Madame Sherri’s Haunted Castle
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This is your chance. This is your opportunity. This is your comeback. Purdue Global, produce online university for working adults. Start your comeback today at purdueglobal.edu. I noticed the sign when we parked. They call this place Madam Sherry Forest? Yeah, they do. Named after the former owner who built a castle way out here in the woods. Madam Sherry, I assume. Yep, that's her. And many believe Madam wasn't just a nod to her status, but...

Maybe also her profession. Oh, how scandalous. I know. Yeah, she was eccentric. That's for sure. And she left a mark, especially on southwestern New Hampshire. We've explored eccentrics before. Leaving a mark behind is what they do best. Yeah. Hey, and there it is. The ruins of her castle.

Wow. There's a stone stairway that goes in an arc before it crumbles in debris below. And I can see a huge stone foundation beyond that. That's what we've come to see, Ray. Madame Sherry's Castle Ruins. Because they say this place is haunted.

Hello, I'm Jeff Belanger. And I'm Ray Ogier. Welcome to episode 381 of the New England Legends podcast. Thank you for riding along with us as we chronicle every legend in New England one story at a time. We can't do it without you. We appreciate all the story leads you send us through our website, so please keep them coming. And we'd appreciate you joining us for our annual zombie prom coming up on Saturday, February 22nd in Milford, Massachusetts.

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So we're standing in the woods of Chesterfield, New Hampshire, right in front of some stone ruins. Yep, that's where we are. And I mentioned the stone stairway that's crumbled. Yep. There's also a large stone foundation behind that, so I guess that's where the house used to be? Yep, that's where it was, and there was a time when some crazy parties were thrown out this way. And no one's exactly sure what kind of shenanigans they got up to exactly on this property, but...

There's stories that these grounds are haunted by echoes of that wild past. Well, here's a little more background on the town of Chesterfield, New Hampshire. The town sits in the southwestern corner of the state and borders Vermont. When the town was established in 1735, it was still part of Massachusetts. It's a small town, just over 3,500 residents today. But there was a time when this place was hopping with summer soirees thrown by Madame Sherry.

So grab your dancing shoes, Ray, and let's head back to 1932 and meet Madam Sherry. It's July of 1932 here at Madam Sherry's Castle in the Woods in Chesterfield. Though America is only a few years into the Great Depression, which is anything but great for most of us, you wouldn't know it here at Madam Sherry's. No, you wouldn't. This party is swinging. There's some really attractive people here, too. And awesome.

a few notable celebrities from Broadway. Yeah, I thought I recognized one of them over there. Yeah, yeah. So a lot of these guests have come from New York City. Out here in the woods in this spacious home is the perfect place to let your hair down away from the many eyes of New York. I can imagine this place must be a nice getaway for socialites from the city. I guess Madam Sherry knows a lot of people down there. Oh, she does. A lot of them.

Here's a little more background on Madame Cherie. She was born in France in 1878, where her parents named her Antoinette Bramere. At a young age, she learned to be a seamstress, but she also worked as a cabaret singer in some of the swanky French clubs. Now in 1909, she married her husband, an American named Anthony Macaluso. Rumors are he was a fugitive, which is why he went by the name André Riala.

The two were married, then made their way to New York in 1911, and that's when Antoinette changed her name to Sherry, and the couple began designing costumes for Broadway. They called their company House of Sherry. For the next 16 years, the couple mixed and mingled with all the people that Broadway had to offer.

Sherry made a name for herself designing elaborate costumes for the Siegfried Follies, among other shows. She met and worked with some talented actors and directors, but also some of the shadier characters drawn to that industry. But that's showbiz. There's no business like it. Now, sadly, in 1927, Andre Riala died. Some suggest it was caused by alcohol poisoning from some bootleg liquor. Others believe it was syphilis.

Either way, Sherry was left widowed and devastated. During the summer of 27, Sherry came to visit some friends who summered in Chesterfield. That's when she fell in love with the region. She bought a small farmhouse on the side of Rattlesnake Mountain and then began buying up hundreds of acres of land just off of Gulf Road. Sherry had some big ideas about building a place for her New York City friends to come visit and play out in the woods where newspaper reporters and the public wouldn't exactly be watching.

