From David J. Pitkin's 2005 book,
Haunted Saratoga County
Marvin’s
Tavern
Along the Town of
Malta’s western border lies East
Line Road, and though there are
scant traces of it today, there was once a prosperous
settlement called East Line there. Several churches and
stores, plus at least one hotel served the neighboring farm
families. Sometime in the 1830s, William Marvin came to the
little community on East
Line Road, and a few miles south of
Dunning Street, built a small tavern. For many years the
locals quaffed a variety of beverages, slaking a thirst
built up over hours of hard physical labor. But farming was
such very hard work, and as the 20th Century approached,
more and more farmers sold their lands and moved to nearby
cities to work for wages. Marvin’s Tavern could no
longer support its owner, and the building became a
residence.
Through the years, the house had little upkeep and began to
show its age. After being sold to its last family of
residents, a young lad in the household invited a friend to
spend the night while his parents were away. The two boys
stayed up late chatting, and finally fell asleep. Lawrence,
the son, entered the borderland between waking and dreaming
and soon heard the raucous laughter of a man. Something in
his wakeful consciousness reminded him that he and his
friend were the only occupants of the house—no man
was present. He awoke and looked over at his friend
sleeping—it couldn’t have been him, so a
puzzled Lawrence finally drifted back to sleep.
The old house had an upright piano in the downstairs living
room. It became a focus for the boys’ good times.
They sat for hours and played the only tune they knew,
“Chopsticks.” Lawrence remembers, “The
tip-off that someone else was there was the slight breeze
and the change in the tone of the music, as if now bouncing
off a surface very close behind us. We didn’t know
what else to do, and rather than give into our fears, we
just kept on playing. Have you ever been too scared not to
move?” he asked. “At one point, the presence
seemed to leave us, but when we started in on our next
song, it returned. Our backs began to tingle as if someone
or something was about to touch us. We turned to each other
and said, ‘there it is again! Did you feel
that?’ I asked him. Yeah, how about you?’ he
answered. And then we sprinted outdoors!”
The two boys never felt at ease in the house after that,
and when Lawrence grew older he moved away. Today he lives
a few miles south of Marvin’s old tavern. In recent
years it served as a storage building for farming
operations on that property which had been willed to
Lawrence, “Today, however, I never go in the place.
I’m afraid old Marvin and some of his cronies are
still there!”