History & local legend
John Funk's late-eighteenth-century brick tavern stands near the square on East Main Street in Strasburg. Its later shopfront became the setting of a ghost-walk story about the former innkeeper continuing to serve customers.
Visitors heard that Funk sometimes appeared to wait on people in the shop occupying his old home. Accounts also described recorded conversations attributed to him and said his wife remained with him. A 2021 ghost-walk visitor repeated the customer story, continuing a tradition already described in a local account in 2010.
Sources
- Mazzastick, firsthand account of the October 2021 Strasburg ghost walk and the shopkeeper tradition
- Outta the Way, 2010 Strasburg account of the Funk couple’s haunting
- Strasburg Borough, inventory of historic buildings, John Funk’s brick tavern at 8–10 East Main Street
- Lancaster County Historical Society, The Strasburg Scientific Society, Funk’s residence and innkeeper records
- Strasburg Regional Comprehensive Plan, inventory item 368, John Funk House
