THE STORY
Reported Haunting
The Country Squire opened in 1961 on a rural tract between Warsaw and Kenansville, incorporating historic materials and the McGowan Farmhouse, a structure dating to about 1780 that founder Joe West moved to the property. Over the years, employees, guests, and paranormal investigators have reported unexplained voices, music, footsteps, cold drafts, shadowy figures, moving objects, and apparitions throughout the restaurant and inn. Signature stories include darts allegedly flying from an unattended dartboard, sightings of a young girl on the steps and in an old farmhouse photograph, a thermal image interpreted as a floating woman, and the belief among staff that West, who died in 1995, still lingers around the business he built.
A Scottish-themed restaurant, inn, and winery established in 1961 between Warsaw and Kenansville. The property incorporates historic materials and an 18th-century farmhouse and has developed a long-running reputation for apparitions, voices, footsteps, unexplained movement, and other paranormal activity.