HOTELS, MOTELS, INNS, HOUSES, AND CASTLES

In October 1974, best-selling horror novelist Stephen King and his wife, Tabitha, decided to spend a night at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. The hotel first opened back in 1909 and catered to the upper class. It was built by Stanley Steemer founder F. O. Stanley and consisted of 142 rooms in the Colonial Revival style with amazing, panoramic views of the Rockies and Lake Estes. For the King couple, it was a place to stay during a road trip.

The facility was closed for the brutal winter, so they were the only two guests staying there. They stayed in room 217, where King had a vivid dream of his young son running through the hallways terrified of something chasing him. That incident served as the inspiration for his classic book The Shining, which was also made into a movie. People have been flocking to the Stanley Hotel ever since, and many insist room 401 is haunted. Visitors report hearing children running up and down the halls at night, when no children are around or awake. They’ve experienced blankets being pulled tightly across their legs or the bed shaking as they slept. The bar and billiards areas of the sprawling hotel are home to the ghosts of F. O. Stanley and his wife, Flora. Often, her piano can be heard playing itself in the music room.

Strangely translucent apparitions also roam the Stanley, and it’s no wonder this location is a favorite among ghost-hunting groups. There is a maze out front reminiscent of the one little Danny tries to navigate in The Shining movie as well as nightly ghost tours and an on-site psychic. A television in the hotel plays the movie in a continuous loop. Imagine hearing Jack Nicholson’s voice over and over again saying, “HEEEERE’S JOHNNY!”. Many of the rooms are reported to be haunted, so call ahead to book and spend a weekend with a ghost … or two. Of note, the hotel staff and historians both admit the Stanley was never reported as haunted until Stephen King made it famous. Today, it is a notorious paranormal hot spot; in fact, if you visit, be sure to go to the second floor and listen for the phantom cry of a young boy calling out to his nanny.

QUEEN ANNE HOTEL

San Francisco’s Queen Anne Hotel is located on Sutter Street. It was finished in 1890 and is built in the atmospheric “Painted Lady” Queen Anne architectural style. Originally, it was the site of a girls’ boarding school, sitting among other lovely Victorian and Edwardian mansions in the Pacific Heights area. It barely survived the famous 1906 San Francisco Quake and Firestorm and is now a popular ghost-hunting spot as well as a luxurious hotel with antiques throughout. Witnesses report the headmistress of the girls’ boarding school haunts room 410, where she had her office. She wanders about and looks after guests much like she once looked after her wards. The third floor of this lavish hotel is said to be the most haunted, with visitors feeling the hairs on their arms stand on end, cold spots throughout the floor, and the strong sense of being watched.

The beautiful Queen Anne Hotel in San Francisco is a mecca for ghost hunters searching for the ghost of a little girl in room 410.

THE CRESCENT HOTEL

The Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, is considered the nation’s most haunted hotel. It has a long history of over 135 years as a women’s college and, before that, a notorious hospital run by Norman Baker, said to be a crackpot doctor. Ghosts human and animal (a cat named Morris) haunt the atmospherically eerie building, which was restored in the late 1990s when Marty and Elise Roenigk purchased it and its long-associated haunted history.

Constructed in 1886, the hotel is a historical landmark that has stood the test of time. Today, it is a resort and spa, but visitors can attest to the host of ghosts that roam the many rooms and hallways. The new owners asked two psychic mediums to read the building and were told the hotel contained a portal to the “other side.” Nightly ghost tours are in their seventeenth year at the site, which continues to deliver plenty of paranormal activity to those brave enough to take the tour or stay at the hotel itself. Many visitors faint around the tour shop area without any explanation (although there are perfectly scientific reasons why this might be in an older building). Another portal is said to be over the morgue a few floors up. The morgue is said to be haunted by victims, mostly women, of Norman Baker, a con man who claimed he had a cure for cancer, for the right price, of course, and subjected his many patients to a number of bizarre procedures that resulted often in the patients dying. His treatments were found to be fraudulent, and he was eventually indicted on fraud charges by a federal grand jury in Little Rock, Arkansas. Those visiting the morgue, including many television shows, report apparitions wandering about that are often captured on video footage.

If you dare visit the Crescent, you might encounter apparitions, orbs, anomalous photograph images, and all kinds of activity that helped get this hotel into the Historic Hotels of America membership. The media has featured the hotel and spa many times, locally and nationally, and it continues to attract those seeking a different kind of destination experience.

THE BOURBON ORLEANS HOTEL

Ghosts are as popular walking the halls and rooms of the Bourbon Orleans as living guests. The former site of the famed Orleans Ballroom and Theater, the building was converted to a convent in the late 1800s and, later in the 1960s, a hotel and is considered one of the most haunted hotels in New Orleans, Louisiana. The two-century-old building was also an orphanage once and has a variety of ghosts now calling it home, including children and women from its days as a convent and home for orphans; a Confederate soldier who roams on the third and sixth floors; and a dancer who once performed at the Orleans Ballroom and Theater when it hosted the biggest social events of the nineteenth century.

While the hotel served as the Sisters of the Holy Family’s convent and orphanage, many women and children died of an epidemic of yellow fever sweeping the city. One ghost of a little girl chasing after her ball haunts the sixth floor. The hotel functions today and offers public ghost walks and tours.

THE RED CASTLE INN

Nevada City in California is the location of one of the few remaining official historical lodging landmarks in the state. The Red Castle Inn is a four-story, brick mansion built in 1860 atop Prospect Hill, which overlooks Nevada City from its high perch. It was built during the heyday of the Gold Rush era, despite its distinct gothic appearance. The one ghost who haunts the inn is said to be so realistic, guests believe they are seeing an actual living human being until she walks through a door or wall. She may be the spirit of the governess of the original builder’s family and is always seen wearing gray.

SEELBACH HILTON HOTEL

As the premier hotel of the state of Kentucky, the Seelbach Hilton opened in 1905 with the distinction of being the city’s only fireproof hotel. It was owned by two Bavarian brothers, Otto and Louis Seelbach, who came to America to learn the hotel business. It also boasts being included in the National Register of Historic Places and the home to a famous ghost: the Lady in Blue. She was a guest named Patricia Wilson who had moved to Louisville from Oklahoma. She had been separated for four years from her husband, but they were trying to work things out. He was on his way to talk to her at the hotel in 1936, only to be tragically killed in a car crash as he was on his way to join his beloved. Patricia was so distraught, she threw herself down the elevator shaft. Her body was laid to rest in the Evergreen Cemetery. In 1987, several guests reported seeing a lady with long, black hair wearing a blue, chiffon dress, roaming about on the eighth floor.

The ghost of an elderly woman haunts a mirror in the Otto Café. An employee claimed to try to speak with her once, but she vanished before his eyes. In 2004, a couple staying on the eighth floor awakened to find a man standing at the window. When they turned on the lights, he disappeared. Other guests report footsteps, lights going on and off, and the smell of a woman’s perfume. The hotel is now owned by Hilton Hotels and Resorts.

This is a photo of the Seelbach Hotel taken five years after its 1905 opening. Here, a woman wearing blue chiffon—possibly the ghost of Patricia Wilson—has been seen on the eighth floor.

MENGER HOTEL

San Antonio, Texas, is the home of the Alamo, but right next door to that historical site is a haunted, Victorian-era hotel built in 1859. One of the oldest hotels in the state, the Menger Hotel has over thirty ghosts according to unlucky guests, including the spirit of President Teddy Roosevelt, who is the most famous of the creepy crew. Roosevelt is known to have at this very hotel encouraged patrons to join his Rough Riders in battle during the Spanish–American War.

His ghost hangs out mostly at the hotel bar along with another notable ghost: the spirit of Captain Richard King, owner of the King Ranch, who would stay at the Menger Hotel in his own personal suite for months at a time and was there when he died. He enters and exits his favorite suite, which is now named the “King Ranch Room,” but doesn’t bother anyone. The ghost of a maid named Sallie White also appears now and then, strolling up on the third floor in uniform, sometimes carrying a load of towels as if she is still cleaning rooms in death as she was in life.

