Is the famous Hanover Street cigar bar, Stanza dei Sigari, haunted? SyFy channel’s “Haunted Collector” aims to find out.
The Boston Herald devoted Tuesday’s front cover to the “North End Ghost Hunt” in the cigar parlor, owned by the Riccio family since 1927. Stories abound about the lights suddenly going out, floating black masses and broken shelves.
Producers also did some research on the building’s history. According to the Herald article:
The building was built in 1896 and served as a “baby farm,” a Victorian-era practice in which people took in children whose families couldn’t care for them in exchange for cash.
The elder (David) Riccio, 58, was born in the building, and heard different tales from his father and grandfather, but was shocked by the news. “We were freaked out it was a baby farm,” he said. An additional claim was equally unnerving. “Haunted Collectors” told the Riccios that children died there.
Taped in November 2022 at the Stanza dei Sigari location under Caffe Vittoria, “Haunted Collector” aired on the SyFy network, Wednesday, March 13, 2013.
“Stories abound about the lights suddenly going out, floating black masses and broken shelves.”
The one time I went down there just to see what it was like, I accidentally freaked the hell out of one of the workers (it was empty at the time). It’s not a huge stretch to imagine somebody working down in that dimly lit environment might ‘see’ a floating black mass. The other two items sound like things that happen regularly everywhere… a basement establishment in the North End with electrical problems? Say it ain’t so.
My Grandparents owned a building right across the street & my Girlfriend recently told me of this… Amazing