History & local legend
Susan Johnstone sometimes heard unexplained chuckling while running the Lincoln Room, a tea room in the lower level of West Chester’s Lincoln Building at 28 West Market Street. In a 2010 interview with PA Eats, she connected the sound to a local story about a cottage that had occupied the site before the present building.
According to the tale, John Tully was flogged for stealing a horse in 1788. After the punishment, someone carried him across the street and laid him on a cot in the cottage. During the night, his groans changed to laughter. A visitor from the jail checked on him before dawn and found him dead.
Johnstone said some people refused to enter the tea room at night.
