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You do n’t need to trust in ghosts to revel a ghost tale about some of the most haunted places . The tale that have grown over generations around reputedly haunted houses can take on a wild aliveness of their own in folklore , and the stories that fence in a position can influence our experience of them . All it takes is a creepy blank space , a touch of imagination and a coup d’oeil of something unexpected , only one-half see . So train to suspend your disbelief for this countdown of the histories of 11 of the most haunted places in the United States .
Waverly Hills Sanatorium
This grim , cricket bat - fly building is the archetype of the haunted infirmary or insane asylum . The first infirmary on this windswept hill on the sharpness of Louisville , Kentucky , was built in 1910 to treat victims of the " clean plague " oftuberculosisthat was ravaging the state .
At the sentence , there was no known cure and the disease was often fateful . In some cases , doctors tried experimental methods to assist still the symptoms , and account emerged of illegitimate medical experiments in which the curative often turn out as fatal as the disease . Certainly the sanatorium was the scene of many deaths over the years , although take that more than 60,000 patients died there are exaggerated , according to surviving records from the infirmary . historian say the tangible number was likely airless to 8,000 , with a amount of 152 deaths in 1945 , the worst yr of the epidemic .
Waverly Hills serve as a gerontological hospital from the sixties until the 1980s , and several stories about the nervous old infirmary are based on rumour from this time that patients were mistreated , including claims that extremist discussion such as electroshock therapy were used .
This 3D rendering shows what the mythical Jersey Devil supposedly looked like, with hoofed feet, horns and bat wings.
In the years since Waverly Hills was closed for good , wanderers , thrill - seeker and spook hunting watch who found their fashion inside the construction have told of slamming doors and unusual racket in the deserted building . Others report hearing footsteps and the wow of patients have from empty rooms . Ghostly , shadowy forms have been said to gather in the building ’s dingy niche and are say to follow visitors through the narrow corridors . Phantom step and voices reportedly echo along the " death burrow , " or " consistency slide " — an underground tunnel that lead from the infirmary to railway tracks at the bottom of the hill , to channelize the dead away from the hospital where the living patient would not see them .
Several stories center on the 5th base of the infirmary , where T.B. patients with genial disturbances were reportedly treat . In especial , Room 502 , where two nurses are said to have killed themselves — one by hanging , the other by jumping to her death — is said to be haunt . Some visitors take to have seen mysterious build moving in the windows , or to have hear voice telling them to " get out . "
New Jersey’s Pine Barrens
The vast forested realm now known as the New Jersey Pine Barrens thrived in the colonial period , when it was home to several saw John Mill , theme mills and towns for the masses who worked in them . But its prosperity and population decline sharp when coal was identify in nearby Pennsylvania and people moved there instead . The remains of several " ghost town , " as well as more than a few ghost stories , go . The spirit of the pirate Capt . William Kidd , who frequent New Jersey ’s Barnegat Bay , has sometimes been view there , and a ghostly blackdogis say to roam the beaches and the woodland of the seashore .
One of the most noted supernatural stories of the Pine Barrens is the tale of theJersey Devil . harmonise tothe State of New Jersey , the creature was born in 1735 as the thirteenth child of Deborah Leeds , the married woman of a contender of Benjamin Franklin ( who may have add to the tale ) ; some versions of the history say she was a hag and that the father of the child was a devil himself . consort to the caption , the baby was born with leathery wing , agoat ’s head and hooves ; it reportedly flew up the chimney of the room , where it was deliver and has been killing livestock in the region ever since .
By the late 1700s , what was then bang as the " Leeds Devil " had become a pop ghost report in the southern New Jersey region , and by the 19th one C , it had grown into a local legend . It was supposedly witness by Joseph Bonaparte , the brother ofNapoleon Bonaparteand the former magnate of Spain , who had build a mansion in the Pine Barrens , where he lived after his exile in 1813 . In the 1840s , the puppet was blame for attacks on farm animal that were companion by bloodcurdling screams , and it begin to be spotted on a regular basis in the expanse . The largest passel of sighting came in 1909 , when newspapers published 100 of claims by multitude who pronounce they ’d encountered the " Jersey Devil " in several share of South Jersey and in Philadelphia . The far-flung newspaper coverage prompted several school day in the Delaware Valley to fold and workers to ride out home , while vigilante groups ramble the countryside in hunt of the beast .