THE WORLD-FAMOUS CLOWN MOTEL AND CEMETERY

Black shapes roaming about with eerie, phantom carnival music playing in the background. Items moving around and being placed in different locations. Restless spirits from an adjoining graveyard coming into and out of the motel. Killer clowns? Well, maybe not killer clowns, but the notoriously famous Clown Motel in Tonopah, Nevada, is a place unlike any other. A long, desert drive two hours away from the bustling city of Las Vegas, the Clown Motel and Tonopah Cemetery are favorites to tourists, paranormal enthusiasts, clown lovers, and kitschy types everywhere.

The motel, which was founded by Leona and LeRoy David in 1985, welcomes visitors with a giant, grinning, colorful clown face and glowing, neon sign. Its intent was to give truckers, bikers, and motorists a place to stay before heading into the desolate desert on the way to other Nevada destinations. Like a little oasis in the desert, the place caught on, and those who visit delighted in the abundant clown figures, dolls, and merchandise that can be found in the adjoining offices and even the rooms themselves. From stuffed clown dolls to wall hangings, porcelain figurines to puppets, all kinds of clowns are on hand for those who stop by.

Not only a popular tourist attraction for its kitschy theme, the Clown Motel in Tonopah, Nevada, has the added bonus of being haunted. It also sits next to a haunted cemetery!

The Tonopah Cemetery next door is a century-old graveyard where miners were buried and is abundant with weeds and makeshift grave markers. The abandoned look makes it a favorite for ghost hunters and legend trippers thanks to its history from its founding in 1901. It is alleged that many of the town’s pioneer residents are buried there along with victims of a mysterious plague in 1902.

Nearby are other haunted locations such as the Mitzpah Hotel and the Silver Rim Elementary School, suggesting the entire little oasis in the desert stands upon shaky supernatural ground. The Clown Motel and surrounding sites are popular with film crews looking to make cheap horror films. Who doesn’t hate clowns? Except for those who love them … odd creatures they may be.

HOTEL DEL CORONADO

The Nevada desert has its Clown Motel, while the gorgeous city of Coronado in San Diego County, California, has its lavish and famous paranormal hot spot favored by movie stars and normal folks alike for decades. The Hotel Del Coronado is a stunning resort built on beachfront property in Coronado, just south of the city of San Diego. The Victorian hotel was built in 1888 by Elisha Babcock and H. L. Story, who wanted to create a fairy-tale-like seaside resort that would be the talk of the Western world. They succeeded, but the hotel was only open four years when tragedy struck. A woman named Kate Morgan checked in on November 24, 1892. She stayed only five days, waiting for her lover to come and join her. She was very sick, and her death occurred five days later; her body was found on the steps leading to the beach. She had shot herself in the head, depressed over being abandoned by her lover but also possibly in despair over a pregnancy she was trying to end. Since then, paranormal phenomena has been reported such as lights flickering on and off, disembodied voices, objects moving of their own volition, strange lights on the beach at night, unexplained noises, cold spots, and the apparition of a woman wearing Victorian clothing roaming the halls.

Still a popular vacation spot in San Diego, the Hotel Del Coronado was once a place where movie stars such as Marilyn Monroe stayed.

To this day, the Hotel Del, as locals call it, is a huge tourist attraction, a destination for the wealthy (movie stars such as Marilyn Monroe once stayed there) and the general public alike, and those who desire to see the ghost of Kate Morgan floating down the hallway, or in or near the room she favored—Room 3227—at night. The ghost of a maid who hanged herself in Room 3519 also has been sighted as well. And although it has undergone some modern renovations and upgrades, it can’t shake its ghostly past.

Not too far from the Hotel Del, in downtown San Diego, two other haunted hotels stand. The Horton Grand Hotel is in the heart of the famous Gaslamp Quarter, which takes up sixteen blocks. The hotel opened back in 1886 as two separate hotels—The Grand Horton and the Brooklyn Kahle Saddelry Hotel. Both were part of the city’s former red-light district. They are now the Horton Grand Hotel and a popular tourist spot since it is close to everything. It is also teeming with ghosts, including the restless spirit of a gambler that was caught cheating and later shot by other gamblers in Room 309. Guests report his spirit lurking in the stairway near the room as well as other weird activity like lights turning on and off, doors opening and closing, mysterious hands shaking beds, and even the sound of cards being shuffled.

A few blocks away is the U.S. Grant Hotel, a luxurious hotel that opened in 1910 and cost two million dollars to build, which was quite a huge amount in those days! Today, it hosts many a spirit that walk the hallways, turn lights on and off, and make strange noises to bother guests at all hours of the night.

ELLIS HOTEL

Atlanta, Georgia’s Ellis Hotel is located in the bustling downtown area of Peachtree Street. One of the city’s worst fires occurred here back in December 1946 and was even nicknamed the “Titanic on Peachtree.” Over 115 people died in the tragic fire when firefighters could only reach the eighth floor of the fifteen-story building. The hotel was completely rebuilt in 1950, and guests began reporting paranormal phenomena such as objects moving around, items vanishing from rooms, phantom voices and women’s screams, and the sound of children running up and down the halls. For a period of two weeks, the fire alarm would go off every single night at exactly 2:48 A.M., the same time the 1946 fire broke out.

HAWTHORNE HOTEL

Salem, Massachusetts, is home to historically haunted places. It is a city with a rich background that includes some of the darkest days of our nation’s history—the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The Hawthorne Hotel is located upon land that was once an apple orchard owned by a woman named Bridget Bishop, one of the first women to be accused and executed during the witch trials. Guests who visit the hotel today often report the smell of apples clear as day. Other guest ghosts include some of the original sea captains involved in the construction of buildings near the hotel. The Salem Marine Society was razed to make room for the hotel, so maybe the sea captain ghosts are coming back to their original “haunt.” Pun intended.

Room 612 is where a female ghost can be seen wandering just outside the room, stopping at the door. Guests often complain of a sense of a presence in the room with them, the feeling of being touched, the cry of a baby, and lights and sink faucets being turned on and off. Ghosts on the lower deck seem to like moving furniture and items around, and a large nautical ship wheel in the restaurant likes to turn itself as if being turned by a seafarer on the open waters.

The ninety-three-room hotel has hosted quite a few famous living people over its history, including Walter Cronkite, George H. W. and Barbara Bush, Bette Davis, and Colin Powell. The famous television sitcom Bewitched filmed nearby, and the cast and crew stayed in the hotel during shooting. Other actors have stayed there, including Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro during the filming of Joy.

FAIRMONT EMPRESS HOTEL

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, is home to the Fairmont Empress Hotel, one of the nation’s oldest and most famous hotels as well as its most haunted, proving that America doesn’t have a lock on haunted locations. The massive building is an official National Historic Site of Canada and was built between 1904 and 1908. Both British and American royalty and leaders have stayed or visited there, and it is still open to guests. It has a rich paranormal history, too. Visitors over the years have witnessed the ghost of a thin man with a moustache and cane, who might be the hotel architect, Francis Rattenbury. There is a ghostly maid who cleans on the sixth floor just as she did in life. An elderly, female ghost knocks on doors and asks for help finding her room, only to vanish after she leads witnesses to the elevator. The spookiest ghost is that of a man who hanged himself in one of the elevator shafts. His ghost can be seen swinging from above by guests inside the elevator.

Ghosts of Death Valley

The big, golden state of California is rich with history and known for its haunted missions and Hollywood landmarks. But few people know of the vast number of haunted hotels to be found from San Diego to San Francisco. They would never associate the vast and desolate Death Valley with the location of a couple of haunted hotels.

Death Valley is a foreboding place. Located in eastern California at the northern edge of the Mojave Desert, it is one of the hottest and harshest places on Earth, measuring 3,000 square miles (7,770 square kilometers). The isolated location and extreme temperatures make it a very unattractive place to stay. But the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel was built in 1923 by the Pacific Coast Borax Company to serve their employees and families. The U-shaped complex was built in the Spanish Colonial style. Sadly, little of the original town remains but for the opera house and hotel, both of which are said to be haunted by the ghost of a crying child who drowned in a bathtub, an evil presence who was hanged in the hotel, and a ghostly cat that roams the buildings.

Nearby is the Furnace Creek Inn and Ranch Resort, built on the salt flats of Death Valley back in the 1920s. The mission-style inn was built with thick, adobe walls and is haunted by a friendly ghost named Chef James Márquez, who served in the kitchen from 1959 to 1973 before he became ill and died several years later. Visitors report hearing strange noises in the kitchen and dining room at all hours of the night, tools and equipment moving around from place to place by themselves, and doors opening and closing. Maybe Chef Márquez is cooking up great ghostly meals in the kitchen he once loved.