The only problem was her little farmhouse. This simple and small place would never do to entertain, so Madam Sherry hired a crew to construct her dream castle. Sherry made her workers nuts, too. She had no plans or blueprints. She just would point and say what she wanted built. She was always hovering, asking for changes so many times that some of them quit, and eventually a mansion took shape.

Now, when it was finished, there was a stunning stone staircase that wound its way up to the main entrance. Gorgeous stonework, ornate windows and woodwork. It looked every bit the castle. Lynn Borofsky said of the mansion, quote, It's a theatrical French chateau of New Hampshire stone, wreathed in Roman arches and crowned with a chalet roof. An imposing stone staircase grand enough for a folly stage set. It's adorned with some flower boxes with red and white flowers earning the name Primrose Path.

The main stairs are cut into the rock ledge, leading to a massive red front door. Yeah, the mansion is really something to see. And as we said before, this party is jumping. Yeah, it is. There's a band playing in the corner, and though we're still in the middle of Prohibition, you wouldn't know it here. Yeah, we'll take two of those, please. Here you go, Jeff. Cheers. Thanks. Cheers. Cheers.

Everyone here is having a great time. And check out the outfit on Madam Sherry. It looks like one of her Broadway costumes. And looking around, wow, I mean, there are some beautiful people here. There's a lot of attractive young women and men. I guess most of them came up from New York and they're staying here for a few days.

All right, Jeff, I've been mingling with some of the more local guests, and I've learned a lot about our host, Madam Sherry. What'd you hear? Though she owns this beautiful house, she doesn't live here. No? Well, where does she live? Well, she lives in that same farmhouse just down the road. Huh. I mean, why wouldn't she live here? That farmhouse doesn't have much of anything inside by way of modern convenience. I don't know. Maybe because some are implying this place is more of a business than a residence? What kind of business are you talking... Oh, wait a minute. Yeah, right?

So maybe some of these beautiful people from New York are, um...

Hired help? Well, that's what some are saying. How scandalous. That's not all. What else did you hear? Well, when Madam Sherry does head into downtown Chesterfield, she's often wearing a mink coat, even when it's not that cold. So some suggest she's naked under the coat. Okay. She's pretty flashy. She likes all eyes on her. Now, while that may be fine in New York City, in Chesterfield, New Hampshire, they're a little more conservative than that.

So each summer, these parties rage in the woods well into the morning hours. The rumors continue to swirl, but then again, locals also stay out of each other's business. So Madam Sherry is mostly left alone, despite her eccentricities. At these parties, it's clear Madam Sherry is the queen, the most lavishly dressed. She's in her element.

By the mid-1940s, Madam Sherry's running out of money. She can no longer afford to keep her house in Chesterfield. Now in her late 60s, she finds herself broke. She moves to Vermont, where she relies on friends for food and shelter. After being gone for more than a decade, she finally makes her return to her castle in 1959, only to find that when it was left unattended, vandals had trashed the place.

It's October of 1962 when a mysterious fire burns Madame Cherie's former castle to the ground. And that brings us back to today.

On October 20th, 1965, Madam Sherry's former property was sold to a private owner. It was that same day that Madam Sherry died penniless in a Vermont nursing home. Madam Sherry was 87 years old when she passed. But that's not the end of the story. No? Well, so after her former castle burned to the ground, all that was left was the stonework, including that grand stone staircase, a staircase that led to nowhere. It was eerie, spooky, out here in the woods.

Some people claim they still see the ghost of Madame Sherry standing at the top of those stairs, waiting to greet her guests for one of her wild parties. Walking around, I can see the foundation of an old fireplace. You can walk into what used to be a basement or a root cellar of some kind. And there's still stone pillars marking where sections of the house once stood. As we walk around these grounds, you do get a sense of invading someone's home to a degree. I mean, it's not too hard to imagine what those parties must have been like all those years ago.

