America is filled with historical landmarks plagued by battle and death, causing many to believe that they are haunted. If you love a good ghost tour or want to press your luck with the spirits beyond, this is the list for you.
1. Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia
The Bonaventure Cemetery is featured in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Many visitors report seeing the ghost of one of its youngest residents, a girl named Gracie, who died at just six years old, and hearing crying babies and barking dogs. But, probably the creepiest rumor is that statues suddenly smile at people as they walk by them.
2. Dock Street Theatre, Charleston, South Carolina
The original theater that stood here was burned down in a fire. Shortly after, an inn was built, only to be converted back into a theater in the 1930s. It is said these halls are haunted by a ghost named Nettie Dickerson, who, as legend has it, was struck by lightning while standing on the hotel balcony. People claim to have seen her shadow gliding along the second floor dressed in a red gown.
3. House of the Seven Gables, Salem, Massachusetts
This 17th-century house was used as inspiration for the 1851 novel, The House of the Seven Gables. It is one of the landmarks of the infamous site of the famous witch trials, Salem, Massachusetts. The house is surrounded by tales of paranormal activity and ghost sightings, all based on the staff’s personal experiences.
4. Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, Illinois
Before this land was a zoo, it served as the city cemetery. When it was decided the bodies were buried too close to the water, most were moved – but not all. If walking above several thousand corpses isn’t creepy enough, parapsychologist Ursula Bielski called the zoo “without a doubt the most active site I’ve investigated.”
5. Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast, Fall River, Massachusetts
We all know the saying, “Lizzie Borden took an axe, And gave her mother forty whacks; When she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one.” At the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast Museum, visitors can tour the house or spend the night, even staying in the room where Abby Borden was killed. Guests have reported many paranormal activities, including hearing weeping and muffled conversations throughout the house.
6. Myrtles Plantation, St. Francisville, Louisiana
This home is rumored to have been built on top of an Indian burial ground, which is probably all you need to hear about this place to believe that it is haunted. One of the many ghost stories surrounding this plantation is about a formerly enslaved person named Chloe. She had her ear chopped off for eavesdropping on the owners but got her revenge by poisoning two of the daughters.
7. Red Onion Saloon, Skagway, Alaska
The former late 1800s brothel used to place dolls in the window representing the working women, allowing customers to select the doll to decide who they wanted to spend some time with. There are reports of Lydia, a former madam of the brothel, haunting the site, complete with cold spots and lingering smells of perfume wafting through the halls.
8. Sheffield Island Lighthouse, Norwalk, Connecticut
In 1972, the lighthouse’s original keeper died suddenly while watching passing ships with a spyglass. Then, in 1991, an archaeologist reported several mysterious happenings, including distant cries for help and the sound of a foghorn – despite there being no foghorn on the island.
9. Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Weston, West Virginia
This asylum had an issue with severe overcrowding, which led to inhumane conditions such as lack of heat and patients being kept in cages. The inflicted became increasingly violent, which eventually led them to close their doors. Today the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum offers ghost tours as the souls of those who died there are said to remain.
10. Winchester Mystery House, San Jose, California
Sarah Winchester was informed by a seer that the ghosts of gunshot victims killed her husband and child. This disturbed her so much that she ordered the home to be altered. Some of the creepiest features are staircases that lead directly into the ceiling and several doors that open to brick walls.
11. Cahawba, Alabama
Alabama‘s first capital was abandoned after the Civil War. Its empty buildings, slave burial ground, and eerie cemeteries are now popular settings for ghost tours and stories of paranormal activity. The most famous tale is of a luminous floating orb appearing in the former garden maze of Colonel C.C. Pegues’s house shortly after the colonel had been killed in battle.
12. Crescent Hotel, Eureka Springs, Arkansas
In 1937 Norman G. Baker turned the hotel into a hospital and posed as a doctor who could cure cancer. He was eventually run out of town, although people believe he found his way back after his death. The Crescent Hotel is said to be haunted by at least eight ghosts, ranging from a five-year-old girl to a bearded man wearing Victorian clothing.
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