Posts
#1 Athens, Ohio
Athens is a small town in Ohio that is home to stories of all sorts of hauntings. There are stories about everything from a headless train conductor to violent murders of livestock. Some even claim that the town’s five major graveyards form the symbol of a pentagram when they are plotted on a map.
The most haunted place in Athens is the Athens Lunatic Asylum which held many violent patients and is known for performing hundreds of lobotomies. A deaf-mute former patient of the asylum was supposedly trapped in an abandoned ward and died. The deaf-mute patient’s decomposing body wasn’t found until weeks later, and the stain from her body supposedly can still be seen today.
#2 Savannah, Georgia
Savannah, Georgia holds several gothic mansions, cemeteries, and trees that were used in hanging Spanish moss. The most haunted place in Savannah is The Hampton Lillibridge House which was built in 1796 and was originally used as a boarding house. The house started to undergo restoration in the 1960s, and this is when the strange phenomenon began to occur. The roof collapsed during construction and killed one of the workers, and other workers claimed to hear voices and footsteps. Oftentimes equipment would get thrown across the rooms and a man in a black suit has been spotted staring out of the windows.
#3 Portland, Oregon
Portland’s strange history and significant amount of ghost sightings has given the city a reputation as the most haunted city of the Pacific Northwest. The most haunted location in Portland is the Shanghai Tunnels where the practice of shanghaiing took place. Shanghaiing is where men and women were kidnapped, shipped to the Orient, and forced into prostitution or slave labor. The tunnels run under the city streets and today they are said to be haunted by the ghosts of those who were kidnapped.
#4 Chicago, Illinois
Chicago’s history of underworld criminals and its infamous great fire has influenced many of the city’s ghost stories. One famous ghost story is the story of Resurrection Mary where a young girl was hit and killed by a car. The young girl was buried in a nearby cemetery and has since been seen wandering the streets in her white burial dress.
The most haunted place in Chicago is the Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery which is rumored to be one of the prohibition-era gangsters’ favorite locations to dump the bodies of those they killed. There have been several sightings of headstones moving and ghostly apparitions walking the grounds at night. The most famous sighting here is of the “White Lady,” which is the ghost of a young woman cradling a baby in her arms.
#5 Key West, Florida
Key West is the southernmost Florida Key that holds some of the oldest and creepiest ghost stories in the United States. The rich history of buccaneers and rumrunners in Key West provides some background to many of these ghost stories.
The most haunted – and creepiest – artifact in Key West is known as Robert the Doll. Many have claimed Robert to be possessed. Robert the Doll was originally given to the young painter Gene Otto in the early 1900s. Otto became extremely afraid of the doll because Robert the Doll would threaten Otto and wake him in the night by throwing furniture around his room. Otto’s parents even claimed they saw the doll moving, neighbors claimed to have seen the doll pacing the halls when the family was out.
#6 New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is filled with haunted mansions, graveyards, taverns, and more. The most haunted place in New Orleans is the LaLaurie House which is a mansion that is rumored to be a place where the homeowners treated their slaves viciously. There was also evidence that gruesome surgical experiments were performed on the slaves. Ever since these tragic events occurred there have been several sightings of the ghosts of the slaves tortured here.
#7 San Francisco, California
San Francisco developed a reputation as a Mecca of all things haunted. This city is home to creepy folklore, ghost tours, and a large quantity of haunted mansions, hotels, and army bases. One of the most famous haunted hotels is the Queen Anne Hotel which, in the 1980s, was a school for girls and is said to be haunted by the ghost of the school’s headmistress, Mary Lake.
The most haunted place in all of San Francisco is Alcatraz Island. Alcatraz was formerly a maximum-security prison, and visitors who go there today say they have some very strange experiences. Visitors have claimed to hear the voices of former inmates in what used to be the cafeteria and apparitions of inmates walking around the cellblocks.
#8 Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is one of the oldest cities in the U.S. and is filled with Victorian mansions that line downtown in an area known as the Battery. The Battery was a protective artillery installation during the Civil War, and this is where most of the city’s haunted houses can be found.
The most haunted place in Charleston is The Dock Street Theater which was built in 1809. Two ghostly spirits are claimed to haunt the theater: a poor prostitute who was killed by lightning and an actor who was the father of John Wilkes Boothe, the man who killed Abraham Lincoln. Many say these spirits wander the backstage area of the theater.
#9 Salem, Massachusetts
A series of infamous trials were held in 1692 after three local women were accused of using witchcraft to terrorize young girls. Several accusations were later made on over 150 people who were arrested and charged for witchcraft, and 19 of these accused people were executed by hanging. The most haunted place in Salem is the Joshua Ward House, which housed the man who served as Sheriff during the Salem witch trials. A gruesome death occurred in this house where the Sheriff crushed a man accused of using witchcraft to death, and this man is said to haunt the Joshua Ward House today.
#10 Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Gettysburg was the site of the biggest military clash of the Civil War in July of 1863. This event remains the bloodiest event that has ever occurred in the U.S. Many people claim that those who died during the battle still haunt the battlefields. The most haunted place in Gettysburg is The Devil’s Den which was the site of one of these battles. The ghosts of those who were killed and dragged to the Devil’s Den are said to haunt the area and prevent cameras from taking clear photos, and on some occasions cameras have suddenly died.