The Amargosa Opera House and Hotel is an oasis in the middle of Death Valley, which offers beautiful architecture, cultural events, and a bit of the paranormal.

There is a ghostly maid who cleans on the sixth floor just as she did in life. An elderly female ghost knocks on doors and asks for help finding her room, only to vanish after she leads witnesses to the elevator.

THE GOLDEN LAMB INN

The Golden Lamb Inn is the oldest operating business in the state of Ohio, dating back to 1803 in the city of Lebanon, when a man named Jonas Seaman spent $4 on a license to open a “house of public entertainment.” The inn boasted prominent visitors over its history, including luminaries in the literary world and a handful of presidents, and eventually, a man named Robert H. Jones took over the place and turned it into a great restaurant and attraction that still stands today. The hotel kept its original name but added on a gift shop, fourth floor, and the Black Horse Tavern.

The inn also took on a haunted reputation. There are two main ghosts that guests interact with: Sarah and Charles. Sarah is the ghost of the former niece of one of the inn’s managers. She lived in the inn and had her own room, and although she died elsewhere, her ghost is said to haunt the place she loved by moving pictures and furniture around.

The second ghost may belong to a man named Charles R. Sherman, an Ohio Supreme Court justice who died at the inn in 1928. Guests report seeing him walking the hallways and can smell the scent of his favorite cigars wafting through the air.

NIAGARA FALLS INN

People normally go to New York’s stunning Niagara Falls for honeymoons and vacations. The Red Coach Inn is a historic bed-and-breakfast that first opened in August 1923. It served many couples coming to the Honeymoon Capital of the World and was lucky to be located in the center of town overlooking the Upper Rapids. The inn, was built in the old English Tudor style and boasted three stories. The owners, William Schoellkopf and Charles Peabody, put a lot of money and attention into the inn and tried to recreate the style of the Bell Inn in Finedon, England. The Red Coach Inn has its share of ghostly visitors, including a honeymooning bride and groom who committed suicide at the falls on their wedding day and the sound of phantom people walking, laughing, and dancing on the top floor to music played by ghostly musicians in the middle of the night, when no one is there. Objects are also reported to move on their own, including jewelry, according to inn staff.

OMNI PARKER HOUSE

Boston’s most haunted hotel might just be the Omni Parker House, which was built in the 1800s by Harvey D. Parker, who also ran the place until his death in 1884. The swanky hotel was a favorite of famous literary figures who attended the long-running Saturday Club, including Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. One infamous guest was John Wilkes Booth, the actor who would later shoot President Abraham Lincoln in 1865 at the Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. John F. Kennedy announced his candidacy for Congress at the Omni Parker House and even had his bachelor party there.

But there is a truly dark connection, for it was room 303 of the hotel, which is walled off now, that inspired horror master Stephen King to write his creepy story “1408,” which was later made into a movie starring John Cusack as a tormented writer staying in a horror-filled hotel room. As for ghosts, though, it is mainly Harvey Parker who now roams the halls and rooms, sometimes as a full apparition with his noted moustache, sometimes as just a misty presence. On the third floor, visitors report an elevator that goes up and down on its own, a young girl ghost that appears at the foot of beds, strange flashes of light and ghostly orbs that float down the hallways, and the creaky sound of a rocking chair rocking back and forth.

BATTERY CARRIAGE HOUSE INN

This bed-and-breakfast inn is part of a large, five-story 1845 Greek Revival style antebellum mansion in the historical city of Charleston, South Carolina. Located in the garden area of the huge property, the Battery Carriage House Inn is open to visitors, while the main mansion is now privately owned. The inn has a history of hosting ghosts in several of the rooms most favored by guests looking for a unique experience. The entire estate was in a war zone during the Civil War and underwent several renovations and family owners. In 1989, Hurricane Hugo took quite a toll on the buildings until the current owners moved in and renovated them.

Battery Carriage House Inn is the home of spirits who were the victims of Hurricane Hugo in 1989.

Guests believe the ghosts they’ve encountered in rooms 3, 8, and 10 in particular might be victims of Hugo or the spirits of pirates that were hanged from trees on nearby land. Whoever the ghosts are, they favor these rooms.

The ghost of a tall man likes to goof around with male guests in room 8. He wears an overcoat and only appears from the torso up, sometimes haunting other rooms as well. Room 8 visitors report seeing the apparition beside their bed, sometimes breathing heavily or wearing a rough cape. Chairs crash against the wall, and the toilet seat has been heard slamming down. Meanwhile, in room 10, a host of activity centers around the “Gentleman Ghost,” a presence many describe as a wispy apparition, slender built, around 5 feet, 8 inches tall, with no facial features. Others describe the ghost as a young man who floats through closed doors.

In room 3, one might encounter figures of light that take on various shapes and forms in the sitting room or footsteps that follow you around the room. The bathroom faucet drips all night, but when guests check on it, the sink is dry. Guests also report a host of ghosts hanging out in the basement sitting room and that many apparitions, including the ghostly torso, have been captured on photographs.

MOON RIVER BREWERY

Savannah, Georgia, is filled with old, historical buildings, and one of the oldest is the Moon River Brewery, which opened for business in 1999. The building itself dates to 1821, when it was the City Hotel, a high-end hotel that saw its fair share of violence during the Civil War. Heated fights often led to murders and included a Yankee soldier who was beaten to death in 1860. Those who visit the brewery today often report bottles flying through the air and the apparition of a man in the billiards room. Guests are often pushed, tugged, and even slapped by invisible forces.

HOUSES
THE WHALEY HOUSE

San Diego is also home to one of the most famous haunted buildings on the planet and a place that has become the one tourist spot you must visit if you go to America’s Finest City. Located on a quiet street in the Old Town District, this beautiful house has been called the most haunted house in America by Time magazine and the Travel Channel. Yes, it has quite a reputation, but why? The long history of this house includes time as a granary, a commercial theater, and even a courthouse as well as the on-again, off-again home to the Whaley family.

The family patriarch, Thomas Whaley, built the house from bricks he had in his own brickyard, and the house was San Diego’s first two-story brick building. The mid-tenth-century Greek Revival style is eye-catching to tourists coming to the Old Town area, and the house became a registered historical landmark in 1960. Today, it is open to public tours as a museum.

The Whaley House in Old Town San Diego has a fascinating history, including periods when it served as a courthouse and a theater. Today, it is open to tours.

Why does it have such a haunted reputation? According to Orrin Grey of The Lineup in his October 2017 article “The Whaley House: The Most Haunted Home in America,” the land the house was built on was once the site of gallows, where a man named James Robinson was hanged in 1852. “Yankee Jim,” as he was known, took a long time to finally die, swinging back and forth until he was strangled. Thomas Whaley was one of the witnesses to the hanging, and he bought the property in 1857. Once the family moved into the house, the paranormal activity began with the sound of phantom boots moving around the house. Later, the infant son of Thomas Whaley would die in the house, and years after that, the Whaley daughter, Violet, would commit suicide there after being jilted by a lover on her honeymoon.

Thomas’s ghost is often seen on the upper landing of the home, while the ghost of his wife Anna haunts the downstairs and the garden in the form of a wispy lady in white apparition. Some people even report seeing the ghost of the family dog, Dolly!

Today, there are nighttime ghost-hunting tours one weekend a month, and, of course, on Halloween.

ROBINSON-ROSE HOUSE

Not too far from the Whaley House in the historic Old Town district of San Diego is a two-story building that currently serves as the Old Town Visitor Center. But the Robinson-Rose House was built back in 1853 by a successful lawyer named James W. Robinson, who was also a judge in the city of San Diego. Over the course of many decades, this family home also served as the headquarters of the San Diego Herald and a number of other private offices.

Over time, the original home was destroyed by the elements and disuse, and in 1987, it was rebuilt using old photos to try to closely replicate the original. Those who visit the house now to learn more about Old Town’s historical background are apt to be visited by ghosts and misty apparitions, phantom footsteps, lights flashing and turning on and off, an elevator that operates itself, and, if you’re female, having your hair pulled and yanked. No one is quite sure who the ghosts are, but it appears they don’t like women!

