Adams Grove Presbyterian Church in Dallas CountyThe Dr. John R. Drish House in TuscaloosaSweetwater Mansion in Florence, during 1934
The Boyington Oak in Mobile is a Southern live oak that reportedly grew from the grave of Charles Boyington in the potter's field just outside the walls of Church Street Graveyard. Boyington was tried and executed for the murder of his friend, Nathaniel Frost, on February 20, 1835. He said a tree would spring from his grave as proof of his innocence.[1][2]
The Dr. John R. Drish House in Tuscaloosa has a tower that has reportedly been seen on numerous occasions to be on fire, when no fire was actually there. Also, ghostly lights are said to be seen emanating from the house.[3][4]
Gaineswood in Demopolis is reportedly haunted by the ghost of a former housekeeper from Virginia. She was in charge of running the house for General Whitfield after the death of his wife. Her ghost supposedly plays the piano in the music room.[5]
Kenworthy Hall near Marion has a fourth-floor tower room that is alleged to be haunted by the ghost of a young woman. She sits in a window awaiting the return of a lover who died during the American Civil War.[6]
Chapel and Lovelace Hall, Marion Military Institute in Perry County, Alabama was built in 1857. During the Civil War, the buildings served as the Confederate Breckenridge Military Hospital. Soldiers who died there were buried behind the chapel. Since then, the halls are said to be haunted by their spirits. Cadets report objects moving on their own, and echoes of footsteps, whispers, laughter, and cries in the hallways. Some even claim to feel an unseen presence watching them.[7][8]
Edmund King House on the University of Montevallo campus in Shelby County is reported to be the site of spectral lights, the sound of footsteps, and other unexplained noises.[9]
Pickens County Courthouse in Carrollton is alleged to be haunted by the ghost of a former slave, Henry Wells, who was lynched by a mob after being accused of burning down the second county courthouse. Soon afterward, the ghostly image of a face appeared in an upper window of the new third county courthouse to profess Wells' innocence. Supposedly, every windowpane in the courthouse was broken in a hailstorm one year, except for that pane.[10]
Pratt Hall at Huntingdon College in Montgomery is reportedly haunted by a Red Lady. Huntingdon was originally a Methodist female college and the Red Lady is alleged to be the ghost of a lonely girl who committed suicide.[11][12]
Sturdivant Hall in Selma is purported to be haunted by the ghost of the second owner, John McGee Parkman. Parkman, imprisoned by Reconstruction authorities for alleged embezzlement, died during an escape attempt from Cahaba Prison in 1867.[13][14]
Sweetwater Mansion in Florence, Alabama, was built during 1828. Both Union and Confederate officers stayed there during their respective occupations of the city during the Civil War. Alleged paranormal activity has been investigated by local paranormal groups and a team from the television show Paranormal State.[15][16]
Copper Queen Hotel in Bisbee is reportedly haunted.[23] It was investigated on both Ghost Adventures and Ghost Hunters.
Part of the football field at Lee Williams High School in Kingman lies atop an old Pioneer Cemetery. Women in prairie gowns and men wearing suits from the 19th Century have reportedly been sighted during outdoor graduation ceremonies.[24]
Monte Vista Hotel in Flagstaff is reputed to be haunted. A phantom bellboy is said to knock on the door of room 210 and announce "Room service." John Wayne reported seeing a ghost in his room while staying at the hotel in the early 1950s.[25]
Hotel San Carlos in Phoenix is filled with rumors that a 22-year-old girl jumped off the seven-story hotel to her death after several weeks when the hotel first opened, along with other witnesses saying a girl mysteriously appearing at the foot of their beds for several seconds until she goes to their doors and vanishes.[26]
The Yuma Territorial Prison in Yuma is reported to be haunted by multiple entities, including the spirit of a little girl in a red dress, death row inmates and others, and has been listed by USA Today as one of the 10 best haunted destinations in the USA.[27][28]
Arkansas
The Gurdon Light is a mysterious floating light above the railroad tracks near Gurdon (Clark County), a few miles away on Highway 67, which was first sighted during the 1930s. A popular legend is that a railroad worker was in an accident in which he was decapitated and now he is holding a lantern going up and down the tracks searching for his missing head. The other legend involves the murder of a foreman for the Missouri-Pacific Railroad. The Gurdon Light was reportedly sighted shortly after his murder near those tracks during 1931. The local legend appeared on NBC's television program Unsolved Mysteries during 1994.[29][30][31][32][33][34]
The Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs bills itself as America's most haunted hotel. It was featured on the television show Ghost Hunters in 2005.[35]
C
California
Ghost Adventures filming in the Henry Levy House, Oxnard, CA
Pioneer Park in Aspen is reportedly haunted by the ghost of Harriet Webber, wife of its builder, who died of what was ruled to be an accidental strychnineoverdose during 1881, four years before it was built.[36]
Stanley Hotel in Estes Park Colorado, was built by a Maine couple named F.O. and Flora Stanley. They lived there, and reportedly never left. Staff says Flora can be heard playing her piano at night. If you take a picture in the hotel, it is said Mr. Stanley can show up at any time in that picture. Children can be heard running up and down the halls. This lovely mountain resort in the Colorado wilderness was the inspiration for Stephen King's thriller, The Shining.[37]
Dudleytown is an abandoned town founded in the mid-1740s. It lies in the middle of a forested area in Cornwall. The original buildings are gone and only their foundations remain. Videos purport to show restless spirits in the area[40] and hikers have reported seeing orbs in the area.[41]
Union Cemetery in Easton (also Bridgeport), which dates back to the 17th century, is touted as "one of the most haunted cemeteries in the entire country" by authors of paranormal books who claim that visitors have photographed orbs, light rods, ectoplasmic mists, and apparitions. A spirit known as the "White Lady" has also been reported.[42][43][44]
Norwich State Hospital is a former psychiatric hospital spreading across a 70-acre campus. Before the majority of it was demolished, there were reports of lamenting patients near the Salmon building and the lobotomy room. It was featured on Ghost Hunters (TV series) season 6, episode 10.[45]
Don CeSar Hotel in St. Petersburg Beach reportedly is haunted by the ghost of its original owner, Thomas Rowe, who built the Moorish-style "Pink Palace" during 1926. The story is that Thomas Rowe was forbidden to marry the love of his life, a singer in the opera Maritana,[46] by her parents. He built the Don CeSar in remembrance of her, and named it after a character in the opera. "Time is infinite. I wait for you by our fountain", she wrote to him on her deathbed, and after his own death, it was reported that they were seen to be meeting by the fountain in the hotel lobby".[47]
House of Pedro Benedit Horruytiner, colonial governor of Florida, in St. Augustine. Alleged encounters with the Horruytiner ghost, as well as that of a cat supposedly killed in the house, have been reported there.[48]
The Leaf Theater in Quincy reportedly is haunted by several former movie operators and theater attendees.[49]
Ebos Landing (Igbo Landing) in Dunbar Creek, St. Simons Island, Glynn County is allegedly haunted by the souls of Igbo slaves who committed mass suicide by drowning there during 1803 to protest their enslavement.[51][52]
Moon River Brewing Company in Savannah is allegedly haunted by angry spirits. It was featured on the TV series Ghost Adventures.[53]
Lithia Springs High School in Douglas County is supposedly haunted by the souls of deceased prisoners nearby.
A security camera in the PocatelloHigh School captured a translucent figure going down a hallway and in and out of a bathroom when the school was closed for winter break in 2014. People report hearing voices in conversation and the sound of a piano inside the school's otherwise empty theater.[55]
Crenshaw House in Equality. The house was constructed in the 1830s as a station on the Reverse Underground Railroad. In 1978, a reporter from Harrisburg named David Rodgers spent the night in the attic as a Halloween stunt for a local television station. The reporter managed to beat out nearly 150 previous challengers and became the first person to spend the night in the slave quarters in more than a century. Rodgers later admitted that he was 'queasy' going into the house and also said that his experience in the attic was anything but mundane. He heard many sounds that he could not identify and later, he would discover that his recorder picked up voices that he himself could not hear.[59]
Peoria State Hospital in Bartonville, Illinois. Originally named the Illinois Asylum for the Incurably Insane from 1907 to 1908, but later renamed to the Peoria State Hospital in 1909. An additional name for it is the "Bartonville Insane Asylum".[60][61][62][63]
Sallie House in Atchison. Known to be haunted by a little girl named Sallie who died during a surgery, as well as several demons from satanic rituals being done in the basement. It is widely considered to be one of the most haunted places in the United States.
