Most communities have a ghost story or haunted buildings, and some of those stories aren’t as widely known. In Chenango County’s small town of Pitcher, there’s a ghostly legend.

The story goes that a woman who was murdered by her husband walks the road on Pink Hill, visiting travelers that come by. And the whole story centers around the former hotel in town.

“There's a bed involved, there's blood involved. ... There's something in us that perks up when we hear things that are macabre,” said Beth MacRae, co-chair of Cincinnatus Area Heritage Society.

A story that’s been passed on for decades starts with a man named Ezra who married a younger woman. She liked to attend dances and socialize at the nearby hotel, but her husband didn’t approve.

“So she eventually snuck out and he woke up one night, discovered her absence [and] waited for her to come home with a butcher knife in his hand by the door,” said MacRae.

As the story goes, he murdered his wife, and for years after, their house stood and the blood and remnants of their lives could be seen inside. Years later, a salesman came through town and stayed at the hotel. While riding around town, he came across a young woman.

“And he met this young woman coming towards him, and he visited with her. She said she was en route to a dance. And we do know, according to legend, that that dance would have been held in the hotel. And he offered his services of taking her,” said MacRae.

The legend says they danced at the hotel that night, and the salesman gave her a tortoiseshell comb.

“She decided she wanted to go home fairly early. He took her to the spot where he had met her, and she claimed she would walk the rest of the way home. The next day he hired the rig again, wanted to find her, and he found nothing but a dilapidated, rotting house on the top of the hill,” MacRae shared.

He visited a nearby cemetery and found her gravestone, the one belonging to the murdered woman. And resting on top: a tortoiseshell comb.

“The hotel desk clerk … told what had happened. He said, ‘Oh, you've been visited by a ghost. It happens all the time.' And that is the gist of the story," MacRae said. "And it has been perpetuated over the years. And there are people who are very certain they've seen Zella or Zelda’s ghost traversing about in Pitcher. So, Pitcher’s fond of its lore.”

Details of the story have likely changed over the decades.

“It's just fun to keep going with your ideas. I guess that's what a story does. It never stops changing,” said MacRae.

The legend can be read on a sign in front of the former hotel, which is now a private home.