This 3D rendering shows what the mythical Jersey Devil supposedly looked like, with hoofed feet, horns and bat wings.
Savannah, Georgia
abode to dozens of celebrated haunt business firm and century of ghost sighting , Savannah is often called " the most preoccupied metropolis in the United States " — especially by its many spook go operators , who often begin with a sojourn to the city ’s historical Bonaventure Cemetery , a tangle of stone tombs , eery statues and spooky trees laced with Spanish moss . Among the cemetery ’s nonmigratory ghosts is that of Gracie Watson , a 6 - year - old who die of pneumonia in 1889 . Her ghost is say to haunt the life - sizing statue that stand over her grave , which like several other funereal statue in the memorial park are sometimes enjoin to move as if they were alive , while the sounds of youngster play or crying is sometimes heard nearby .
Savannah ’s Hampton Lillybridge House was build in 1797 and was relocated to its current location several year later — despite the discovery of a mysterious crypt beneath the young property , which has never been open . Since then , no fewer than 26 family who have endure in the sign have plain of various ghostlike goings - on that forced them to move out . These strange encounters include piece of furniture make a motion around and doors locking themselves .
The most illustrious obsessed house in Savannah may be the Sorrel - Weed House , which appear in the opening shooting of the 1994 film " Forrest Gump , " directed by Robert Zemeckis The Sorrel - Weed house is said to be haunted by at least two vengeful spectre : the married woman and the rival devotee of shipping merchandiser Francis Sorrel , who build the planetary house in the 1840s . Francis ' wife , Matilda Sorrel , allegedly jump to her destruction when she discovered her husband ’s infidelity — but historic researchers luff out that by the meter of her reported suicide in a " moment of lunacy , " the Sorrel family had be active out to another property next room access .
This 3D rendering shows what the mythical Jersey Devil supposedly looked like, with hoofed feet, horns and bat wings.
The White House
The most illustrious reference in the United States — 1600 Pennsylvania Ave . , Washington , D.C. — is also magnificently haunted . Since 1800 , the White House has been the home of the Chief Executive of the United States , starting with the second president , John Adams — and the trace of his wife , Abigail Adams , has been seen there , sometimes walking through walls or carrying laundry to dry in the East Room , according to History.com . The touch of the third president , Thomas Jefferson , has been heard playing the fiddle in the Yellow Oval Room . The ghost of the seventh president , Andrew Jackson , is said to have been seen lying on his old bed , while the sound of his " guttural laugh " has often been report , including by first dame Mary Todd Lincoln . The ninth president , William Henry Harrison , is said to haunt the Ionic dialect of the White House , while the 10th president , John Tyler , is said to haunt the Blue Room .
Many of the apparitional sightings and events revolve aroundAbraham Lincoln ; the specter of the assassinate 16th chairman has been reported so many times that the phrase " Lincoln ’s ghost " has become well known . Some of the most famous of these events are multiple sighting in 1940 by British Prime MinisterWinston Churchill , who was spend a night in the Lincoln Bedroom . Churchill claimed to have just mount out of the bath , defenseless but smoking his habitual cigar , when he encountered Lincoln ’s spook tend on the mantelpiece above the open fireplace , according to ablog entry by the National Constitution Center , a U.S. nonprofit . Churchill tell , " Good evening , Mr. President ; you seem to have me at a disadvantage , " and then the wraith smiled and disappear . ( Churchill said he then moved to a bedroom across the residence hall . )
Two years afterward , in 1942 , Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands reported see Lincoln ’s ghost , coiffure in a top lid and dress coat , standing at the door of her chamber during a visit to the White House — and fainted at the mickle . Many others — including U.S. Presidents Harry S. Truman and Theodore Roosevelt , first gentlewoman Grace Coolidge and Eleanor Roosevelt , and dozens of White House aides and staffers — have reported run into spectre or try ghostly footsteps or knock that they have attributed to Lincoln ’s trace ..
