History & local legend
From 1957 to 1978, East Cheltenham Free Library occupied the old James Houldin house at Central Avenue and Old Soldiers Road in Montgomery County. Staff associated its resident ghost with the sounds and smells of a busy kitchen.
In a January 29, 1970 Philadelphia Evening Bulletin story, head librarian Mrs. John Brockman described smelling freshly brewed coffee in her office around 4:30 p.m. By closing, she sometimes smelled several dishes cooking. Library assistant Betty Stratton recalled hearing a snort upstairs, imitating it, and receiving another sound in response.
A former patron later spoke with a woman who remembered the coffee smell during late-afternoon visits. The accounts concern the library's years in the Houldin house, before it moved to the Rowland Community Center.
Sources
- American Library Association, I Love Libraries, named staff accounts from the January 29, 1970 Philadelphia Evening Bulletin
- Abington Free Library staff newsletter, childhood recollection placing the former library at Old Soldiers Road and Central Avenue
- Haunted Fondue, local former patron’s account of meeting a visitor who smelled the coffee, March 2012
- OpenStreetMap, intersection of Central Avenue and Old Soldiers Road
- Montgomery County GIS and Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, 1970 aerial survey of the corner
