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13 real haunted houses you can visit in the U.S.
Throw a stone anywhere in Great Britain and you'll hit a haunted house. But there are plenty in every corner of the U.S., too. That's why for the 24th of our 31 specials for the 31 days of Halloween we're hitting the road to visit houses in our own backyards that have ghost stories attached to them. The tours and the official Web sites may not say too much about the specters seen in the houses, but the legends persist.
And don't forget to check back tomorrow for the most entertaining horror iPhone apps ever.
The Biltmore Estate, Asheville, N.C.
It looks like a gothic palace that time-warped from the French Revolution, and it's visited more than Elvis' house. The Vanderbilt widow talked to her dead husband's spirit long after he died in 1914. People hear maniacal laughter through the 250 rooms, see a headless orange cat, spot a woman in black in second-floor windows and have been served champagne by a waitress who then vanishes. Hey, as long as the bill disappears, too.
http://www.willowwinds.com/biltmore-estate-guide.htm
http://hubpages.com/hub/A-Great-American-Haunting
The White House, Washington, D.C.
Presidents Andrew Jackson and, more famously, Abraham Lincoln, drift through the hallways of the White House, and so does a ghost who hangs laundry—even now that washing machines have been put in. All references to the ghost stories were removed from the official Web site after the Obamas moved in.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/history/
http://www.rense.com/general43/ghoststorieshauntwh.htm
The Amityville Horror House, Amityville, N.Y.
Green slime, black toilets and swarms of flies erupted from the house after a family was murdered there. That resulted in eight movies and a 2005 remake, as well as a slew of hoax theories. The coolest thing is that the house looks like it has a big smiling face.
http://www.amityvillemurders.com/
http://franksreelreviews.com/shorttakes/amityville.htm
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose, Calif.
An addled rifle heiress kept building this massive discombobulated Victorian mansion, believing that she would die if the work stopped. Well, she died, and people still report hearing banging doors and rattling windows and seeing her spirit on staircases that lead nowhere—she's probably trying to figure out how to get out of this giant maze.
http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/story.html
http://taholtorf.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/ghost-stories-winchester-mystery-house/
The Chandler Estate (Satan's Trail), Suffolk County, N.Y.
Marilyn Monroe lived there, but it's not just her ghost that lingers in this ruin, which looks like it's from The Blair Witch Project. Devil worshippers congregate in the ruins to contact a particularly evil character nicknamed "Whacker," and that's probably creepy enough.
http://www.liparanormalinvestigators.com/hauntedLI.shtml#chandler
http://www.lioddities.com/Satans%20Trails/index.html
Villa Paula Mansion, Miami, Fla.
A cat-hating ghost seems to control the huge iron gates in front, which slam shut inexplicably on cats that don't seem to have nine lives. Plenty of poltergeists have been seen, including a crying woman and a man in a top hat. Others say they have smelled roses long after the garden has wilted and catch the scent of coffee though it's been decades since the building served as the Cuban embassy. Now that's strong coffee.
http://www.hauntedhouses.com/states/fl/villa_paula_mansion.cfm
http://www.ghostreport.com/States/Florida/VillaPaula.htm
The Little Bighorn Battlefield House, Crow Agency, Mont.
The site of Custer's last stand has a little stone house that was built in 1894 out of rocks from the battlefield. Some of the war's victims seem to be haunting the building, turning lights on and off and creating the sounds of Indian war cries and whinnying horses. The ghost of a soldier with a handlebar mustache was seen a few times, bearing a pained expression—perhaps because he had a handlebar mustache.
http://www.nps.gov/archive/libi/photos.htm
http://www.ghosteyes.com/haunted-battlefield-big-horn
Belcourt Castle, Newport, R.I.
Ghost Hunters recorded a host of spirits in this house, especially in the second-story Gothic ballroom. There's haunted furniture throughout the house, such as moving empty armor, a ghostly chair and a mirror where people cannot see their own reflections, but can see objects moving.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belcourt_Castle
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/298233/haunted_america_the_ghosts_of_belcourt.html?cat=16
The Lemp Mansion, St. Louis, Mo.
