Cockey’s Tavern
Cockey’s Tavern on Main Street in Westminster has an interesting history. People hear heavy boots on the stairs and artwork falls off the walls unharmed. All perfectly normal behavior in the old building. One painting in particular has a mysterious history. I’ll get to that shortly.
The building has been home to the Carroll County Historical Society since 2000. Prior to their ownership, the building had been an upscale restaurant, once again known as Cockey’s Tavern, for several decades.
Two former employees, Carole Cook and Pat Thomas, remember the painting from their working days in the former tavern. When they returned to the building around 2009, they saw that the painting was now hanging in one of the front rooms on the second floor. And it looked worse than ever.
Employees at the restaurant believed that the painting pictured General Ulysses S. Grant, but others have their doubts. No matter, the painting was still odd. Carole Cook remembers one day when she noticed what appeared to be blood oozing out of the sleeve and onto the thumb of the figure in the painting. Over time, more ‘bloody’ areas appeared on the painting. The entire painting appeared darker to Cook when she saw it after many years, so the dark marks are less obvious now.
An article from 20091Carroll County Times – 2/17/2009 mentions some anomalies of the old building.
Thomas said the “Great painting” wasn’t the only one that behaved strangely in Cockey’s Tavern. She remembers a time when two women from Baltimore were having lunch at the restaurant, and one woman said she didn’t believe in ghosts. Thomas warned her to hold her tongue, but before she knew it, a painting behind her fell off the wall and onto her head, Thomas said.
There were other times when pictures would fall of walls without people touching them, candles would relight themselves and people would hear voices and the sounds of glasses tinkling when no one was there.
Ever since the Historical Society renovated the building in the early 2000s, the seems to be much quieter but time will tell.