To have a successful restaurant stay in business is usually harder than it seems when there is a ton to choose from in a popular area. In a hot tourist spot new restaurants usually have a few year life span before closing shop and a new one takes over the building. One place however managed to survive 75 years.
Little Campus Inn opened in 1924 as a popular restaurant that served American home cooking style meals. The name of the restaurant was because it sit on Maryland Ave and was right in between the Naval Academy and St. Johns College. There is little history of the building but it is believed have previously been taverns or restaurants. The building is actually two buildings combined. Like many old public buildings, Little Campus Inn also came with a few ghost stories.
Miss Peggy worked at Little Campus in as a waitress for 41 years. She was well known and loved by all of the customers and staff. The first thing she would always do when meeting a new employee is warn them about the ghost in the basement. The staff has seen a figure of a woman walking in the basement. While they are not certain who exactly she is, they believe she was a servant girl who got pregnant by her master and hung herself in the basement after her baby died during childbirth. Employees also claim to hear her singing and sometimes she would greet them when they entered the basement. Another haunting is on the second floor where a person was killed during prohibition. A man with a gambling habit would buy alcohol from a pirate and manage to lose all his money to them. They got into a fight during an exchange and the pirate killed him. He is now heard walking upstairs followed by a loud thud.
Unfortunately Little Campus Inn finally did close its doors in 1999. The building was bought by what is now a very popular Irish pub called Galway Bay. Despite the locals being upset at the closing of Little Campus Inn, Galway Bay has managed to become a popular restaurant for over 15 years. It has won many local awards and has even been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. There has not been any new report of hauntings in the building.
Resources
Carter, M. & Dray, J. (2012) Haunted Annapolis: Ghosts of the Capital City. Haunted America. Charleston, SC.
Galway Bay (n.d). Retrieved from http://galwaybaymd.com/.
Sigel, A. (1998). ‘Its Sad To See It Go’ Restaurant: Patrons Lament the Closing of the Little Campus Inn, for 74 Years a Down-Home Place That Spawned Some Offbeat Traditions [Electronic Version]. The Baltimore Sun retrieved from http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1998-07-03/news/1998184040_1_campus-inn-annapolis-restaurants-and-bars