Embracing the building's spooky history, this house offers ghost-hunting tours and has annual celebrations commemorating the 1904 suicide of William Lemp and the tapping of the first keg of Lemp beer to be brewed in St. Louis since Prohibition. Apparitions include the Lavendar Lady and the "Monkey-Faced Boy"—a malformed illegitimate son who is seen peeking from the attic window. The beer cellar and limestone caves under the house are known by staff as "The Gates of Hell." You can't make this stuff up any better.
Lizzie Borden House, Springfield, Mass.
The house where Lizzie gave her mother and father 40-something whacks is home to a few restless souls. People have seen the bedsheets get rumpled in front of them and indentations of a body on the mattress and pillows. A headless ghost wandering around may be explained by the fact that Mr. Borden was buried without his head.
http://www.thechanceryhouse.com/res_ghost_lizzie.htm
The Rosewell Plantation, Gloucester County, Va.
The creepy ruins of the three-story brick fireplaces here are the perfect haunts for ghosts, supposedly of slaves that were walled up in the cellar. Workers mention that the best time to see ghosts is between 3:30 and 4 in the afternoon—conveniently just before closing time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewell_(plantation)
The Witch's Castle, Portland, Ore.
Locals debunk the myths of this being the site of Indian burial grounds and the site of the state's first hanging. No, they know the real ghost stories involving the murders that took place on the site. Unexplained flashes of light and regular sightings of "ghost wars," with spirits fighting each other, make this sound like a place more active than Disneyland's Haunted Mansion.
http://www.ghostparti.com/stonehouse.htm
http://www.realhaunts.com/united-states/witchs-castle/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTKuF7DHjyo
The Mortuary Haunted House, New Orleans, La.
You have to walk through a graveyard to get to this house, which was once the home of a mortician named Ravencroft. He was known to have experimented with live and dead bodies, draining them in order to discover immortality. It's known as the "most active" haunted house in the country by some paranormal experts, and it's the site of a big annual blood drive.
And while you're in a Halloween state of mind, why not check out:
Day 1: 19 amazing Star Wars pumpkins
Day 2: Our 9 favorite crazy zombie kills of all time (video)
Day 3: 10 scariest Stephen King novels
Day 4: 14 great Cthulhu toys that make devouring souls fun
Day 5: 15 haunted cereals that will scare your dentist
Day 6: 20 great costumes to dress up your pet
Day 7: 21 (mostly) sexy female stormtroopers (NSFW)
Day 8: 9 movie and TV clowns that scared the hell out of us
Day 9: 10 creepy movie kids even Angelina Jolie wouldn't adopt
Day 10: 6 most awesome Stephen King horror films (plus 3 that sucked)
Day 11: 16 horror movie posters so gruesome they make our eyeballs bleed
Day 12: 16 hot movie and TV vampires who turn us into willing victims
Day 13: 20 awesomely hot Slave Leia costumes (slightly NSFW)
Day 14: 14 lamest horror movie killer costumes (What were they thinking?)
Day 15: 9 of the grossest, goriest X-Files creatures
Day 16: 11 splatterific exploding head scenes from the movies
Day 17: 15 of the most disgusting Halloween candies you can buy
Day 18: 19 freakiest movie and TV neighbors from hell
Day 19: 11 most disturbing Treehouse of Horror segments from The Simpsons
Day 20: 9 rampaging space zombies hungry for our sci-fi brains
Day 21: 10 most nightmarish movie prom nights
Day 22: 11 scary, goofy and just plain revolting movie possessions
Day 23: 13 kick-ass moments from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Day 24:13 real haunted houses you can visit in the U.S.