RUSS HOUSE

Marianna, Florida, offers many historical sites but none with the reputation of the Russ House. Currently home to the Jackson County Tourism Office, this building is the city’s most photographed historic house, and if you are lucky, you might manage to get a ghostly apparition staring out of an upper window on film.

The original house was built by Joseph Russ Jr. in 1895. Russ was a successful man, and his house showed it. The Victorian-style home was a showpiece to be sure, especially when two-story porches and columns were added in 1910. The land the house was built upon was the 1864 site of the Battle of Marianna, where many men were wounded and killed on the grounds. This might account for the ghostly activity people report as well as the suicide of Mr. Russ in 1930 after an economic crash almost cost him his home.

His family was able to stay in the house after his death, but they were soon plagued with strange sounds and apparitions, the smell of perfume, elevator doors opening and closing, and the figure of a person standing at the second-story window. This activity continues today as the Visitor Center, and public tours are available. The Russ House has become a favorite ghost-hunting destination, with visits by several paranormal groups that claim it is as haunted as ever.

THE WINCHESTER HOUSE

You may be familiar with Winchester rifles, but did you know they are linked to one of the most notorious and bizarre haunted houses in the world? The Winchester Mystery House is in San Jose, California, and has quite a story behind it, a story that for a long, long time was built upon nothing but allegations and urban legends. The true story surrounds a woman named Sarah Winchester, who bought a farmhouse in San Jose to be near family after the death of her husband, William Wirt Winchester, from tuberculosis in 1881. With the money she inherited upon his death from his Winchester Repeating Arms Company, she had the means to build a giant mansion if she wanted to. She renovated the property herself, working with various architects to try to complete her vision. Her infant daughter also died, adding to the tragic backstory of this unusual woman.

The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, is an architecturally quirky place that makes it more interesting than even, perhaps, the fact that it plays host to paranormal events.

Eventually, she wrote up the plans for the house herself and ran into many issues that forced her to make changes in her building ideas. The result was a labyrinth of a huge house, and outsiders began spreading rumors about the quiet and introverted woman of wealth who lived within its walls. As for ghosts, they were not even a part of Sarah’s experience and were only attached to her story much later. She was attacked for the lavishness of the home and the grounds and criticized for building something many of her poorer neighbors deemed an extravagant display of wealth. Sarah also planned to build a castle and moat, but it never got underway.

But soon, the myth of the house being haunted and the location of late-night séances spread like the flu and, to this day, the Winchester House is said to be a notoriously active site rampant with paranormal goings-on. Sarah did build into the house a séance room, which showed her strong belief in the spirit world. After her death, the supernatural label was slapped upon the house mainly because she was not around to deny it. But to those who witnessed the actual building of the house, which took thirty-eight years from the time she bought the original farmhouse to her death in 1922, resulting in between 500 and 600 rooms, of which now only 160 remain, with forty staircases that lead nowhere, doors that open to eight-foot drops, and the repetition of the number 13 throughout the home, the Winchester House is itself just as much of an enigma as the woman who built it.

Today, it is open to the public as a tourist attraction, and yes, people often report paranormal activity such as breathing and the sense of being breathed on when workers are alone in the house; hammers tapping and screws turning; cold spots throughout; the phantom music of a piano; and even the fleeting apparition of a woman sitting in the dining room or standing by an upstairs window.

Tour guides have reported seeing the ghost of a mustached man in white coveralls in the basement pushing a wheelbarrow who, strangely, shows up in a photograph hanging in the toolshed of workers from eighty years before.

So, despite researchers pointing out a sheer lack of supernatural history behind the home before Sarah died, there are plenty of ghostly goings-on today to challenge their assumption that the Winchester Mystery House is not haunted. Not at all. Tell that to the ghosts.

LALAURIE HOUSE

New Orleans high society during the eighteenth century was a sight to behold. One of the grand dames of the social scene was Delphine LaLaurie, who looked the part of the gracious and wealthy lady on the outside but behind closed doors was as evil as they come. She owned slaves and subjected them to horrific treatment, sexually assaulting them, even butchering and performing gruesome experiments on her victims. No one knew of the terrible things she did to the slaves she kept locked in her attack. But one young slave girl, afraid for her life, started a fire that instigated an outside investigation of the home. Locals came to the rescue of slaves trapped in the attic, and soon, the whole of society knew of the LaLaurie torture house. She was eventually run out of town, her home was sacked by a mob of outraged New Orleans citizens, and she died in 1849. But her ghost, along with the ghosts of the slaves she butchered, remain behind.

Ghost-hunting groups investigating the LaLaurie House claim to have seen the shadow people throughout, peering from rooms in the house. Disembodied voices are captured on EVP, moaning and begging for help, and ghost photographs have revealed a woman in eighteenth-century dress looking out a window or walking about the house that could be Delphine. People who boarded at the house were tugged, pushed, and subjected to tugs on their clothing or hair, as if someone wanted to alert them to trouble nearby. Today, the house is open to public walking tours.

SAVANNAH SPOOKINESS

Savannah, Georgia, is home to plenty of reputable haunted locales. But the Gribble House boasts a triple murder that occurred within its walls in 1909, a gruesome crime that kept the city on edge for months, if not years. Also known as the “Savannah Axe Murders,” the victims were two women, Eliza Gribble and her daughter, Carrie Ohlander, who were beaten to death inside the home. A third woman, Maggie Hunter, was found barely alive and lived just long enough to identify the murderer, J. C. Hunter, her own husband. She died, and her husband was convicted to die by hanging, but his sentence was reduced, and he was granted eventual pardon by Governor Clifford Walker.

His victims got no pardon, though, and many people believe they have been haunting the house ever since that travesty of justice. Supernatural activity includes lights going on and off, disembodied voices, glowing orbs and flashing lights, the feeling of being pushed or watched, and ghostly apparitions.

Another haunted Savannah home is the William Kehoe House, built in 1892 for the family of twelve. Unfortunately, several of the ten children died young within the home, including twin boys who got trapped while playing in the chimney and died there. The chimney was boarded up with their bodies still inside.

Visitors to the house, now a lovely bed-and-breakfast, claim to hear phantom children laughing and playing, the sound of running and playing in the empty hallways, and plenty of strange activity associated with room 203, where a ghost child appears at the foot of the bed and can be felt kissing guests on the cheek or touching their hands. Other guests report seeing the ghost of the wife, Anne Kehoe, wandering around rooms 201 and 203, searching for her dead twin boys.

Three suspects were arrested in the 1909 Savannah, Georgia, murder case, but in the end, the guilty partner turned out to be J. C. Hunter, husband and father of two of the victims.

THE PIRATE’S HOUSE

The Pirate’s House in Savannah, Georgia, is one of the oldest structures in the state. Built in 1753, it was a place where sailors would go to find rest, relaxation, and a good meal, only to be dragged through a tunnel below the building to the Savannah River, where they were forced to be slaves to pirates. Now a restaurant, those brave enough to come have a meal here report hearing screaming and moaning coming from the basement and seeing ghostly sailors walking the hallways.

THE HOUSE OF THE MOVING MANNEQUINS

New Hamburg, New York, boasts one of the downright creepiest haunted locations ever. Located near the New Hamburg train station is the John Lawson House, one of six properties that make up the Main Street Historic District. Though no living person or persons have ever been seen on the property or in the house, it is indeed occupied by mannequins, including female mannequins on the porch wearing nineteenth-century clothing. If that in itself isn’t twisted enough, the mannequins are dressed and positioned differently each day, as if some unseen person, or persons, is attending to them. Many of them appear to be pointing toward something.

Some locals believe the ghosts are pointing toward an unsolved riddle. Others believe they may be trying to send a message about something inside the house. And others suggest the ghosts of twenty-two people who died tragically in a train crash right in front of the house in 1871 may be what the dolls seem to be pointing toward.

The house was built in 1845 and somehow managed to survive a huge fire that wiped out the rest of the block. Now and then, the dolls point to the only other historical house that withstood the fire. In addition to pointing a lot, the dolls hold strange things in their plastic hands, including books, birdcages, towels, brushes, and items placed on their laps. When it rains, the dolls are not on the porch, yet no one sees anyone bringing them inside. A faint light from the kitchen area has been reported at night, but there doesn’t seem to be any movement inside.