Whaley House
Whaley House in San Diego is " [ t]he most haunted business firm in America , " harmonize to Life Magazine . The base was built in 1857 on the land site of a former graveyard and gallows . Over the year it has served as a mob house ; a caryopsis store ; the San Diego county courthouse ; the city ’s first commercial theater ; a ballroom ; a billiard hall ; and a school . It afterwards opened as a museum in 1960 .
The oldest resident ghostwriter at Whaley House is said to be the convict robber " Yankee Jim " Robinson , who was hanged in 1852 from a gallows that stand on the property before the family was progress . harmonise to a newspaper reputation , as the wagon view as him beneath the gallows moved away , Yankee Jim dragged his feet on the wagon for as long as possible , before swinging like a pendulum and slowly strangling to death .
Although Thomas Whaley , a colonist and merchandiser , witnessed Yankee Jim’sgruesome execution , that did n’t prevent him from purchasing the belongings a few year later on and building a house there . But within a few weeks of go in , the Whaley class account hearing operose step , as if made by the boots of a bombastic serviceman .
The report of pace and other sounds have hang in for more than 100 year : The youngest girl of the family , who survive in the planetary house until 1953 , was reportedly convinced that it was haunted by the ghost of Yankee Jim , and visitors to the museum in the 1960s also reported hearing a phantom walking noise .
Other visitant say they ’ve visualize the ghost of the Whaley family themselves , and the ghost of a woman in a prospicient skirt in the former county court . One parapsychologist reported that he saw a phantom hotdog melt down inside the house , similar to a dodger terrier — the type of dog possess by the Whaley kinfolk .
Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery
This little burial site in a forest on the outskirts of Chicago has realize a repute as the most haunted graveyard in the United States , thanks to more than 100 documentedsightings of ghosts , strange light and other suggestively supernatural episodes .
During the fifties , after an eruption of vandalism at the outside land site , several people take to have experience an entire phantom farmhouse shimmer above the graveyard , which move back as they approached it . Others say they have seen the ghost of a farmer and his plow horse cavalry who died when they were hale to their end in a nearby pool .
Some the great unwashed driving on the roads near the cemetery at night have reported encounters with a phantom forties " gangster”-style railroad car that appears on the route in front of them , before rick off the road and go away . Others claim to have crash into the phantom car at a astute curve in the road — but after the jolt had cash in one’s chips , there was no harm , and no other car .
In 1991 , the Chicago Sun - Times paper die hard a celebrated exposure guide by a visitant to the graveyard , showing what appeared to be the semi - filmy shape of a woman in an old - fashioned dress sit on a gravestone . The photographer , part of a extrasensory research squad , claimed that the woman was not seeable when the photo was taken . The name in the photograph has become known as the " Madonna of Bachelor ’s Grove , " and may be unite to the legend of the " White Lady , " the trace of a woman buried next to her young child , and who is aver to walk through the graveyard on nights of the full moon , with the baby wrapped in her limb .
Colorado’s Stanley Hotel
The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park , Colorado , is famous as the remote mountainside " Overlook Hotel " featured in the 1980 Stanley Kubrick motion-picture show " The Shining . " It was also the divine guidance for the Stephen King novel that was made into that movie , purportedly after he ’d spent a night there during a snowstorm .
The hotel was built in 1909 by Massachusetts discoverer F.O. Stanley , who move there with his married woman , Flora . Flora Stanley was an realised pianissimo player , andaccording to myth , her wraith sometimes can be get wind playing the piano in the music room at night . F.O. Stanley is sometimes out of place in former photo — a spooky trick that inspired the last fit of the motion picture . faculty at the hotel also say that ghosts have unpacked the udder of visitors and turned lights on and off and that the ghostly laughter of children can be see in the hallways .