Out here in the woods, away from watchful eyes, I mean, anything could go. Yes, it could. Back in 2021, a big section of the staircase collapsed, leaving more stone ruins on the ground. Yeah, that was unfortunate. So the first time I came here, it was mostly intact and there was nothing stopping you from climbing it.

Nothing besides, you know, common sense. I mean, I'm not a structural engineer, but even I could see it didn't look that sturdy. I had no intention of becoming the next ghost to haunt these grounds. Yeah, this place doesn't need any more ghostly help. So as the sun starts to set, it's easy to imagine what this property must have been like all those years ago. And maybe that's part of the haunting. We put ourselves literally in the place and we connect to the time. And suddenly the idea of Madame Sherry's ghost looking over the castle where she once served as queen is

doesn't seem so far-fetched. No, it doesn't. And that takes us to After the Legend, where we take a deeper dive into this week's story and sometimes veer off course. After the Legends, brought to you by our Patreon patrons. If you enjoy what we do, please thank one of our many patrons, because we can't do it without them. They help us with our hosting and production costs, marketing, and everything else it takes to bring you two episodes a week. It's just three bucks per month. For that, you get early ad-free access to new episodes, plus bonus episodes and content that no one else gets to hear.

To help us grow, just head over to patreon.com slash newenglandlegends to sign up. And if you want to see some pictures of Madam Sherry, her former castle, and the modern-day ruins, click on the link in our episode description. Go to our website and click on episode 381. Really quick off-topic, come to the zombie prom so you can thank some of our patrons because a lot of them will be there. Yes. So do that. That would help. Come meet the patrons. Come hang out with them. So I wonder if this was like the early version of the Diddy Party. Yeah.

Maybe. Is it too soon? No. People were freaky way back when, right? They always were. We think it's a modern thing. I don't think so. Nope. Look at the Romans, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. People have always needed places to be a little bit freaky. Yeah. And, you know, Broadway. I've been in musical theater before. Oh. Theater in general. Uh-huh. Say no more. And those people are crazy. I was telling my wife the other night that...

Because we were watching like a Glee type thing with the singers and stuff. And I just looked at her and I said, you know, back in high school, those girls were so much more fun than the cheerleaders. So much more fun. Yeah. It's so true. Yeah. I went to a theater party in college. Yeah. And it was like backstage. It was the first time I had moose juice.

It goes by different names. The recipe is pretty darn close. It must be made in a trash bag, in a trash barrel. You dump in ice, a ton of fruit punch, and I believe Everclear is the magic ingredient, or 151 rum. Oh, boy. And then you pay $10 for a red Solo cup. Yeah. But it's bottomless. Yeah. And you don't taste the alcohol, and pretty soon you're like, oh, my goodness. Yeah. It's a fun bunch. It is a fun bunch for sure. And I can only imagine if they had a party in the middle of the woods with no one around, who knows what could happen.

Everyone's rich. No cares in the world. Yeah. On top of the world. You've got alcohol, which is illegal in most places. Right. No one can hear you scream. No one can hear anything. Yeah. So they have a proper baby oil back then. Was that was that bottled back then? I think they use motor oil. I think that's all they had back then. It's yeah. It's such a crazy place when you go there. It's very, by the way, it's a very easy walk. So, you know, you park at the parking lot. It's I don't know. It's very short walk up into the woods to see where the house was.

And the staircase is there. But you can walk around the foundation and you can imagine what this place must have been like. And of course, you can see photos if you go to our website.

It was gorgeous. Yeah. And she didn't live there. Yeah, that's weird too. Why wouldn't you? Well, there was a lot of work being done in the house. But she lived just down the street in a little shack, basically. That was the party house. But she had this beautiful mansion and wouldn't just be like, you know what? I'm going to just put a room in here. At least one. You can have a bedroom. I don't get it. So maybe for her, this was something else. But eccentric her entire life all the way to the end. And-

That's the thing about eccentrics, right? They just stick out and they must stick out. Like, I think there's something that drives them. Yeah. And she didn't care that she spent all of her money. Right. You know? She lived a life. She did. We didn't get into this part of the story. So she had a...

like an apprentice when they first started their costume shop. And this guy went on to some acclaim. I'd tell you his name. It doesn't matter. Like you wouldn't remember it, right? He was big back then. Won Academy Awards for his costume design and stuff. And I guess always appreciated her and was subsidizing her, like was sending her checks.

