Red Bank Haunts Highlight Ghost Tour

On a February day in 1906, 17-year-old Charles Hendrickson and his brother Benjamin took a boat out on the Navesink for some ice sailing. The yacht hit a patch of thin ice and the brothers were thrown into the water. Benjamin pulled himself out and to safety but Charles died, trapped under the ice.

To this day, boaters sailing on the river during the winter have reported seeing the tortured face of a young man, struggling for his freedom from beneath the sheets of ice.

It’s stories like these that are told by Genevieve Kelly, historically accurate and often unnerving Red Bank tales and their paranormal extensions: today’s believe-it-if-you-see-it ghost stories. Dressed in Victorian-era garb and wielding a lantern, Kelly, a tour guide for Jersey Shore Ghost Tour, led a group through the streets of Red Bank Friday on the first tour of the season.

With a history dating back to a time before the Revolutionary War, there’s a lot Kelly can pull from. Whether you believe them or not, all reports of ghost sightings are real, she said, told to her and Ghost Tours by those who have seen them first hand.

“We do a lot of historical info, a bit of it on the creepier side of history,” she said, standing outside of the Dublin House with her kerosene lantern dangling idly by her side. “Every story we tell is from research we've done. It’s a really cool way to keep history alive.”

Jersey Shore Ghost Tour is seasonal and is currently in its sixth year. The tour began in Keyport and expanded to Red Bank in 2009. It’s first night, the tour attracted a group of 10 Friday, but as it continues, leading up to Halloween, the groups grow larger as visitors come out to hear stories of long-forgotten historical eras and their accompanying ghost sightings, Kelly said.

Kelly was herself a curious spectator, taking the Keyport tour in 2007 before signing on as a guide herself. Graduating from college with an anthropology degree, Kelly said she’s naturally interested in colorful histories and society’s reaction to it. In shore towns like Red Bank and Keyport, there’s no end to the kind of history that makes for good ghost stories, she said.

“There’s a lot of history here,” Kelly said. “The Navesink was a focal point for the Lenni Lenape and where they had their larger camps they also had burial grounds. The area was also very active during the Revolutionary War, so we have that as well.”

The ghost tour isn’t just a lecture about Monmouth County history. Kelly and Ghost Tours focus much of their attention on the stories of local lore. When it comes to ghost sightings, Kelly said, spirits usually fall into one of two categories: some remain on earth as a protest to an unjust end, others may not realize that they’ve passed on.

Borough landmarks also get the ghost story treatment. Interested in why some think the Dublin House or Count Basie Theatre may be haunted, well, you’ll just have to take the tour.

The Red Bank tour runs every Friday and the Keyport tour every Saturday through Halloween. For information about ticket prices, how to order, or what to expect, visit the Jersey Shore Ghost Tours website.