Aug 12, 2026 · 1 hr · 10 segments
Rider’s Inn has spent more than two centuries collecting history, folklore, guests—and more than a few ghost stories. In this episode, Alex and Teresa dig into the complicated history behind the…
Before we get into the ghost stories, we need to talk about what Riders Inn actually was.
Before the first thing that becomes clear when you research this place is the history and the way that it's layered.
It wasn't built as a haunted attraction.
It wasn't built as a legend.
It started as a simple tavern, a public house, a family property.
And like a lot of buildings this old, the dates aren't quite as simple as we might want them to be.
You'll see 1812 attached to Ryder's Inn all over the place, and there's a reason for that.
But one of the strongest early accounts we found, published in 1895, says Joseph Ryder first operated a tavern around 1812 in a double log house on State Street.
And that's important because it's not the same thing as saying the Ryders Inn building we know today was built in 1812.
According to that same account, the landmark associated with Ryders Tavern was begun around 1817 and occupied in 1818.
Now, we should clarify that most of the 1812 confusion you see will find here on our paranormal side of the history, if you will, because we can get dates wrong, and many times we have so much information that we have to intake that we can gloss over things and say, oh, Tabern 1812, and just assign it ourselves.
Important note, the restaurant is currently called Joseph's 1818 Public House and Tabern, so there's no 1812 label there.
Exactly.
So, the careful version is this.
The tavern tradition goes back to around 1812.
The current landmark is better described as traditionally begun in 1817 and occupied in 1818.
This might not be as clean as the version that gets repeated in our field, but it's much more honest.
Old buildings don't care whether we want clean.
They collect names, dates, renovations, owners, stories, and half-remembered details.
Then people come along later and try to turn all that into one easy sentence, and that's where things kind of get messy.
And Riders Inn has changed quite a bit over more than two centuries.
It begins with Joseph Rider in that early tavern tradition.
It becomes known as Rider's Tavern.
Later, we see the Lutz name connected to the property.
And through all of those changes, it continued to have a public life as a tavern, an inn, a restaurant, and a place where people actually came together.
Before we get into the ghost stories, we need to talk about what Riders Inn actually was.
Before the first thing that becomes clear when you research this place is the history and the way that it's layered.
It wasn't built as a haunted attraction.
It wasn't built as a legend.
It started as a simple tavern, a public house, a family property.
And like a lot of buildings this old, the dates aren't quite as simple as we might want them to be.
You'll see 1812 attached to Ryder's Inn all over the place, and there's a reason for that.
But one of the strongest early accounts we found, published in 1895, says Joseph Ryder first operated a tavern around 1812 in a double log house on State Street.
And that's important because it's not the same thing as saying the Ryders Inn building we know today was built in 1812.
According to that same account, the landmark associated with Ryders Tavern was begun around 1817 and occupied in 1818.
Now, we should clarify that most of the 1812 confusion you see will find here on our paranormal side of the history, if you will, because we can get dates wrong, and many times we have so much information that we have to intake that we can gloss over things and say, oh, Tabern 1812, and just assign it ourselves.
Important note, the restaurant is currently called Joseph's 1818 Public House and Tabern, so there's no 1812 label there.
Exactly.
So, the careful version is this.
The tavern tradition goes back to around 1812.
The current landmark is better described as traditionally begun in 1817 and occupied in 1818.
This might not be as clean as the version that gets repeated in our field, but it's much more honest.
Old buildings don't care whether we want clean.
They collect names, dates, renovations, owners, stories, and half-remembered details.
Then people come along later and try to turn all that into one easy sentence, and that's where things kind of get messy.
And Riders Inn has changed quite a bit over more than two centuries.
It begins with Joseph Rider in that early tavern tradition.
It becomes known as Rider's Tavern.
Later, we see the Lutz name connected to the property.
And through all of those changes, it continued to have a public life as a tavern, an inn, a restaurant, and a place where people actually came together.
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