Fort Knox is a former United States military fort located along the Penobscot River. The fort is reported to be haunted by several ghosts, though there have been no reported deaths on the premises during its history.[69]
Middleton Tavern in Annapolis is one of the town's oldest continuing establishments. Hauntings have been reported at the location since the 1770s.[73][74] According to local folklore, the top floor bar and fireplace have experienced hauntings and poltergeist activity, occasionally accompanied by the scent of faint cigar smoke.[75][76] Another local theory suggests the establishment is haunted by the ghost of George Schmidt, who was killed in front of the building in 1876.[77][78]
Painter's Park in Uptown Minneapolis is said to be haunted by a spirit that has been seen by residents
Missouri
Town of Avilla on historic Route 66 is said to have large numbers of Shadow Folk throughout village and also haunted by a Revenant Civil War-era bushwhacker nicknamed "Rotten Johnny Reb", from a gruesome historical event now known as the "Legend of the Avilla Death Tree".[84]
Bannack, Montana a ghost town reportedly haunted by executed outlaws and a woman in a blue gown named Dorothy.[88]
Bannack, a ghost town, was founded in 1862 and named after the Bannock Indian tribe. Several claims of hauntings have been made there, including the apparition of a woman in a blue gown named Dorothy who drowned in Grasshopper Creek. A gang of outlaws were also executed in the town and their ghosts are said to haunt the area. There were several epidemics of illnesses there as well, and a reported 8 to 14 infants died in the town.[88]
Carroll College, in Helena, supposedly has a ghost in the men's restroom in St. Charles Hall, where a drunken student died of a cerebral hemorrhage after falling and smashing his head against a sink in the middle of the night.[90]
Garnet, a ghost town in the Garnet Mountain Range about 40 miles outside of Missoula, is said to be haunted by several ghosts, including gold miners and a woman executed for murder there.[88]
The Little Bighorn Battlefield, located near Hardin, is said to be haunted by the ghosts of both U.S. soldiers and Native Americans who participated in the battle.[88]
Montana Territorial Prison in Deer Lodge, Montana is said to be among the most haunted locations in the state. A number of deaths occurred there, including during a riot in 1959.[93] Ghost researchers claim to have identified odd sounds and sensations, including voices and mists.[94]
Virginia City, a ghost town-turned-tourist-attraction, is said to be haunted. The saloon and theater are two areas of reported ghost sightings.[90] The town had a violent past and was home to many outlaws. Calamity Jane lived in the town as a child.[90]
N
Nevada
The Nevada Governor's Mansion in Carson City was first occupied by the family of Governor Denver S. Dickerson during July 1909. Guests and staff have reported seeing a woman and child on the premises, thought to be Dickerson's wife Una and daughter June, the only child to have been born in the residence.[95]
New Jersey
Cape May is one of the oldest towns in America, established during 1620. It is also said to be one of the most haunted cities in the country, with many haunted 19th century style house bed & breakfasts, including Congress Hall, the Emlen Physick Estate, Peter Shields Inn, and Southern Mansion (featured on Ghost Hunters). However, the town's best known haunt is Higbee Beach, famous for its quartz "Cape May diamonds", said to be haunted by a phantom black dog, or "hell hound", that is said to be cursed by Native Americans.[96]
Leeds Point is the birthplace of the "Leeds Devil", better known as the Jersey Devil. The Pine Barrens (New Jersey) gave fame to the legend of the Jersey Devil, said to have been birthed by a local woman named Mrs. Leeds during 1735. It was her 13th child and she didn't want any more, so she cursed the child by saying, "May it be the devil!" Another version tells of Mother Leeds giving birth to a hideous horned monster that attacked her and her midwife, sprouted bat wings, and flew out through the chimney, disappearing into the Pine Barrens, which is where most of the alleged sightings have occurred.[97]
New Mexico
St. James Hotel was the site of many killings in the late 19th century, and believers claim it is haunted by spirits of the dead, supposedly indicated by reported "cold spots" and the smell of cigar smoke.[98]
New York
112 Ocean Avenue House, also known as the "Amityville Horror House", during December 2005
112 Ocean Avenue House, (a.k.a. Amityville Horror House) in Amityville is the basis for the 1977 book The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson. It was the scene of a tragic mass murder of the DeFeo family on November 13, 1974, committed by Ronald DeFeo, Jr. The Lutz family, the next inhabitants of the home, claimed that it was haunted and fled after 28 days. Their experiences were described by Anson's bestselling book, which was followed by the 1979 movie The Amityville Horror. Despite accusations of fraud, the Lutzes maintained that they experienced paranormal phenomena while living in the Ocean Avenue home.[99]
Cherry Hill Estate, in southern Albany is a late 18th-century farm manor house that was the site of an 1827 murder that resulted in Albany's last public hanging after a controversial trial. An unidentified ghost has allegedly been seen on the property.[100]
Merchant's House Museum in Manhattan is the last home in New York City from the nineteenth-century to be intact, and is reportedly haunted by former resident Gertrude Tredwell that died in 1933.[102]
Kings Park Psychiatric Center in Kings Park was a psychiatric hospital that opened in 1885 and closed in 1996. Many buildings including Building 93 are reportedly haunted by its former patients.