FARNAM MANSION’S GHOST CAT

Yes, there are ghosts of animals everywhere, but not all achieve the fame of the white phantom cat that haunts the stairs of the Farnam Mansion in Oneida, New York. This paranormal hot spot is where several people died, and it has a long history of séances, one of which, in August 2011, conjured up the ghost kitty who has been a permanent fixture ever since. The Renaissance-style home was built in 1862 by Stephen Head Farnam, a wealthy businessman who owned an axe factory and hardware store. Farnam was active in the community and died of a stroke in the house in 1897. Three other Farnam family members also died in the home. After the property changed owners, four more people died in the house.

Most of the bodies were found in the bedroom, although one man died in the basement, where he had some kind of laboratory. The spirits of the dead roam about the home, sometimes as shadow figures in the attic, where one of the newer owners found a slate with the name of a Farnam granddaughter written on it. Disembodied voices and footsteps are heard throughout the house, lights turn on and off, and strange mists form near people standing outside of the bedrooms. The home has become such a popular spot for séances and ghost hunters, there are weekly séances that some researchers believe keep the paranormal activity going.

THE LIZZIE BORDEN HOUSE

Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one.

That delightful little ditty refers to one of the most gruesome double murder cases in the history of America. It began in a town called Fall River, Massachusetts, nestled against the eastern shore of Mount Hope Bay. This town thrived in the nineteenth century as a center of the nation’s textile industry. Sadly, it is far more often remembered for what happened there on the morning of August 4, 1892.

Before noon, Andrew Borden and his wife, Abby, would be dead, and not just dead, but brutally butchered: Andrew while napping in the sitting room and Abby while in their family home’s guest room. Outside the lovely Greek Revival-style home, the maid, Bridget Sullivan, washed windows. Inside, one of two daughters, Lizzie, was alone, the other daughter having been out of town that day. It would be Lizzie who was charged with the murders of her stepmother and father, done with a hatchet. The motive may have been her hatred for her stepmother and anger at her father, but despite no other evidence of anyone else being in the house at the time, the fact that Lizzie maintained her innocence mattered little.

The Lizzie Borden House is still standing in Fall River, Massachusetts, where you can book a room or take a tour.

The crime is still considered unsolved, but the guilt had already been assigned. Lizzie Borden took an axe, and, well, you know the rest. Some people claim the father, Andrew Borden, was quite rich and had many enemies, but the initial investigation showed no sign of entry or exit from the house. Again, this threw the bulk of suspicion on Lizzie and the maid as an accomplice, but no evidence of that was presented during the trial. Lizzie was eventually acquitted for the murders, and she never returned to the family home again.

Over the next 120-odd years, professional detectives and amateur investigators alike have looked into the crimes, hoping to find an overlooked clue and solve the notorious case. No doubt, paranormal investigators and psychics desire to speak to the ghosts of the murder victims and see if they will reveal the identity of their killer. No one has come forward yet with compelling evidence.

The house is open to the public now as a bed-and-breakfast with its own museum. The Fall River Historical Society promotes the Lizzie Borden House as a tourist hot spot, and those who believe in the paranormal insist it is haunted, especially the guest room where the stepmother Abby was killed. Visitors claim to hear screams in the dead of night, see apparitions, hear phantom footsteps, and sense the presence of something that cannot be seen. Yet others claim they experienced nothing more than the terror that comes from spending time in a house where two people were chopped up with an axe. This is one of those true stories that has taken on an urban legend status to the point where most people automatically assume the house is rampant with supernatural activity just because of the horrific tragedy that occurred there.

If you visit the site today, you won’t see the original furnishings, but great care has been taken to display furniture and photos that are replicas of those appearing in the crime-scene photos, including a portrait of Lizzie on the piano in the parlor and the settee where Andrew napped before he was hacked to death. You can even stay overnight in Lizzie’s old bedroom, if you dare.

VILLISCA AXE MURDER HOUSE

On the night of June 9, 1912, deep into the early hours of the morning of June 10, the tiny town of Villisca, Iowa (the Native American word “wallisca” means evil spirit) had no idea what horrors awaited when they woke up. Eight people were being bludgeoned to death during those hours: six members of the Moore family and two houseguests, who were staying at the Moore family home, which is now called the notorious Villisca Axe Murder House. Of the eight victims, six were children. All eight victims died of head wounds. Several men would be tracked down and tried for the crimes. None would be found guilty. Like the Borden axe murders, the Villisca murder spree has remained unsolved.

The Moores were affluent and very well liked in their community. Josiah Moore, the patriarch, was a prominent businessman. On that fateful night, two guests, friends of the Moore daughters, ten-year-old Mary Katherine, were invited to stay the night, only to become part of the horrific murders. A neighbor named Mary Peckham thought it quite strange the next morning when none of the Moore family members came out to do their chores. She tried the door, but it was locked, so she fetched Ross Moore, the brother of the family patriarch, Josiah, and when he couldn’t get the door open, he used a house key. He was the first one to see the bloodbath and told Mary to contact local police officer Hank Horton.

Once Hank was on scene, the house was searched, and the bodies were found all bludgeoned and with their bedclothes covering their faces. The murder weapon was found in the guest room. Investigators later stated that they felt all the victims but one were asleep when they were killed. Lena Stillinger, one of the family guests, looked as though she had attempted to fight her attacker/s. She was found wearing no undergarments and may have been sexually assaulted. The ceilings of the bedrooms had gouge marks that were made by the backswing of the bludgeon, and a pan of bloodied water was found on the kitchen table next to a plate of uneaten food.

The doors were found all locked by police, and a two-pound slab of bacon was found in the downstairs bedroom wrapped in a towel. A second slab was found in the icebox.

The victims of the massacre were:

•Josiah Moore—father—age 43

•Sarah Moore—mother—age 29

•Lena Stillinger—friend—age 12

•Herman Moore—son—age 11

•Mary Katherine Moore—daughter—age 9

•Boyd Moore—son—age 7

•Ina Stillinger—friend—age 7

•Paul Moore—son—age 5

Among the many men who became suspects was Reverend George Kelly, who was tried twice but acquitted both times. Kelly was in the area at the time and was at the children’s program the Moore children were to be involved in. He left town around the same time the eight bodies were found. Suspicion fell upon Josiah’s business connections, who may have held a grudge or been a part of a bad business deal, as well as a serial killer named Henry Lee Moore, who was not a relative of the family. Because there was no central fingerprint database, it was impossible to use prints found on the crime scene without having access to the killers to compare them to. Unfortunately, the crime scene was compromised in the hours after the bodies were found by curiosity seekers who took items from the house for mementos of the horrific crime.

An article in the June 14, 1912, issue of The Day Book showing the victims of the axe murderer.

With little evidence that was helpful, the investigation by Sheriff Oren Jackson and federal agent M. W. McClaughry looked at many different motives for the crime. Because the father, Josiah, was the most brutally bludgeoned, they suspected he was the main target of the killers. By looking into his past, the investigators found links to politicians and businessmen who may have had a falling-out with Josiah, including a man named Frank Jones, who lost a very lucrative contract to Moore and who knew of a sexual affair between Moore and his daughter-in-law. Another suspect was a mentally ill vagrant named William Mansfield. But in the end, there wasn’t enough evidence to convict anyone.

In 1994, Darwin and Martha Linn of Corning, Iowa, bought the house and returned it to its original condition using old photographs. They opened it for tours to the public, and it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Ghost-hunting groups and paranormal investigations abound there, and some claim to have experienced spectral images; phantom voices of children and adults, mostly male; the sounds of footsteps and people running down the stairs; cold spots in the bedrooms; the presence of someone in many parts of the house; and ghostly voices showing up on EVP recordings. Other overnight guests report strange banging sounds, objects moving about of their own accord, and creepy images that show up on photographs of the rooms in which the bodies were found.

HAUNTED HOUSES OF SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

Salem, Massachusetts, is filled with haunted locations thanks to its history, and one of these is called the House of Seven Gables. Locals also know it as the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion, named after the two families that made the building their homes. In 1668, the Turner family patriarch, merchant ship-owner John Turner, built the home, a gorgeous Colonial mansion with seven gables. It is the oldest surviving timber-framed mansion in North America. It boasted seventeen rooms spanning 8,000 square feet (743 square meters) and large cellars beneath the home. Unfortunately, financial difficulties caused them to have to sell it to Captain Samuel Ingersoll in 1782.