But eventually he's like, I can't afford to keep paying you just because, right? Just to throw parties. Well, right. Buy new dresses. So the money dries up and then she has no income. I don't know what kind of transactions were happening within the house. That's not really our business. Who knows, right? We're only speculating. But at the same time, the money dried up and she just had to leave it all behind. But she owned, I mean, I saw one report that said 600 acres. Wow.

And that is value. Sure. But she didn't sell it until... She was so eccentric. She didn't care. She died. I mean, that seems like that'd be a lot of money you could live off of. Yeah. Like 600 acres and a house. Well, I think once you get to a certain age, you just have your stories. So she went to a friend's house to live and eat and stuff. And I'm sure she loved being around people she could tell her old stories to. Yeah. So maybe that was it. She didn't want to live on her own anymore. She needed the company. Maybe.

I don't know. But that's the thing. These places just sort of beg us to ask those questions. But the stairway and like half of it, when I was there the first time, it was about twice as big, right? So it was like maybe three arcs or something were still there, pretty high up. And now like half of that has fallen. Thank God no one was hurt or anything. It's just, it's...

It's old and, you know, not... Yeah, would you go up half a staircase? Heck no. Back then, I was like, oh, you'd be crazy to go up there. Like, I think I went up two steps, like just at the very bottom, just be like, all right, I was on the stairway. But there's nothing stopping you. There's no support up top, right? Nothing. Once you get to the end. Yeah, no, nothing. Like, that was just there from sheer will. So, but there's still stuff to see. I mean, the foundation's all there. You can walk through, you walk through that little root cellar area in the basement and everything else. And it's...

Yeah. Go out there alone at night. Dare you. You know what I mean? Because like someone lived here. Someone partied here. And that's one of the things I love about this. Don't just kind of ghost, by the way, that I want to hang out. Is that what you were going to say? That's what I was going to say. I was like, yeah. Like...

Ghosts aren't always like, oh, I've been murdered and wronged. Sometimes it's like, oh, no, we used to tear it up out here. We partied ourselves to death. Yeah. Like literally, like, you know, I lived my whole life in New York City. But this, this is where I'm going to haunt. Right. Because this was where we had the best times. Right. That's the kind of ghosts I want to run into. Yeah. It's like that show Ghosts. They're not scary ghosts. Right, right, right. Those are fun people to be around.

So we should just get some illegal booze and go up to Madam Sherry's and just like reenact the party. Have a drink with her. I know some people. I've got some friends that have done this where they'll go to historic haunts and

And they'll try to like dress the part and everything. Oh, really? Like just go see what they experience. Might spark something. And live like, can you put yourself into the mindset and the time? Right. You know, we'll dress the part. We'll live the part for the evening. That might wake something up. Like, oh my God, the ghost is like, I'm back in reality, my real time. I love that idea.

I think it's great. Like, what a fun, like, way to do it. I mean, you could monetize that, too. Well, yeah, you'd sell tickets, right? You could make it a tour, yeah. Yeah, right. Let's do it. Yeah. New England Legends presents Party in the Woods. The speakeasy at some historic haunt, right? This is where they used to make...

Because, of course, alcohol has to be involved. Go ahead and help yourself to a drink there in the bathroom, in the bathtub. Like, really? You want me to just dip a cup in there? That's how they did it. It's gin. That's how we did it, right? Oh, okay. That's keeping it real, I guess. But no, these old places, like sometimes the echoes from the past are not necessarily scary. They're just a party. A lot of life happened there, a lot of living in a very short period of time, and we're still talking about it.

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