The book, Traveler's Tales - Rumors and Legends of the Albany-Saratoga Region by Mark MacGregor Steese and Sam McPheeters contains scores of anecdotes about ghosts, odd happenings, and local legends drawn mostly from newspaper clippings and old books. Among the stories is this one about Mount Hope Drive in the Kenwood area at Albany's southern edge.
The old Prentice Mansion on Mount Hope Drive, in Kenwood, was long the subject of ghostly tales. Most of these concerned the Prentice burial vault, which was somewhere on the estate -- no one knew where. The most popular tale was that there were particular times during the month, when the moon could only be discerned faintly behind thick shrouds of cloud, passersby might see in the vicinity of the vault, used as a temporary resting place for some members of the Prentice family, the specters of those people, clad in their cerements, discussing matters of days long past.
In the forties, the vault was rediscovered by some Albany boys. When the earth was cleared away and the rusting padlock removed, the massive hinged slab covering the entrance was lifted, and the chamber was entered. It was found to be empty. Whether or not this dispelled the ghost stories in not known.