Day 25: 15 ghoulish apps you can download to your iPhone
Day 26: 20 hot film and TV witches and warlocks that cast a spell on us
Day 27: The 10 most truly, utterly evil things in sci-fi
Day 28: The 15 cursed movie objects you NEVER want to own
Day 29: 14 most twisted original Twilight Zone twist endings
Day 30: 16 sci-fi costumes that would definitely get you fired (NSFW)
Day 31: 12 awesome sci-fi Halloween moments, real and fake
By a different tim at 12:05 PM ON 10/24/09
Didn't they debumk two of these places on Ghost hunters? And how can a hose be haunted if it virtually doesn't exist anymore?
By myhandle1947 at 12:46 PM ON 10/24/09
Tim, I'll bet you're the life of the Halloween party! :D
Oh yea, a haunted hose once left me with a dirty car.
By a different tim at 12:58 PM ON 10/24/09
lol I guess I should have paid more attention to my spelling
By Sabrina at 1:31 PM ON 10/24/09
Amityville was proven to be a hoax years and years ago. How disappointing that it would be included.
By divephotog at 1:44 PM ON 10/24/09
The Ghost Hunters, and Destination Truth guys can be seen at these locations regularly, with their guest 'hunters' Shaggy and Scooby. Please check their websites for travel dates.
Wrestling will be hosted after the tours.
Get real, syfy... -kh
By Croft at 1:48 PM ON 10/24/09
I know this is all in good fun, halloween and all that, but still - there is no such thing as a haunted house, since there is no such thing as ghosts, just nervous people getting jumpy and hoaxes.
By VInsanityOrElse at 1:59 PM ON 10/24/09
I wouldn't say "debunked" or "hoax" they try very hard to avoid those words on most (reputable) paranormal investigation shows. Also, a house can be haunted even if it doesn't exist anymore because it's not the actual house but the land (in some cases) also there have been occurrences of houses being built and being haunted and the hauntings being linked to a house that USED to be in the same or near the spot.
By Obi Window Washer at 2:30 PM ON 10/24/09
The Winchester house was weird. I had a paranormal experience there. I walked in and $31 was wisked from my wallet!
By LizzieBelle at 2:41 PM ON 10/24/09
The Lizzie Borden house isn't in Springfield, it's in New Bedford, MA.
By lstef1983 at 2:44 PM ON 10/24/09
The Lizzie Borden house is in Fall River, MA, not Springfield.
By prospero at 3:04 PM ON 10/24/09
Sounds like the "Lizzie Borden house" is animate.
By Azgoroth at 3:36 PM ON 10/24/09
The Winchester mansion is neat. It's too bad they don't let you really explore the place and its architecture.
By nerdsrocket at 4:23 PM ON 10/24/09
lstef1983 beat me to it. I was going to point out that the LB house is in Fall River, which is almost two hours from Springfield. :o) Surprisingly, I hadn't heard of a couple of these spots. I'll have to read up.
By Gilveron at 6:48 PM ON 10/24/09
I know it's Halloween, and you're Scyfy channel, and you have ghost shows to promote, and this article is meant in fun, and this is a run-on sentence, but could you please replace the term, "real" haunted houses with, "allegedly" haunted houses? Also, as was pointed out eaarlier, the so-called, "Amityville Horror" was long ago revealed as a hoax concocted by the homeowners and Ed and Lorraine Warren, the so-called "psychics" who investigated. No owner of the property since has reported anything paranormal there, and they do NOT appreciate ghost hunters or gawkers, and have gone so far as to change the address of the property and removed the famous windows on the house to keep them away.
By guessinghere at 7:28 PM ON 10/24/09
I'm guessing here but maybe by "real" haunted houses they mean, not the fun kind like a haunted house at an amusement park or what have you, since those lists tend to crop up this time of year too.
By J360 at 10:49 PM ON 10/24/09
Chandler Estate? Meh - I spent plenty of nights at the estate - even exploring the basement of the main house. Nothing there any scarier than mice and spiders.
I find it kind of weird that it is on your list as the place was bulldozed a few years ago - now all you'll find there is condos!
By rkf at 1:03 AM ON 10/25/09
Huh. Surprised there's no mention of the Stanley.