His wife, Susan Ingersoll, was the cousin of the famous author Nathaniel Hawthorne, and he wrote a novel about the home in 1851 called The House of the Seven Gables. Susan lived there until she died at the age of seventy-two. Her spirit is said to be the most active ghost, often seen peering from an upper-story window. The ghost of a young man plays in the attic and strange sounds are commonplace, as are faucets and lights that turn on and off. Today, it is considered a National Historic Landmark and open to tours.

The Joshua Ward House was built in 1784 and is haunted by the ghosts of Sheriff George “The Strangler” Corwin and a man named Giles Corey. The house was built after the Salem witch trials, in which both men were heavily involved, and is built upon land the sheriff owned. He was considered a sadistic man who enjoyed torturing suspected witches up until his death in 1697. His body was originally buried in the house’s basement but was later moved to the nearby Broad Street Cemetery. His ghost is said to hang around the cemetery and choke visitors who get too close.

One of the men who was tortured by Corwin was Giles Corey, who was accused of being a warlock. His ghost is often seen in the house and is said to enjoy pulling items off shelves and knocking over trash cans. Another female spirit also haunts the house, possibly one of the alleged witches tortured and executed by Corwin.

Not too far away sits the Witch House, which is owned by another witch torturer named Jonathan Corwin, who was a key player in the Salem witch trials. Corwin was a judge, and he was responsible for investigating claims of witchcraft. During his tenure as a judge, he condemned nineteen people to execution. His house is open as a museum now, but visitors claim it is highly active with cold spots, people being touched by unseen hands, and the voice of a ghost child, who may have been a victim or the child of a woman Judge Corwin executed.

THE GROVE

The riverport city of Jefferson, Texas, is home to many historical properties, but the most haunted is The Grove, a private residence open to tours located in the old Stephen Smith Land Grant section. The original house, much of which still stands, was built in 1861 by Frank and Minerva Stilley and has been structurally changed a couple of times, mainly with the additions of another room, indoor bathroom, and a porch, so most of the home remains intact, and apparently, that goes for the ghosts, too. The home was originally called the Stilley–Young House because of the land the home was built upon. It was given in a land grant to Lucy and Daniel Alley, who were the cofounders of the city of Jefferson. Before the Stilleys built their home on the land and named it The Grove, there was a log cabin there that went through various owners dating back to 1847. The Stilleys lived there while their cotton-brokering business was bankrupted, and after Minerva’s death, Frank sold the house and moved away.

Ghostly tales about the house have been told for over a century and began in 1882 when T. C. Burke purchased the home for his family and left within a month, stating only that they could not live there. Another resident of the home, Louise Young, who lived there in the early 1900s, told many friends that she lived with “haunts,” the ghosts that haunted the home. Apparently, they weren’t unfriendly because Louise stayed in the home until her death in the 1980s.

One lady of the house brought her Bible to bed with her every night so she and her husband could pray, and one night, she was awakened by a black mass going on in the bedroom along with disembodied voices. Another former owner, Patrick Hopkins, reportedly saw a ghost of a woman dressed in white going into the powder room and never coming out. There were also reports of a woman’s perfume and also the smell of someone with very bad body odor as well as mysterious, wet footprints in the hallway, even though there was no rain at the time or leaks in the home.

Built in 1861, the Stilley–Young House in Jefferson, Texas, is on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been called the most haunted house in Texas.

Maybe that had to do with the other residents onsite, including a Lady in White who walks the same exact path through the house every time she is seen; the Garden Guy—a man walking quickly through the gardens; and an entity that teases women in the home’s den and could be the ghost of Charlie Young, a barber who lived there in 1885.

The Grove is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is also a Recorded Texas Landmark, and yes, it is open to public tours.

HAUNTED PLACES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

Over across the pond in Norfolk, England, is Raynham Hall, a haunted site that may have produced the most famous ghost photograph of all time. The Brown Lady was captured on film in a 1936 photograph originally published in Country Life Magazine. It depicts the ghostly figure of what appears to be a woman descending a wooden staircase. The ghost may be that of Lady Dorothy Walpole Townshend, the wife of the second viscount of the Raynham estate. They resided at the hall until her death in 1726.

The first time the Brown Lady appeared was in 1835 when a holiday guest at the hall saw her standing on the main staircase. She was described as having a face that glowed and having dark sockets where her eyes should have been. She carried a lantern and looked exactly like the woman in the portrait on the wall of Lady Dorothy. The ghost even appeared to King George IV, who woke in the middle of the night and saw her standing beside his bed with her hair a mess and her face ashy and pale. He never spent another night at the hall.

Baskerville Hall is the central location featured in the Sherlock Holmes novels, but its haunted reputation comes from the history behind it.

Lady Dorothy may be gone, but her ghost lives on and, to this day, the famous photograph is still the subject of debate between those who believe it caught a ghost on film and those who believe it is a hoax or film anomaly.

Powys, Wales, is home to another very famous haunted hall-turned-hotel. Baskerville Hall is the central location featured in the Sherlock Holmes novels, but its haunted reputation comes from the history behind it. The enormous edifice was built in 1839 and immediately, visitors were reporting banging noises in the hallways, phantom footsteps, a ghostly White Lady who hangs out in the rose garden, and as the notorious hellhounds that were later made famous in the Holmes novel franchise. Arthur Conan Doyle indeed must have gotten his inspiration inside this amazing mansion, for there are also other spirits said to haunt the hall, inside and out, including a male ghost who stands upon the grand staircase as if to welcome guests.

CASTLES

Just the thought of an old castle standing against a gray sky evokes intrigue, even fear. The buildings themselves run the range from glorious and majestic to terrifying and foreboding. Though Europe is most known for their ancient and medieval castles, they exist in the United States, too. Like lighthouses, many have fallen into disrepair and were abandoned eons ago, but some remain open to the public as hotels, tourist attractions, and popular ghost-hunting destinations.

Spending the night in a castle, whether haunted or not, is usually not permitted by law due to the dangers of the ruins and lack of running water, bathrooms, and potential for injury. But then, who would want to spend a night in an old, cold, dark, and creepy castle where the living roam the halls and towers lament their fates? Probably the same kind of people who would spend the night in a haunted hotel, motel, inn, house, lighthouse, cemetery.… You get the picture.

PRESTON CASTLE

One castle you can visit is Preston Castle in Ione, California. The striking, massive, red-brick building is in the Romanesque Revival architectural style and looks like a castle but is the current home to the Preston School of Industry, yet it has quite a history of murder and mystery. It was originally a reform school in 1894 to seven minor children who were under California’s guardianship. They were transfers from the San Quentin Prison, and later residents would include hundreds of other troubled kids, including Merle Haggard, writer Edward Bunker, and a poet named Neal Cassady.

Eventually, the building was vacated, and a new building was constructed in its place. The institution closed officially in 2011. Over its long history, paranormal phenomena have been reported within and outside of Preston Castle. From the cold spots, strange sensations, and ghostly sounds to apparitions of the wards who died there, the building also may be home to the ghost of a housekeeper, Anna Corbin, who was bludgeoned to death there in 1950. News media claimed she was beaten to death in her locked room in the castle, and all 637 wards there at the time were questioned, but there was never a conviction. To this day, her murder remains unsolved.

The building is now a registered historical landmark, and The Preston Castle Foundation maintains the building, which is open to the public for events and ghost hunting.

CASTLE MONT ROUGE

Artist/architect Robert Mihaly loved the style of Russia’s castles, so he built one in 2005 just like them on Red Mountain in Rougemont, North Carolina, out of cinder block and marble, with spires and copper domes. He intended to use the fantasy castle as his art studio, but his wife died before the castle was completed. He was so depressed, he never finished the interior. The castle is now abandoned, but those who have peeked inside claim there is a first-floor room with a bed, small kitchen, and books. Mihaly attempted to raise funds to finish the castle but was unsuccessful, even after the popular website Abandoned Homes of North Carolina published a photo. The wife, Anna, is said to haunt the castle now.