The hotel ’s notorious Room 217 , which features in both the book and the movie , is read to be haunt by the ghost of a maid who was reportedly blown out of a window there — but not killed — in a gas explosion in 1911 . That ’s the room that King and his wife spend the night in , according to his later interviews . But while the hotel is undoubtedly creepy , the gruesome events suggested in the book and motion-picture show seem to be entirely derived from his imagination .
It ’s now possible to book Room 217 at the Stanley Hotel , among other room . " The Shining " play continuously on one of the in - business firm television channels , and the hotel conducts a flourishing specter - tour of duty business . In increase to the ghosts of the Stanleys and the maid , a skittish cowboy is say to haunt Room 428 , and hotel staff say ghosts have been seen in the tunnels under the hotel that staff once used to navigate the immense attribute .
New England’s Covered Bridges
New England ’s historic covered bridge have accumulated tale of ghost over the years . One of the best known is Emily ’s Bridge in Stowe , Vermont , about 30 knot east of Burlington . The spooky - looking cover bridge was the scene of a young woman ’s self-destruction by hanging in the mid-1800s , purportedly after she ’d arranged to meet a fan there to elope but he did n’t turn up . According toAtlas Obscura , Emily ’s ghost is now say to haunt the bridge , get out chela - like gouges on overstep cars and scratching the back of multitude who cross the span on foot . Strange noises , including the sound of a woman screaming , have also been reported there . Emily ’s Bridge is now a fixture of Vermont ’s ghostly tourism industry . ( However , the town of Stowe has act out an ordinance to keep people away from the bridge at night to fend off disturbances by would - be shade hunter . ) Despite its celebrity , however , the taradiddle of Emily might not be true , according to the blogObscure Vermont .
Another stalk bridgework is the Eunice Williams Covered Bridge in Greenfield , Massachusetts . It ’s named for Eunice Williams , who was killed in 1704 after she ’d been taken captive during a maraud byFrenchand aboriginal American forces on the English colony at Deerfield ; 47 villager died in the assault , and the survivors were force to process for nearly 300 Swedish mile ( 480 kilometers),according to a local museumin Massachusetts . Williams , the wife of a local reverend , had reportedly yield birth only a few days before ; she collapse as the captive were marching by the Green River , and was kill by a hatchet setback . Legend has it that Williams now haunts the covered bridgework that was built at the patch ; her specter has been seen near the water under the bridge and supposedly has mistaken passersby for members of her category .
New Orleans
The paranormal has a distinctive local savour in New Orleans , which vies with Savannah for the title of respect of the Most Haunted City in America . One of the city ’s most infamous haunted houses is the LaLaurie Mansion in the French Quarter . The mansion is the former home of Madame LaLaurie , a loaded widow and prominent socialite . In April 1834 , after a fire at the house , saver constitute articled slaves in a secret anguish chamber in the attic who had been dreadfully torment over a prospicient period , and there were signs that others had been murder there . When the discovery became known , the firm was raided by an incensed mob of citizens , and Madame LaLaurie fled the city . Later occupants of the construction have claim it is still haunted by the spook of her victims .
The St. Louis Cemetery No . 1 in New Orleans has something of a repute for the dead not staying in their grave accent — among them Marie Laveau , the city ’s diachronic " Queen of Voodoo , " who die in 1851 but who is said to materialise above the crypt where she is bury each St. John ’s Eve ( June 23 ) .
The Myrtles Plantation , at St Francisville just outside New Orleans , is rumored to have been built on a Tunica Indian burial ground . At least 12 ghosts are said to haunt the grove ground and buildings , including Chloe , a slave who was accused of poison the family of the plantation possessor . The ghosts of her victims , a mother and daughter , are report to be pin down inside a mirror in the chief house .
Emily’s Bridge in Stowe, Vermont, is said to be haunted.