By Gilveron at 2:04 AM ON 10/25/09
@guessing here: I should have said, "please replace "real" haunted houses with, "allegedly real haunted houses." Just an omission on my part.
By REDante at 3:30 AM ON 10/25/09
theres no such things as the kind of ghosts we always see in the movies. I mean if there were a ghost for every horrible unspeakable crime that lets them come back for revenge, I dont think there would be a safe place in the world to live in.
By Mark at 5:20 AM ON 10/25/09
If I am able to hang around on this plane of existence after I'm dead, I'm going to try my damnedest to painfully torture and kill every human being who has nothing better to do with his or her life than post disrespectful tirades on the internet about how they just KNOW that there can be NO such thing as ghosts. This skeptic knee-jerk naysaying is styfling legitimate progress in many unorthodox fields of research. Christ, people, find something more productive to do with your lives!
By REDante at 9:03 AM ON 10/25/09
@mark
HA HA HA HA, ok mark, thats a lot of talk. I guess if you want to back those words up, first thing you should do is end it all.
By LPI at 11:20 AM ON 10/25/09
About Villa Paula. This place is not open to the public and it is hard to get in. We got the opportunity to visit the building once. First impression was that it was not that active as everybody is claiming. I think most of the haunted reputation comes from a Miami Herald article in 1985 which conclusion was based on experiences of one of the residents.
About the cats I don't think the slamming gate is killing the cats. Analyzing the gate from a close distant it will show that cats can move in and out without even touching the gate. Realizing what neighborhood Villa Paula is in right knows I won't be surprised if the cat killer is not paranormal at all...
At this moment Deering Estate is declared the most haunted location in Miami-Date and can be visited.
By Gilveron at 11:22 AM ON 10/25/09
@mark
Wanting something to be real doesn't make it so. I love watching the Ghost Hunters; I never miss an episode. It's entertaining television, and occasionally, they discover something that truly leaves me scratching my head. But I don't fool myself that anything they are doing is in any way scientific, or that they are, for the most part, exploring legitimate phenomena.
The skeptic's creed is, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence," and typically, what the Ghost Hunters find doesn't meet that standard. Just because you can't find a natural explanation for a noise, or a door slamming, or something moving, doesn't mean a natural answer doesn't exist. And indeed, to have evidence stand up to scientific muster, you must first eliminate all possible natural causes before you can label something as supernatural. Further, you must be able to design an experiment which supports your evidence, and that experiment must be able to be independently verified by other scientists. That is the only way you can claim your findings to be scientific, period.
My brother often asks me why I bother watching the Ghost Hunters if I hate them so much. I don't hate them at all. I want them to find a ghost. But when they do, I want there to be no doubt that the evidence they present is real, and stands up to scientific muster. And, as I said in the opening, wanting something to be true doesn't make it so
By divephotog at 12:01 PM ON 10/25/09
@gilveron The stuff seen there is bogus, and nothing that can not be explained by a bit of fishing line to close a door, or a remote circuit in place to turn on and off a light, etc.
But then again, you are expecting Santa down your chimney soon, the Easter Bunny soon after that, and regular visits from the tooth fairy, right?
Your wait for them to find a real ghost will be perpetual. - kh
By SMDrPepper at 1:42 PM ON 10/25/09
Im just happy the Lemp Mansion was actually mentioned, though the hauntings are not limited to just the house. Also includes the immigrant housing around it as well as the old Lemp Brewery.
It is a creepy place and if your lucky enough to talk to the owner, hell tell you about the lesser known stuff. Unfortunatly only was in there once,but it was memorable. And have ALWAYS wanted to get into the Cherokee Caves that is under the site. Part of it was destroyed when HWY 55 was built, but a lot is still there. Never mind the fact that the brewery (where the only known access to the caves are) have HUGE subbasements.
By IowaWarrior at 2:01 PM ON 10/25/09
Where's the Villesca Axe murder house?