BANNERMAN’S CASTLE

Pollepel Island sits on the Hudson River just north of New York City. In 1900, a Scottish immigrant built a gorgeous, Scottish-style castle to use for his military surplus goods business. It was said to contain a huge arsenal of weapons. The castle experienced several fires and explosions and was eventually abandoned, but a smaller version was constructed near the warehouse castle. The Bannerman family lived there until 1940. Unfortunately, they didn’t know that they were living on cursed Iroquois land, and all kinds of bad things began to happen. A tugboat captain died when he crashed into the island, and after New York City bought the castle in 1967, visitors have reported seeing his ghost walking near the castle calling out for help. It is now an official historical site.

HEARTHSTONE CASTLE

Imagine a medieval-style castle right in Danbury, Connecticut. The Hearthstone Castle is a massive building originally with four smaller structures named for the many stone fireplaces within the imposing main house. It sits upon 7 acres (3 hectares) of beautiful forest land and was built by E. Starr Sanford in 1897 as the family’s summer home. They only lived there for five years. The castle changed hands several times before it was abandoned. The city of Danbury has built a chain-link fence around the now abandoned building to keep people out, but those who walk or drive near the castle claim to see a ghost dog on the grounds and a ghostly man running across the lawn. Perhaps it is the ghost of E. Starr Sanford himself, who died under bizarre circumstances in 1914, when the ship he was on was struck by lightning. The castle is now a registered historical site and part of Tarrywile Park under ownership of the city of Danbury.

Although it is in Connecticut, Hearthstone Castle looks like something out of medieval Europe. Sometimes called Parks’ Castle, it and its four nearby buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places.

GILLETTE CASTLE

In East Haddam, Connecticut, the ghost of William Hooker Gillette roams the medieval-style castle looming above a river valley. Gillette was an actor and playwright best known for first bringing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes the stage and giving the character his iconic cape, deerstalker hat, pipe, and the catchphrase “Oh, this is elementary, my dear fellow.” Gillette performed the role over a thousand times and built a nice fortune, nice enough to build the castle he would retire in and call home. The castle was built from local fieldstone and took five years, completed in 1919. There are forty-seven doors in the castle, each with a unique, wooden puzzle lock that must be solved to open the door. There is a disappearing bar, a small-scale working railroad set up with tunnels and bridges that goes around the property, and mirrors that he could use to spy on guests. The 128-acre estate was quirky, as was Gillette, and when he died in 1937, having no wife or offspring, the state of Connecticut took over the property. Since then, some renovations have been done and improvements made on the grounds as well as the addition of a café and visitor’s center. The castle is open for tours year-round, and if you are lucky, you might get to see unexplained flickering lights and the fluttering apparition of the man himself at the place he loved so much.

WYCKOFF CASTLE

Carleton Island near Cape Vincent, New York, was the spot William O. Wyckoff chose to build his gorgeous estate upon. Once the grandest estate in the Thousand Islands region, it seemed cursed from the beginning. Wyckoff, who invented the Remington typewriter, was a very wealthy man, but he died in his sleep from a heart attack on the first night he spent in his new castle home. His wife had died a month earlier from cancer.

Their son, Clarence, wasn’t interested in the castle, so it fell abandoned for over sixty years. The last known owner was the corporation General Electric. The castle was on the market recently for only $495,000, although it would cost millions to restore the home and the grounds. And only the bravest of souls would want to live in a castle said to be haunted by the ghost of William and his wife. Visitors have reported the words “help me” scrawled on a high ceiling in one of the upper-story bedrooms.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of creepy castles all over the world, many abandoned, many haunted, some open to the public as hotels or museums. Just too many to list here. Some of the spookiest include:

ARUNDEL CASTLE

England’s Arundel Castle, located in West Sussex, is home to ghosts who have resided there for hundreds of years. The medieval structure is terrifying and looks like something from an old, black-and-white horror movie, and it’s filled with paranormal history. Founded on Christmas Day in 1067, the castle has undergone several renovations since, and it once hosted such luminaries as Empress Matilda, Henry II, and Edward I. Most of the castle that still stands today is open to public viewing along with the grounds. But people are warned they might meet up with a colony of white, owl-like birds that have been living in the castle since its restoration in the fifteenth century. Yes, ghost owls, and seeing one is an omen of bad things to come. They are often seen peering out a window or on the grounds outside, but legend has it that anyone who saw the owls in the past would meet with an untimely death.

Having existed for nearly a thousand years, Arundel Castle has had plenty of time to wrack up an all-star cast of ghosts ranging from an earl to even a parliament of white spirit owls.

Other ghosts that haunt Arundel include a young servant boy who was beaten and abused there; a ghost that appears as the top half of a man with long hair; a young woman who took her life leaping from the Hiornes Tower after the end of a tragic love affair; the Blue Man, who may have been a cavalier from the King Charles I period and favors haunting the castle’s library; and the ghost of the first Earl of Arundel, who oversaw the original construction of the castle and roams the keep as if watching over the place he once called home.

MOOSHAM CASTLE

Known as the “Witches’ Castle,” Moosham Castle in Unternberg, Austria, has quite a bloody history dating back to the twelfth century. Between 1675 and 1690, the castle was at the center of the Zaubererjackl Salzburg witch trials. Over the course of fifteen years, over 130 people were tortured, condemned to death, abused, and executed on the grounds. Most of the accused were men. It appeared the accusers weren’t too concerned who they accused, as they executed children as young as ten up to adults as old as eighty in their religious frenzy. Those who weren’t immediately killed were the unlucky ones. They were subjected to horrific torture and branded with hot pokers to mark them as witches.

Some of the accused had their hands chopped off, and others were burned at the stake, hanged, or decapitated while alive or dead. The majority of the victims were homeless, beggars, paupers, the poor. One twenty-year-old named Paul Jacob Koller became a local legend when he vanished after his mother was executed for sorcery and theft. Known as Wizard Jackl or Magician Jackl, he was believed to have made a pact with the Devil according to a confession his mother, Barbara Kollerin, and her partner, Paul Kalthenpacher, gave. He was hunted down by the executioners, but they never found him. A twelve-year-old beggar known as “Dirty Animal” was captured and claimed he had been in contact with Wizard Jackl and that Jackl had amazing powers as a result of black magic. He was rumored to have died two years later, when his friends were rounded up and tortured until they confessed of his powers. If that wasn’t bad enough, Moosham Castle experienced an even creepier mass death when, in the 1800s, hundreds of deer and cattle inexplicably died around the castle, resulting in even more deaths of innocent citizens who were believed to be werewolves.

British Isles Castles

There are many abandoned castles all over the world where you can, if permitted, walk among the ruins. But some castles have become actual hotels and tourist attractions, giving guests a taste of modern amenities in an ancient or medieval setting. An added bonus, the potential encounter with resident ghosts and entities that are as much a part of the castles as the doors and windows.

Scotland boasts many amazing castles, and Tulloch Castle in Ross-shire comes with visits from the Green Lady, a ghostly apparition in a long, green, silk dress who walks the grounds. She is the spirit of Elizabeth Davidson, the daughter of a former castle owner. She appears to be very sad, and when approached by guests, they claim to feel a sense of overwhelming sorrow. Sometimes, they hear her whispering “Why?” over and over, and yet, no one knows why. She may be an attachment spirit because the castle is filled with antiques and a museum. The castle itself dates back to the sixteenth century—a lot of time for various deaths and tragedies to occur.

Ackergill Tower in Caithness, Scotland, was the site of a feud between the resident Keith family and the local Gunn family. Helen Gunn, known as the “beauty of Braemore,” was to be married one night, but before the nuptials, she was kidnapped by the Keiths and either fell or jumped from the tower trying to escape. Her ghost is seen wearing a long, red ball gown.

Edinburgh Castle in Scotland is perhaps the most famous haunted location in the United Kingdom and is said to be haunted by numerous spirits, one of which is the Lone Piper, a young boy who was trapped in the secret tunnels underneath the huge castle, who now can be heard playing his pipes, perhaps in hopes of being discovered. This massive, hilltop, twelfth-century castle is on land that was inhabited long before, in 850 B.C.E., by various settlements as a defensive fortress during the Stone Age. After the castle was built there, it was home to royalty between the twelfth and eighteenth centuries, and it later served as a prison and an army garrison. The underground dungeons served as a prison to many men who were forgotten about and starved to death. Now many of them appear as ghosts roaming about the castle, moving objects, creating cold spots, and, in the case of a headless drummer boy first reported in 1650, appearing to warn of pending danger.