The Attmore-Oliver House in New Bern has allegedly been the scene of some poltergeist-like activity stemming possibly from either deaths in the house during a smallpox epidemic or the spirit of the last private owner.[103]
Brown Mountain in Burke and Caldwell Counties is reputed to have ghostly orbs of light radiating from the mountain. According to local Cherokee legend, the "Brown Mountain Lights" date back as far as 1200. This was the year of a great battle, and they believed the lights to be the spirits of Native maidens who still search for lost loved ones. Also, there has been speculation of extraterrestrial activity. Wiseman's View on Linville Mountain is the best vantage point for viewing the lights. This lookout was used by a German engineer, William de Brahm during 1771 while studying the phenomenon. He attributed the lights to nitrous gases emitting from the mountain and combusting upon collision, but his theories were later disproven.[104]
The Carolina Theatre in Greensboro was set ablaze on July 1, 1981, by a woman who was assumed mentally disturbed. Melba Frey went up to the upper balcony and started the fire, which burned the entire balcony and lobby. Her body was found in the stairway by firefighters, and she is now believed to haunt the area in which she died, flipping the folding seats up and down.[105]
The Harvey Mansion Historic Inn and Restaurant in New Bern has claims of an older woman in 18th-century dress haunting the second and third floors.[108]
The Tar River, near Tarboro in Edgecombe County, is associated with a legend of a banshee. The legend speaks of a Patriot miller who was killed by a small group of British soldiers during the American Revolution. Before they drowned him in the river, he warned the soldiers that if he were killed, they would be haunted by a banshee. After his death, she appeared and caused the deaths of the soldiers and supposedly still haunts the river.[109]
The Roanoke Island was known for urban legend of Roanoke Colony that involves the mysterious disappearance of the colonists along with its local population during its colonization. The urban legend remains unsolved until today.
North Dakota
The Liberty Memorial Building in Bismarck, according to former employees is said to be haunted by a ghostly presence nicknamed the "Stack Monster".[110]
Cincinnati Music Hall is a theater that was built over a potter's field. Reports of spirits on the property date back to 1876. During 1988, during the installation of an elevator shaft, bones of adults and children were exhumed from under the hall.[113]
Madison Seminary in Madison is an 88-room building that has been a school, a home, and an asylum for the insane. Figures move through locked doors, screams have been heard, and a killer may have buried his victim beneath the basement floor.[114]
Oklahoma
Dead Women Crossing in Weatherford allegedly has paranormal activities including a mysterious blue light that originates in the creek and a spectral woman crying for her baby around the area.[115]
There are a number of Reportedly haunted locations in Oregon. Reported hauntings in the state are linked to such historic places as the Oregon Trail and early coastal communities, as well as the history of Portland, the state's largest city and metropolitan area, which was considered one of the most dangerous port cities in the world at the beginning of the 20th century.[116] During 2012, USA Today named Portland among the top ten most haunted cities in the United States.[117]
The Carnton Mansion in Franklin was used as a hospital for Confederate Soldiers during the Civil War. Many of the deceased here were buried in mass graves and some of their ghosts are alleged to haunt the site.[129]
The Orpheum Theatre in Memphis is said to be haunted by the ghost of a small girl who was killed in a car accident in front of the theater.[130]
Texas
The commissary at the Houston Zoo has been said to be haunted by the first zookeeper, Hans Nagel, who was shot by a park police officer during late 1941 after being caught spying on teenagers in a parked car.[131][132][133]
The Driskill Hotel in Austin has several stories associated with it, and has been called the most haunted spot in Texas.[135]
The Marfa lights have been attributed to haunting. In May 2004, students from the Society of Physics Students at the University of Texas at Dallas spent four days investigating and recording lights observed southwest of the view park using traffic volume monitoring equipment, video cameras, binoculars, and chase cars. The conclusion was that all of the lights observed over a four night period southwest of the view park could be reliably attributed to automobile headlights traveling along U.S. 67 between Marfa and Presidio, Texas.[136]
USS Lexington -- The-Blue-Ghost' -- Corpus Christi
USS Lexington in Corpus Christi. A uniformed sailor helps lost guests find their way back to the deck and a sailor in the engine room gives a lecture on how the turbines work before vanishing into thin air.[137]
Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston is a previously abandoned psychiatric hospital that is purported to be haunted due to the many deaths of patients which occurred there.[147]
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