By Mark at 3:14 PM ON 10/25/09
Well, I guess REDante and Gilveron are first on the list. I won't be ending it all anytime soon, though. We'll all get there, eventually, I'll be able to settle the score then.
By Gilveron at 5:59 PM ON 10/25/09
@divephotog:
I sort of acknowledge in my post that the probability of them finding a ghost is incredibly slim. Having said that, I don't believe the Ghost Hunters are guilty of deliberately perpetrating a fraud. I just think they're bought into garbage science. How can you conduct an investigation based on theories and draw conclusions about a phenomenon, when you can't even conclusively prove that a phenomenon exists? Particularly when, like using electromagnetic field detectors for instance, the methodology is so obviously ridiculous. Em fields are ubiquitous, and scientists have been working with electromagnetism for 100 years or better. If "ghosts" were radiating electromagnetic fields, then actual scientists would have discovered them long ago. But I digress. The existence of ghosts is, I admit, unlikely, but I am not prepared to say their nonexistence is a certainty. I think that would be close-minded.
By LaughingOutLoud at 8:10 PM ON 10/25/09
Hey, what about the Waley House in San Diego, Old Town? That place is totally haunted. I had an experience in the court room, no joke, so, you should have it listed here.
By REDante at 8:46 PM ON 10/25/09
As I said before. I don't believe in the kind of ghosts you see in movies. Vengful, murderous, bloodthirsty. That's all entertainment. There are no ghosts like that, if there are any kinds of ghosts, they are pretty much voyeurs. They can make a noise here, make a rattle there. But they can't kill us, we can't see them, and thats the way it is. But I'm glad we all can make up cool stories to entertain the masses, I'm all for entertainment.
@mark
youre taking this a little too seriously. If Jigsaw was a real person, hed' probably get you to teach you a lesson that you focus so much on the dead, you dont really live and therefor don't have a life. Start living, be happy, and remember try not to pass out chocolate with razors in them.
By Crash at 8:16 AM ON 10/26/09
The Borden House is in Fall River, Massachusetts.... Not Springfield....
By jolinar at 11:24 AM ON 10/26/09
@Croft:
I lived in a haunted house when I was a little kid, so are you calling me & my family liars?
By MCP-001 at 11:33 AM ON 10/26/09
@rkf, I thought the same myself.
http://www.stanleyhotel.com/tours.html
And as to the "real" designation above, I just chalk up to poor editing on SyFy's part.
There are a lot of occurrences happening in the world whose cause(s) are unknown.
To slap a "real" designation on it to entice readers (and web traffic), only damages the writers credibility.
By Nick at 11:36 AM ON 10/26/09
Um guys the Lizze Borden house is in Fall River Mass
By drrush at 8:22 AM ON 10/27/09
@Nick Read the previous comments.
By Gilveron at 5:08 PM ON 10/27/09
@jolinar
No one is calling anyone a liar, and no one is trying to say you didn't experience something you couldn't explain and may have been frightening to you. But the likelihood that the cause of your experiences is disembodied human spirits is extremely unlikely based on a preponderance of scientific evidence to the contrary.
By jan71 at 5:57 PM ON 10/27/09
YOu left out one of the most "Haunted Houses" in America (The owners' statement of authenticity, not mine!) The Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana. I worked there for a while....there are strange goings on !
By Gilveron at 7:22 PM ON 10/27/09
@jan71: Yeah, Ghost Hunters went to Myrtles, too. I'm surprised it isn't on the list.
By Frank D. at 2:12 AM ON 11/02/09
So are they saying there's a spook in the White House? Hilarious!!!
By jigamomma at 6:53 PM ON 12/30/09
Some of the people posting on here are ridiculous! How would one know if ghosts exist or not? NOBODY knows for sure UNLESS they've came face to face with one. Don't offend peoples beliefs.
Visit mobile.syfy.com/wire on your mobile device.
jigamomma:
Some of the people posting on here are ridiculous! How would one know if ghosts exist or not? NOBODY knows for sure...More »