dan, the ladie’s man, an older lady who appears mostly at the top of the stairs and is said to be Caleb’s mother, and a young girl rumored to be a daughter of Caleb’s. I haven’t been able to ascertain if Caleb actually had any children at all, though it is said that he was married to a woman named Ruth and in later years had a companion named Lillian Moore who stayed with him at the Lodge. More research is needed to find out who these various folks are.
Caleb’s mother lived with Caleb for several years before her death in 1944, his father having died many years earlier.
An article from 1933 in The Mercury (Pottstown, PA) sheds some interesting light on the Lodge: 1Mercury, 3/28/1933
Blanche V. Lessig, 40, of 201 North Fourth street, Reading, formerly of Pottstown, is suing Caleb D. Brinton, 40, of near Douglassville, for $25,000 on a breach of promise charge.
Suit asking for the heart balm was filed in the Berks county courts yesterday by Miss Lessig’s attorneys. The plaintiff charges Brinton promised to marry her when she obtained her divorce from Joshua Bliem Lessig. After she received her divorce decree in 1927, she said, she lived with Brinton in a roadhouse which he operates along the River road in Chester county.
From August, 1927 until June, 1932 the brief charges, Brinton introduced her as his wife and promised continually to marry her. She said Brinton paid for her divorce and it was on his promise of marriage that she lived with him.
Recently, however, she charged Brinton became infatuated with another woman and she was asked to leave.
In February of 1936, a marriage license for Caleb and Ruth Moyer was reported in Elkton, MD2Morning News (Wilmington), 2/7/1936
Since this marriage license was only a few years after the suit brought by Blanche, Ruth was possibly the other woman mentioned in the suit. Ruth was shown as his wife in the 1940 census, but they divorced before 1950, where the census shows her as divorced, living in the American Hotel in Reading
Many of the articles that appear about the Lodge state that Caleb never returned to the Lodge after the tropical storm Agnes did its damage in 1972. Most of these same articles state that Caleb died in 1975. Neither are true – Caleb DID return to the lodge because that is where he was when he died on October 26, 1974:
Caleb D. Brinton 3Reading Eagle, 10/28/1974
Services for Caleb D. Brinton, 81, who died Saturday in his Brinton Lodge, Douglassville R.D.1 residence, will be held Tuesday at 11 a.m.
The Rev. Allen Moyer will officiate in the Houck Funeral Home, Pottstown. Burial will be made in Sadsbury Friends Burial Grounds, Lancaster County.
Born in Gap, Lancaster County, a son of the late Charles and Annie (Dickinson) Brinton, he had been the owner of the lodge since 1927.
Surviving are two brothers, Charles of Largo Bluff, Fla., and Jack of Spring Grove, and a sister, Anna, wife of Stanley Murhart Sr., Royal Oak, Michigan.