The house appears to have been inhabited by the ghost of Jervis Davis, the original builder and occupant. For decades it has been considered haunted by residents of the neighborhood. People moved in and out, usually leaving within a year or two, frightened by glimpses of Jervis Davis and by various poltergeist activities. A woman who lived there in the early 1960's said sometimes all the shades in the house would flu up at once, making a horrendous clatter.

In the mid-1960's, a young couple, Ernie and Lynn Cook, moved in, determined not to let Jervis chase them out. Lynn occasionally would see Jervis. Many people felt cold spots, particularly in the kitchen. The Cook's boarder, Steve Butterfield, would sometimes see Jervis sitting on the stairs when he was about to go up to his bedroom for the night. On these occasions he would come back to the kitchen for another cup of coffee. Once he found an old-fashioned knife in his bed, which later disappeared. Clunks and bumps abounded; cutlery would unaccountably disappear or be changed in position. The hot water valve in the cellar would sometimes be tampered with. The Cooks felt they had an unwelcome guest, but the ghost obviously felt he had unwelcome guests. Eventually, the young people, the Cooks and Butterfield, began to get annoyed with Jervis's antics. They would talk about him in the kitchen when they felt he was around, questioning whether he was really married to the mother of his children-Lynn could find no marriage record in the town's files-and blaming him, as an early selectman, for the present problems of the town. When they did this, the poltergeist disturbances escalated markedly.

By this time, the Cooks had three small children, and Jervis was making the house too crowded. One evening they had a brilliant idea-they would find Jervis's grave and escort him there. In a mood of high hilarity, the three adults and the three children piled into a car, urging Jervis to come along. After searching several old cemeteries in the area, they came across Jervis's grave. Lynn felt a twinge of guilt about having twitted Jervis about not having made an honest woman of the mother of his children when she saw his wife's grave situated chastely beside his own. But to business: "OK, Jervis," Lynn said, "stay here and don't bother us anymore. Fun's fun, but it's over with." And they haven't been bothered by Jervis since.