Dean Shalhoup

The landscape, to paraphrase Dylan, is a-changin’ up there on the southwest corner of Amherst Street and Townsend West.

That the one building is coming down to make way for a brand-new, bright and flashy building of a different kind along Nashua’s main east-west corridor is hardly a news flash, especially for those of us who can recall traveling to Milford and back without hitting a single red light – because there were no traffic signals of any color – and passing maybe a dozen cars going the other way.

I bet anything that pretty much any Nashua native who grew up here then moved away, say, in the 1970s, and came back nowadays to visit for the first time in all those years and took a drive up Amherst Street would have no idea where they were.

It is possible, I suppose, that the visitor would recognize a small handful of sights from their formative years. Take the old Ford Farm, for instance.

What’s that? You’re a Nashua lifer and you’re not familiar with the Ford Farm?

Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP The sign at the corner of Amherst Street and Townsend West is all that's left of the Country Tavern, the storied restaurant that was torn down by new owners who are building a Cumberland Farms on the site. (Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP)

Well, fret not; you’re not alone.

You and probably 99% of Nashua area folks – and those from away who like to read magazines and books about ghosts and haunted places – have always known the Ford Farm as the Country Tavern.

Alas, the circa 1741 – give or take 5 or 10 years – former farmhouse, said to be inhabited by various farming families over the centuries but most notably by a sea captain by the name of Ford and his considerably younger bride, Elizabeth, is no more.

Taken down bit by bit over the past couple of months, the Tavern is now but a memory, replaced by giant mounds of loam, sand and other materials as crews move into the sitework phase of a construction project that, when complete, will be a Cumberland Farms filling station and convenience store combination.

According to the Registry of Deeds, the most recent owner, Alla Maak Properties, represented by Nashua-based Prolman Realty, sold the property for $1.4 million to Cumberland Farms Inc., headquartered in Westborough, Massachusetts.

The passing of the papers was the final step in the typical paperwork-heavy process, which included the requisite series of notifications to the public and subsequent discussion among members of the city boards who must OK the buyer’s plans for the property.

Once all the permits and other necessary paperwork were signed, sealed and delivered, there remained just one little matter that didn’t appear on any paperwork and almost certainly didn’t come up during the negotiation process between the seller’s and buyer’s representatives.

The Ford Farm that I referenced earlier was probably never an official name of the property that would become the Country Tavern. I just call it that because it was briefly inhabited by Capt. and Elizabeth Ford.

Why, of all the occupants who lived at present-day 452 Amherst St. over the past 250-plus years, do I focus on the Fords?

Well, that’s easy: What happened, or as legend tells us happened, between Elizabeth Ford and her seafaring husband, is as much a part of what made having dinner and drinks at the Country Tavern as enjoyable as the food itself – not to mention the cocktails and that occasional feeling that you are being watched, even though nobody is looking at you. Or so you thought.

Cutting straight to the chase, so to speak, Captain Ford came home from a lengthy deployment at sea, walked into the original part of what became the Country Tavern to greet his wife – but was quite surprised to see her come to the door with a baby in her arms.

When the captain did some quick ciphering and realized it was mathematically impossible for him to be the father, he flew into a rage, locked Elizabeth in a closet, killed the baby and buried it somewhere on the property.

As the story goes, when Ford let Elizabeth out of the closet and told her what he’d done, she “went mad with grief,” according to one report, and attacked him. But the physically superior Ford grabbed a knife, stabbed Elizabeth to death, and tossed her body down a well.

Variations of the sordid tale are popular fodder for storytelling, especially around this time of year when scaring the bejesus out of people is considered a sport.

One version of the events paints a most grisly picture of Captain Ford coming home to find Elizabeth pregnant, waited for her to give birth, then killed her and the baby and buried them near, or in, a well.

Over the years, Country Tavern servers cheerfully answered guests’ inquiries about the place supposedly being haunted by “a woman in white,” as Elizabeth was often referred to.

The more mischievous servers were known to have some fun with their unsuspecting guests, often by exaggerating some of Elizabeth’s alleged transgressions and urging the already jittery diners to be wary of their water glass suddenly tipping over or a utensil falling to the floor – from the center of the table.

I can’t say I’m all that knowledgeable when it comes to the finer points of ghost-hunting, or for that matter being hunted and haunted by a ghost.

But I’ve heard folks who purport to be well-versed on the subject largely agree that “beings not of this world,” aka, ghosts, tend to remain at the place where they met their tragic death, regardless of whatever changes are made to the location over the years.

Which makes one wonder, might Elizabeth peek out from behind the gas pump to say hi while you’re filling up?

Or might she go in the store and lurk behind the candy display to play a little “trick” on an unsuspecting youngster looking for his favorite “treat?”

If Elizabeth does decide to make her presence felt at the new Cumby’s, let’s just hope she stays away from the lottery tickets.

Dean Shalhoup’s column appears weekly in The Sunday Telegraph. He may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.