In England, the Lumley Castle is in County Durham and haunted by a fourteenth-century lady of the manor, Lily Lumley. She was reportedly murdered by local priests when she refused to convert to Catholicism. She now haunts the castle. In 2005, members of the Australian cricket team staying at the castle refused to stay in their rooms because of the paranormal activity.

Walworth Castle, also in County Durham, is a rustic, twelfth-century building with a modern hotel experience that belies its age-old exterior. It comes with a ghost of a maid who once had an affair with the lord of the house. She fell while she was pregnant, and the evil lord walled her up inside the wall of the castle’s spiral staircase. Current guests claim to hear footsteps near the stairs and see an apparition that comes out from the wall. The desperate cries of a woman can be heard inside the staircase stone wall.

Ireland’s Ballyseede Castle is in County Kerry and is a sprawling, eighteenth-century building that once served as the family home to the Blennerhassett family. It is haunted by a ghost of a World War I nurse, Hilda, who was a member of the family and can be seen most often in her former bedroom, now called the Crosby Room, staring out the window. She even talks to visitors and makes predictions about their futures, many of which have come true!

Castle Leslie in Ireland’s County Monaghan looks like a large estate and was home to the Leslie family. Built in 1870 in the Scots Baronial style, it boasts an equestrian center and a restored stone-stable lodge on its lavish grounds. The Leslie family patriarch, Norman Leslie, was killed during World War I, and his mother, Lady Marjory, was the first to see his ghost at her bedside reading through a stack of letters. Norman most often appears in the Red Room, and guests say he often is seen shuffling papers or telling other invisible spirits to “Shhhh.…”

One castle to avoid in Ireland is the terrifying Leap Castle, built in the thirteenth century by the Clan O’Bannon as a family home. However, two of the brothers were contesting who was to be chieftain of the clan. To solve the problem, the brothers jumped into a gorge, and the survivor was the winner. Two hundred years later, the Earl of Kildare tried to seize the castle and ended up destroying part of it. Then the O’Carroll clan took over, but their sibling feuding resulted in one brother killing the other, and now, the ghost of the murdered, who was a priest, haunts the chapel. The ghosts of two young girls also appear playing together, and one of them is often reported falling from one of the battlements. They may be sisters Emily and Charlotte, who lived there during the 1600s. The scariest ghost is a demon the size of a sheep with a human face that stinks of rotting flesh. It is seen roaming the grounds but doesn’t appear unless you first provoke it. Some locals say the castle is located on the crossroads of two ley lines and was once the site of druid initiations. No, you cannot stay there. Nor should you want to, as the current owner has reported numerous freak accidents while trying to renovate the castle.

Constructed in the mid-sixteenth century, Tulloch Castle has served as a family home and, during World War II, a hospital.

Today, the castle is haunted by a number of apparitions, phantom footsteps, noises, bangs, and knocks, and people claim to be touched by invisible hands or feel someone breathing on them when they are alone.

THE CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN

The Castle of Frankenstein in Darmstadt, Germany, sits atop a hill that overlooks the town. The castle was built back in 948 B.C.E. as a family home, and in the 1600s, the last of the Frankenstein family died in an accident on the way to see his beloved, Anne Marie. He never showed up, and she died of a broken heart. Her ghost, along with that of her lover, Knight Frankenstein, haunt the castle to this day, but they are never seen together. Years later, Konrad Dipple von Frankenstein made the castle his home. He was an alchemist and grave robber, and rumors soon spread of his experiments with various dead body parts of humans and animals and his attempts to resurrect the dead. His laboratory castle took on an ominous cast, as people in the town believed he was creating a monster. They stormed the castle, but he barricaded himself in and drank a poisonous potion before they could kill him.

Yes, there really was a Frankenstein Castle as well as a man named Dipple von Frankenstein, whose activities as a grave robber helped inspire Mary Shelley’s classic horror novel.

Visitors to the castle claim they see his ghost in the laboratory he once loved, hunched over his equipment in his search for immortality. The Brothers Grimm told this story to Mary Shelley’s stepmother, and years later, Mary visited the castle and used the story of Konrad Dipple von Frankenstein for her own masterpiece horror novel Frankenstein.

ZVIKOV CASTLE

Of the hundreds of castles scattered about the region, Zvikov Castle in what is now the Czech Republic has the reputation of being the “King of Castles” for its difficult-to-reach fortress on the grounds, where the Vitava and Otava Rivers come together. This ancient castle was built during the time of Marcomanni rule over Bohemia in the first and second centuries B.C.E., and the huge tower called Markomanka was integrated hundreds of years later. According to Slavic folklore, the tower is where imps or tricksters haunt, but the entire castle is said to be filled with spirits thanks to the many bloody battles that occurred on the grounds and surrounding areas for centuries. Fire hounds from hell have been sighted on the grounds, guarding an underground tunnel. The castle is open today for tours, and visitors report technical issues (tricksters love to mess with technology), ghostly visions, cold spots, phantom noises, and weird images that show up on photographs.

HOUSKA CASTLE

In Blatce, Czech Republic, an isolated castle sits in the middle of nowhere. Built in the fourteenth century by Bohemian ruler Ottokar II, the castle seems to serve no purpose in terms of defense against invaders, as many castles do, serving as both family homes and fortresses. It is not close to any trade routes, water sources, or strategic battle zones. Yet, it may have been built to cover something on the inside rather than defend against outsiders. Over the centuries, it changed ownership and fell into disarray but went through a Renaissance redesign in the sixteenth century. It then fell under the radar of a very sinister presence—Nazis.

Legend has it the castle was built over the gateway to hell, and there was a bottomless pit beneath the castle that allowed demons to come into our world from hell itself. The chapel stood above the pit and was dedicated to the archangel Michael with gory frescoes adorning the walls showing demons clawing their way out of the pit. Because of Hitler’s obsession with the occult, the Nazis performed many occult experiments at the castle between 1939 and 1945. The skeletons of those who conducted the sinister experiments were found later during excavations, but the actual records of the experiments were destroyed.

Visitors today report multiple ghosts, including a woman who stalks the corridors of the castle, bizarre animal entities, and cold spots, phantom voices, and the sense of being touched or having hair tugged. One might imagine how haunted the castle could have been had the hole to hell not been closed by building a chapel over it!

CASTLE RESZEL

Poland’s Castel Reszel is a hotel today, but the huge, red-brick structure has a dark history dating back to the 1800s. In 1806, the entire town of Reszel was burned to the ground by an arsonist. She was identified as Barbara Zdunk a year later, and her accusers attached claims from witchcraft to arsonist. The true story of her persecution may have been related to her breaking social boundaries by having a boyfriend half her age (she was thirty-eight to his nineteen), but she was sent to the castle dungeon to await her execution. She was kept there for three years or more, repeatedly raped and tortured by her captors. She ended up giving birth twice, but no one knows what happened to the babies. She was eventually burned at the stake on the castle grounds. Today, hotel visitors believe she and her children haunt the building and grounds and profess to hearing screams from below in the dungeon as well as the smell of strange perfumes, objects moving on their own, doors opening and closing, and phantom hands that touch people when no one is there.

DRAGSHOLM CASTLE

Denmark boasts a castle with over one hundred active ghosts. Dragsholm Castle is the oldest in the country, dating back to 1215. It was built by the Bishop of Rosilde and was fortified during the Middle Ages to make it the strongest castle in the country at the time, which was proven when the armies of Christoffer, Count of Oldenburg, failed to destroy it during a three-year battle. After the Reformation, it became property of the government and was turned into a prison for noble prisoners with individual cells that had toilets and windows, something lower-ranking inmates were not given. One prisoner was James Hepburn, the third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. He was captured in Norway in 1573 and sent to the castle, where he supposedly was tied to a pillar and given barely any food or water. He went insane and died, but his ghost is said to ride his phantom horse throughout the courtyard. Dozens of other ghosts are seen and heard on the grounds, including “The Mad Squire,” a Danish prisoner who died at the castle and now moans and rattles his dungeon cell. Phantom ladies walk the corridors, including “The Gray Lady,” who died from medicine she was given for a toothache. “The White Lady” also roams the grounds. She died after being locked in a room by her own father for disgracing him when she took a commoner as a lover and became pregnant. Her skeleton, still wearing a white dress, was found during renovations in the twentieth century.