Business Profile: Smalley’s Inn, Carmel
The Halloween season is a special time at Smalley’s Inn in Carmel.
The exterior of the restaurant, which originally opened in 1852, is decorated for the season and the dining area resembles a haunted house you could find in an amusement park. The area is loaded with decorations and mechanical ghouls and zombies that cans peak to the customers. To add to the flavor of the season, actors are dressed up in scary costumes after 5 p.m. and blend in to the dining area making them difficult to distinguish from the mechanical monsters.
If you patronize the eatery you may also be joined by other worldly characters, because according to its owner, Smalley’s Inn is haunted. “We have nine spirits in this building,” restaurant owner, Anthony Porto Sr., who lives in an apartment located above his establishment, said last week “And I have pictures to show it.”
His son, Anthony Porto Jr., is responsible for putting together the popular annual Halloween season displays, which are up through early November every year. It takes six to eight weeks to put up all the Halloween decorations.
Porto has owned Smalley’s Inn since 1968. Porto has been working in the restaurant industry for most of his life. “I was born into it,” he said. “It’s hard work, no kick.”
The inn was opened by James Smalley, who was a dominant figure in Putnam County government in the 1800’s. “He was the sheriff. He was the postmaster. He was the undertaker. He was the tax collector,” Porto said. “He wore all the hats, all at one time. That’s how they did it in the 1800’s.”
Smalley’s work as the undertaker relates the haunting of the restaurant, Porto said.
Spirits have a home at the restaurant, Porto said. “They’re here all the time. They don’t go and come,” he said.
In 1852 Smalley purchased all the property on the block and opened the restaurant. At the same time he worked for the county in many capacities including being the undertaker. During the Civil War for anyone from the area who died in combat “all the bodies had to come to Mr. Smalley,” Porto said, adding the basement of the restaurant was used as a morgue because it was the largest building in town. A short distance from the inn is a Civil War cemetery where the bodies were buried, Porto noted.
“Some of the spirits did not follow their bodies. They remained here,” Porto said. One night in the 1990’s Porto son and some of his friends went to the basement with a Ouija board and received a message from the spirits “There are nine of us who want to come out and play,” Porto said. “They got frightened. They took the Ouija board and threw it into Lake Gleneida.”
“That opened the portal for them (the spirits) to come out,” Porto said. “That’s the reason why they’re here.” The restaurant gained national fame two years ago after The Travel Channel broadcast a “Dead Files” episode filmed at Smalley’s Inn. Following the broadcast many new customers from outside the region came to the restaurant, Porto said, adding that the network learned about the haunted inn from an Internet search. It took a week to film the episode and he had to shut down the eatery during the filming and received only a small payment from the network, Porto noted. “The exposure was worth it,” he said.
Ever since the program was broadcast, the restaurant has inspired those interested in ghosts to come to Smalley’s Inn to find out for themselves if it is haunted.
Porto showed a series of photos taken from paranormal groups that appear to show ghosts in the dining area, including one dog spirit. One of the spirits sits at table 21 constantly, he said. “We have a few animals in this building,” he said.
One example of a ghost appearing in a photo occurred in August 2013. Rhinebeck resident Paul Hoffman took photos in the dining area with a new camera used for the first time. During the initial shooting the camera battery died and was replaced, Porto recalled. One of the photo shows a face of a ghost, Porto said.
Another photo taken by another paranormal took a photo of the ghost who spends her time at table 21. Shown in the photo is a Colonial styled dress with puffy sleeves, Porto said.
The ghost is sometimes cooperative to photo takers and other times she is not, Porto said. “Sometimes she’ll let you take it. Sometimes she won’t. She’ll draw all the energy out of your camera’s batteries and they’ll go dead. Cell phones will go dead.”
Smalley’s Inn is located at 57 Gleneida Ave. in Carmel. For more information call 845-225-9874.