The ghost of a later possessor , William Winter , is said to obsess the main staircase of the orchard house . Winter die in 1871 , after being fritter by a unknown who approached the house . Winter distribute inside and climbed the stair to the seventeenth step , where he died in his wife ’s arms . It is said his phantom footsteps can sometimes be find out on the stairway , climbing to the seventeenth measure before stopping .
Gettysburg
The largest and pernicious engagement of the American Civil War take place at Gettysburg , Pennsylvania , in 1863 . More than 8,000 combatants were killed at Gettysburg , and in the old age since the bloody battle , an rare number of ghost stories have been associate to event and personality on the field . Several visitors to what is now the Gettysburg National Military Park have account hearing sounds of battle , include phantom cannon blast and the disembodied cry or screams of phantasmal soldiers .
At a gamy , rocky outcrop on the field of battle call The Devil ’s Den , where heavy fighting submit property on the second Clarence Day of the conflict ( July 2 , 1836 ) , several visitant over the years claim to have heard the audio of drum rolls and gunshot . Devil ’s Den is also said to be haunt by the apparently friendly and sometimes talkative ghost of a soldier bust buckskin vesture , a great hat and no shoes .
Several specter sighting have also been report at the Benny Hill called Little Round Top , where Confederate troops were force back from an assault on the flank of the Union forces , also on July 2 , 1863 — an issue regarded by many historiographer as a turn point in the struggle . It has been lay claim that some Civil War enactors who work on the 1993 pic " Gettysburg , " a dramatization of the struggle , touch and spoke with a man in a shabby Union Army uniform who give them some musket one shot , which they assumed were movie prop — but which they by and by learned were Civil War rounds in pristine term .
One of the city’s most infamous haunted houses is the LaLaurie Mansion in the French Quarter.
Legend tells that three Confederate soldiers were hanged at Sach ’s Bridge , a traverse bridge a few hundred yards west of the Gettysburg battlefield . Some stories say the soldier had deserted from their unit , while others say they were hanged as spies . The bridge is now a favorite site for ghost Orion , and some claim to have discover speech sound of loud gunfire and galloping horse , while others report seeing unknown moving mist and inexplicable sparkle . Sach ’s Bridge was on the line of retreat for Gen. Robert E. Lee ’s defeated Army of Northern Virginia after the Union triumph at Gettysburg , and the feeling of bullet from the full general ’s tobacco pipe has sometimes been reported nearby .
St. Augustine Lighthouse
St. Augustine ’s Light Station may be the well known of the hundred of lighthouses in the United States . The first permanent lighthouse beside what is America ’s oldest city was build on Anastasia Island in 1824 , and the current beacon light tower was build up in 1874 . Tragedy struck that year when the adolescent girl of Hezekiah Pity , a man employed on the rebuilding project , were make for around a pushcart used to carry building materials to the site . The cart broke light and slither down the hill , and both young woman were drowned . It is said that the laughter of the two young lady at play can be heard around the tower at Nox ; and the touch of the Old girl is say to have been control , outwear the blue dress and patrician hair bow that she was wearing when she died .
The specter of the original builder of the St. Augustine ’s Light Station is also say to ghost the garden beside the tower , roaming in fury after a land dispute with the metropolis government in the other 1880s , according to theSt . Augustine Light Station & Maritime Museum . Additionally , the shade of at least two former pharos keepers are say to tread the steps and gantries of the tower lately at nighttime . One of the ghosts — that of beacon keeper Joseph Andreu , killed in the 1850s when he conk out in a fall from the tower — is pronounce to leave a trail of cigar sens as he makes his round .
Local legend holds that the island is also frequent by the ghosts of 13 pirates who were buried around the towboat . But while there have n’t been any pirate grave found at the site , an archaeological team based at the St. Augustine Light Station discover a number of historical shipwreck nearby and other marine remain , include traces of the wooden watchtower that served as Florida ’s first lighthouse .
The largest and deadliest battle of the American Civil War took place at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1863.
Originally publish on Live Science .
St. Augustine’s Light Station may be the best known of the hundreds of lighthouses in the United States.
